Louisville, KY – Leading 14u-18u travel baseball tourney providers, Pastime Tournaments and Mid-America Baseball, have joined Athletx Sports Group and its family of brands, further fueling the rapid expansion plan of the fastest-growing and hottest baseball and softball events and media company in the country. Pastime and Mid-America join an already formidable lineup of brands, which includes 2018 addition Game Day USA, 2017 addition Baseball Youth & Softball Youth, and Athletx Sports Group’s original brainchild, the Youth Baseball & Softball Nationals.
Collectively, in 2019, the Athletx Sports Group brands will represent over 600 team-based and individual player events across the nation, featuring over 12,500 teams, 165,000 players, 35,000 coaches and 367,000 spectators. These events have featured athletes and teams from all 50 U.S. states and 12 countries, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, The Bahamas, Germany, Japan, Kuwait, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. In addition to producing first-class events, Athletx boasts a strong media presence with over 590,000 social media followers across its brands’ various Facebook, Twitter and Instagram platforms.
Pastime Tournaments was founded in 2006 and hosts nearly 250 national and regional baseball events in 25 states each year. Mid-America Baseball, founded in 2002, hosts nearly 150 events annually in 9 states across the country. In 2018, Pastime acquired Mid-America Baseball, and these brands collectively host over 5,000 teams annually. The Pastime and Mid-America events have helped thousands of players from all over the U.S. realize their dreams by affording them the opportunity to play on elite college fields and gain next-level exposure from all divisions of college as well as professional baseball. With an unwavering commitment to customer service, as well as through the utilization of quality venues and intense competition, Pastime and Mid-America have earned national acclaim as one of the industry’s premier tournament providers in the 14u-18u age divisions.
Tom Davidson, Founder and President of Pastime, will continue to serve as President of both Pastime and Mid-America, while employees of Pastime and Mid-America will continue to operate the business from the company’s headquarters in Carmel, Indiana. Davidson, who brings over 14 years of event management experience, has also joined the ownership group at Athletx Sports Group.
“We wanted to continue building a robust culture around our quality products, and that starts with quality people,” said Davidson. “The people at Athletx, from management to the team at the events, felt like a perfect fit for Pastime and Mid-America. Athletx felt more like friends and family than anyone we’ve ever partnered with, which made the merger an easy decision for us. Athletx has given us some new insight into growing the space, and we look to capitalize on their media and tech presence to improve what we’ve already built over the years. Everyone has the ability to improve their products and services. We aren’t too proud to continue working on our own and believe Athletx was the right partner for us to achieve exactly that and more. I’m humbled by the opportunity to create something bigger and to push for positive experiences and exposure for the players and teams our brands serve.”
Athletx, based in Louisville, Kentucky, was founded in 2012 by Chief Executive Officer Jim Haddaway and Chief Digital Officer John Ruby. Their original brainchild, the Youth Baseball & Softball Nationals, quickly grew into the nation’s leading multi-destination, week-long family vacation experience. In 2016, Aaron Flaker joined the ownership group as Chief Business Development Officer, bringing 25+ years of sports event management and branding experience. Flaker, Haddaway and Ruby immediately created the parent company Athletx Sports Group to support all brand operations and serve as a vehicle for growth via mergers and acquisitions and talent acquisition. Athletx Sports Group’s ever-expanding infrastructure has boomed to over 40 full-time employees serving on in-house teams for events/operations, finance, administration, business development, recruiting/customer service, marketing, web development and media.
“The addition of Pastime and Mid-America to our family of brands at Athletx allows us to significantly expand our best-in-class event opportunities for youth athletes through high school-age athletes,” says Haddaway. “Pastime and Mid-America are well-known in the regions they serve for providing first-class competitions and are aligned with our dedication to quality in our existing brands. This merger will provide more opportunities for our existing customers to remain in the Athletx family as athletes age and develop. Furthermore, the addition of Tom and his team underscores our commitment to attracting and retaining high-quality talent. We are thrilled to add them to our group!”
“We, at Athletx, have a very clear vision of where we are headed. Our success begins with our people. I can assure you that our team is not only super creative, but also very passionate about who we serve and how we serve them best,” says Flaker. “We strongly believe it is our obligation to deliver amazing experiences to the individual players, their families and the coaches…and, we gladly own that responsibility. Travel baseball needs a strong, unified voice and leader when it comes to its future growth. We believe that with the continued addition of other like-minded and industry-leading companies like Pastime and Mid-America, Athletx Sports Group, in conjunction with its brands, are THE vehicle to lead the evolution of youth and high school age travel baseball.”
