RosterRelay - Automated Sports Team Communication Hub for Amateur Leagues

Amateur sports league coordinators spend 3 hours a week copy-pasting game schedule changes into 6 different group chats. RosterRelay is a single hub that blasts schedule updates, collects availability RSVPs, and auto-fills subs — all from one dashboard.

𝕏 Post Reddit HN

Difficulty

beginner

What is it?

Reddit r/leaguemanagers and r/soccer are full of posts from volunteer coordinators drowning in WhatsApp chaos. Existing tools like TeamSnap charge $79+/year per team and are bloated with features coaches don't need. RosterRelay is a lean web app where a coordinator pastes a schedule, sets a roster, and the system auto-texts or emails players for availability, collects yes/no RSVPs, and surfaces a confirmed lineup. When someone drops out, it pings the sub bench automatically. The April 2026 amateur sports registration wave makes this perfectly timed.

Why now?

Spring 2026 amateur league season registrations are peaking now and coordinators are actively searching for WhatsApp alternatives after Meta deprecated WhatsApp Business broadcast lists.

▸One-click availability blast via SMS and email to full roster.
▸RSVP tracker showing confirmed, declined, and pending per game.
▸Auto sub-bench ping when a confirmed player drops within 24 hours.
▸Season schedule view with drag-and-drop game rescheduling.

Target Audience

Amateur sports league coordinators and team managers, estimated 2M active in North America running recreational leagues.

Example Use Case

A recreational soccer coordinator manages 22 players, sends one availability blast, gets 18 RSVPs in 4 hours, and auto-fills two subs — all without opening WhatsApp once.

User Stories

▸As a league coordinator, I want to blast availability requests to 22 players in one click, so that I stop sending 22 individual messages.
▸As a team manager, I want automatic sub-bench pings, so that I never show up short-handed.
▸As a coordinator, I want an annual plan option, so that I don't lose access mid-season.

Acceptance Criteria

Availability Blast: done when all rostered players receive SMS within 60 seconds of coordinator clicking send. RSVP Tracking: done when yes/no replies update the dashboard in real time without page refresh. Sub Ping: done when a confirmed player declining within 24 hours triggers an automatic SMS to first available sub. Payment: done when Stripe checkout upgrades team limit immediately.

Is it worth building?

$12/month per team x 100 teams = $1,200 MRR at month 3. League-level plan at $49/month for 6+ teams adds $500/month.

Unit Economics

CAC: $8 via Facebook group organic posts. LTV: $144 (12 months at $12/month). Payback: 1 month. Gross margin: 82%.

Business Model

SaaS subscription per team

Monetization Path

Free tier: 1 team, 15 players. Paid at $12/month unlocks unlimited rosters, SMS blasts, and sub-bench automation.

Revenue Timeline

First dollar: week 3. $1k MRR: month 4. $5k MRR: month 12.

Estimated Monthly Cost

Twilio SMS: $30, Supabase: $25, Vercel: $20, Stripe fees: $15. Total: $90/month at launch.

Profit Potential

Side income at $1k MRR, full-time at $5k with 416 teams.

Scalability

Medium — expand to league-wide dashboards, sponsor ad placement, and season stats.

Success Metrics

Week 2: 5 beta coordinators. Month 1: 20 paid teams. Month 3: 80 paid teams, sub-50% seasonal churn.

Launch & Validation Plan

Post in r/soccer and r/leaguemanagers offering free beta, DM 20 Facebook group admins running local leagues.

Customer Acquisition Strategy

First customer: post in 10 local Facebook sports league groups offering 3 months free for feedback. Ongoing: Reddit, local sports store partnerships, SEO targeting amateur league management tools.

What's the competition?

Competition Level

Medium

What's the roadmap?

Feature Roadmap

V1 (launch): roster setup, availability blast, RSVP tracker, sub-bench ping. V2 (month 2-3): season schedule view, email digest for coordinators. V3 (month 4+): league-level dashboard, sponsor banner placement.

Milestone Plan

Phase 1 (Week 1-2): Twilio blast and RSVP webhook working end-to-end. Phase 2 (Week 3-4): Dashboard live, Stripe billing, Vercel deploy. Phase 3 (Month 2): 20 paid teams, annual plan option live.

How do you build it?

Tech Stack

Next.js, Supabase, Twilio SMS, Resend email, Stripe — build with Lovable for UI, Cursor for API logic, v0 for dashboard components.

Suggested Frameworks

Time to Ship

2 weeks

Required Skills

Next.js, Supabase, Twilio SMS integration, basic scheduling logic.

Resources

Twilio SMS docs, Supabase quickstart, Stripe billing guide.

MVP Scope

app/dashboard, app/team/[id], app/game/[id], app/api/blast, app/api/rsvp, app/api/sub, supabase/schema.sql, lib/twilio.ts, lib/resend.ts.

Core User Journey

Architecture Pattern

Coordinator creates game -> Twilio blasts SMS to roster -> players reply Y/N -> webhook updates RSVP table in Supabase -> dashboard reflects lineup -> dropout triggers sub-bench ping.

Data Model

User has many Teams. Team has many Players. Team has many Games. Game has many RSVPs. RSVP belongs to one Player.

Integration Points

Twilio for SMS blasts, Resend for email fallback, Stripe for subscriptions, Supabase for database and auth.

V1 Scope Boundaries

V1 excludes: mobile app, in-app chat, payment collection from players, stats tracking, white-label.

Success Definition

A coordinator who has never heard of the product signs up, sets up their team, and sends their first availability blast without reading any docs.

Challenges

Churn is brutal — recreational leagues are seasonal, meaning 40% of teams cancel after their 12-week season ends. Must build league-level upsell to retain coordinators year-round.

Avoid These Pitfalls

Do not build a native mobile app before validating web retention. Seasonal churn will kill MRR — pitch annual plans from day one. Finding first 10 paying coordinators takes longer than building; join local sports Facebook groups before writing code.

Security Requirements

Supabase Auth with magic link, RLS on all team and player tables, rate limit 20 blasts/day per team, validate phone numbers on input.

Infrastructure Plan

Vercel for Next.js, Supabase for Postgres and auth, Twilio for SMS, GitHub Actions for CI, Sentry for errors.

Performance Targets

50 DAU at launch, 300 req/day. SMS delivery under 10 seconds. Dashboard load under 2s.

Go-Live Checklist

☐Security audit complete
☐Twilio SMS blast tested end-to-end
☐Sentry live
☐Vercel monitoring configured
☐Custom domain with SSL
☐Privacy policy and TCPA opt-out published
☐5 beta coordinators signed off
☐Rollback plan documented
☐Reddit launch post drafted.

How to build it, step by step

1. Run npx create-next-app roster-relay. 2. Set up Supabase with teams, players, games, rsvps tables. 3. Build roster import via CSV paste using v0 UI component. 4. Wire Twilio SMS blast on game creation event. 5. Build Twilio webhook handler to parse Y/N SMS replies. 6. Build RSVP dashboard with confirmed and pending columns using v0. 7. Add sub-bench auto-ping logic when RSVP flips to declined. 8. Add Stripe $12/month checkout for paid tier. 9. Add Resend email as fallback for players without SMS. 10. Deploy to Vercel and post in r/soccer.

Generated

April 12, 2026

Model

claude-sonnet-4-6

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