2025 v2.06.24 PD Crystal McCrary Web Edit Speaker Slates2

Paley Next Big Thing New York

Game Changers: The Evolving Business of Youth Sports

Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Lunch: 12:30 pm
Conversation and Q&A: 1:00 – 2:00 pm
The Paley Center for Media, 25 West 52 Street, NYC

Youth sports in America has grown into a $40 billion industry, driven by the rise of early sport specialization and year-round play. The rapid evolution of technology, media, investor interest, and emerging opportunities for amateur athletes has added further complexity to the landscape.

With insights from industry leaders including youth sports tech GameUp Co-Founder Crystal McCrary and moderated by Boardroom CEO and Co-Founder Rich Kleiman, this panel will explore how factors like social media, NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness), high-profile tournament circuits, and investments in event operators and mega sports complexes are transforming the landscape. The conversation will also examine how digital engagement, innovation, and entrepreneurship are creating new revenue streams and redefining athlete development, as well as the key players impacting and shaping what’s next for youth sports.

In Person:

Crystal McCrary, Co-Founder, GameUp

Moderator:

Rich Kleiman, CEO and Co-Founder, Boardroom

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This event is exclusive to Media Council Members. To find out more about Media Council Membership, contact mediacouncil@paleycenter.org.

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Crystal McCrary

Co-Founder, GameUp

Crystal is an award-winning filmmaker, NY Times Best Selling author, producer, entrepreneur, mother of three amazing humans, and wife to Ray McGuire.

She began her career practicing entertainment law with Paul Weiss before leaving to pursue a full-time career in writing, producing, and directing.

Since that time, she has published two New York Times Best Selling novels HOMECOURT ADVANTAGE and GOTHAM DIARIES and written the critically acclaimed nonfiction book INSPIRATION: Profiles of Black Women Changing the World which features Michelle Obama, Iman, Venus Williams, Mellody Hobson, Misty Copeland, Mary J. Blige, Marian Wright Edelman, Shonda Rhimes and Thelma Golden as well as several other extraordinary women. She also produced the independent film DIRTY LAUNDRY starring Loretta Devine and Jenifer Lewis which was co-sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign. For six seasons, Crystal served as co-creator/executive producer for the NAACP Image Award-nominated BET series LEADING WOMEN and LEADING MEN which profiled men and women of color who have impacted the world socially, politically, and culturally and included profiles of Dr. Maya Angelou and Wynton Marsalis.

She also co-created, and executive produced the three-part documentary series INSIDE BLACK CULTURE which profiled The Studio Museum in Harlem, Evidence Dance Company and Abyssinian Baptist Church.

Crystal also created, produced, and directed the Nickelodeon Sports series LITTLE BALLERS an LITTLE BALLERS INDIANA.

Additionally, Crystal directed five short films on the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Most recently, she directed a short film about the life and career of Kenneth Frazier, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Merck, and has also signed on to executive produce an 8- part scripted series on the life of Frederick Douglass and Anna Murray Douglass.