Varsity Spirit is a cheer, dance, band, and spirit organization founded in 1974. Its reported scale spans more than 1 million athletes reached each year, over 350,000 young people attending summer camps and clinics, and more than 600 regional and national competitions annually. The figures below preserve the source’s wording and distinguish company-reported figures from an International Cheer Union estimate.
Contents
- Organization and reported reach
- Camps, competitions, and All Star activity
- Championship scale
- Media, venues, and partnerships
- Education and athlete programs
- Band, yearbook, and performing arts expansion
- Recent and upcoming milestones
Organization and reported reach
Varsity Spirit says it has been dedicated to celebrating spirit since 1974, the year it was founded. On its careers page, the organization says it impacts more than 1 million athletes each year and has made positive impacts in the lives of over 55 million young people. Those are two different measures: the first is an annual athlete figure, while the second is a cumulative life-impact statement. Neither figure is presented as an independently verified estimate in the supplied source material.
Varsity Spirit describes itself as the global leader for all things spirit and says it is the largest camper operator in the world. Its spirit page reports that more than 350,000 young people engage in its cheer, dance, and band camps and clinics each summer. The same page says the organization hosts 600+ regional and national competitions every year and that uniforms and apparel are designed by 300+ sales representatives.
The broader Varsity Brands platform was described by KKR as reaching over 8 million athletes and students annually and serving more than 150,000 customers. The KKR acquisition announcement said the platform supports school and team sports, athletics, and spirit programs. These figures describe Varsity Brands rather than Varsity Spirit alone, so they should not be treated as a direct Varsity Spirit-only audience count.
Varsity Spirit’s FAQ says the organization oversees cheer, dance, band, and yearbook efforts for Varsity Brands. That scope helps explain why the reported statistics include both participation measures and activity across multiple types of school and youth programs.
Camps, competitions, and All Star activity
Summer camps and competitions are two of the clearest activity measures in the available figures. More than 350,000 young people engage with Varsity Spirit cheer, dance, and band camps and clinics each summer, according to the Varsity Spirit spirit page. Separately, the organization reports 600+ regional and national competitions each year. The camp figure is seasonal; the competition figure is annual. They therefore describe different time frames and should not be added together.
The varsity spirit system includes more than 40 unique All Star brands, according to the Varsity All Star dance page. Varsity Spirit’s FAQ specifically identifies CHEERSPORT, JAMfest, and GROOVE among its All Star brands. The same FAQ says NCA All-Star Nationals, held annually in Dallas, is the largest cheerleading competition in the world. That is a description supplied by Varsity Spirit, not a separately ranked comparison in the available material.
Varsity Spirit also reports that dance teams can earn bids from 70 top All Star Dance competitions. This figure describes the number of competitions connected to the bid opportunity, not the number of teams receiving bids or the number of bids awarded.
For wider context, the International Cheer Union estimates about 3.5 million athletes across 70 nations. This is an estimate for the international cheerleading landscape, not a Varsity Spirit participation total. Keeping the geography and source distinct is important: Varsity Spirit’s figures describe its own programs, while the ICU figure describes a broader worldwide population.
Championship scale
The 2025 National High School Cheerleading Championship provides a detailed event snapshot. Varsity Spirit reported that the championship hosted over 27,000 athletes and 1,286 teams. Those teams came from 34 states. The figures refer specifically to the 2025 championship and should not be read as an annual average for every Varsity Spirit event.
CHEERSPORT 2025 offers a second event-scale example. Varsity Spirit reported over 60,000 spectators and athletes and more than 1,400 teams. That combined attendance wording includes both spectators and athletes, so it is not directly comparable with the 27,000-athlete count from the National High School Cheerleading Championship.
| Event and measurement period | Reported figure | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 National High School Cheerleading Championship | Over 27,000 | Athletes hosted |
| 2025 National High School Cheerleading Championship | 1,286 | Teams hosted |
| 2025 National High School Cheerleading Championship | 34 | States represented |
| CHEERSPORT 2025 | Over 60,000 | Spectators and athletes combined |
| CHEERSPORT 2025 | Over 1,400 | Teams featured |
These event figures show why attendance, athletes, teams, and geographic representation should be reported as separate measurements. They use different units and, in the case of CHEERSPORT, combine two audiences in one total.
Media, venues, and partnerships
Varsity Spirit says it has partnered with Walt Disney World since 1995 and has seven events annually at Walt Disney World Resort. The FAQ also says Disney built AdventHealth Arena in 2018. Varsity Spirit describes AdventHealth Arena as the first building in the world designed specifically for cheerleading, dance, and band competitions.
The organization says it has partnered with ESPN since 1983 and produces over 10 hours of programming each year for ESPN and ESPN2. According to the Varsity Spirit FAQ, ESPN and ESPN2 broadcast that programming to more than 100 million homes in 32 countries. The 10-hour figure measures produced programming, while the 100-million-home figure describes potential broadcast reach; neither is an audience rating.
Varsity Spirit became the official outfitter of the Memphis Grizzlies dance team in July 2019. This is a dated partnership milestone rather than a current market-size statistic, and the month and year are retained to avoid presenting the announcement as undated.
A newer media and competition initiative is the Pro Cheer League. Varsity Spirit and Scripps Sports said the inaugural league would air five live events in 2026. They reported a season running from January 16 to March 27, 2026, with teams in Atlanta, Dallas, Miami, and San Diego. The supplied announcement identifies four team locations and five live events; it does not provide a total team count.
Education and athlete programs
Varsity University launched in March 2024, according to a Varsity Brands announcement. The program had been adopted by over 1,800 athletic programs and reached programs in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. It supported more than 250,000 female athletes.
These figures describe program adoption and reach rather than a headcount of unique participants. “Over 1,800 athletic programs” is an organizational measure, “all 50 states and Washington, D.C.” is a geographic coverage measure, and “more than 250,000 female athletes” is an athlete-support measure. Because the source does not specify a separate measurement date for each figure, the launch context is March 2024 and the wording remains attributed to the Varsity Brands announcement.
The education statistic sits alongside the larger annual reach claims but should not be combined with them. The more than 1 million athletes reached each year figure comes from Varsity Spirit’s careers page, while the more than 250,000 female athletes figure belongs to Varsity University. They represent different scopes.
Band, yearbook, and performing arts expansion
Varsity Spirit says it acquired Stanbury Uniforms and SA Feather Company in 2018. The band division acquisitions release said Stanbury employees continued working out of three Missouri facilities. The three-facility figure describes the employees’ operating locations after the acquisition; it is not a count of all Varsity Spirit sites.
Varsity Spirit launched Varsity Performing Arts in 2019. Its FAQ says The Dance Summit followed after The Summit, while D2 Summit followed after The Summit. The same FAQ says The Summit launched in 2013. These dates and sequencing facts mark the development of event offerings, but the supplied material does not give participant totals for the Summit events.
Varsity Spirit says Varsity Performing Arts will host the National Band Spirit Championship in 2026. Its 2026 National School Spirit Championships begin on January 30, 2026, according to the Varsity Spirit NSSC press release. The release describes NSSC as the new home for the UCA National High School Cheerleading Championship and the UDA National Dance Team Championship. It also says the National School Band Championship is new in 2026.
Varsity Yearbook will host its second annual Press Pass Academy at NSSC, according to the same 2026 release. “Second annual” identifies the edition number, while the January 30 start date identifies the beginning of the 2026 championships; the source does not provide attendance totals for these programs.
Recent and upcoming milestones
Charitable giving is quantified through Friday Night Live. Varsity Spirit reported that Friday Night Live 2025 raised over $250,000 for St. Jude. It also reported that Friday Night Live had raised over $1.4 million for St. Jude since the event began. The 2025 event was the 10th annual Friday Night Live. The first figure is for the 2025 event; the second is cumulative through the 2025 event.
The 2026 National School Spirit Championships and Pro Cheer League provide forward-looking dates in the supplied announcements. The NSSC begins January 30, 2026. The Pro Cheer League season runs from January 16 through March 27, 2026, with five live events planned. These are announced schedules, not completed attendance or performance results.
Varsity Spirit USA provides a regional view. The organization says USA is the largest summer camp and special event organization of its kind in the western United States. It says USA conducts camps primarily in eight states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. “Primarily” signals that the list is not presented as an exclusive operating boundary, and “largest” is a company description without a comparison value in the available source.
Taken together, the reported statistics cover annual reach, seasonal participation, event volume, championship size, media distribution, program adoption, charitable giving, and planned 2026 activity. Each figure is most useful when kept with its source label, geography, unit, and measurement period.