How the Second-Largest Little League in the World Runs Its Programs on TeamLinkt
How the Second-Largest Little League in the World Runs Its Programs on TeamLinkt
Content
Somewhere between the youth baseball fields of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, something extraordinary happened.
A suburb of 70,000 people built the second-largest Little League in the entire world.
168 active teams. 2,100+ registered members. 19 all-star and development rosters competing across baseball and softball. A summer sandlot program (a recreational, low-pressure format that keeps kids playing outside the regular season) now serving over 300 kids. A sponsorship program generating more than $60,000 a year. A community so drawn to the league that they added 230 new players in a single season, not because of a marketing push, but because the word had already spread.
How a township of 70,000 built the second-largest Little League in the world is a story about standards, about what happens when a volunteer organization decides to run itself like a serious operation. And it is a story about what that kind of organization needs to actually function at scale.
Behind the scenes of all of it is a sports registration, scheduling, and communication platform that league president Wally Orlov calls the backbone of everything they do.
Somewhere between the youth baseball fields of Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, something extraordinary happened.
A suburb of 70,000 people built the second-largest Little League in the entire world.
168 active teams. 2,100+ registered members. 19 all-star and development rosters competing across baseball and softball. A summer sandlot program (a recreational, low-pressure format that keeps kids playing outside the regular season) now serving over 300 kids. A sponsorship program generating more than $60,000 a year. A community so drawn to the league that they added 230 new players in a single season, not because of a marketing push, but because the word had already spread.
How a township of 70,000 built the second-largest Little League in the world is a story about standards, about what happens when a volunteer organization decides to run itself like a serious operation. And it is a story about what that kind of organization needs to actually function at scale.
Behind the scenes of all of it is a sports registration, scheduling, and communication platform that league president Wally Orlov calls the backbone of everything they do.
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Building Something Special: The Standard at Lower Merion
The program Wally built wasn't the product of a single big initiative. It was the product of a philosophy applied consistently across every part of the organization. Kid-focused above everything else. Fair drafts so no team goes 12-0 or 0-12. High-quality coaches in front of every age group. Real communication so parents always know what is happening. Programs designed to serve the whole community, including customized offerings for the large Orthodox Jewish community in Lower Merion Township.
"We took a soup-to-nuts approach to first orient the league towards kids," Wally said. "Make sure the kids' fun experience is great. That means high-quality coaches. Good communication. Well-thought-out programs. Fair drafts."
The growth that followed is staggering by any measure. LMLL now runs seven softball programs including two 8-year-old competitive squads and two 7-year-old baseball teams. Forty-three teams at the 5 and 6-year-old level alone. A sponsorship program that embeds partner advertising directly in the league app. Over $600,000 in credit card transactions are processed annually.
Running baseball, softball, or another sport? See how TeamLinkt supports your league.
"Fast forward to today, we have a summer sandlot program of over 300 kids. All-star teams just off to a huge, fantastic start. Teams that now generally win 55 to 60 percent of their games," Wally said.
The team at LMLL have had so much success in the past 3 years that they were even recognized by Little League International in a recent featured article.
"The word's out. It's like, how could we even meet the demand? But we do, because it’s important to show up for our community."
Building Something Special: The Standard at Lower Merion
The program Wally built wasn't the product of a single big initiative. It was the product of a philosophy applied consistently across every part of the organization. Kid-focused above everything else. Fair drafts so no team goes 12-0 or 0-12. High-quality coaches in front of every age group. Real communication so parents always know what is happening. Programs designed to serve the whole community, including customized offerings for the large Orthodox Jewish community in Lower Merion Township.
"We took a soup-to-nuts approach to first orient the league towards kids," Wally said. "Make sure the kids' fun experience is great. That means high-quality coaches. Good communication. Well-thought-out programs. Fair drafts."
The growth that followed is staggering by any measure. LMLL now runs seven softball programs including two 8-year-old competitive squads and two 7-year-old baseball teams. Forty-three teams at the 5 and 6-year-old level alone. A sponsorship program that embeds partner advertising directly in the league app. Over $600,000 in credit card transactions are processed annually.
Running baseball, softball, or another sport? See how TeamLinkt supports your league.
"Fast forward to today, we have a summer sandlot program of over 300 kids. All-star teams just off to a huge, fantastic start. Teams that now generally win 55 to 60 percent of their games," Wally said.
The team at LMLL have had so much success in the past 3 years that they were even recognized by Little League International in a recent featured article.
"The word's out. It's like, how could we even meet the demand? But we do, because it’s important to show up for our community."
The Software Problem Every Growing League Eventually Faces
Growth like that comes with a cost: operational complexity. More teams means more scheduling. More members means more registration. More families means more communication to manage, more parent questions, more moving parts across a season that never truly ends.
This is not a baseball problem. Any league administrator running a growing program, whether it is hockey, soccer, volleyball, or lacrosse, knows exactly what this feels like. The tools that worked at 50 teams start to crack at 100. The spreadsheets that held things together stop being manageable. The pressure to keep parents informed, coaches organized, and registrations clean compounds every single season.
LMLL learned this firsthand. For years, they ran on a legacy platform that had been acquired and was no longer being actively developed. It worked, but it was not growing with them. When the platform was eventually sunset, the league had a decision to make.
They evaluated every major option on the market. The assessment was not casual. LMLL has the benefit of a technically sophisticated membership base and a president with a background in technology investment. They tested platforms across every dimension that mattered: integration depth, scheduling capability, mobile app experience, pricing model, and long-term viability.
"We had a number of very high-quality software people evaluate the platform," Wally said. "We came to the conclusion that we needed a certain level of integration, registration, team management, and scheduling, all wrapped into an integrated platform."
What they did not want was another point solution that would leave gaps. Or a platform that charged per member and penalized the league for growing. Or a product so complex it required months of ramp-up time.
"Platform decisions are difficult," Wally explained. "You've already lost the game if you're running on Excel spreadsheets and paper. You can't scale a league in the manner we have by anything other than highly efficient, highly integrated, and high-quality software."
That is a standard most platforms do not meet. TeamLinkt did.
The Software Problem Every Growing League Eventually Faces
Growth like that comes with a cost: operational complexity. More teams means more scheduling. More members means more registration. More families means more communication to manage, more parent questions, more moving parts across a season that never truly ends.
This is not a baseball problem. Any league administrator running a growing program, whether it is hockey, soccer, volleyball, or lacrosse, knows exactly what this feels like. The tools that worked at 50 teams start to crack at 100. The spreadsheets that held things together stop being manageable. The pressure to keep parents informed, coaches organized, and registrations clean compounds every single season.
LMLL learned this firsthand. For years, they ran on a legacy platform that had been acquired and was no longer being actively developed. It worked, but it was not growing with them. When the platform was eventually sunset, the league had a decision to make.
They evaluated every major option on the market. The assessment was not casual. LMLL has the benefit of a technically sophisticated membership base and a president with a background in technology investment. They tested platforms across every dimension that mattered: integration depth, scheduling capability, mobile app experience, pricing model, and long-term viability.
"We had a number of very high-quality software people evaluate the platform," Wally said. "We came to the conclusion that we needed a certain level of integration, registration, team management, and scheduling, all wrapped into an integrated platform."
What they did not want was another point solution that would leave gaps. Or a platform that charged per member and penalized the league for growing. Or a product so complex it required months of ramp-up time.
"Platform decisions are difficult," Wally explained. "You've already lost the game if you're running on Excel spreadsheets and paper. You can't scale a league in the manner we have by anything other than highly efficient, highly integrated, and high-quality software."
That is a standard most platforms do not meet. TeamLinkt did.
Why Lower Merion Little League Chose TeamLinkt
After a full market evaluation, LMLL selected TeamLinkt as their platform of record. Three years in, they are still on it, and they have turned down every pitch from legacy competitors that has come their way since.
The reasons will resonate with any league administrator running a serious operation.
Saving $10,000 to $12,000 a year is not a rounding error for a nonprofit.
LMLL processes over $600,000 in credit card transactions annually. When Wally shared TeamLinkt's pricing structure with a competing platform's sales team, the response was direct: they could not match it. The savings come out to $10,000 to $12,000 per year compared to what other platforms they were evaluating would have cost them. And unlike per-member pricing models that charge more as the league grows, TeamLinkt's structure means LMLL can add 230 kids in a season without the “meter running,” as Wally notes. For a nonprofit reinvesting every dollar back into the program, that distinction is not a minor line item.
"I want a partner. We want to scale without having to pay as we grow. I don't need the meter running the whole time," Wally said.
A league app is only valuable if families actually use it.
A league running 168 teams needs parents, coaches, and players to actually open the app, not download it once and forget about it. TeamLinkt's team app hits that bar. Parents get their schedules, alerts, and roster access in one place. Coaches communicate without hunting down phone numbers. And critically for LMLL's large sponsorship program, the app supports embedded sponsor advertising. For a league generating $60,000 annually from sponsors, having those partners visible inside the app their 2,100 members open every week is not a nice-to-have. It is a revenue pillar.
"We really liked the app. The app we could embed our own sponsor advertising in. That was an important part," he said.
Two platforms to do one job is not a solution.
Registration. Scheduling. Communication. Background check integration for coach compliance with Little League International requirements. Field management. It all lives in one place in TeamLinkt, which matters enormously when your league has the operational scope of a small business. For LMLL, consolidating onto a single platform eliminated the double-entry, the broken handoffs between systems, and the administrative overhead that comes with stitching together multiple tools. The alternative, which several leagues in Wally's district chose, was paying for a mandated platform and then subscribing to a second one just to fill the gaps. That is the real cost of the wrong decision.
"We've tied our horse to your stable," Wally said. "We're invested in you guys and your growth. We view TeamLinkt as a partner, not a vendor-customer relationship."
Why Lower Merion Little League Chose TeamLinkt
After a full market evaluation, LMLL selected TeamLinkt as their platform of record. Three years in, they are still on it, and they have turned down every pitch from legacy competitors that has come their way since.
The reasons will resonate with any league administrator running a serious operation.
Saving $10,000 to $12,000 a year is not a rounding error for a nonprofit.
LMLL processes over $600,000 in credit card transactions annually. When Wally shared TeamLinkt's pricing structure with a competing platform's sales team, the response was direct: they could not match it. The savings come out to $10,000 to $12,000 per year compared to what other platforms they were evaluating would have cost them. And unlike per-member pricing models that charge more as the league grows, TeamLinkt's structure means LMLL can add 230 kids in a season without the “meter running,” as Wally notes. For a nonprofit reinvesting every dollar back into the program, that distinction is not a minor line item.
"I want a partner. We want to scale without having to pay as we grow. I don't need the meter running the whole time," Wally said.
A league app is only valuable if families actually use it.
A league running 168 teams needs parents, coaches, and players to actually open the app, not download it once and forget about it. TeamLinkt's team app hits that bar. Parents get their schedules, alerts, and roster access in one place. Coaches communicate without hunting down phone numbers. And critically for LMLL's large sponsorship program, the app supports embedded sponsor advertising. For a league generating $60,000 annually from sponsors, having those partners visible inside the app their 2,100 members open every week is not a nice-to-have. It is a revenue pillar.
"We really liked the app. The app we could embed our own sponsor advertising in. That was an important part," he said.
Two platforms to do one job is not a solution.
Registration. Scheduling. Communication. Background check integration for coach compliance with Little League International requirements. Field management. It all lives in one place in TeamLinkt, which matters enormously when your league has the operational scope of a small business. For LMLL, consolidating onto a single platform eliminated the double-entry, the broken handoffs between systems, and the administrative overhead that comes with stitching together multiple tools. The alternative, which several leagues in Wally's district chose, was paying for a mandated platform and then subscribing to a second one just to fill the gaps. That is the real cost of the wrong decision.
"We've tied our horse to your stable," Wally said. "We're invested in you guys and your growth. We view TeamLinkt as a partner, not a vendor-customer relationship."
Running at Scale: The Operational Reality of 168 Teams
Most sports organizations never get a window into how the biggest leagues actually run day to day. Here is what it looks like at Lower Merion now, and what it looked like before.
When Wally started, the league had 100 girls playing softball and an all-star program that sent teams out to go 0-2 and come home. There were no summer programs. Fall ball had 100 to 150 kids. The league was losing members every year.
Today, softball has 410 registered players. All-star teams win more than half their games. The summer sandlot program serves 300+ kids in a recreational format that did not exist a few years ago. Development teams run alongside all-star rosters so that kids who did not make the cut still have somewhere to grow. Competitive squads now start at age seven. This year alone, the league launched 8-year-old baseball and softball teams competing in external tournaments, a level of programming that would have been unthinkable when Wally took over.
What holds all of it together operationally is TeamLinkt. Registration workflows handling 2,100+ members across multiple programs and age groups. Scheduling that coordinates across multiple fields, simultaneous programs, and a season calendar that stretches year-round. Communication infrastructure reaching thousands of families reliably every week. Background check management keeping the league compliant without drowning a volunteer in paperwork.
The scale is significant. The administrative burden does not have to match it, and for Lower Merion, it does not.
"I'm on your site all the time as an administrator," Wally said. "We've gotten very comfortable and happy with it."
Running at Scale: The Operational Reality of 168 Teams
Most sports organizations never get a window into how the biggest leagues actually run day to day. Here is what it looks like at Lower Merion now, and what it looked like before.
When Wally started, the league had 100 girls playing softball and an all-star program that sent teams out to go 0-2 and come home. There were no summer programs. Fall ball had 100 to 150 kids. The league was losing members every year.
Today, softball has 410 registered players. All-star teams win more than half their games. The summer sandlot program serves 300+ kids in a recreational format that did not exist a few years ago. Development teams run alongside all-star rosters so that kids who did not make the cut still have somewhere to grow. Competitive squads now start at age seven. This year alone, the league launched 8-year-old baseball and softball teams competing in external tournaments, a level of programming that would have been unthinkable when Wally took over.
What holds all of it together operationally is TeamLinkt. Registration workflows handling 2,100+ members across multiple programs and age groups. Scheduling that coordinates across multiple fields, simultaneous programs, and a season calendar that stretches year-round. Communication infrastructure reaching thousands of families reliably every week. Background check management keeping the league compliant without drowning a volunteer in paperwork.
The scale is significant. The administrative burden does not have to match it, and for Lower Merion, it does not.
"I'm on your site all the time as an administrator," Wally said. "We've gotten very comfortable and happy with it."
A Word on the Governing Body Landscape
For years, Little League International has worked to standardize its leagues onto a single mandated platform. But for some leagues, their complex needs and nuances to the way they run their operations require a more tailored software solution. Wally and the team at LMLL were looking to provide the best possible experience to their athletes and families, and they were confident that TeamLinkt was the platform to do exactly that.
Wally made the case directly to Little League International's leadership team and secured a formal waiver to stay on TeamLinkt instead of using the mandated solution.
"I didn’t want to pay $10,000 more in fees for an inferior product that doesn't have a good team app experience." Wally said.
A Word on the Governing Body Landscape
For years, Little League International has worked to standardize its leagues onto a single mandated platform. But for some leagues, their complex needs and nuances to the way they run their operations require a more tailored software solution. Wally and the team at LMLL were looking to provide the best possible experience to their athletes and families, and they were confident that TeamLinkt was the platform to do exactly that.
Wally made the case directly to Little League International's leadership team and secured a formal waiver to stay on TeamLinkt instead of using the mandated solution.
"I didn’t want to pay $10,000 more in fees for an inferior product that doesn't have a good team app experience." Wally said.
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What Any League Can Take From This
You do not need a million-person metropolitan area to build a thriving sports program. You need a high-standard and a dedicated team behind your program.
The operational challenges Wally describes at Lower Merion are not unique to Little League or baseball. They are the reality of running any serious youth sports organization that is growing. More kids means more complexity, and complexity without the right infrastructure becomes the thing that burns out good volunteers and frustrates great communities.
The right platform does not build your league. Your coaches, your volunteers, and your community do that. But the wrong platform creates friction at every step, in registration, in scheduling, in the parent experience with the app, in the compliance paperwork that eats up hours you would rather spend on the field.
"We needed software. We need high-quality, integrated league management software to be able to run the league," Wally said. "You have Excel spreadsheets and paper, you've already lost the game."
Lower Merion Little League chose TeamLinkt. A league that was declining in participation every year became the second-largest Little League in the world. Programs that did not exist are now defining what youth sports looks like in a community of 70,000 people. Hundreds of kids who would not have had a season now do.
That is what the right infrastructure and a motivated team of community members makes possible. And it is not just a baseball story.
What Any League Can Take From This
You do not need a million-person metropolitan area to build a thriving sports program. You need a high-standard and a dedicated team behind your program.
The operational challenges Wally describes at Lower Merion are not unique to Little League or baseball. They are the reality of running any serious youth sports organization that is growing. More kids means more complexity, and complexity without the right infrastructure becomes the thing that burns out good volunteers and frustrates great communities.
The right platform does not build your league. Your coaches, your volunteers, and your community do that. But the wrong platform creates friction at every step, in registration, in scheduling, in the parent experience with the app, in the compliance paperwork that eats up hours you would rather spend on the field.
"We needed software. We need high-quality, integrated league management software to be able to run the league," Wally said. "You have Excel spreadsheets and paper, you've already lost the game."
Lower Merion Little League chose TeamLinkt. A league that was declining in participation every year became the second-largest Little League in the world. Programs that did not exist are now defining what youth sports looks like in a community of 70,000 people. Hundreds of kids who would not have had a season now do.
That is what the right infrastructure and a motivated team of community members makes possible. And it is not just a baseball story.
The Standard is Set. Your League Can Meet It.
The story of Lower Merion Little League is not a story about size. Most leagues will never run 168 teams or process $600,000 in annual transactions. That is not the point.
The point is that behind every well-run league, at any scale, is a team of volunteers doing their best with the tools they have. The right tools do not create greatness. But the wrong ones quietly drain the people who build the community around sport.
TeamLinkt is built for leagues that are serious about the experience they deliver, whether that is 20 teams or 200. Registration that works without the manual cleanup. Scheduling that holds across a full season. A team app families actually open. No per-player fees, no meter running, no platform that penalizes you for growing.
See what TeamLinkt can do for your league, get a demo here.
The Standard is Set. Your League Can Meet It.
The story of Lower Merion Little League is not a story about size. Most leagues will never run 168 teams or process $600,000 in annual transactions. That is not the point.
The point is that behind every well-run league, at any scale, is a team of volunteers doing their best with the tools they have. The right tools do not create greatness. But the wrong ones quietly drain the people who build the community around sport.
TeamLinkt is built for leagues that are serious about the experience they deliver, whether that is 20 teams or 200. Registration that works without the manual cleanup. Scheduling that holds across a full season. A team app families actually open. No per-player fees, no meter running, no platform that penalizes you for growing.
See what TeamLinkt can do for your league, get a demo here.
Vince Ocampo
Marketing Specialist | TeamLinkt
Vince is a Marketing Specialist at TeamLinkt focused on content strategy, SEO, and AI-driven search in the youth sports space.
Vince Ocampo
Marketing Specialist | TeamLinkt
Vince is a Marketing Specialist at TeamLinkt focused on content strategy, SEO, and AI-driven search in the youth sports space.
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