American cheerleading has never been bigger.

You have the sort of sideline, rah-rah jumping up and down with pom-poms type of cheerleading.

And then you have the competitive side that you see on screen, like in the movie Bring It On, or the Netflix series cheer.

There are hundreds of cheerleading competitions every year.

And for the championships,

which are broadcast on ESPN, thousands of people descend on a venue at Disney World that was

built specifically for cheerleading. The athleticism, female empowerment, American nostalgia,

and glitzy pageantry have all combined to create a cultural phenomenon.

And for this week's Sunday read, I wanted to look into how the sport of cheerleading has become the business of cheerleading.

What I found is a single company that dominates this world.

Some critics call it a monopoly whose tactics mirror those of Google and Microsoft.

And the level of control that's wielded at the top is extraordinary.

My name is David Gawvey Herbert, and I'm a contributor to the New York Times magazine.

I write a lot about subcultures and business worlds that are dominated by singular figures or firms,

and I try to unravel how those empires came to be.

It turns out that the sprawling and lucrative business of cheerleading is largely controlled by a Memphis-based company called Varsity Spirit.

Varsity has grown over the last 50 years, first through the vision of a former cheerleader

and entrepreneur named Jeff Webb, and then later through infusions of cash from private equity

firms. This summer, KKR, one of the largest private equity firms in the world, bought Varsity and

its affiliate companies for nearly $5 billion.

My story is about the dangerous and expensive world that Varsity has presided over.

I spoke with cheerleaders who had suffered catastrophic injuries and who alleged abuse from coaches.

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