I went with my friends and their son to a batting cage facility in the Bolingbrook area last week to watch their son practice his swing. The facility was very interesting as a business model, here is what I observed:

First off, the place was an open outdoor facility, probably five to six thousand square feet. There were eight batting cages all with different pitch speed from slow pitch softball to 65 mph baseball pitch. Pitching machine were on one side and the cages on the other with nets everywhere to enclose the perimeter. The ground between the cages and the pitch machines was on a grade so that wherever the balls would land they would roll into the machines that would pick up the balls automatically.

It cost $1.25 for one token, which gives you 12 pitches. Each pitch had an interval of 10 seconds. So each cage earns $1.25 every 120 seconds or 2 minutes. That’s $37.5 per hour. If the place had all eight cages occupied for a full 8 hours a day that would generate 37.5 x 8 x 8 = $2,400 a day of revenue. If they are open every day of the year under those conditions, then they would make $876,000 a year.

Of course we do not live in the perfect world. Unfortunately for this business model the Illinois weather will only have it operating for maybe six months out of the year. Your initial capital would of course have to take care of the mortgage or lease, the cost of the pitching, harvesting and coin machines.

If it was me I would have this model in an indoor facility. Also I would add a ‘Heckler Box’ for the faster pitch cages. The Heckler Box would be like a juke box only smaller and for another token, this machine will heckle you out of the field (or cage) and try to distract you just like the fans in the major leagues. Also I would make the place have multiple floors or levels to maximize the square footage.

All in all, the Coin Operated Batting Cage Business Model can be really profitable with almost no need for a human staff. But I’m curious, How would you improve on this business model?