Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein and His Wife Are Personally Funding Jr. Suns and Jr. Mercury Scholarships in Phoenix

Suns and Mercury CEO Josh Bartelstein and His Wife Are Personally Funding Jr. Suns and Jr. Mercury Scholarships in Phoenix

Josh and Sydney Bartelstein are paying registration fees for kids in the Jr. Suns and Jr. Mercury leagues run by the nonprofit RAMMS in North Central Phoenix. Recipients also get game tickets and equipment. Amounts were not disclosed.

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The cost of a rec league registration is the first thing that keeps a kid off a basketball court, and in North Central Phoenix a team CEO is paying it himself. Josh Bartelstein, who runs the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury, and his wife Sydney have started a scholarship program for the Jr. Suns and Jr. Mercury youth leagues.

The leagues are run by RAMMS, a parent-run, volunteer-led nonprofit that has organized recreational sports for children in North Central Phoenix for more than 60 years, per Youth Sports Business Report. The program was first reported by Burn City Sports on Oct. 28.

What the Scholarships Cover

The scholarships offset registration fees for the leagues, which are open to kids from kindergarten through eighth grade. Recipients also get Suns and Mercury game tickets, basketball equipment and other resources. The stated aim is to grow participation by lowering the cost of entry, and Bartelstein said in the release that the goal is to "help more kids play and build confidence."

Neither report gives a dollar figure, a per-player amount or a target number of recipients, and the couple is funding it personally rather than through the team foundation. Sign-ups run through RAMMS. The organization's registration page listed Oct. 31 as the deadline for recreational leagues, Nov. 7 for the Jr. Mercury Legacy League and Nov. 14 for competitive leagues, so families who missed Saturday should check with RAMMS before assuming the window is closed.

Part of a Bigger Phoenix Youth Push

The scholarships land a week after the Suns and Mercury announced plans for a $60 million downtown YMCA with three courts, which BallerTube covered on Oct. 24. Team-branded rec leagues like Jr. Suns are common across the NBA and WNBA; a program where the CEO writes the checks for fees is less common, and it puts a number on how much the cost question matters in one of the country's biggest youth basketball markets.

The winter rec season tips off after registration closes. More on access and cost in youth sports is on the BallerTube youth sports page.