> Very few sports teams I can think of have publicly traded parents

Sure, but those are also the only kind where buying options to hedge losses makes sense. For privately owned teams, only the owner(s) ha(s|ve) any reason to try to hedge losses. They can buy some kind of "missed the playoffs" insurance, if anyone will sell it. Mostly though it's part of the game and they just deal with.

> On field performance has little to do with financial gains/losses outside of gambling.

Turning sporting outcomes into derivatives doesn't make it "not gambling" just because you say "but muh hedging strategy". On-field performance impacts commercial appeal and revenue. But ultimately hedging is about covering negative financial impacts, not betting on sporting outcomes. I think we're in agreement on this.