SPECIAL REPORT 🎟️: What SBJ Game Changers Means for Youth Sports 🎤

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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2026 · SPECIAL REPORT

Read our full coverage: SBJ Game Changers 2026 →

On Thursday, The Coach's Board was in the room as media at Sports Business Journal's 14th Game Changers Conference in New York. It isn't a youth sports conference, but almost everything said on that stage has a youth sports version. Here's the day in three stops, with every piece a tap away.

Morning. The day opened with Val Ackerman accepting the first award named for her. The NHL's Heidi Browning said 1.8 million people who'd never watched the NHL tuned in after watching one of two TV shows, and the WTA, Concacaf and Ford walked through sponsorships built around what players actually needed. In youth sports, the front door is a family's first game or clinic — and the test for any sponsor is whether the players are better for it.

Midday.Kristin Lemkau of J.P. Morgan Wealth Management made the case that NIL makes financial literacy urgent for young athletes. Shelly Cayette-Weston said the Hornets were 28th of 30 in NBA attendance, and part of the fix was a $2 menu. And Kim Ng said the Marlins' analytics internship drew 300 applicants when she started, three of them women — two of whom she'd had to talk into applying. The questions for any program: who teaches the money lesson, what does it cost a family to show up, and who have you asked to apply?

Afternoon. Vanderbilt AD Candice Storey Lee warned that women's and Olympic sports could lose opportunities as revenue sharing flows mostly to football and men's basketball — and those roster spots and scholarships are where a lot of club and high school pathways lead. Kalshi and the NHL pitched prediction markets as engagement, hours after Lemkau warned of “a reckoning with young men” — a conversation for coaches and parents to have before a senior turns 18. And the AI panel had a rule that fits any volunteer-run club: start with the problem, not the tool.

THE FULL COVERAGE 🗂️

Ten sessions and a photo essay, in the order they ran on Oct. 1. Tap a headline to read it.

• 8:45 a.m. · Val Ackerman's Rules for the Long Game — accepting the first award named for her

• 9:10 a.m. · Hockey Romance, Stadium Takeovers and the Squeezed Middle — the NHL, NWSL, IMG and UFC

• 9:50 a.m. · Two Partnerships Built Around What Players Actually Needed — WTA Ventures and Concacaf

• 10:25 a.m. · Pick a Neighborhood, Find a Table: Inside SBJ Connect — photo essay

• 11:20 a.m. · Ford Gave LPGA Rookies Broncos. The Bigger Gift Was Mentors. — Ford and the LPGA

• 11:40 a.m. · Kristin Lemkau on Messy Careers, Mediocre Teams and Athletes' Money — J.P. Morgan Wealth Management

• 12:10 p.m. · Shelly Cayette-Weston's Hornets Playbook: Fill the Building First — Charlotte Hornets

• 1:50 p.m. · Kim Ng on Getting Rejected in Public, and Saying Yes to Softball — Athletes Unlimited Softball League

• 3:00 p.m. · Vanderbilt's AD: If We're Not Careful, Women's and Olympic Sports Lose — Vanderbilt, Learfield and Excel Sports Management

• 4:00 p.m. · The AI Panel's Rule: Start With the Problem, Not the Tool — a former AWS sports chief, Phyusion and Next League

• 4:30 p.m. · Prediction Markets Pitch Engagement. A Banker Warned of a Reckoning. — Kalshi, the NHL and Royer Cooper Cohen Braunfeld

Reported at Sports Business Journal's 2026 Game Changers Conference, Oct. 1, 2026, New York Marriott Marquis. Thank you to SBJ for having The Coach's Board in the room.

LOOKING AHEAD ⏭️

Thursday's FACEOFF 🤼: Skye Eddy, the 1993 NCAA Final Four Defensive MVP in goal for George Mason and now founder and CEO of The Sideline Project, on why she stopped working on the kids and started working on the adults. It's Episode 3 of The Faceoff Podcast.

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The Coach's Board by Paul Variano
The daily executive roundup for youth sports leaders.