Public school sports generate enormous value. They bring families together, create lasting connections to schools, and give businesses access to one of the most loyal audiences in sports.
Public school sports generate enormous value. They bring families together, create lasting connections to schools, and give businesses access to one of the most loyal audiences in sports.
But much of that value never makes its way back to the athletic programs that create it.
Many public school athletic departments remain dependent on ticket sales, booster clubs, concessions, team fundraisers, and sponsorships sold one school at a time. National Amateur Sports founder and CEO James Shipley believes that this fragmented approach limits revenue, creates inequities within districts, and allows valuable assets to be overlooked or given away.
“The reality is the assets are very fragmented,” Shipley said. “You have many different schools, many different sports, and many different facilities, all in one school district. They are very valuable assets when they are compiled together, but not so valuable as standalone assets.”
That’s why NAS works at the school district level, to compile all of the assets within a district and monetize them together instead of school-by-school.
“Our business works hard to go into a school district … and work with them to develop and protect those assets. Then we enhance those assets, whether it’s digital platforms, mobile applications, live stream, e-ticketing, event activations, or signage at facilities,” Shipley said. “There are numerous ways to aggregate that viewership and bring true value. Then we monetize it and share revenue back with those school districts to help fund athletic programs in the public school space.”
The NAS strategy is to protect, enhance, and monetize assets within a district.
In the first episode of Built By Sports, Shipley explained why the company believes public school athletics need a more organized and sustainable business model.
The idea that became NAS began more than 15 years ago when Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools announced plans to eliminate middle school sports because of funding challenges.
Shipley had been working on public-private youth sports facility projects. After losing a bid to help develop a large municipal sports complex, he began talking with his friend and former professional football player, Muhsin Muhammad, about whether private funding could save middle school athletics.
“I was sitting at a football practice where our kids were playing, and I said, ‘Can you believe they would be entertaining taking middle school sports out of the public school education platform?” Shipley recalled.
Shipley decided to approach Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools about finding private funding for middle school athletics in the district.
“We didn’t have a business plan … We went out and found community partners, and we were successful in doing it. We built a whole business around it,” said Shipley.
NAS now works with nearly 20 public school districts.
The model of working with an entire district instead of individual schools matters because funding is often generated at the school level. Schools in more affluent communities may have greater attendance, stronger booster clubs, and easier access to funding. Other schools in the same district may struggle to generate enough money for basic needs.
“There’s not a school district in the country that doesn’t talk about equality and equity across the district,” said Shipley. “But if your geographic location or your demographics are different than someone else’s, you’re funded differently because public schools aren’t spending significant dollars funding athletics.”
Shipley said many programs survive on the number of people who attend football games or other athletic events rather than a dependable operating budget. Regular budget reductions only increase the pressure on athletic departments to generate revenue themselves.
A districtwide model cannot eliminate every funding disparity, but it can create partnerships that include every school and team.
“We have school districts where there are only two or three high schools, and the differences in geographic location or demographics aren’t as noticeable,” Shipley said. “We also have districts with more than 25 high schools and 30 middle schools. There may be 50 miles between the high school that is farthest north and the high school that is farthest south.”
Selling partnerships across a district can produce more value than asking businesses to manage separate relationships with individual schools and teams.
“Corporations or vendors have a hard time managing individual school or individual team relationships because their human-resource costs get astronomical,” Shipley said. “They end up giving very little back to the schools, whether it’s a fundraising program that gives 50% back, or a live-streaming subscription that gives back 10% or 5%.”
But when NAS goes to these same companies representing multiple schools, sometimes dozens of schools, it can help make educated decisions and maximize value to the district and the partners.
NAS does not seek to replace booster clubs, fundraisers, or school sponsorships. Shipley said the company’s district agreements emphasize that NAS should not negatively affect existing funding.
Instead, NAS looks for ways to expand what schools are already doing. A booster club that produces 10 live broadcasts, for example, could continue that work while a districtwide streaming partnership adds automated coverage from other facilities.
Shipley also wants businesses to see public school athletics as a marketing investment rather than simply a charitable donation.
“There’s not a more loyal audience in the world,” he said. “Ask anyone who has a kid playing middle school football, cheerleading, volleyball, or softball. Most of the time, they won’t even be able to tell you the team’s record … They go to the games because they’re passionate about their kid participating, building friendships, and developing great mentorships.”
Through initiatives such as the Community Athletics Alliance, NAS can combine districtwide exposure with event activations, content, student education, and community programs. Businesses receive more meaningful engagement, while schools receive funding and resources that extend beyond an advertisement on a stadium sign.
Technology and media have created new assets for school districts, but they have also created more fragmentation.
Different schools within the same district may use separate websites, communication tools, ticketing companies, streaming platforms, and data systems. Those platforms may carry their own advertising relationships and send revenue outside the district.
NAS evaluates technology based on product quality, service, and support, and its ability to generate financial value. Shipley said schools need the first two before they can realize the third.
A connected system can make life easier for athletic directors and coaches, while combining audiences across websites, mobile applications, broadcasts, and ticketing platforms. That larger audience is more useful to families and more valuable to potential partners.
The same principle applies to content and media rights.
Shipley described a recent case involving a major game in a NAS district. A local media company had agreed to provide a full production, place the game on linear television, pay a rights fee, and share revenue with the schools. Three other companies then approached the school about streaming the same event for free.
“The schools weren’t going to receive anything from those other companies, whereas they were receiving a rights-fee payment and revenue share from the local media partnership,” Shipley said. “We hear all the time, ‘We can’t afford new uniforms. We can’t afford to refurbish helmets. We can’t afford trainers’ … Quit giving away your assets. At the end of the day, it’s going to take money to fund those initiatives.”
NAS also wants school district platforms to become the primary home for schedules, scores, highlights, broadcasts, and stories about athletes and coaches. The audience drawn to that content can create additional value for schools and their partners.
Students are an important part of that strategy.
Through RISE — Readiness in Sports Education — students can gain experience in writing, photography, broadcasting, video production, and marketing while creating content for their schools.
Shipley said the model gives athletic departments more coverage while providing students with experiential learning and work they can use when applying to college or pursuing a career.
“We had one of our schools score a last-second touchdown … The clock goes off, they score, and everybody goes crazy. About five minutes later, one of our students — a cheerleader at the game — was interviewing the kid who scored the touchdown. It was the most genuine, authentic high school sports content I had ever seen,” Shipley said.
Districts working with NAS are backing programs like RISE because experiential learning opportunities for students add real value.
Shipley’s vision is not to turn public school athletics into a smaller version of college sports. It is to give students stronger programs at the schools they already represent.
“I hope it gives our kids, 13 to 18 years old, the infrastructure to enhance those programs,” he said. “It would be more about let’s go represent our brand in high school … where our dad played quarterback, or our mom played pitcher. That lives in high school sports, and we think it can be much better.”
The audience already exists. NAS believes the next step is building a business model capable of turning that support into sustainable resources for every school and student-athlete.
