Midwest & Great Lakes is a market where Zubie Five works to order rather than from a standing roster: a program starts from your target audience, footprint, and budget, and we find and vet the organizations that fit. Zubie Five has an established track record across Arizona, California, and Nevada and is available nationwide.
These are the combined totals of the market pages below, not an additional audience, and they count the cities only, not their suburbs. Each market has its own page with local detail.
| Market | Population | Est. youth participants | State high school participants, 2024-25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chicago, IL | 2.72M | 237K | 328,362 (Illinois) |
| Columbus, OH | 933K | 81.2K | 335,808 (Ohio) |
| Detroit, MI | 646K | 56.2K | 298,246 (Michigan) |
| Indianapolis, IN | 891K | 77.6K | 162,012 (Indiana) |
| Kansas City, MO | 516K | 44.9K | 179,168 (Missouri) |
| Milwaukee, WI | 564K | 49.0K | 186,542 (Wisconsin) |
| Minneapolis, MN | 429K | 37.3K | 232,347 (Minnesota) |
| Omaha, NE | 489K | 42.6K | 82,121 (Nebraska) |
| St. Louis, MO | 280K | 24.3K | 179,168 (Missouri) |
State high school participation is the NFHS count for the whole state (1,804,606 across the 8 states above), where a student in two sports counts twice. Source: NFHS, 2024-25 High School Athletics Participation Survey. A program can include any market in Midwest & Great Lakes, listed or not.
The first findings from each market page, each with its source. Open a market for everything we've found there.
In the Chicago Park District's 2019 annual report, direct enrollment in more than 26,000 programs exceeded 415,000 people, with another 390,000 participants in sports leagues and other recreational activities at Park District facilities (2019, the latest year we have verified).
The Chicago Bears and Chicago Public Schools launched Chicago Public League Girls Flag Football with NFL FLAG and Nike in 2021: 22 teams in the first season, the first girls flag football league at the high school level in Illinois, with a $10,000 Nike grant.
Project Play's Southeast Michigan initiative, which includes Detroit and covers seven counties, reports that the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation has approved over $250 million in grants for youth sports and recreation, parks, and trail systems.
Detroit City FC adds a $1 fee per ticket to support local youth soccer; it sold more than 75,000 tickets across 26 matches in 2022.
The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board registered 806 teams with 10,261 participants in 11 sports for ages 5 to 18 in 2024, according to a local news report.
The Minnesota Vikings pledged $75,000 in May 2022 and partnered with Minneapolis Public Schools to launch a girls flag football program for middle schools, with teams of about 10 girls receiving custom uniforms and equipment donated by Nike and the Vikings. The team's stated long-term goal is a sanctioned varsity sport in Minnesota.
A brand sponsoring a parent's own child's program has an 81% chance of that parent paying attention. Sponsoring youth sports generally — a program with no connection to their family — drops to 61%.
That 20-point gap is the reason we place regionally but sell locally. You get one agreement covering the region, and inside it, placements at the specific programs where your customers' kids actually play.
Source: Priority Partnerships / YouGov Sport, 2026
- We source and vet the organizations in the markets you choose, matched to your target audience and footprint
- Standardized activation menu — the same placement types priced consistently in every market
- Category exclusivity managed across the program, not negotiated org by org
- One agreement, one invoice — not dozens
- One performance report covering the full program, with dated placement photos and counted attendance from every organization
For multi-organization programs, we work directly with the brand, and the organizations in the program are never billed by us. Managed Market Programs are priced as a flat program fee rather than a commission, scoped to your campaign after a conversation about the markets, organizations, and workload involved.
We are never paid by both sides of the same deal. You'll know in writing which arrangement applies before anything is signed.
See how organization-side commissions work →
Tell Us Your Midwest & Great Lakes Footprint
Give us your target audience, your markets, and your budget, and we'll tell you what's available and what it costs. If a single-market placement is a better fit than a regional program, we'll say so.