3 Membership Ideas to Steal (+ Tips for Creating your Own)

When it comes to creating a membership program, there are a few ways to structure your benefits in a way that is valuable for your business. But, where do you begin?

It can be daunting, especially when starting from scratch. Here are 3 sports facility membership ideas that you can steal and tweak to your business and programs, as well as some tips and tricks for building your own membership program from the group up.

Let’s dive in!

Sports Facility Membership Ideas

1. Benefit-Based Tiers

One way to organize your sports facility memberships is through offering membership tiers. Each membership offers a specific set of benefits, giving clients the flexibility to choose how they would like to engage with your business. Typically, as the price of the membership increases, so does the level of access, number of benefits, or level of discounts. There are a few different benefit options – credit based or discount based. Or, you can do a combination of both.

When it comes to creating different membership tiers, we recommend no more than 3-5 different membership options. Not only do more membership options increase the complexity of the business model, but, it can also be paralyzing for potential members to choose the membership that is the best fit for their goals.

Sample Tiered Membership Structure

2. Age-Based Memberships

If you work extensively with a particular age group, you may consider structuring your memberships based on various age ranges and respective offerings. Especially if you have a large population that falls into a particular demographic category, this provides an opportunity for you to package some of your offerings into a membership that is tailored to that group.

For example, if you work primarily with high school athletes, consider offering a High-School Development membership that can give them access to members-only camps or clinics or a discount on training sessions.

Similarly, if you have a lot of college students that come back to train with you, you may consider packaging some benefits into a short-term membership that can give them access to your facility when they are home from school on breaks.

Age-Specific Membership Structure Idea:

Bonus tip: With Upper Hand, you can create “private” or “members only” events, allowing only members of a specific membership to be able to purchase and attend set events. 

3. Commitment-Length Based Memberships

One other way to structure a sports facility membership program is by the length of commitment of the membership. In this example, the membership benefits are often the same across the different options; the only difference is in the price. Essentially, the longer you commit, the more you save.

How does that work? Let’s say you offer a $100 monthly membership. Your clients pay $100 per month for this membership, and you can cancel at any time. But if the client commits up front to keeping their membership for 3 months, then perhaps the price drops to $95 per month. Furthermore, if the client decides to commit to the membership for an entire year, the price could drop to $90 per month for those same benefits.

This membership structure can help encourage longer commitment lengths, thus encouraging people to stick to their goals and consistently train with your business.

Sample Commitment-Length Based Membership Structure:

Tips for Creating your Own Memberships

When it comes to creating a membership program for your sports training facility, it’s important that you keep in mind that these should support your business and contribute to revenue growth. Make your memberships of value, so that your clients will commit to them, but be careful not to devalue your offerings. If you charge $50 for a private lesson, don’t offer a 4 credits towards private lessons in a sports training membership that costs $50 per month.

So, if you are looking to build your own membership program from the ground up, here are a few things to think about:

What kinds of programs do I run?

If your business primarily runs on private lessons, ensure that your memberships are reflective of that. If you exclusively offer camps and clinics, a tiered membership structure may not be the best fit. Instead, you might consider creating an age-group based membership, or a membership that offers discounts on camps and clinics.

What types of benefits would I like to extend?

As we’ve discussed in the above examples, there are a few ways to package the benefits:

• Event Discounts – Offer members a percent discount on a specific type of program, or all of them, from private lessons to camps.
• Session Credits – Give members access to a set number of credits each month to be allocated towards a specific program or offering (for example private or group lessons).
• Retail Discounts – In addition to your traditional offerings, if you operate a pro shop, you can consider providing discounts to purchase gear or equipment.
• Exclusive Event Types – Offer your members access to members-only events and exclusive programs.

For more best practices on building successful memberships, check out our free guide!

How do my clients typically interact with my business?

In addition to thinking about your programs, you should also consider your client behavior to determine how you mix and match your benefits. For example, if your athletes often schedule a weekly private lesson, consider offering 4 credits to be used towards private lessons each month via a membership. Read more best practices about memberships here.

Ready to Implement Sports Facility Memberships at your Business?

At the end of the day, your sports facility memberships should be customized to your business. Using a membership management software like Upper Hand can help you build customizable memberships that fit your business, not the other way around. Sports management software is an extremely valuable tool when it comes to building, organizing, and managing your memberships.

In addition to managing your membership rosters and allocating specific discounts and credits, using a membership management software can also give you powerful insights when it comes to reporting. For example, Upper Hand’s Membership Analytics Report can forecast your recurring revenue months into the future, allowing you to plan for bigger expenses, peaks and lulls in your revenue, and plans for future growth.

If you’re interested in seeing how Upper Hand’s sports facility management software can help you build and scale your membership program, schedule a call with a member of our team!