Training hall used 31% of the time: how a cost and schedule audit transformed a sports club's profitability
An audit of operating costs and hall utilization found the club was actually using its space less than a third of the available time, and its lease and insurance terms hadn't been renegotiated in years. Reorganizing the schedule and renegotiating the lease improved profitability without raising membership prices.
Time to first result: 3 months
Context
The club has operated for 12 years, building a locally recognized brand and a loyal member base. The owner, a former competitor and head coach, ran the business by instinct, without a systematic review of costs, class scheduling, or lease terms.
Challenge
Despite a stable member count, the club's operating margin wasn't growing, and the owner had no data to assess where profitability was actually leaking: fixed costs, hall utilization, or membership pricing structure.
What we found
The audit found that the training hall, available about 80 hours a week, was effectively used for only about 25 hours (31% utilization), with practically dead morning hours. At the same time, the lease and insurance terms hadn't been renegotiated in several years, despite the club's scale having grown over that period.
What we proposed
Grevo recommended reorganizing the class schedule, launching additional groups during dead hours and renting out the hall to other coaches outside the club's peak hours. In parallel, Grevo negotiated a longer, more stable lease with the landlord in exchange for a better rate, and updated the club's insurance terms.
Implementation
Schedule changes were rolled out over six weeks, piloting new class times with one group before full rollout. Renegotiating the lease and insurance took another eight weeks, ending with new terms signed before the quarter was out.
Result
Hall utilization rose from 31% to about 40% thanks to the new groups and outside rentals, generating additional revenue with no investment in space. Renegotiating the lease and insurance cut the club's fixed costs by about 9% a year. Combined, the changes improved the club's operating margin by several percentage points without raising membership prices for existing members.
„I was convinced the hall was running at full capacity because someone was training there from morning to night. Only when we actually counted the hours did it show the hall stood empty most of the day, and that was pure cost.”
— Owner, combat sports club
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