Sports Facility Programs for Parents of Young Children

Most of the programming at sports facilities tends to be for school-aged kids, because that age group is typically the most active in sports.

However, as I mentioned in another post about sports facility fitness programs for adults, it’s important to offer diverse programming so your facility stays busy all day and year long.

One group that you may not have considered reaching out to yet: parents of young children.

These parents are more likely to be stay-at-home parents (or, as I like to call them, work-at-home parents) who are looking for opportunities to stay in shape and connect with other adults in a way that incorporates their kids. They’re also available during the day when your biggest customer group is in school.

Stay-at-home parents of school-aged children are also ideal clients, and you may already plenty of them in your customer database. Parents of younger kids, however, likely aren’t in your database yet. If you can get them into the facility for great programs, they’ll also be more likely to bring their kids back for sports when they’re older.

Consider These Ideas

To attract parents of young kids to the facility during school hours, consider these ideas.

Try a class that incorporates strollers. Programs that allow parents to work out with their babies and toddlers in tow have been gaining popularity. You can search for instructors that already specialize in this type of fitness and offer them incentives to host classes at your facility, particularly in the winter months when outdoor locations are aren’t available. We haven’t tried one of these programs at my own facility yet, but I am definitely interested.

Create a soccer program for ages 4-5U and offer simultaneous adult fitness classes. As you can imagine, this arrangement is very convenient for parents with preschool-age kids. Soccer is the easiest and most popular sports option for kids this young in a sports facility setting. If you have any other programming ideas for this age that work well in a general fitness/turf field area, I’d love to hear about them.

Allow parents to buy in bulk or pay monthly. Once you establish these adult classes in conjunction with programs for younger kids, make sure to create several payment options that encourage parents to buy more sessions so that they’re truly committed and see results. Creating a monthly plan that discounts the rate per class is also a great idea. eSoft Planner sports facility software allows you to set up memberships and packages for these classes easily, so call me at (513) 791-4940 for more information on that.