Is travel ball worth it? Wrong question.

28 Wishes sells ice cream in Los Angeles. Below 70°F, sales fall about 20%. The weather is out of their hands. Rent isn't.

So the owners started putting about $20 a day into Kalshi weather markets, taking the cold side. The days that keep customers away now pay something back.

This is hedging. Big companies have done it for decades, buying protection against bad weather, fuel spikes and rising rates. It used to take a broker, a trading desk, and an order size no corner shop could meet.

Kalshi opens it up. Contracts on weather, fuel prices, inflation, tariffs and regulation, starting at a few dollars. Take a position on the outcome that would hurt you. If it hits, the payout softens it. If it doesn't, the contract expires and the good month was the point.

See how other owners are doing it at Kalshi.com/hedging

If you're new here, let me introduce myself. And if you're not new here, why haven't you sent this to your friends who need to know more about youth sports yet?

I'm Doug Freeman. I grew up in Lakeland, Florida. Played junior college ball, then D2, then independent professional baseball. Coached at the junior college level. Started Prep Baseball Florida, then started Groupbook to service hotels and tech partners in group travel. Sold both.

So I've had quite a ride. In my Free Time, I share my insights on youth sports, what you should actually expect, plus business, AI, acquisitions, some culture, and really whatever I think is important or relevant. I'll have some initiatives I want to push, but mostly I want to talk about what's important today, in an ever-changing landscape, from my perspective.

What are the best memories of your life?

Experiences. That's the answer, every time. Nobody's top five memories are things they bought.

So when people ask me if travel ball is worth it, they're asking the wrong question. They're usually asking about recruiting ROI, will this get my kid a scholarship, was the money worth the outcome. That's one lens, and it's the narrowest one there is.

Here's what I know from all four seats, player, coach, operator, and now watching it as a dad. The right travel tournaments, regardless of talent level, create lifelong experiences that rival anything else in your life. The bus rides, the walk-offs, the shitty hotels you still laugh about ten years later. That stuff doesn't show up in a recruiting spreadsheet.

Whether the travel and the year-after-year expense is worth it comes down to two things: honest feedback on where your kid actually is skill-wise, and being clear about the goal. Trying for college? That's one math. Building grit and teamwork? Different math. Bigger network, better social skills, learning to compete? All legitimate. Just know which game you're playing.

The people who only look at it through recruiting are eliminating most of the value before they even start.

You have probably heard about the House settlement. Schools can pay players now. That is the headline everybody got. The part that matters to your family is quieter. Scholarship limits are gone at the big schools, replaced by roster limits. Baseball rosters are capped at 34. Total. Walk-ons count against that number, which means the preferred walk-on offer your neighbor is bragging about is a coach being nice, not a spot.

Across Division I, there are roughly 4,700 fewer roster spots than there were two years ago. Recruiting also moved earlier, because coaches cannot afford to wait and see who develops.

Here is what that means for the math in the letter above. The D1 dream did not die. It got narrower and it got earlier. But most kids who play college ball were never going to D1 anyway. Division II baseball splits 9 scholarships across a whole roster. Division III offers no athletic money at all, and most of those kids still get aid of some kind. I have said this before: it is easier than ever for D2 and D3 coaches to see your kid at the right events. That is where the exposure money actually pays

And when I sat in the recruiting chair, I was not looking for the biggest 15-year-old. I was looking for projectability, a body and an athlete who would keep getting better. After the talent bar, character decided it. That has not changed. What changed is how many chairs there are when the music stops. Spend like you know which game you are playing.

Private equity is not slowing down. GTCR reportedly bought LiveBarn, the hockey streaming company, for $400 million, days after launching a whole youth sports platform. The plumbing of youth sports is now a Wall Street asset class.

The average family spends $1,016 a year on one kid's primary sport, up 46% in five years (Aspen Institute). Add it up across the country and families are north of $40 billion a year.

High school sports participation just hit a record 8.26 million athletes. Whatever you hear about kids quitting, the top of the funnel has never been bigger.

America is the outlier on who pays. Peer countries spend about 2.5 times more public money per person on sports than we do. Here, the bill lands on parents. That is you/

The wine cellar under my stairs is three feet wide and somehow still a whole construction project. The fun part is not the cellar. It is that AI is coordinating the entire build and handling every negotiation. I do not pay first price for anything, and now I do not even have to haggle myself.

A robot is building my wine cellar. I just hold the level. #hagglingatscale

- Doug

P.S. Know a parent doing this math right now? Forward this.

Own a sports company, or any company, really? I've exited two of my own, and I'm actively helping owners raise money privately or sell. If that's a conversation you want to have, book a call. Parent in the middle of the youth sports ride who wants one-on-one guidance? Book here.