Indoor Facility Costs

chrispots · Mar 28, 2018

For the coaches out there who pay for off season indoor facility costs...what do you get?

How long are your practice times?
How much field time?
How much cage time?
How many cages?
Can players hit at the facility separate from the team's designated time? Is there a cost for this? Is this easy to schedule or is the facility so jammed, no extra cage time is available?
Are your paid instructors allowed to come in? Do they pay extra to the facility?

Any insight would be valuable as I'm trying to put together different team packages for my facility.

CP

Gambler Bob · Mar 29, 2018

Prices vary a lot in this area, based on the quality of the facility.

On the low end for a indoor facility we are looking at $100 for 1-1/2 hour practice in a facility with 2 batting tunnel and 70x70 turf with 15 foot tall ceilings. This place is pretty dumpy in terms of cleanliness and low end turf. I personally think this is more bang for the buck but you are certainly going to struggle doing any outfield work. This place is leased by the local baseball and softball travel teams, and that is what they charge the teams to use the facility that are associated with the local travel teams.

On the high end you are looking at $225 per hour for 130x130 turf inside a dome. Plus 25 per hour for a tunnel. High quality turf and very clean facility. This same place offers a 190x90 turf for $225 per hour also.

Generally we urge players to do their private lessons outside of the team practice.

Sparky Guy · Mar 29, 2018

You're going to have sit down and figure out how much it costs you to turn the key in the lock and open the facility door each day, 7/52. The land, building, taxes, insurance, utilities and the hundred other small things you have to pay for. My DD was telling me the guys who opened up the facility where she works out of had made a comment soon after they opened up about having to buy things they never thought of. Like cases of toilet paper, paper towels and soap for the bathrooms.

Some of the things you need to factor in. How big is your facility? Do you have on unobstructed infield? How many tunnels? Pitching machines? Weight room and/or training room? How unique is your facility? Can you give teams something they can't get somewhere else? What is the going rate for tunnels in your area? What is normal in a large urban area may not work for your area. You need to factor in slow times when the teams working outside and playing on the weekends. Will you have instructors giving lessons at your facility? I know the facility where my DD is working is $50 a half hour for the lessons. She gets half. The facility gets the other half. It's in a large urban area and the place it packed every day.

If you give a team a package deal you may be able to discount it slightly and have them pay upfront for the year. Depending on your setup you may be able to include individual cage time depending on the demand. You may be able to make more money from your cages renting them on an individual basis. I would start by renting them individually at first. You can always adjust per the demand. But, if you give them something upfront you can't take it back.

You may want to rent the entire facility out to an organization for a set price and let them schedule how their teams use it. Which is what they did last season where I coached. Your best bet is to rent them the space and let them figure out how to utilize it during their time slots.

Some teams will let private instructors come in and work with their players during a team's time in the facility. Just letting someone show up and use your facilities is something I wouldn't do.

The hardest thing for some people making sure everyone pays. Don't trade dollars.

Good Luck with your endeavor.

_MIA_ · Mar 29, 2018

Not a coach, but DD's travel org. has their own facility and we get charged 45 a month. Up to 3 practices a week (3 in the winter months, they are outside for 2 and inside for 1 when weather is good).There is one turf "field" which is probably 50 ft by 50 ft, which can also be broken down into 4 individual "cages" along with an additional 5 cages (2 short and 3 long). We don't get charged if we want to just show up to hit but it has to be done before 5 pm on the weekdays. On the weekends we can go in whenever we want to hit. The org. has about 15 or so teams 8U-18U so it gets pretty packed, in particular after the new year until teams can get outside (March or so around here). The org also has their own outdoor fields, but DD's team doesn't use them and instead we had to pay an extra (one time fee) of about 40 dollars so it could be fixed up (basically it was all grass so they had to make an infield. I believe outside instructors are allowed into the facility free of charge but we don't use one so I don't know for sure.

chrispots · Mar 29, 2018

Sparky Guy said:
You're going to have sit down and figure out how much it costs you to turn the key in the lock and open the facility door each day, 7/52. The land, building, taxes, insurance, utilities and the hundred other small things you have to pay for. My DD was telling me the guys who opened up the facility where she works out of had made a comment soon after they opened up about having to buy things they never thought of. Like cases of toilet paper, paper towels and soap for the bathrooms.

Some of the things you need to factor in. How big is your facility? Do you have on unobstructed infield? How many tunnels? Pitching machines? Weight room and/or training room? How unique is your facility? Can you give teams something they can't get somewhere else? What is the going rate for tunnels in your area? What is normal in a large urban area may not work for your area. You need to factor in slow times when the teams working outside and playing on the weekends. Will you have instructors giving lessons at your facility? I know the facility where my DD is working is $50 a half hour for the lessons. She gets half. The facility gets the other half. It's in a large urban area and the place it packed every day.

If you give a team a package deal you may be able to discount it slightly and have them pay upfront for the year. Depending on your setup you may be able to include individual cage time depending on the demand. You may be able to make more money from your cages renting them on an individual basis. I would start by renting them individually at first. You can always adjust per the demand. But, if you give them something upfront you can't take it back.

You may want to rent the entire facility out to an organization for a set price and let them schedule how their teams use it. Which is what they did last season where I coached. Your best bet is to rent them the space and let them figure out how to utilize it during their time slots.

Some teams will let private instructors come in and work with their players during a team's time in the facility. Just letting someone show up and use your facilities is something I wouldn't do.

The hardest thing for some people making sure everyone pays. Don't trade dollars.

Good Luck with your endeavor.

All valid points...

I've had the luxury of instructing out of this facility for the past 2 years, so I have seen the ebb and flow...

I can support the overhead alone on my lessons and clinics. I lease...don't own. I also have a solid "day job" that I can supplement things if needed.

Great point on the private instructors...I need to add that into the team contract...

For instructors that come in, I charge 25% the lesson cost. I have one "constant" instructor who pays me a fixed rate per week to give lessons.

My turf is 60x75 with no obstruction and I have 4 cages (really 3 because I have lessons out the wazoo!)

I'm looking to only have 12-14 teams come in so there is plenty of free cage time for players from those teams having the opportunity to come in and work on their own.

CP

Sparky Guy · Mar 30, 2018

chrispots said:
All valid points...

I've had the luxury of instructing out of this facility for the past 2 years, so I have seen the ebb and flow...

I can support the overhead alone on my lessons and clinics. I lease...don't own. I also have a solid "day job" that I can supplement things if needed.

Great point on the private instructors...I need to add that into the team contract...

For instructors that come in, I charge 25% the lesson cost. I have one "constant" instructor who pays me a fixed rate per week to give lessons.

My turf is 60x75 with no obstruction and I have 4 cages (really 3 because I have lessons out the wazoo!)

I'm looking to only have 12-14 teams come in so there is plenty of free cage time for players from those teams having the opportunity to come in and work on their own.

CP

You should not have to supplement the facility with your day job. It's a bottomless pit that can suck you dry financially if you fall into it. Unless you have the financial wherewithal to do so. Make sure you treat it as a business. Otherwise you're embarking on an expensive hobby.

chrispots · Mar 30, 2018

Sparky Guy said:
You should not have to supplement the facility with your day job. It's a bottomless pit that can suck you dry financially if you fall into it. Unless you have the financial wherewithal to do so. Make sure you treat it as a business. Otherwise you're embarking on an expensive hobby.

I'm being snarky here...

Isn't travel sport "anything" an expensive hobby?

Thanks for the input...CP

bmakj · Apr 2, 2018

chrispots said:
I'm being snarky here...

Isn't travel sport "anything" an expensive hobby?

Thanks for the input...CP

I am confused, are you looking at running the facility mainly to help out a team/organization you are involved in? Or to open/run a facility for the general public?

chrispots · Apr 4, 2018

bmakj said:
I am confused, are you looking at running the facility mainly to help out a team/organization you are involved in? Or to open/run a facility for the general public?

I took over a facility that was in bad disrepair back in October. I've been giving lessons there for the past couple of years.

I replaced all the cages, updated one of the pitching machines, bought new softballs, etc. I am keeping the place "alive" just with my lesson business alone. I was looking for input as to what people thought were fair costs for me to rent out to teams for next fall. Some pics of my place are up at WNYFPA.com

I'm developing ideas for a couple of different packages...

i.e. 90 minutes of fielding\90 minutes of cages time (3 cages) for 12 months plus players who are part of these teams can come in on their own time to use the cages for $4K\ team for a 10 month period of time or for teams that have cages, offering 2 hours a week fielding time from October to May (28 weeks) for $2,500.

I was looking for some input as to what they would like to see for facility rental and what they thought was a fair price. Mind you, I'm in the Buffalo, NY area so our "outside season" can be as short as 4-5 months because of the weather.

CP

Indoor Facility Costs

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