Sponsors (16)
The bill significantly strengthens protections and enforcement to shield youth sports, athletes, and families from predatory investors and recover ill-gotten gains, but does so at the cost of greater compliance and litigation burdens, reduced investment incentives, and concentrated agency discretion that could create legal uncertainty and operational risks for programs it aims to protect.
Children and youth who participate in local organized sports (and their families and communities) gain stronger protections that make it more likely local programs, teams, and facilities remain community-run and safe rather than being asset-stripped or shuttered by predatory investors.
Federal enforcement and private-remedy tools are expanded (FTC/DOJ authorities, treble damages, disgorgement, trustee and parens patriae options), improving regulators' and plaintiffs' ability to hold predatory investors accountable and recover ill-gotten gains.
Families and participants face lower direct costs in many cases because the bill limits junk fees and monopolistic tie-ins, preserves competition for services and products, and protects scholarships and financial aid at least for several years post-acquisition.
Prospective and current investors (including private equity) are likely to reduce or avoid investment in youth sports because of expanded liability, joint-and-several penalties, preclearance delays, and the risk of forced divestiture — which could shrink available capital and harm program growth and facility improvements.
Businesses and investors face substantially higher compliance, defense, and litigation costs (treble damages, broader remedies, look-through authority, expanded private and state suits), producing legal uncertainty that can raise consumer prices, slow transactions, and discourage legitimate restructurings.
The bill concentrates broad discretionary power in agencies (FTC/DOJ), allows expedited rule publications and designations without full notice-and-comment, and includes enforcement paths that limit traditional judicial review — raising due-process and transparency concerns for designated firms and the public.
Based on analysis of 11 sections of legislative text.
Bans specified predatory private-equity practices in youth sports, creates a "vulture investor" designation and certification process, requires divestiture/escrow penalties, and expands enforcement and private lawsuits.
Official title: To prohibit vulture investors from investing in youth sports, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 13, 2026 by Chris Deluzio · Last progress May 13, 2026
Prohibits private equity funds and similar investors deemed “vulture investors” from buying into or using predatory business practices in youth sports. It creates a statutory designation and certification process, bans a range of specific conduct (fee and exclusivity schemes, roll-ups, IP/data grabs, restrictive geographic/platform bans, etc.), and gives the FTC and DOJ authority to enforce remedies including divestiture, monetary penalties, civil and criminal sanctions, and private rights of action. The bill also makes investors jointly liable for liabilities incurred while they control youth sports organizations, requires divestiture and escrowed penalties if designated investors fail to comply, and creates a Youth Sports Fund to receive disgorged monies to benefit affected communities. The FTC may implement rules and publish actions in the Federal Register without notice-and-comment rulemaking for many elements of the law.