Within the last decade, Sport for Development (SfD) scholars have deconstructed the interplay between development discourse, policy, funding, practice, and local agency, with a particular focus on how global and transnational practices shape Global North-South relations (e.g., Darnell, 2012; Hayhurst, 2009; Giulianotti, 2011; Rossi & Jeanes, 2018; Straume, 2019). While this has enhanced our understanding of global and transnational power relationships and inequities, SfD initiatives in the Global North have yet to be deconstructed with the same intensity, rigor, and scope. Narratives of progress and renewal, along with hardship, oppression, and exploitation, unfold in the Global North just as they do in the Global South, with Global North initiatives often configured around a rhetoric of development grounded in neoliberalism rather than neocolonialism (Diedrick & LeDantec, 2017; Hartmann & Kwauk, 2011; Shain, 2003). In this presentation, the complex, dynamic interplay between development discourse, policy, funding, practice, and local agency will be deconstructed as it relates to SfD provision in the United States. There will be a particular focus on how to use place-based accelerators to unlock more sustainable, egalitarian development discourse and practices which promote and advance social justice.