5 Ways to Create Membership Levels in your Pickleball and Tennis Club

Creating the right membership structure for your pickleball or tennis club is essential to attracting and retaining players. Afterall, not all pickleball and tennis players are the same—so why should your club’s memberships be one-size-fits-all?

With the right membership structure, you can give players the flexibility they want while helping your club increase sign-ups, establish consistent revenue, and appeal to a broader audience.

But how should you structure the different tiers to engage as many potential members as possible… and effectively generate increased income for your club? 

There are 5 key ways to create membership levels for your pickleball and tennis club:

1. By use
2. By time 
3. By age 
4. By skill 
5. Combination of the above

Let’s break each option down so you can decide which one works best for your tennis or pickleball club and your members.

1. Tier membership options based on use

The most common way to create membership levels in your club is to think about how often your players want court access. 

At the lower end of the scale you have your visitors, irregular players who just turn up every so often. They won’t want to pay monthly or annually, but instead will have a higher hourly rate for court reservations. 

Next, you have those semi-regular players who play occasionally. They might be happy to pay a small regular membership fee in return for better value open play and court reservation fees. 

At the top of the scale, you have regular players who play weekly and want priority access to court bookings, tournaments and everything else your club has to offer. They will pay more monthly in return for preferential rates on courts and event fees.

2. Create memberships based on access time

Another popular option for structuring membership levels is to split peak and off-peak access. This is a great way to increase the value of your courts when they’re most in demand, while also encouraging more participation during quieter time periods. 

Use data from a club management system like CourtReserve to see when the most popular times are for court use at your facilities. Look at daytime vs evening use, weekday vs weekend and structure relevant membership levels around key times. 

For example: 

• Off Peak – Play before 3pm weekdays
• Peak – Play any time
• Late night – Play after 8pm weekdays
• Weekends – Play at weekends only

You could even consider seasonal memberships, lowering pricing during winter months and increasing fees during the more popular summer time.

Time-based membership levels attract a wider demographic including retirees, shift workers, and families while increasing court utilization. 

3. Segment membership levels by age

To directly appeal to a wide demographic, create membership levels based on age. This way, you can use different membership types in your marketing to specifically attract key audience types, like under 18s or over 65s. 

Popular options include: 

• Junior 
• Teen
• Adult 
• Senior 

You might also add a family membership option here, with discounts to attract everyone from a single household. The right membership management software can even link multiple memberships together.

Membership levels by age also give you the opportunity to create age-appropriate lessons, competitions and social events.

4. Build membership levels based on skill

If the majority of your players want to play in competitive matches, you may want to consider structuring your memberships based on skill level. 

When skilled players know they’ll have access to the top facilities and similar-level competitors, they’re more likely to sign up. And when beginners know they’ll be matched with other beginners – and don’t need to worry about feeling out of place – they’ll be more eager to try out your tennis or pickleball club. 

Skill-based memberships also let you upsell training sessions, clinics, and one-to-one sessions with pros, run more exciting tournaments, and tailor different club offerings to different groups. 

5. Combine different membership levels with CourtReserve

To give your members maximum choice, reach the widest demographics and deliver value to every player, you might want to combine different membership options. 

You might base your membership levels on court use, but add options for peak and off-peak, family or individual. 

Or you might use CourtReserve’s DUPR integration, to easily match players’ abilities to memberships based on access time. 

The secret to creating successful membership levels is having the right club management software to support you. 

The right software should make it simple to set up and tailor membership tiers to fit your club’s needs. And, it should give you a clear way to track and manage all your different membership types.

Better yet, it should make it easy for new members to explore their options, choose the right fit, and even switch tiers effortlessly when needed.

And that’s exactly what CourtReserve delivers.

Want to see how it can help you create the right membership levels for your club?  Get started with a free trial today!