Suggestions please! : Are Backyard or Indoor Batting Cages needed for travel ball?

[ecufpchick]

Coach james- thank you for your reply. To answer your questions:
Tethers are supplied with d-ring attachments built right in to the cages. Typically they are not used, except in large scale events where they may be required to be tethered for liability reasons. Cages weigh about 250 lbs per section so they are incredibly stout.
These are air-sealed, so constant air is not needed.
They come in 20' lengths, so 20', 40', 60', & 80' are the size cages we build. You can use the sections individually for drills or together as full tunnels. No assembly to switch from one use to the other.
Question for you: do you and your teams find that there is sufficient warm up area at the tournaments you play in?
Do you think if you had a need for a portable indoor/outdoor cage that either your sponsors or others would be willing to help fund that purchase for your team, especially if they could put their advertising or company logo on it as a marketing advantage for them?

 

[starsnuffer]

Any TB coach that holds practice at his/her home better retain a lawyer.

-W

 

[Axe]

Is there anyone in Atlanta that rents these cages for tournaments/events?

 

[GunnerShotgun]

- cost: $300=slam dunk (if it works). more than that, would have to weigh the benefits/cost

I agree with this price point. That is the price of two big mouth bow nets.

 

[RichK]

Rich K- thank you for your reply. Let me answer, & then ask you a few direct questions based on your current response:
1. Cost- not even in that ballpark, our wholesale netting alone is much more $$
2. Portability: yes, time: desirable (10-20 min. Depending on cage size)
3. Sturdiness/safety: A+
4. 100% real balls.

"Carnivally" is exactly what we are NOT going for, but based on the structure & history of most inflatable products, we understand that can often be the initial impression. As far as the "field acceptability" we haven't heard those concerns at all actually, what's more the case is fields wanting to provide the space for them because they perhaps don't have permanent cages (or enough of them) at their fields, so these would allow lots of extra contained warm up space.

Now, my re-direct back to you: was $300 your honest evaluation of what you thought the cage would cost? And, when you stated "if it works" ...I think you speak to the perception & reality that consumers are inundated with so many "gimmicks" in the world of sports in general that it s hard to see the value or put your trust in a product that you have only seen, but not actually used? I appreciate you stating to weigh the benefits/costs. Since we almost exclusively build for the HS & Collegiate market, we would not want to produce anything less than a superior backyard product, but if the buyer isn't aware of the quality before buying, that will be a tough sell until the market becomes more familiar with our brand s performance. And if cost is the biggest factor (even if its the easiest, strongest, best cage the customer could have imagined) is it still desirable?

Again, thanks for talking with all of us here about this...nice.

Here's my thinking about $300 price point, and someone else said it too....for pregame warmups (and even for most practices) we have an outlay of about that much for our Bownets. If we counted in our TCB balls, whiffles, etc...we'd probably get to $500 for our hitting warmup/practice "kit". I could see spending between $300 and $500 for a portable, 20 foot tunnel that would let us do real hitting without having to chase balls in those situations.

Now about portability---I don't view 10-20 minutes as "portable" -- either for pregame or practice situations. And if that's 20 minutes to build and 20 minutes to take down even worse. I view portable as less than two minutes up and two minutes down -- ie, a Bownet or similar net.

Next: I am pricing out a backyard hitting cage now. We already have a net we bought to use in an indoor situation, that cost us less than $500 for a 50 foot net. I'm pricing out bracket hardware plus fence posts for also less than $500. So for a permanent backyard net, I see $800-$1000 as a good cost point. You seemed to be quoting $5000 for your cheapest net right now. That's not in our budget under any circumstances I can see.

Good luck. Happy to hear more.

 

[Amy in AZ.]

I carry one Bow Net. I don't carry as much as I used to.

 

[David Carter]

Obviously there is what we want it to cost and what is practical; once people start comparing I would think that around $700 is about right something like this Batting Cages with L-Screen | Cages*Plus is your competition. Says it sets up in 15 minutes. Again you have to weigh what you use it for versus cost and ease of use. We have a league now if we set it up at 5:30 and took it down at 9:00 on practice nights or put it up at 8 in the morning on Saturday and took it down at 5pm it might start to make sense. Basically we get our own batting cage. My biggest concern is puncture; do you just patch it like an air mattress if it gets a hole in it?

 

[ecufpchick]

Axe: Not that I know of. Tournament directors could add value by purchasing these themselves, and setting up at their tourneys as included warm up space before games, but again, I'm sure they would want some guarantee of return on investment for them to deem it an item they want to pursue. I can tell you that I get requests for rentals almost weekly. If I have customers in the area the person calls from , I always forward them to that customer in the event they would want to rent their personal cage when not using it.

 

[ecufpchick]

RichK: thank you again for your thoughts.
I have heard of several customers over the years speak of building their own permanent cage in their backyard, and cost wise, this would certainly be a much more affordable option. The cons would be: you are stuck with it in one location. there is a considerable amount of labor involved initially when building it, and the netting would take a beating unless you disassembled it in the winter months. What you are making clear for me, is that if there are other cheaper options out there for simple hitting/warm up drills, then that will be the preferred option based on set up time and cost. Even if it wasn't as durable, it sounds like coaches are willing to take that risk b/c the cost of replacing isn't that much. Interesting about the portability timeframe. I know practice time is valuable, so if the coach is responsible solely, and again, they don't see a benefit in having a full tunnel instead of a net, you are saying that's a downside. Again, your feedback is valuable, as we don't want to put too much stock into building something for the TB market, if it's not going to be attractive to them (or at least perceived to be valuable to them, which can be the most important factor). Thank you.

 

[ms244]

I don't see any travel team purchasing a $5,000 semi-portable net/cage setup. That is 1/2 the cost of what most of the travel teams spend for the entire year, let alone a single item. While I like the idea, the setup time and especially the cost will keep most from purchasing this design.

Good luck!