I had no idea about any of that, I’m a business writer interested in antitrust, about as far from the cheer world as you can imagine. Jeff Webb, the founder of Varsity, was iconic, and challenging Webb was something only fringe-types sought to do. There had always been grumbling about Varsity in the cheer world, but like a lot of affinity communities, the debates had been polarized and understood as a small number of disaffected parents and participants in the industry making noise out of jealousy or frustration. In other words, the kingpin of cheerleading has lost its power, and the sport of cheerleading is gradually being cleaned up. As Daniel Libit reported in an excellent article in Sportico, and as plaintiffs have charged in their antitrust lawsuit, the sexual abuse stems in part from Varsity’s market power.
Rockstar cheer championships series#
Varsity is buried under antitrust litigation, new competition from rivals, and most damning of all, a brutal series of allegations of sexual assault by a Varsity-aligned coach. Today, the situation is very different, and my guess is Bain Capital execs wish they had never heard of cheerleading. In 2020, it had what looked like an unassailable highly profitable position, so dominant in its area that CNBC reported that it “stands out as one of the few retail businesses of scale that may also have an Amazon defense,” and private equity firms were looking for ‘Varsity-like’ investment opportunities.
For the past two years, I’ve been following the saga of cheerleading monopolist Varsity Brands, which is owned by the powerful private equity firm Bain Capital.
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