2024 Social Stars Winners!

202420232022202120202019 20182017201620152014

In House

Players Sport & Social Group

As our Summer schedule began to wind down, we were hearing some customers express interest in some new sports to play in the future. After some brainstorming and thinking about what new offerings we could bring to our Chicago offerings, we decided to make a fun video that expressed that interest in implementing new sports. Coming up with a new sport isn't easy, so, in a fun and ridiculous way, we combined some of our current sports to create 'new sports' in this video. We also wanted to include a rating system for the viability of the 'new sport' and comments on how it would play. Looking closely at the chart, you can see some really ridiculous 'sports' we 'tested' like Dodgeball with Darts, Volleyball with Bowling. This video includes our marketing manager and two of our interns.

Professional

Chicago Sport and Social Club

Chicago Sport and Social Club’s 2023 Volleywood Beach Volleyball Tournament and Party was its biggest yet with over 6,000 people over 2 days. Featuring a beach volleyball tournament with 200+ teams, a music festival with 14 acts, 5 bars, a foam party, a silent disco, and food vendors, it's the best beach party in Chicago every year. The recap video showcases the artists, sponsorship activations, volleyball, and the fun in the sun the attendees enjoyed at North Avenue Beach at Chicago's only beachfront music festival.

Underdog Sports Leagues

Underdog Sports Leagues celebrates Captains at a variety of milestones, including 100 and 50 teams, Triple Double (three sports each with 10+ teams Captained), All Time team count per sport, Most Teams in a Single Year, Rookie of the Year (first year as a Captain with raw team count), and more.

Captains on these leaderboards receive internal perks that make their life, as Captains, a bit easier, with more and more earned as they climb the leaderboards: free roster spots, free schedule requests, pre-season no-touch team registration, cut the waitlist line, etc.

These leaderboards, in each market, have served as a marketing tool to entice teams to keep the same Captains and retain their teams in multiple seasons as well as different sports. Underdog now has Captains hungry to lead their teams to more leagues, feeding their competitiveness to be #1.

See full nomination

Volo Sports

"Volo Pass" created a consistent revenue stream that no other club has yet to try, and has now been successful in multiple markets.

The Volo Pass membership is a tech enabled monthly subscription that gives players the ability to play sports on-demand. This product gives players the ability to pay a monthly fee and get access to play in unlimited pick-ups, tournaments, sub into live league games, get league discounts, and have weekly member happy hours. At the touch of a button you can play any sport that day without paying anything additional even when you travel to another Volo Market.

In 2023 we launched this product in all of our markets and had over 13,000 volo pass members, over 7,500 pick-ups run and 25,750 Sub spots filled. As our customer evolve we wanted to give them the ultimate flexibility for play and a sustainable revenue stream. https://www.volosports.com/volo-pass ( website)

See full nomination

Lexington SSC

LexSSC was able to put on all of our Fall outdoor leagues (flag football, kickball, softball, soccer) at our local minor league baseball stadium! Not only did it vastly improve the overall quality of our leagues by playing on a state of the art turf field, but it brought a different level of socializing, community building, and brought the phrase "weekend warrior" to a whole new level.

Our fall season was a record season and the feedback from our players was something we could’ve only imagined! The atmosphere was amazing from the moment players entered the stadium, but was enhanced even further with music over the sound system, our sponsor beer tent on the field as well as a full concession stand/bar on site, and access to the video board - we even went as far as having NFL games being played on the big screen during our Sunday flag football league which was a hit to say the least.

Overall a massive success, both from a financial aspect but more importantly, from a community building standpoint.

See full nomination

Club Sport Wall of Fame

We love celebrating our employees and their time at Club Sport. So after an employee reaches a milestone (usually 5 years) they get a caricature on our wall of fame. It’s a fun way of emphasizing the traits that make that employee endearing to us all!

See full nomination

Austin SSC

At an employee's five year anniversary, they are gifted a pair of tickets at any regular season professional sporting game of choice, plus two nights in a hotel.

At an employee's 10 year, they receive a trip for two anywhere in the world that Southwest flies, and seven nights hotel accommodations.

*Of the two employees that hit 10 years thus far, one went to Mexico and one to Hawaii.

See full nomination

LI-Kick Midnight Madness

'Midnight Madness' started on a Saturday night at 10pm and went till 2am Sunday Morning. We had a full facility rental of a large indoor sports complex allowing 238 players to participate in 4 different tournaments of Volleyball (11 teams), Dodgeball (9 team), Kickball (4 teams) and Cornhole (20 teams). Aside from the sports competition, It was a tremendously fun Saturday night hangout with so many people and so many things to watch. It created lasting memories, fostered a sense of community beyond sports, and  encapsulated the spirit of a large social sports organization.

See full nomination

SMA Conference

Austin SSC & Beach City Sports & Chicago SSC & Club Sport & Houston SSC & Milwaukee SSC & OSSO & Overtime Sports & Sportslink & Underdog Sports Leagues & Volo Sports

11 SSIA members came to SMA conference to represent the social sports industry and to learn how sponsorship is able to benefit their Clubs and the industry as a whole.  Everyone left learning something and someone(s) new, strengthened relationships among our group and with other attendees, and showcased how important social sports are to communities around the world to sponsorship industry heavy weights. 

See full nomination

Sal Farruggia Owner of LI-Kick

Sal's unwavering energy, innovative approach, and remarkable willingness to share his knowledge and expertise with clubs of all sizes are truly outstanding. His dedication has not only elevated his own endeavours but has also had a profound and positive impact on the industry as a whole. He set up the EOS consortium to allow multiple clubs to enjoy the benefits of the EOS system for a fraction of the cost. He spearheads the monthly calls with our coach as well as amongst club directors. He also sets up additional meetings with just the cohort members for us to do a deep dive into the topics we discussed in our previous meetings. It has been a great way to share ideas while improving our respective businesses.

Recognizing all the Nominees!

Sports League Customer Service Champions Awards

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3

Events Champions Awards

Tier 1

Tier 2

Tier 3