Opening an indoor facility

[Fluid Fastpitch]

Seeing that there are no convenient facilities nearby to me, I'm 90% of the way to convincing myself to open one. I've been giving pitching lessons out of my basement, but I only have 40ft of space there, and I have a couple coach friends that give catching and hitting lessons that would benefit from having a consistent place to teach from. So something of a business plan is developing. Primary use being a place for us to teach from. Secondary would be team rental space. 3rd would be batting cage rental.

I have read through and learned a lot from this thread already https://www.discussfastpitch.com/threads/building-an-indoor-facility-any-suggestions.38276/

Looking at some commercial/industrial warehouse space nearby. Some reasonably priced ones available at 3300 and 4500 sq ft. The 4500 might be large enough for an infield, so that was a great tip I picked out of that thread.

Soliciting any advice on everything from cautionary tales to what your favorite facility does that you love, to flooring suggestions, netting solutions, commercial pitching machines (would like to put in an automated machine lane if the infield thing doesn't pan out). Insurance advice, sample waivers and agreements. Pretty much anything the DFP community has in their vast knowledge.
TIA!

 

[LEsoftballdad]

First thing, good luck in your endeavors.

In the time I was the GM for a softball organization inside of a larger baseball one, I became aware of the pitfalls and costs. I don't know where you're located, but space isn't cheap. We found filling the place up for lessons, rentals, and team practices was very easy from November through March. Once school ball started, it was dead. In the summer was even slower. We needed to make our rent money in those months to keep the doors open in the lean months.

The last thing I'll add is you need to make sure you have proper HVAC. A freezing facility in January is just as bad as a broiling one in July. Not having a properly temperature controlled environment will drive people away.

 

[ANNASDAD]

The last thing I'll add is you need to make sure you have proper HVAC. A freezing facility in January is just as bad as a broiling one in July. Not having a properly temperature controlled environment will drive people away.

Absolutely this!! Ours orgs indoor facility wasn't heated or cooled, of course we didn't need cooling, we were playing tournament ball then. To me heating is the key, we've had Winter practices where the girls all looked like they were smoking cigarettes, on some practice days when it was below freezing I'd go outside to warm up! That place held onto cold temps like a meat packing freezer!

OP, go big or go home, dream big and build yourself a dome that contains a full size field, you can host tournaments in the worst of conditions in both Winter and Summer. Freezing cold, sleet & snow, rain, Spring showers, whatever, you get to set the schedules on your terms. Build it and they will come!

I used to dream of building a indoor full sized domed facility and to be able to host 6 to 8 team Saturday tournaments during the Winter, take my dream and run with it!

 

[_MIA_]

OP, go big or go home, dream big and build yourself a dome that contains a full size field, you can host tournaments in the worst of conditions in both Winter and Summer. Freezing cold, sleet & snow, rain, Spring showers, whatever, you get to set the schedules on your terms. Build it and they will come!

I used to dream of building a indoor full sized domed facility and to be able to host 6 to 8 team Saturday tournaments during the Winter, take my dream and run with it!

 

[Hawk_]

About 15 yrs ago I had the same thoughts, had two partners that I was working with who ran a baseball org with 30 teams (built in customers) and we had the spot picked out, 3 million in investment money ....... then those two guys had a huge falling out. Split the org in half, it was bad. Anyways it all fell apart.... two years later there is a D-bat there and I feel like an idiot every time I take my daughter hitting there

 

[ANNASDAD]

View attachment 26390

Is that you in the background having a proud moment Mr. pattar Dutton?

 

[_MIA_]

Is that you in the background having a proud moment Mr. pattar Dutton?

Lol..I can honestly say I have never actually watched Rudy..

 

[Orange Socks]

I have a friend who was our league President and I coached all 3 of his DD's. He is not really the coach type, he is more of an organizational type of person. He built out the facility very close to the softball fields. 4 hitting lanes. Then built out 4 lanes outside that can be converted to a small infield space. I think he realized that his money maker is the baseball boys not softball. Team rentals when it rains. It was very tough in his first couple of years. I pop in every now and then to catch up.

https://www.hitindoor.com/

 

[Vertigo]

What I like about the facility my kids used was the separate hitting lanes and large open turf area and high ceiling for fielding work. Also great for long toss. A separate pitching area was nice too. They also had gym equipment and weights and had a certified trainer offer classes.

However, you will most likely only be busy on evenings and weekends in the off-season. Summer will probably slow down drastically.

Another thing I did like was our facility offered a VIP program so you could pay “x” amount of money monthly and come use the facility without a reservation. They would keep a cage open just for the VIPs. If multiple VIPs showed up they had a 30-minute cage rule. We never really ran into any issues with it. If a cage was being used we’d go pitch or throw on the turf until it opened up.

They also cut deals with the local HS and Little League teams so a big chunk of their business was facility rentals to them.

 

[NJZoo]

They also cut deals with the local HS and Little League teams so a big chunk of their business was facility rentals to them.

I think this is key. Try to line up clients and get commitments from high use users (schools, baseball/softball organizations, etc.) prior to starting the process. Have contracts ready (if possible) or already in place. Also, if you have the room, try to make it multi use. My daughter's lacrosse team did indoor workouts at a local volleyball facility on hardwood floors because it was the only place local that had the space. Lacrosse, soccer, field hockey, etc. can all be potential clients if you have the room.