USA Partners * Sports Alliance ("USAP") represents a network of leading sports organizations that have combined their resources to develop turn-key modern, multi-purpose sports facilities to aid and benefit at risk youth and young people with special needs.  USAP acts as a form of "gatekeeper/resource organizer" to create applications to enable clients to compete for federal and private grant dollars, community foundations and corporate sponsorship programs.  USAP has been successful in allocating over $500 million to customers representing cities, municipalities, colleges, universities and non-profit organizations seeking such funds.  These USAP "modern youth sports facilities" will be designed and constructed by the finest contractors in the sports industry - all with the intent of providing safer, less expensive and superior sports amenities for your community.

USAP History

The principals of USAP have a very successful track record in developing over 100 state-of-the-art sports facilities and programs to optimize the facilities.  USAP offers an unmatched network of resources throughout the sports community, complimented by a strong fundraising effort at federal, state, and local levels.  This consortium has made USAP the ideal solution for design, development and funding opportunities for your modern youth sports facility.

 The people involved in USAP have over eighty years of combined experience in the sports industry that ranges from the development of over 100 multi-purpose sports facilities tot he creation, promotion and/or management of such high profile events as the Super Bowl, the Winter Olympics, the Tour de France, the US Open Tennis Championships, and the First Tee National Program to name a few. 

USAP Management Team

John (JD) Daniel, Jr., Chief Executive Officer

As the founder of USA Partners * Sports Alliance in 2001, Mr. Daniel has been responsible for acting as an organizer for a wide spectrum of resources including grants and in-kind gifts from the network of USAP participants.  These resources have been successfully leveraged to create over $500 million in cash grants that will help to develop sports and resort destinations around the county.

Mr. Daniel has extensive experience in developing and funding sports facilities and programs including the creation in 1997 of the National First Tee Golf Program, which currently has over 250 golf facilities and is a national initiative to make golf accessible to children of all socio-economic backgrounds. 

Prior to involvement with The First Tee, World Golf Foundation, and the PGA TOUR,  Mr. Daniel was a  PGA professional golfer serving in management and teaching roles in nationally known golf teaching facilities, as well as coaching three United States Teams that each successfully defended the World Junior Cup in St. Andrews, Scotland.

Mark Castaldo, President and Chief Operating Officer

Mr. Castaldo has over twenty years of successful management and marketing experience.  At USA Partners, Mr. Castaldo is responsible for the creation and packaging of all events to be held at the USA Partners destinations.  Several of these will be newly created “grass roots” events which will be rolled out initially to the 5 identified destinations with the expectation being that these events will be run nationally once branded.

At Worldtek, the country’s largest sports management company, Mr. Castaldo was responsible for all overseas sales and marketing for thirty offices nationally.  He had direct strategic impute on all decisions related to the corporate direction of the company. His responsibilities included creating and negotiating packaged Corporate Incentive trips, Association Conventions as well as packages for sports fans/boosters/alumni to attend events like “March Madness” Final Four, College Bowl games, MLB All-Star and World Series games.

Mr. Castaldo has also served as the President and Owner of Sports Initiatives, a Sports Marketing company which had the exclusive rights to sell and market for the Women’s Pro Softball League, LLC.  Duties included sponsorship solicitation and negotiation with companies.  He created a 50/50 joint venture with the Amateur Softball Association to market the game of softball nationally and the Women’s Olympic teams in particular.

Mr. Castaldo started his career with twelve years of corporate training in the field of telecommunications most notably with MCI and WorldCom. 

John Carroll, Chief Marketing Officer

Mr. Carroll has been a high profile marketing and management executive for over 40 years.  He has served as CEO for both profit and not-for-profit corporations; founded his own successful sports marketing and television company; been a board member of an international sports organization; and had key marketing and management roles at tow of America’s Fortune 100 companies – DuPont and Uniroyal.

In the course of his career, the company he founded, Capital Sports, Inc., marketed such world class events as the 1980 Winter Olympics, the Super Bowl, the US Open Tennis Championships, the Tour de France, the Davis Cup and the NYC Marathon, to name a few.  Perhaps the success of his company was most noted for the creation of prominent national grass roots sports programs like the Equitable Life family tennis and ski challenges both of which ran for 16 years and the NFL’s ‘Punt, Pass, and Kick’ which is still being run today.  Capital Sports created programs for Coca Cola, Colgate, DuPont, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Lipton, Nike, Nestle, and others.  CSI also represented the NFL, NHL, US Ski Team and US Tennis Association.

Prior to Capital Sports, Mr. Carroll served as Director of Advertising for the Chemical Division of Uniroyal and subsequently, Worldwide Director of Proprietary Chemicals, which was the most profitable division in Uniroyal.  After selling Capital Sports, Mr. Carroll spent five years as Executive Director/CEO of USA Volleyball followed by a five-year term as Commissioner/CEO for the Women’s Professional Softball League.

Hugh Green, Legends Chief Executive Officer

Mr. Green formed the company, Incognito LLC, to provide an entertaining atmosphere to events where the presence of athletes (former professionals in their sport/field) was desired.  As a twelve year player in the NFL, Mr. Green has a multitude of contacts in the world of sports.  His company has over 250 professional athletes, The Legends that participate in sporting events and mentoring opportunities with children at USA/Legends venues. 

Mr. Green is a philanthropist who has given his time, money, and energies and loaned his name to benefit countless charitable organizations.  For over fifteen years, Mr. Green has participated in events to raise money for some of the world’s most renowned charities, most notably and close to his heart, is the Ronald McDonald House.

Mr. Green’s accomplishments are many including, elected to the College football Hall of Fame 1980, 2ed in Heisman Trophy voting 1980, Walter Camp Award 1980, Lombardi Award 1980, Consensus All-American 1978, 1979, 1980, NFL Pro Bowl 1982, 1983,   #99 Retired Pittsburgh jersey 1980 and most recently the College Football News has hailed Mr. Green as the fifth of the ‘100 Greatest Players of all-Time.”  Mr. Green played professional football for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1981 to 1985 before going to the Miami Dolphins where he played until 1991.  Currently, Mr. Green is the President of the Walter Camp Alumni Foundation and continues to be active in the game of football.

Courtney Bull, Business Development Director

Miss Bull joined the USA Partners team in May 2005, and has and integral role of creating business plans and preparing funding documents for current USA projects. 

Miss Bull has enjoyed an extensive athletic background including the Atlantic Conference Championship Women's Rowing team at the University of Delaware and three years at Methodist College where the Women' Tennis team clinched three conference championships.  Miss Bull was chosen the Dixie Conference 'Rookie-of-the-Year', was a three-time conference singles champion, two-time conference doubles champion, and was chosen as USA South Conference Tournament MVP her senior year. 

Miss Bull is a certified USPTA Pro-1 teaching professional with USTA Sports Science Level I and Development Coaching certifications.  Miss Bull graduated Summa Cum Laude from Methodist College in Fayetteville, North Carolina earning a Bachelor's degree in Business Administration with concentrations in Professional Tennis Management and Resort Management.  This background was a natural fit into the sports management industry.  

John Meeske, Consultant / CEO Resorts and Clubs, Inc.

Mr. Meeske professional career has largely been focused and dedicated toward the ownership, management, marketing, financing and repositioning of Destination Resorts & Clubs.  This career has seen Mr. Meeske accumulate a wealth of experience through his involvement in a diversity of properties and facilities within the resort and hospitality industry.   

Mr. Meeske’s accolades include President of “ClubResorts,” a division of ClubCorp that focused predominantly on the resort industry.  The ClubResorts division (now called The Pinehurst Company), was responsible for making resort acquisitions, turning around resorts considered to be “fallen angels,” building profits, adding developments, repositioning, refinancing, and upgrading a variety of resort properties.

Mr. Meeske helped develop the Center for Resort & Club Business at Methodist University.  Through the Reeves School of Business, The Professional Golf Management program, Then Center for Resort and Club Business at Methodist, and the strategic and financial assistance given by The Pinehurst Company, Mr. Meeske has created the world’s first and finest program dedicated to destination resorts, clubs and leisure real estate in the nation.

Mr. Meeske is the CEO of Myriad Entertainment & Resorts Inc, featuring a multi billion dollar entertainment resort being developed in Tunica, Mississippi.  This project will feature multiple hotels, casinos, golf courses, retail, and sporting facilities.

Patrick McKenna, Consultant

Mr. McKenna has spent the last 12 months advising both Legends and Myriad Entertainment & Resorts, Inc in a variety of subjects including real estate financing and corporate deal structuring.

Mr. McKenna has been involved with real estate finance transactions and a variety of capital raises for the past ten years.  He has been President of Direct Financial Lending Group, Inc since 2004 and in that period of time has either directly or indirectly financed over $365 million in real estate transactions.

For the past three years, Mr. McKenna has also consulted for a investment banking firm and through this effort has been involved in a variety of corporate turn arounds, LBO’s and a handful of reverse mergers.

Mr. McKenna has an MBA from Chapman University and a BA from Washington State University.  He resides in Orange County, CA with his wife and 2 daughters.

 
USAP has helped raise clients over $500 million and currently has a client portfolio in excess of $2.5 Billion

The USAP Network of Partners

USAP has developed, and more importantly continues to develop, relationships with leaders in today's sport industry.  Every new USAP facility delivers a unique combination of both grant dollars and in-kind services that in some cases have provided a fully funded turn-key project. 

USAP National Partnerships and Special Programs:

Organizations that have funded USAP projects in the past:

Cayuga Hospitality Advisors: An international consultancy whose 150-plus members are virtually all graduates or members of the faculty of the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration, with an average of 25 to 35 years of highly successful hospitality industry experience.  Cayuga Members advise clients at the highest levels in the hotel, resort, club, casino and food service industries.

Cornerstone Housing:  One of the nation's most successful urban developers with an unmatched track record of affordable housing and community revitalization using federal, state, local and private funds.  Cornerstone has elected to use USA exclusively for all recreational components.  To date, hundreds of millions of dollars have been secured to revitalize urban areas.

Field Solutions: A hybrid technology of using crumb rubber as a sports infill system to natural grass fields that results in dramatically less expensive turf upgrades providing safer and lower maintenance benefits.

FieldTurf: The world leader in artificial surfaces and currently the leading synthetic supplier in the world of football, soccer, lacrosse, baseball and golf.  FieldTurf has the reputation of being one of the fastest surfaces, while also providing a very "real look and feel" of grass, yet requiring extremely low maintenance.

Global Authentication (GAI):   Provides unique solutions to dealers, collectors and corporations by integrating state of the art consumer protection technology, world class grading and authentication experts to memorabilia. The experts at GAI have over 100 years of combined experience in authenticating some of the world’s finest collectibles.

golfLinx: Provides integrated turf water management solutions around the world that has resulted in dramatic water cost savings (30% or more) in the golf, wine and sports facility industries.

KRWDesigns: KRWDesigns provided design services for USAP's private and public facility master plans, which ultimately played a key role in various grant applications.  The President of KRWDesigns spent 18 years with Palmer Course Design Company as a recreational design specialist.

Legends, presented by Incognito: A network of more than 250 former celebrity athletes headed up by former NFL great, Hugh Green. 

Nike Go:  The leading name in the sports industry.  Nike allocates more than $28,000,000 per year in grants benefiting communities and our nation’s youth.  Since 1993, Nike's Reuse-A-Shoe program has recycled more than 15,000,000 pairs of shoes.

Palmer Course Design Company:  PCDC provided design services for serveral USAP projects including the Mayport Elementary school multi-purpose sports facility.

PGA Tour:  The PGA Tour donates more than $100 million per yer to charities and recently topped the $1 billion mark in donations to date.

RMD Americas Sports & Recreation:  A leading auto tire recycling company, specializing in golf course and athletic in-fill sports surfaces for natural grass and synthetic turf surfaces endorsed as Arnold Palmer Sports Infill Systems.

Soccer World Canada:   A company that owns, operates and constructs indoor sports complexes utilizing air bubble technology that can be up year round or put up in the fall and stored in the spring.

Tiger Woods Foundation:  Since 1996, the Tiger Woods Foundation has inspired children to achieve greatness in their lives, opening a world of endless possibilities.  The Foundation and Target Corporation partnered in 2000 to create Start Something, a program that assists adolescents in the development of core values and goals, strategies to achieve goals, and relationships with role models and mentors.  Participants can submit scholarship applications for awards that range up to $5,000. 

 USGA Foundation:  Through this initiative, the Foundation empowers organizations that introduce the game to people who otherwise would not have the opportunity.  Since 1997, when the USGA committed $50 million to this initiative, more than $50 million has been granted to efforts around the nation aimed at teaching individuals not only the game, but also the valuable life lessons that can be learned from golf.

US Soccer Foundation: The Foundation, over the 12 years of its existence, has invested over $45 million to support the expansion of soccer in this country, including grants to over 400 groups in all 50 states.  For more information, please refer to:  www.ussoccerfoundation.org