Private Events vs Open Play: Which Makes Pickleball Facilities More Money?

Open play is the backbone of most pickleball facilities. It's consistent, familiar, and keeps the regulars coming back. But when you run the numbers, private events often tell a different story.

Let's break down what actually makes money — and why most facilities are leaving significant revenue on the table.

Revenue Per Court Hour: The Real Comparison

Open play revenue depends on your pricing model — drop-in fees, memberships, or hourly rates. But let's use a realistic example:

• 4 players per court at $15/person drop-in = $60/court/hour
• Or 4 players on memberships averaging $8/visit = $32/court/hour

Now compare that to a private event:

• Corporate team-building: $150-300/hour for court rental, plus instruction
• Birthday party package: $400-800 for a 2-hour block
• Venue buyout: $1,000-2,500 for 3-4 hours depending on size

Even at the lower end, private events generate 2-5x the revenue per court hour compared to open play. At the higher end, it's not even close.

The Predictability Factor

Open play revenue fluctuates. Weather, holidays, competing events, and seasonal patterns all affect who shows up. You staff for expected demand and hope you're right.

Private events are booked in advance. You know exactly how many courts, for how long, and what the revenue will be. That predictability changes everything about how you plan staffing, inventory, and cash flow.

A facility with 30% of revenue from pre-booked events has a fundamentally more stable business than one running 100% open play.

Staff Efficiency

Open play requires constant court management — rotating players, handling walk-ins, managing the queue, addressing skill-level mismatches. It's labor-intensive relative to revenue.

Private events are self-contained. The group manages itself. Staff handles setup, a brief orientation, and periodic check-ins. One instructor or host can manage a corporate event that's generating $500+ while the same staff member might oversee open play generating half that.

Why Most Facilities Under-Invest in Events

If events are so profitable, why don't more facilities focus on them? A few reasons:

1. Open Play Is Comfortable

Most operators came from a playing background. Open play feels natural. Events feel like a different business — one that requires sales, event planning, and corporate outreach skills that feel unfamiliar.

2. Event Inquiries Are Inconsistent

Without active marketing, event inquiries trickle in sporadically. It's hard to build a business around something that feels random. So operators focus on the steady (if lower-margin) open play revenue instead.

3. No Visibility for Event Searches

When someone searches "corporate team building activities [city]" or "birthday party venues near me," most pickleball facilities don't show up. They're invisible to the exact customers who would pay premium rates for private events.

This is a pickleball event marketing problem. The demand exists — facilities just aren't capturing it.

The Right Balance

This isn't about abandoning open play. Your regulars are the foundation of your community and provide baseline revenue. But the math is clear: a strategic shift toward private events can dramatically improve your facility's economics.

Consider this target mix:

• 60-70% open play and memberships — your community base
• 20-30% private events and corporate bookings — your profit driver
• 10% programming — lessons, clinics, leagues that build the pipeline

Facilities hitting these ratios typically see 30-50% higher revenue per square foot than those running pure open play models.

How to Capture More Event Revenue

Growing your event business requires being visible to people actively searching for event venues. That means:

• Dedicated landing pages for corporate events, parties, and group bookings
• Showing up in local search results for event-related queries
• Making it easy for planners to inquire and get pricing
• Building a reputation through reviews and case studies

Most facilities have none of this infrastructure. They mention "private events available" somewhere on their website and wonder why inquiries are sparse.

Facility marketing that specifically targets event demand can transform your revenue mix within months.

The Opportunity

Private events represent the highest-margin, most predictable revenue stream available to pickleball facilities. Yet most operators treat them as an afterthought.

If you're running a facility and events are less than 15-20% of your revenue, you're likely leaving money on the table. The question isn't whether to focus more on events — it's how to capture the event demand that's already out there, searching for venues like yours.

That starts with a growth strategy that makes your facility visible to the right audiences.