Two New Jersey teams flew to Utah to play each other

Two New Jersey teams flew to Utah to play each other in a tournament, according to NJ.com. Buying Sandlot picked up the story in its September 1, 2026 episode. The two teams share a home state and each has its own field there.

Buying Sandlot names travel as the single biggest cost of youth sports for a family, ahead of registration and every other line on the bill. The Aspen Institute's Project Play found the same order in its national survey of 1,848 youth sports parents, run with Utah State University and Louisiana Tech University. In 2024 the average family spent $1,016 on a child's primary sport, 46 percent more than in 2019. Travel and lodging was the largest line at $278, ahead of team registration at $197. For families whose child's primary sport was baseball, travel and lodging came to $379 of a $1,112 total.

Across the market, Sports ETA, the trade association for sports events and tourism, put direct spending by sports travelers at $52.2 billion in 2023, according to Sports Destination Management. That year counted 204.9 million sports travelers and 73.5 million hotel room nights, and transportation and lodging were the two largest spending categories, at $13.5 billion and $10.9 billion.

Sports ETA widened its count in the 2026 State of the Industry report, released April 22, 2026 and produced by Tourism Economics. The report adds spectators to participants. It puts participatory sports travel, which it describes as driven primarily by youth and amateur events, at $60.1 billion in direct spending from 227.6 million travelers. Across participants and spectators together, sports travel generated 124.3 million hotel room nights.

The newest venues are built with that traffic in mind. In February 2025 the Ocoee City Commission in Florida unanimously approved The Dynasty, a youth sports and hotel development west of Orlando from Montierre Development, Spectrum News 13 reported. The plans call for up to 17 multipurpose fields, a 150,000 square foot indoor facility and more than 1,000 hotel rooms across three hotels, at a cost of up to $1 billion, with completion targeted for 2027. "We'd like for people to come and enjoy our development, you know, park their car and have a weeklong vacation right there on site," Jaime Douglas, the developer's chief executive, told the station.