A class action lawsuit alleges that U.S. Junior Nationals (USJN) illegally requires youth basketball tournament participants to book hotels through its designated broker — threatening forfeiture for families who don't comply. Briefing on motion to dismiss pending. We want to hear from affected families.
Start Your Free Case Review →Seeking Families With USJN Tournament Experience
A motion to dismiss is currently briefed and awaiting resolution. We are gathering information from families who attended USJN tournaments and were required to use the Stay to Play hotel booking system, paid an opt-out penalty, or had their team threatened with or subjected to forfeiture under this policy.
U.S. Junior Nationals (USJN) is one of the oldest and largest organizers of youth basketball tournaments in the country, specializing in highly competitive events that are specifically intended to provide opportunities for players to get exposure to college scouts. Thus, for thousands of girls’ basketball clubs and their families, USJN tournaments are not optional events — they are essential stops on the path to college scholarship opportunities. USJN’s tournaments attract college scouts and coaches from programs across the country, and for serious athletes, missing these events means missing exposure they can’t get anywhere else. USJN is well-known in this space, has a long-standing corporate partnership with Nike, and its tournaments have been a fixture in competitive youth sports for decades.
A federal class action now alleges that USJN has exploited that dominant position in a way that is both illegal and deeply unfair to the families who attend its events.
USJN designates many of its tournaments as “Stay to Play” events. Under this policy, booking accommodations through USJN’s designated housing broker (primarily TCI Housing) is not a recommendation — it is a condition of participation. Tournament information posted on USJN’s website states, in capital letters in some cases, that any deviation from the mandatory booking requirement will result in the team’s forfeiture from the tournament.
The consequences are Kafkaesque in their sweep: a single player on a team who books at the designated hotel but through a different channel — even if staying in the identical room at the same property — can cause the entire team to forfeit. Even where opt-out fees are available, families must pay $250 to $1,000 for the privilege of making their own lodging choice. And families cannot book directly with the designated hotels to use loyalty points, request preferred room configurations, apply corporate discounts, or exercise any of the normal choices available to hotel guests — because the system routes all bookings through TCI Housing’s portal. Thus, the pressure to comply is immense, and participants have no meaningful choice whatsoever.
The First Amended Complaint asserts claims under the Sherman Antitrust Act (Sections 1 and 2) for illegal tying and monopolization, the Pennsylvania Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law, and unjust enrichment.
The tying claim centers on the combination of USJN’s extraordinary market power in the Elite Youth Exposure Tournament market (where, the complaint alleges, it has no close competitors for families seeking meaningful college scouting exposure, especially in girls’ basketball) with its leveraging of that power to force participants into the hotel lodging market on USJN’s terms. Moreover, for those participants who are already committed to the tournament, the options are to comply or not attend at all. The complaint also alleges that USJN receives a direct financial benefit from the hotel bookings — commissions and revenue sharing from TCI Housing — giving it a profit motive to enforce the policy as aggressively as possible.
The case is currently in briefing on a motion to dismiss in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania before Judge Mary Kay Costello.
We are seeking information from any family who has attended one or more USJN tournaments and experienced the Stay to Play policy — including families who booked through TCI Housing and would have preferred other options, families who paid opt-out fees, families whose team was threatened with or actually subjected to forfeiture, and families who opted out of tournaments entirely because of inadequate or unacceptable lodging options under the program. All contacts are confidential.
Get a free, no obligation case evaluation here.