Switching guide

Switching from Sports Connect before 2027

Sports Connect has said its association platform, also sold as Blue Sombrero, is being sunset for the 2027 season. Little League and AYSO are moving their leagues to PlayMetrics. If your association is independent, you get to pick where you go next, and you get to pick when. This page covers what changes, what you can bring with you, and a checklist your board can work from before spring registration opens.

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What has been announced

Only what has been published, with where it was published.

  1. Announced June 11, 2025

    PlayMetrics and Stack Sports (the company behind Sports Connect and Blue Sombrero) combine

    Source: Genstar Capital release and BusinessWire

  2. Effective around May 2026

    PlayMetrics acquires SportsEngine; SportsEngine now calls itself “A PlayMetrics Company”

    Source: SportsEngine’s own homepage banner

  3. The 2027 season

    Sports Connect’s association platform is sunset; Little League and AYSO move to PlayMetrics

    Source: Sports Connect’s Little League page: “Beginning with the 2027 season, leagues will manage player registration, league operations, and volunteer management in PlayMetrics.”

  4. February 7, 2026

    Little League Congress session, “Central Registration 2027: The Transition from Sports Connect to PlayMetrics”

    Source: Little League’s Congress recap

  5. Cohort 1 October 7 to November 11, 2026. Cohort 2 December 9, 2026 to January 27, 2027. Cohort 3 February 10 to March 10, 2027

    AYSO “Great Migration” training cohorts

    Source: AYSO’s volunteer wiki

What has not been announced. No dedicated end-of-life notice with a hard shutdown date has been published. 2027 is the confirmed cutover season, not a published last day for the old system. If someone gives you a shutdown date, ask where it was published.

Compiled from the vendors' and national bodies' own pages, checked September 23, 2026.

Chartered leagues follow their national body. Independent associations choose.

If your league is chartered by Little League or is an AYSO region, your national body has chosen PlayMetrics for you. Little League's own wording is that leagues will manage registration in PlayMetrics. That decision is theirs, and this page is not trying to talk you out of it.

If your association is independent, nobody has made that call for you. Plenty of rec associations run on Sports Connect or Blue Sombrero without any charter: a softball association that plays under USA Softball or PONY rules, a park-district affiliate, a 501(c)(3) with its own board. Rules bodies like those govern how you play, not which registration software you use. Moving off Sports Connect is a decision your own board gets to make, on your own timetable.

Not sure which one you are? Look at your charter paperwork or your bylaws. If your registration platform was assigned by a national body, you are chartered. If your board picked it, you are independent.

What moves to Clubside, and how

Your organization and teams. You create your organization, your season and your teams (with age bands, if you want registrations routed by date of birth). If you want, we set it up with you on a call.

Your roster, from a CSV or a spreadsheet. Use an export of your current player list, or the master spreadsheet your registrar already keeps. In Clubside, go to Players, then Import roster:

  1. 1

    Paste or upload. Paste rows straight from Google Sheets or Excel, or upload a CSV.

  2. 2

    Match columns. Clubside reads your header row and matches first name, last name, date of birth and team. You can change any match.

  3. 3

    Review. You see every row before anything is saved: how many players are new, how many are already in Clubside, and which rows have a problem (a missing name, a date it cannot read, a team name that does not exist yet).

  4. 4

    Done. Players are saved to your organization. Running the same file again adds nobody twice.

Imported players are not attached to a parent account yet. When a returning family registers for the new season, Clubside spots their child by name and date of birth and asks them to claim the player instead of entering everything again.

Your fees and payment plans. Each fee you charge (registration, uniforms, travel dues, a deposit) becomes a payment item. Families can pay in full or on a payment plan you allow, and installments are charged on schedule.

Your waivers and documents. Your liability waiver text goes into Settings, then Registration, and every family accepts it during sign-up. Documents you collect after a player is placed (a birth certificate, a player contract) are set up in Settings, then Documents, and families upload them from their dashboard.

Your money. Your organization connects its own Stripe account. Families pay, and the money goes straight to your bank account through that account. If your teams handle their own money, each team can connect its own Stripe account inside your organization, so a team's dues go straight to that team.

What does not move

Be clear with your board about this before the vote.

  • Parent accounts and passwords. Families create a Clubside login when they register. The import brings players, not parent logins or parent email addresses.
  • Signed waivers and uploaded documents from past seasons. Keep your own export of these. Families accept the waiver again when they register for the new season.
  • Payment history. Past payments stay in your Sports Connect records. Export your reports before you leave.
  • Your website, game schedules and standings. Clubside does registration, payments, rosters, invoicing, documents and announcements. It is not a website builder and it does not build game schedules. You can keep your website where it is and point its Register button at Clubside.
  • Volunteer shifts and background checks. Clubside does not run these today.

A board checklist for a spring registration opening

Count back from the day your spring registration opens. “Opening day” means the date your families can first register.

  1. 10 to 12 weeks before opening day

    • Confirm you are independent: no national body assigns your registration platform.
    • Put the decision on a board meeting agenda. Most boards vote on contracts; leave room for one meeting to ask questions and a second to vote.
    • Ask your registrar and treasurer what they need to keep: fee schedule, payment plans, waivers, discounts.

  2. 8 weeks before

    • Watch a 15-minute demo with the people who will run it: registrar, treasurer, one division head.
    • Export your current player list and your past payment and registration reports from Sports Connect. Keep a copy whatever you decide.

  3. 6 weeks before

    • Board vote.
    • Create your organization, season and teams in Clubside.
    • Connect your organization’s Stripe account. Decide whether teams connect their own.

  4. 4 weeks before

    • Import your roster and fix any rows the review step flags.
    • Set up payment items, payment plans, your waiver text and any required documents.
    • Invite your coaches.

  5. 2 weeks before

    • Run a test registration end to end, including a payment plan.
    • Tell families where registration lives this year and that returning players will be ready to claim.

  6. Opening day

    • Open registration. Approve registrations from your queue.

Timing rule. Switch before registration opens, not during it. If your board cannot finish before opening day, run this season where you are and plan the move for the next opening. A half-migrated registration season is worse than either system.

Questions boards ask

Do we have to leave Sports Connect right now?
No. Sports Connect has said its association platform is being sunset for the 2027 season, but no shutdown date has been published. The question is when your board wants to choose, not whether you are being cut off tomorrow.
We’re chartered by Little League. Can we use Clubside?
Your national body has moved Little League registration to PlayMetrics, so we would not ask you to work against that. This page is for independent associations.
What happens to our players and families?
You import your player list. When a returning family registers, Clubside matches their child by name and date of birth and asks them to claim the player. New families register as usual.
Who holds the money?
You do. Your organization connects its own Stripe account and families’ payments go straight to it. If you want, each team can connect its own account too.
What does it cost?
Every fee is published on our pricing page: the registration fee families see at checkout, the platform percentage by plan, and Stripe’s card processing, which you pay directly to Stripe at their public rate. There is no quote to request. See the pricing page
Can we keep our website?
Yes. Keep your website and point its Register button at Clubside.
What doesn’t Clubside do?
Game scheduling, field allocation, drafts, volunteer shifts and background checks. Refunds are issued from your own Stripe dashboard, not from inside Clubside. If those are the center of your season, tell us on the demo and we will say plainly whether we fit.
How long does setup take?
Setup is teams, payment items, your waiver and your Stripe account, and we can do it with you on a call. The roster import itself is a paste and a review. Work from the checklist above so a test registration happens before opening day.

The honest part

Clubside is not a full league-operations suite. We do registration, payments, rosters, invoicing, documents and announcements well, and we do not schedule games, run drafts or manage volunteer shifts. If your association needs one system that does all of it, Clubside is not that system today, and we would rather you hear it from us on a demo than find it in March.

Pick your next platform on your own timetable.

See your association running on Clubside in a 15-minute demo, or set up your organization and look around first.

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