Athletx Sports Group Makes Another MAJOR Move Adding TravelBall Select to its Family of Event/Media Brands!
For Immediate Release: October 8, 2020
Contact: Aaron Flaker | Email: aflaker@athletx.com
TravelBall Select (TBS) has officially joined the Athletx Sports Group (Athletx) family, home to several other nationally-recognized travel baseball and softball events and media brands. This is yet another major move for the fast-moving Athletx brand and its rapid expansion plan; thus completing the fourth brand merger since 2017.
TBS has been nationally known for nearly 15 years for providing quality, elite tournament experiences that are targeted towards the D1/Major youth level teams and programs, and has served as a media brand promoting and telling the stories of the elite youth teams and their players from across the country. TBS has annually produced preseason, in-season and postseason national rankings for deserving teams ages 9u through 13u. Athletx also produces its Baseball Youth Elite 25 Rankings, which will now be combined with the soon-to-be released TBS postseason rankings for 2020, powered by Baseball Youth.
“At Athletx, we are all about making big, bold moves! Bringing TBS into our family is yet another one of these moves that will change our ability to compete in the national tournament landscape, as well as allow our Athletx brands to produce a unified set of national rankings for elite youth teams,” said Jim Haddaway, Athletx Co-Founder. “A significant portion of our business is already geared towards the youth travel baseball player, but we didn’t have a brand where the primary focus was specifically geared toward increased competitive opportunities and an elevated level of exposure for the elite youth travel baseball teams, athletes and coaches.”
Rick Goff, who joined TBS in 2007, will continue to lead the brand on behalf of Athletx as Co-Owner and President. Goff brings over 12 years of tournament management experience and 30+ years of coaching experience for Michigan Sports Academy and elite national travel baseball program, the Motor City Hit Dogs.
“The biggest thing for TBS customers to understand is that NOTHING is going to change from the past, as far as the quality and the level of competition at TBS events. The customers will, however, see a big improvement in how Athletx can help TBS take an already strong event experience and enhance that immensely with its access to a solid infrastructure of staff and resources,” said Goff. “We have seen immediate impacts from this new partnership including enhanced websites, registration processes, professional logos and branding. Additionally, TBS customers will soon see massive media-related and event experience enhancements, like a highly professionally produced rankings show, elevated onsite social media presence and exposure for our athletes, improved event merchandise offerings and more. This is really exciting for me personally and the TBS brand as a whole!”
As a part of this new partnership with Athletx, the TBS National Championships will relocate for its 10th anniversary from its original location in the Atlanta area to the Elizabethtown Sports Park, just south of Louisville, Kentucky. This state-of-the-art park features 12 fully-lit and turfed fields, onsite batting cages, HiCast video streaming, plenty of family-friendly park amenities and a large outdoor pavilion that is perfect for an event of this size and stature.
Aaron Flaker, Athletx Co-Founder, adds “I am personally familiar with the TBS Nationals, as I coached a nationally ranked team that finished runner-up in the event in 2018 and 2019. Our players and families loved the elite-level focus of the event, and always appreciated that we were hand selected and personally invited by Rick and TBS. As far as Athletx goes, we are super excited to bring the TBS National Championships to Kentucky for 2021. It’s a natural fit given that the Louisville area is already home to many other elite level champions and sports brands like ‘The Greatest,’ Muhammad Ali, the world famous Louisville Slugger and the fastest two minutes in sports, the Kentucky Derby.”
ABOUT ATHLETX SPORTS GROUP:
Athletx brings together multiple nationally-recognized brands under one family, including Pastime Tournaments, Youth Baseball Nationals, Youth World Series, Game Day USA, Baseball Youth, Mid-America Baseball, New Year’s BaseballFest, Youth Softball Nationals, Softball Youth and Drive & Company. Recent and rapid growth have propelled Athletx to being ranked #1214 on the 2021 Inc. 5000 list, which recognizes the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S.
Athletx Sports Group and its brands collectively represent over 600 team-based and individual player events across the nation, featuring over 13,000 teams and over 600,000 players, coaches and spectators. These events have featured athletes and teams from all 50 U.S. states and 12 countries, including Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, 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 650,000 social media followers across its brands’ various Facebook, Twitter and Instagram platforms. Athletx maintains offices in Louisville, KY (headquarters), Chicago, IL and Indianapolis, IN. For more information, visit www.athletx.com.
ABOUT TRAVELBALL SELECT:
TBS was founded in 2005 and has long been considered a leading news source and media outlet for youth travel baseball. Its national rankings for elite D1/Major-level travel baseball teams are nationally regarded and considered highly unbiased. TBS has also been producing events across the eastern half of the U.S. in the states of Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky. In 2021, TBS will likely expand to other states including Mississippi. The TBS National Championship has been one of the nation’s most competitive tournaments for elite-level travel ball teams for the last 9 years. Teams from across the nation strive to attain a coveted invite each season, as well as a spot in the TBS rankings. For more information, visit: www.travelballselect.com or www.tbsnationals.com.
