Legacy Global Sports
A Vested for Growth Business Champion
Behind any youth sporting event is a complex world that most spectators and participants never see. The manager of those many details is LEGACY Global Sports (LGS).
Based in Portsmouth, LGS produces global sporting events for athletes, while also providing athlete development and representation services. Their services range from travel arrangements to team apparel.
With exotic office locations in Stockholm, Helsinki, London, Prague and Hong Kong, as well as stateside, LGS offers world-class opportunities and experiences for youth, said company President John St. Pierre. “That requires a lot of details, including proper staffing and supervision.”
A dozen years ago, St. Pierre and two friends in New Jersey created an elite-level youth hockey team as a hobby, which then grew into a business, Selects Hockey. That company quickly grew in revenue, according to St. Pierre.
As the company added events for other sports, such as lacrosse, soccer, and golf, its team saw a market hungry for global sports logistics and services. In 2011, the company combined offices to one location in Portsmouth and moved away from the Selects moniker to LEGACY Global Sports to better market its worldwide reach.
Since then, business has exploded. In 2014, the company grew 100 percent— from about $10 million to $20 million. St. Pierre attributes this success to 35 percent organic growth and increased marketing, as well as to the acquisition of five businesses that provide services related to youth events, such as lodging, apparel and travel.
For 2015, he said, LGS is on track to achieve over $26 million in sales.
St. Pierre attributes his success to the online cloud collaboration of 50 full-time team members around the world, as well as hundreds of part-time coaches, event staffers and volunteers.
While technology keeps everyone informed, goal-sharing keeps everyone aligned with the company’s strategic initiatives.
LGS has used G2MAP metrics for several years to link measurable outcomes to the company’s strategic objectives. That process reduces the firm’s five-year strategic plan to an annual objective plan and then divvies that into smaller quarterly objectives. In 2014, the process was used companywide to take the employees’ annual goals and create a comprehensive roadmap for each team member and the business. As a result, LGS achieved virtually every company objective.
“The 100-percent growth we experienced in 2014 was huge,” said St. Pierre. “Our company has recently been selected to manage the new 12-field sports complex being built in Canton, Ohio as part of the $200-million Pro Football Hall of Fame Village renovation.”
With growth comes change. For LGS that has meant creating new methodologies for improving services or acquiring companies to bring all logistics functions under one roof. For example, LGS created its own event registration system, which it will begin licensing to clients in 2016.
Managing the growth has been a challenge, said St. Pierre.
“We don’t just add companies; we also bring onboard the entrepreneurs of those companies and help them become leaders in our own environment,” he said.
To pull all the pieces and people together after an acquisition, St. Pierre said LGS adheres to a detailed integration plan. “In fact, when we didn’t follow the details in the plan, we had some misses,” he said. “You can’t loosen up on controls.”
Keeping a close eye on the fundamentals is a lesson he shares with other business owners experiencing exponential growth. “Make sure you have a rock-solid foundation,” St. Pierre said.
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