D1 Training Franchise Cost & Review

D1 Training sells athletic performance coaching — a college-strength-program experience for youth athletes first, adults second — from a Nashville base with deep sports credibility and pro-athlete investors. It is the only brand in our comparison whose core buyer is a parent purchasing training for a child, which puts it in the youth-sports spending wave rather than the gym-membership cycle.

Figures below come from D1's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document. Brands refile every year; the document the franchisor hands you is the one that governs, not this page. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or compensated by D1 Training. See our disclosure policy.

What it costs

Note the local marketing line: $100 a day is $36,500 a year, a fixed obligation larger than most brands' percentage requirements at this revenue level. Add the royalty and brand fund at the disclosed average and the all-in load runs about 14.6% of gross — Orangetheory territory. Also mind the vintage trap: older filings showed an investment floor near $162,000; the current facility spec roughly triples that.

What facilities earn — and what they keep

Thirty-one facilities is a modest sample — treat the averages with the same directional caution we apply at BFT. But D1 does something almost no one else in our comparison does: it discloses an expense-adjusted figure. Only Burn Boot Camp and Hand & Stone offer anything comparable, and D1's version includes the honest low: one facility lost $111,658. A franchisor willing to print a loss in Item 19 has made a real transparency choice.

The revenue-less-expenses average of $275,965 is before debt service, and "disclosed expenses" never means all expenses — read the footnotes for what's excluded. Even so, it lets you sanity-check the margin story most brands make you guess at: roughly 40% of gross survives the disclosed cost lines at the average facility.

The economics of selling to parents

Capital efficiency at the disclosed average and a $706,995 midpoint is 0.96x — just under the line, and the best among the group-training concepts we cover (BFT 0.42x, CycleBar 0.56x, F45 0.80x). The demand base explains it: youth sports spending is famously recession-resistant and schedule-driven — parents commit to seasons, not month-to-month memberships — and semi-private training carries higher per-hour pricing than group classes.

The offsetting risks are demographic concentration (a facility lives on its local youth-sports pipeline and its relationships with coaches and clubs) and labor: credible performance coaches are the product, and they are recruitable by every competitor including local gyms and schools.

Is D1 worth it?

The file supports a qualified yes. A near-1.0x efficiency ratio, a differentiated demand base, honest expense disclosure showing ~$256K median before debt, and a manageable build. The caveats are the 31-facility sample, the heavy fixed local-marketing obligation, and a wide disclosed range whose bottom is a six-figure loss — market selection is doing enormous work in the spread between $261,075 and $1,555,472.

Worth it in a sports-dense suburban market with an operator who can recruit coaching talent and work the local team-and-club ecosystem. Not worth it as an absentee bet or in markets without a deep youth-sports culture — the model has no walk-in traffic fallback.

Who this fits

D1 fits owner-operators with athletic or coaching backgrounds — the brand's credibility transfers best through someone who can stand on the floor — and buyers who want fitness-category economics without dependence on adult membership churn cycles.

It fits poorly for pure investors, thin markets, and anyone who reads the $36,500 annual local marketing requirement as optional; the FDD says it can increase.

Before you sign

Map your market's youth-sports density — clubs, leagues, school programs — before anything else; it is the demand forecast. Call franchisees at both ends of the disclosed range and ask what separated them. Read the Item 19 expense footnotes for what "disclosed expenses" excludes, model the median with full fees and your real rent in the ROI and payback calculator, then work the due diligence checklist and our Item 19 guide.

Sources

• Franchise Chatter — D1 Training franchise review 2026
• SharpSheets — D1 Training franchise FDD, profits & costs
• 1851 Franchise — D1 Training franchise costs, fees, profit and data

Frequently asked questions

How much does a D1 Training franchise cost?

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The 2025 FDD discloses a total initial investment of $480,557 to $933,432, including a $59,500 initial franchise fee. Older filings showed a much lower floor (around $162,000), so check the vintage behind any figure you read — the current facility spec is substantially larger.

How much revenue does a D1 Training facility generate?

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The Item 19 reports average gross revenue of $679,601 and a median of $626,384 across 31 substantially similar franchised facilities open at least a year through 2024, ranging from $261,075 to $1,555,472. Unusually, D1 also discloses revenue less disclosed expenses: an average of $275,965, a median of $256,531, and a low of negative $111,658.

What are D1 Training's ongoing fees?

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A 7% royalty subject to monthly minimums that step up from $1,950 to $2,950 by year three, a brand fund of the greater of $250 per month or 2% of gross sales, and a local marketing requirement of $100 per day — about $36,500 a year, one of the larger fixed local obligations in our comparison.

What is D1 Training's business model?

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Athletic-based training for four audiences — scholastic athletes (roughly ages 7–18), adults, and semi-private/team training — anchored by the brand's college-athletics heritage and pro-athlete co-owners. Youth sports performance is the core, which gives D1 a demand base distinct from general-population fitness concepts.