Budgets are more often tight than not, and no industry knows that better than the public sector—particularly Parks and Recreation. Even though you’re getting government-set funding, you're often working within rigid budget boundaries, and have to be extremely mindful of how much you spend.
But budgets aren’t getting any bigger. ...Actually, quite the opposite! Parks and recreation pros everywhere are facing tighter budgets that make it much more challenging to support their teams and their communities as a whole. But by generating more revenue, your team will have more to invest in new equipment, programs, tech, outreach strategies, and even more. 
You can also check out the recording of our recent webinar, Maximizing Revenue in your Parks and Recreation Centers. In this webinar, our parks industry insider Steve Arsenault covered 7 strong ways to maximize your revenue:
- Membership options
- Demographic-specific offerings
- Focused marketing tactics
- Upgrade your IT for streamlined service
- Identify lost revenue opportunities
- Overhaul your customer service
- Build your community
Read on to get a debriefed breakdown of these methods, and actionable ways to maximize your revenue.
Membership options
The way our community members interact with recreation facilities has changed. According to NRPA's 2022 Engagement Report, 32% of their survey respondents have visited a park or recreation facility in the last week. But the greatest reason people don’t enjoy their local parks and recreation offerings? 37% say it’s because of a lack of time.
Optimizing your membership offerings to better reflect what your community wants is a great first step. NRPA's Remote Physical Activity Programs For Older Adults talks about how the organization outlined the process and successes 9 communities found in implementing remote programs for older community members to take part in.
Demographic-specific offerings
Right now, parents are watching their spending on their children's recreation. According to the State of Play 2022 report, "the average family paid $883 annually in one child’s primary sport, down 6% from pre-pandemic."
One of the key driving forces for local authorities—and national public bodies operations—is opening access to those areas of the population currently under-represented, to widen access.
If you can increase the offerings of your recreation centers to more community members, not only will you appeal to more members, but you will also up your opportunities to attract more funding and investment.
Want more detail?
You can also check out the recording of our recent webinar:
Maximizing Revenue in your Parks and Recreation Centers »
Focused marketing tactics
When you’re focusing your efforts on marketing to prospects and attracting as many new members as possible, it’s easy to forget that your existing membership base is a valuable source of additional revenue.
It’s far easier—and far more affordable—to retain your current members than it is to bring new ones into your recreation center. Members who already know and trust your brand are primed to buy from you.
Upgrade your IT for streamlined service
Traditional IT setups are expensive. They’re also likely to be outdated and inefficient. Technology has advanced, and the leanest, most successful recreation centers will now rely on more streamlined software and more efficient hardware to manage most of their operations.
Upgrading your IT operations can make a huge difference to your recreation centers. With the right management software, you and your team can manage most of your operations in-house. But where things get complicated or consume your team’s time, consider outsourcing as a cost-effective solution.
Identify lost revenue opportunities
One of the areas you might want to outsource that can bring in more revenue, and save a lot of time, is direct debit collection.
When managed in-house by your recreation center, it can often be time-consuming, costly and extremely inefficient. It eats up resources and doesn’t give you the dividends you want, causing bottlenecks at reception desks and entry points.
Make life easier for both your team and your members by automating payment collection and finding opportunities to have end users pay for processing fees.
Overhaul your customer service
Delivering better customer service isn’t just about a better experience for those who use your facilities. It will help you streamline your operations, identify ways to reduce your costs and provide a better working environment for your team.
A seamless online joining experience will reduce the amount of unnecessary paperwork your team needs to complete. They’ll have more time to engage with customers and provide a better in-person experience.
The more improvements you can make that automate processes or put control in your members’ hands, the better the experience they’ll have. More automated processes also free up more staff.
Build your community
The parks and recreation industry is changing and becoming more involved in overall wellness. In NRPA’s 2022 Engagement Report, the desire to exercise and be physically fit is a key factor for 53% of survey respondents —this is especially true for those who consider themselves already very active (63%).
Recreation centers need to think beyond traditional fitness. A gym, swimming pool and studio space, all aimed at supporting exercise in the local area, won’t be enough.
Identify opportunities to deliver more activities focused on wellbeing, such as mental health support programs, and holistic therapy options.
Want more detail?
You can also check out the recording of our recent webinar:
Maximizing Revenue in your Parks and Recreation Centers »
Your partner in maximizing recreation revenue
Some of the world’s most innovative recreation centers and fitness clubs scale faster by building their organizations up with the help of Xplor Recreation. We offer a robust, intuitive, and integrative solution to the budget challenges faced by recreation providers everywhere.
Simplify your operations with the help of just one all-in-one platform that can handle it all; take advantage of Xplor Recreation’s existing integrations with payment providers, financial systems, automated lighting systems, GIS, access controls, and more for no additional cost.
Want to learn more? Drop us a line and request your demo today.
