— EDITOR'S NOTE

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⚡ THE HIGHLIGHT

Ballers is Bringing the New Age Country Club to Your City

🎙 IN THE POCKET

How I am seeing the field across sports, media, entertainment, wellness, and CPG

Five years into living in New York City across the orbit of a mid-20s male “figuring it out”, I can tell you where the city really feels alive (aside from a Knicks championship) and it’s not at the bar. It’s the 6pm rush at Equinox and the run clubs swallowing the West Side Highway every Saturday morning. It’s the public pickleball and tennis courts where the line is eight games deep by 9am. Don’t get me wrong - the nightlife scene is still buzzing and the lines at The Spaniard can still stretch along the block, but there is a clear cultural shift happening right before our eyes.

Sociologists call it the "third space" - not home, not work, but the spot where community actually happens. For most of the last century that meant the local bar, the church basement, or your buddies’ weekly poker league. Over the past two decades, time spent in person with friends has fallen sharply - from about an hour a day to roughly 20 minutes, by nearly 70% for 15- to 24-year-olds. The Surgeon General didn’t mince words - he called loneliness an epidemic with health risks on par with smoking. And the “have a few drinks with friends” idea is fading on its own: Gallup’s latest reading puts the share of American adults who drink at 54% - the lowest in nearly 90 years of tracking, with the under-35 crowd leading the retreat.

Here’s what I refuse to believe - or support: that people want it this way. Everything I see - in the No Huddle network, in consumer data, on those packed courts - says the demand for real, in-person connection has never been higher. The entrepreneurs and operators in the thick of it agree - people aren’t done gathering, but they may be done with the old ways to gather.

And this is where the K-shaped economy comes in, because the consumer splitting the difference is the most important character in sports business right now. The bottom of the K is cutting subscriptions and trading down at the grocery store. The top of the K is paying up like never before for three specific things: access, wellness, and community.

Don’t take my word for it. Median country club initiation fees jumped from $29,000 to $50,000 in three years with six-figure fees and decade-long waitlists at many top clubs. McKinsey pegs U.S. wellness spending at more than $500 billion a year and growing, with Gen Z and millennials (36% of the adult population) driving over 41% of it. The premium consumer isn’t buying more stuff. They’re buying belonging with a locker room attached.

Let’s follow the thread all the way through:

The rise of social media has also helped boost the impact of an identity through memberships - the kind of thing people want to tell you about, the way a Whoop on the wrist or a Soho House card does. Aside from these ‘premium’ offerings, what does the supply side offer this consumer? Traditionally, a choice between a big-box gym (strictly for utility and a come-one-come-all mission statement), an eatertainment box built around booze and birthday parties, or a country club 40 minutes outside the city with a waitlist older than your kids. (No disrespect to Dave & Buster’s - some of my finest middle-school birthday memories live there…)

The gap is the urban roof that does it all: get a lift in, take the morning call, play a padel match at lunch, hit the cold plunge, and stay for a real dinner with people who have the same mindset. Work, workout, play, eat, connect under one membership with zero commute between them… now that’s a third space built for how people actually want to live today.

Meet Ballers, built by the team behind Equinox Hotels and Fitler Club.

More below. 👇

📺 THE WATCH LIST

A mini investment memo on the stars of tomorrow.

The Company: Ballers

The Business in a tweet: Ballers is the hospitality-driven multi-sport venue for the city. Think a country club’s racquet sports and golf dropped into a 100-year-old power plant — with the food, design, and social energy of a members’ club, open to the public.

The 101:

If you’re interested in learning more, seeing the Ballers investor deck or meeting the team, respond to this email or reach out to [email protected].

📶 THE SIGNAL — NO HUDDLE'S TAKE

What happens when hospitality operators - not sports-specific ones - build a sportainment venue? Well, now we have that answer. As somebody who sees these opportunities quite a bit through the No Huddle network, has lived in NYC for 5 years and has been a member at Equinox and Life Time at various points, I am honored to fit Ballers’ ICP and dive deeper into the business here.

One of the most intriguing aspects to me is how well David, Amanda and the rest of the Ballers team have really built out a brand first. Ballers has come out the gates with a premium product that’s not only a third space, but a membership that is part of identity. It’s a talking point for people - something that members want to tell you about, and show you what they can do. Think of an exclusive country club - or on a more day-to-day level a Whoop. The power of being a part of the “in” group naturally makes you want to tell people about it to create a layer of intrigue and the “you should join” tag.

The early numbers for Ballers say this thesis is landing with nearly a thousand members across both locations in just ~9 months of operation. The revenue bucket diversification matters more than it looks - allowing them to hedge against fads while also being an option for people with all kinds of interests - from the power lifter to the padel pro to the socialite to the WFH employee.

The community angle is vital too. The more a Ballers facility can feel like part of the overall city ecosystem, the more powerful the brand (and business) will become. Hosting the Eagles ring ceremony is early validation of that… now it’s the Patriots’ turn to have one at the Boston location next year.

Membership kills CAC and builds a powerful, n-of-1 data asset. Recurring dues aside, the Ballers member base is first party data on the most valuable, high-performing demo in each city that they roll out. It is the same asset that made Soho House look so strong. It also creates a tight flywheel where partnership opportunities - whether that be CPG brands or sponsors — will come directly to them.

I also like to think thematically here - a lot of newsflow and even company earnings mention the shift in consumer habits. With GLP-1s and a new generation that shies away from bars and alcohol in general, I see enormous upside for 3rd spaces that are wellness-forward like Ballers. As spend rotates from bars toward active social formats, Ballers is perfectly situated as a spot that does both.

The comp set tells you where this can go. Life Time built a public company on the "athletic country club" model in the suburbs; Soho House proved global members’ communities command premium economics (and a $2.7B take-private). Ballers sits at the intersection - Life Time’s sports depth, Soho House’s social gravity, in urban buildings with real character - and nobody else is operating in that exact lane yet.

There’s no denying that this is a capital-intensive business that relies on consumers spending their discretionary income on a premium offering. Every location is a bespoke build-out in expensive urban real estate, and will have its own ramp depending on the rollout, offerings and location itself. The Boston Seaport location is a good mini-run at expansion; Chicago and LA will be the real proof that Ballers is here to stay.

I’m excited to see how Ballers lands and expands. My core investing thesis boils down to believing that the most durable businesses being built right now are rooted in real competition, real community, and real connection. Ballers checks every box, and I can’t wait to check out both the Philly and Beantown locations soon.

If you’re interested in learning more, seeing the Ballers investor deck or meeting the team, respond to this email or reach out to [email protected].

FROM THE ARCHIVE

Revisit Volume 16 on Schoolyard Social. That issue examined the competition layer helping clubs turn racquet sports into repeatable community; Ballers shows what happens when the venue itself becomes the full-stack product — combining play, wellness, hospitality, and belonging under one roof.

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