I have very vivid dreams, and I remember them very clearly.
Last night I had a dream that I bought a piece of land and had it landscaped and lined off into a football field complete with concession stand, goal posts and a small set of bleachers.
My plan (in the dream) was to “rent” out the field to guys and gals who want to play touch football, and would do so every weekend, each one pitching in a certain amount to pay the rent on the field itself.
Here in Georgia, it’s warm weather about 8 months of the year, and Carroll County (where I live now) is a town of about 110 thousand.
I did a google search on “private footballl fields”, but nothing came up.
I’d like your opinion if such a thing might be possible?
My first thought is that there’s no way that the amount that people are willing to pay is going to approach the costs of maintenance and insurance - full stop (given that you’ll probably be able to rent it out no more than ten-fifteen hours a week because those are the hours that people are willing to play).
You’re going to be missing out on economies of scale (i.e. employing a staff of groundskeepers/maintenance men who can work on multiple ovals owned by a single local government).
It’s probably possible if you want to do it as a labour of love, but it’ll almost certainly cost you money every year.
A team consists of 11 people. That would mean 22 people paying, say $20.00 a head or $440.00 a game. Of course “touch” football is mainly a “pick-up” group and they may not field that many players, so we’d have to set a minimum limit before rental
Each game might last 3 hours max, so what - maybe three games a day (that is, if strict rules are followed and each quarter is 15 minutes in length)? 9 games a weekend for a total of $3960.00
Players would play at their “own risk” (IANAL, so I don’t know if that can be done - do you?)
Concession sales would count as part of the income, and the grounds would be kept up by the owner(s) (Me & my partners)
Maybe it is just a “pipe dream”, I don’t know, but it’s fun to speculate, anyway.
OK, the way we play touch (note - this is in Australia, the ovals are council-owned):
Games are ten minutes each way with a five-minute half-time. They’re scheduled every half-hour.
The council runs lunch-time games from 11:30-2, five days a week. There are after-work games from 6-7:30. They’re run across eight fields.
The games are seven-a-side, each game costs $50/team, which includes paying for a qualified ref. There’s also a $80/season entry fee for administration. Work teams’ fees will usually be paid for by the corp.
The fields are rented on weekends by pub/church-level competitons, who play for longer but pay substantially more. As I understand it, there isn’t this sort of level of organised sport in the U.S.
You’ll need insurance, and not just property insurance. Someone trips on the grass and does a fetlock. Clumsiness or a lousy field? Only a jury knows for sure! If the concession stand burns down, who’s paying to build a new one? What if someone hurts themselves while setting fire to the concession stand?
I’d say that if you wanted to do this, the best way would be to actually organise the competition - set up a league and try to get groups to set up teams. The problem is that you don’t know how much they’ll pay to do it until you’re past the point of no return.
For reference, my ex-footy team is charging A$160/player subs for 14 games a year plus finals (which usually don’t enter into the equation), including ground fees and insurance, buy your shorts/socks additional to that. If the sub goes up, players start falling off at a rate of knots.
I have an aunt that has a full-sized rodeo arena at her house complete with bleachers, stalls, and night lighting. She hosts some decent sized events for a small town although she certainly doesn’t make any money off of it. A rodeo arena probably costs more to maintain than a football field but she is very wealthy and lives for horses.
$440 for a 3-hour rental seems a bit steep, particularly for a field without lights or restrooms, and where the renters can’t sell their own concessions.
See? This is why I post here: “I’m not accomplished at thinking” -Arthur to Geunevere in Camelot. Thanks, kunilou!
$440.00 was only if they fielded a full team.
Again, this would be a private venture. (Think Paint-Ball). No leagues involved.
But why would the players wanna sell their own concessions? They could either bring their own, or the wives and SO’s could come get a drink and hot dog from us…
Lights? Well, maybe later, but I’m thinkin’ that in Southeast Georgia on a weekend, them boahs had better be close-dancin with their honeys to Travis Tritt or Big & Strait, or one of those acts.
In other words, if they wanna play football during the day, the better pay attention to Mama at night!
Why would people pay to play on a privately owned paddock rather than pick up the phone and get permission from the local secondary school? Don’t most schools have footy fields where you live?
Yes they do, DQE, but they aren’t willing to let their fields and lines be trampled every weekend! And they would not allow it in the first place! I have to climb a fence just to jog the oval track, and hope I don’t get caught!
Again (for those of you in the US - no offense meant to our Aussie Friends, PLEASE!), think of it as a Paint-Ball field!
Oddly enough, I told this to my wife and she didn’t believe me. So we put it next on our Netflix and I had to “prove her wrong.” It was indeed “If they build it. HE will come.” Not once was it “they”.
Quasi, on thinking you might have a bit of an issue if you try to do this as a paintball field. You need to get together 22 people, all at the same time and ready to go.
If you wanted to do this sort of thing, league play would be your bread and butter and constant use is where you’d make it pay (and even then, you’ll have more problems than you think keeping a field in good condition all season).
Well, I’m talking to my nephew (an avid footballer) about this, and we’re going to do a little more studying and see what comes up. If nothing, then fine, at least we will have tried.
About the “paint-ball field”. I was just using that as an example. Guys who run those also have insurance, grounds-upkeep, fences, etc.
A few data points from my experience. My coworkers and I played a flag football game just a couple of weeks ago. We spent a bit of time looking around for a field.
We rented a picnic site at one of the Cook County, IL forest preserves. It cost $60 for our site which we thought that was a little high for our purposes. I think it is reasonable for a picnic or other gathering since you get more use out of the amenities (a shelter, picnic tables, dumpsters, and a big open grass area).
Obviously the grass area was not marked, so we had to do that ourselves. And the ground was a little rough for a field.
We didn’t need insurance since we were under 50 people. If we had more people, we would have had to pay for insurance too (with rates that go up as the group size increases). Also, if we were playing as an organized league, they would have required us to get $1 million in insurance.
We had called around to some of the local park districts and the rates and insurance requirements were similar. Their schedules were also busier.
Also, I think 9-on-9 may be more typical for flag football than 11-on-11 (although we played 7-on-7).
I think if you want to launch a sporting venue, you really have to launch a few leagues at the same time.
