Every organization account is built on two layers: Spaces and Teams. A Space is the container for your athletes, staff, and settings. Most orgs only ever need one. A Team sits inside a Space and groups athletes by sport, like "Varsity Boys Soccer." Understanding the two makes registration links, staff permissions, and rosters click into place.
Spaces hold everything
A Space is where your athletes, staff, teams, and registration link actually live. When you sign up, ProductiveRecruit creates one Space for you automatically, and for the vast majority of clubs, high schools, and recruiting agencies, that single Space is all you'll ever use.
Each Space has its own name, sport (or sports), registration link, and Group Code — the code athletes enter to join. It also has its own capacity settings for how many athletes, admins, and teams it can hold, and its own Space Settings, visible only to Super Admins.
Larger organizations (a multi-branch club, a multi-campus school district, or a league with several member programs) can run more than one Space under a single account. If you have access to more than one, a space switcher lets you move between them; switching between Spaces is limited to Super Admins.
Teams group athletes by sport
A Team belongs to exactly one Space and exactly one sport. You can't mix sports on a single team. When you create one, you'll set its Team Name, Sport (locked if your org only works with one sport), and optionally a Coach.
Every team gets its own public roster page with a shareable link and QR code — separate from your registration link, and handy for posting to a team website or sharing with parents. You can also choose how each team's roster sorts: by Jersey Number, Name, Grad Year, Grad Year & Position, or Manual order.
If you turn on Select Team on Signup in Space Settings, athletes registering through your link are prompted to pick their team as part of signup. Otherwise, staff assign athletes to teams after they join. Staff accounts can also be restricted to see only the athletes on their assigned teams. See Staff roles & permissions.
Renaming teams
Team names change: age groups roll over each season, or a governing body renames its divisions entirely, like US Soccer's switch to school-year age groups. You can rename teams right from the Teams list without rebuilding anything.
- One team. Click the pencil next to its name, type the new name, and press Enter.
- Many teams at once. Check the teams you want to change (the checkbox in the header row selects the whole page), then open Bulk actions and choose Rename. Enter the text to find and what to replace it with, like finding
2012and replacing it withU15, and you'll see a preview of every old and new name before anything saves. Matching ignores casing, sou18still finds "U18 Elite". Bulk actions are available to Admins and Super Admins.
Renaming is safe to do any time: team profile links, QR codes, and printed roster brochures all keep working, because they point at the team itself rather than its name.
Use teams as prospect lists, not just rosters
Organization plans include unlimited teams, and every team comes with its own shareable public roster. Put those two together and a "team" becomes the fastest way to hand a college coach exactly the athletes they're asking about, without building anything by hand.
When a coach tells you what they need, make a team for it and send the link:
- 2028 Forwards for the coach recruiting forwards two classes out.
- Uncommitted Seniors for the athletes who need eyes on them right now.
- Summer Showcase Roster to send ahead to every coach attending, so they know who to watch before they arrive.
- Academic Standouts for admissions-driven programs where GPA opens the first door.
Two things worth knowing when you build lists this way. A team is tied to one sport, so a list only ever spans athletes within that sport. And setting a list's roster sort to Grad Year & Position makes it read the way a coach actually scans a roster.
Two ways to get a list in front of coaches
Every team, whether it's a real roster or a prospect list, can go out digitally or on paper:
- Send the link. The team profile is a live page a coach can open without logging in, browse, and filter. Because it's live, a coach who bookmarks it in September sees updated stats and video in March. This is the one to paste into an email or a message to a coach you're already talking to.
- Hand them a printout. The same team prints as a roster brochure with a QR code on every athlete. This is what team managers and parents should have in a folder at games, tournaments, and showcases, so a coach standing on the sideline can take something with them and scan straight through to a player's full profile.
Most organizations end up using both: the link for coaches you contact, the printout for coaches you meet.
Registration links are per Space
Your registration link and Group Code belong to the Space, not the account — if you run multiple Spaces, each has its own link and code, so athletes always land in the right one. Full details on sharing that link and what athletes see when they sign up live in Athlete registration & group codes.
What's next
- Set up who can manage what in Staff roles & permissions
- Get your registration link in front of athletes with Athlete registration & group codes
- Share a roster or prospect list with coaches in Team profiles
- Print one to hand out at an event with Printable rosters & QR codes
- See how Spaces and Teams show up in The admin dashboard