players indoor sport naperville, illinois

PLAYERS INDOOR
NAPERVILLE, ILLINOIS
RESOURCEFULNESS CONQUERS ALL
S
ome operators have dreamed of opening their own
facility ever since they first stepped on the field of an
indoor sports center. For others, the initiative comes more
gradually and thoughtfully after research and planning.
Maxine Appenbrink, owner and operator of Players
Indoor Sports Center in Naperville, Illinois, never
played soccer. Although she has plenty of business
experience, Maxine never intended to open an indoor sports
facility until...well, until she opened one.
“We just kind of fell into it,” she says. She began, like
most of us do when we want information on something, by
searching online. Her daughter was an avid lacrosse player,
and her team had no place to play. Maxine’s research led
to her discovery of indoor sports facilities in the area and
USIndoor’s Facility Operators Conference. Maxine attended
the Startup Track at the conference and met Jim Cline,
a member of USIndoor’s team of professional consultants.
This was in 2005.
Maxine remembers Jim teasing her: “You’re going to love
this business. It’s a bunch of hours and very little money.”
At the time, Maxine was retired and had been for
several years. She and her husband had operated a few
businesses, the most recent of which was a temporary
service for technicians, such as engineers, designers,
architects and drafters. In the 80s and 90s, Naperville
grew considerably. Research and technology contributed
significantly to that growth. Hence, the Appenbrinks’
business fared very well. “We had five offices. We ran
about 6,000 W-2s every year. It was a nice, big company.
We sold it in April of 2001 at the top of the market.”
Their kids were in middle school and high school then, so
it was a great time to be retired. Though their son was
a diver and their daughter played lacrosse, they didn’t
consider themselves to be a sports family.
“This is the last thing we should be doing,” says Maxine.
“We are not a sports family. I’m not your typical fit person.”
However, in 2005, Maxine accidentally began her career
as an indoor sports facility operator. She jokingly recalls
thinking: “Let’s throw all our money into this insane idea!”
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Players Indoor Sports Center opened in May 2008, later than
anticipated. “It couldn’t have been worse–unless we had opened
in April. We sat for months.”
The sense of accomplishment the Appenbrinks experienced by
selling their previous business at the top of the market was
replaced by the uncertainty of opening a business during an
economic downturn.
Also, because Players Indoor opened in the spring, everyone was
already playing somewhere else.
Naperville is a western suburb of Chicago. The Chicago
Metropolitan Area, as expansive and populous as it is, contains
lots of indoor facilities. While not every facility there faces stiff
competition, Players Indoor is situated within ten miles of six
facilities and twenty miles of twenty.
Between the time the Appenbrinks began discussing the
possibility of opening an indoor sports facility and Players Indoor
Sports opened, at least two more facilities had cropped up. After
Players Indoor Sports opened, at least three others opened as
SPORTS CENTER
well. The Park District, with whom Players Indoor Sports has
maintained a successful business relationship, is planning to
build even more facilities for indoor sports and activities
throughout Naperville.
What makes someone want to open a facility in the middle of
more than twenty facilities? How does Players Indoor compete?
One thing Maxine knew about the people of Naperville is that they
like to stay in Naperville. Therefore, she wasn’t so concerned with
facilities that weren’t so close.
“The closest one to me was on the south side and probably six
miles away. It was jammed full, not open in the summer–just
a building with fields in it. They didn’t have party rooms and
concessions and a pro shop and a bar and all these other things
that we’ve put in. I didn’t really feel like it was a big deal.”
Incidentally, Maxine had made an offer on that building before
building Players Indoor Sports. She maintains a good relationship
with the owners of that facility, which does well.
Another nearby facility was, according to Maxine, small with awful
bathrooms. She wasn’t worried about competing with it either.
The third closest facility was a dome with one full-size field.
That facility was at capacity. It was also old and dingy, and the
field was in terrible shape. She knew she could do better.
Perhaps sitting empty that spring encouraged Maxine to do what
successful operators know they must–pursue business that has
little to do with indoor sports, especially soccer. “We depend on
everything else–ultimate Frisbee, lacrosse, rugby, home shows,
dog shows. We host probably eight dog shows a year.” Players
Indoor Sports has also hosted Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights,
although they are not very popular with the Naperville community.
The facility focuses a lot of energy on corporate and team building
events.
That fall, when Players Indoor had been open only a few months
and all the local soccer players had committed to other facilities,
Maxine contacted someone she knew at the Naperville Park
District whom she had worked with in the past. She knew he had
3,500 kids who played soccer, so she asked whether he would
be interested in leasing her fields on Saturdays. “Within a threeweek period, he filled the place. That was a godsend. We don’t
run our own leagues; he comes in and runs them. I make the
same amount of money as if I did run them.”
Since then, Players Indoor Sports Center, like many indoor sports
facilities, has figured out how to do well from November through
the end of February, but the rest of the year is tough. Its success
depends upon some fundamentals of the indoor sports business
that, if Maxine had not been able to figure out on her own, Jim
Cline would have been happy to teach her.
“He’s really kept us on the don’t-get-too-crazy path. This business
is about the basics, just like any good business is. If you’re doing
the basics, you’ll be fine, and then you can give yourself some
room to try other things.”
Cleanliness and customer service are key. “This place is always
spotless,” says Maxine, “It has to be.” Mothers of young children
who participate in programs such as Superhero Sports are
already concerned about germs they can’t see; therefore, visible
dirt is unacceptable. Cleanliness is an easy way to remain ahead
of the competition.
Of course, the staff at Players Indoor Sports greets all its
customers and knows many of them by name.
Also, Maxine keeps expenses down. It is important to have a
budget and stick to it. Easy ways to do this are shopping around
for products and supplies and managing the payroll. Little things
like turning off the lights when they are not in use really do create
savings.
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ENERGY-EFFICIENT LIGHTING
Recently, Players Indoor Sports Center has invested in new
lighting that has already resulted in significant savings.
Maxine received a letter from the city that the facility’s electric
bill, which was already very high, would increase. She had already
been contemplating replacing her current lighting system with
energy-saving LEDs.
“For five years, we’ve had people coming in. When we were
building, the lights were not available.”
New lights would, of course, be a huge investment–somewhere
in the neighborhood of $100,000. Maxine wasn’t sure whether
the facility was ready for such an investment. After learning the
electric bill would increase by a full 25%, however, she decided
the investment was necessary.
The facility contacted 10 different companies–most of them
electricians that could get LEDs–and obtained several estimates,
which varied widely. “The cost was all over the map,” says
Maxine. For a job that, in the end, totaled $120,000 and included
the parking lot lights, the facility received quotes for $200,000,
as well as quotes that estimated the lights themselves at
$60,000 and installation at $70,000. The estimates from
electricians getting their lights off-the-shelf represented a high
installation cost.
Players Indoor Sports went with Cireon, now a USIndoor member,
which custom built lights for the facility. The company also helped
finance the project.
“Of my $120,000, only $10,000 was installation. They weren’t
tough to install. Literally, it was take one out, put one in; take
one out, put one in.”
Representatives from Cireon brought test lights for the facility’s
small field. They adjusted the spread of the lights, made sure
they were strong enough and bright enough.
“They were trying to use the same connections instead of adding
a whole new row of electric. If this were a new building, they
would have the lights closer together, but when we built this
building, the city said we could only use a certain amount of
electricity. The metal halides drew so much, we had them placed
far apart; it wasn’t great to start with.”
Because the fields at Players Indoor Sports are covered by nets,
other adjustments needed to be made.
According to Maxine, when facility operators are looking at
LED lighting systems, they need to be careful. They need to
investigate whether the lights need to be customized. If the lights
shine through a net, they need to be far enough away for safety,
yet close enough to the field to prevent dark spots. “They don’t
shine in big, cone-shaped circles like the metal halides do. These
come down in kind of a square, and if they’re not placed just right,
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or the light fixture isn’t spread just right, it can be a problem–
unless you can spend a lot of money and just put in twice as many
as you had.”
When the lighting looked good and felt good, the facility invited
young soccer players and their coaches to play on the small field
under the new lights. According to Maxine, if the kids liked the
look and feel of them, she knew they were good.
Not all the lighting in the facility is perfect yet, but Cireon has
continued to make adjustments, which is one of the reasons
Maxine has enjoyed working with the company.
“Everything they said was going to happen actually happened.
In my world, that is a rare thing. When someone says, ‘These
air fresheners for your bathrooms are going to be great,’ you
know that they’re not. You know that there’s going to be a
problem, and you’re going to have to work it a little bit,
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but that’s okay, because you know what’s coming.”
She is also happy with their 150,000-hour guarantee. “When that
runs out,” she says, “I won’t be around.”
Mostly, though, she is thrilled with the 55% savings she has
already seen on her electric bill.
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CRITICAL HIRES
Though she jokes around about why in the world she is in this
business, the truth is Maxine Appenbrink loves her job. 10,000
people come through the facility every week, and they are rarely
in a bad mood. Kids who have been at Players Indoor Sports for
six seasons still shove their faces up against the window of her
office to say hello. The facility works closely with the Park District
and Chamber of Commerce, and was voted Best Small Business
last year.
In the beginning, however, it was rough, and a big reason was,
ironically, some bad staffing decisions.
Maxine entered the sports community of Naperville as a lacrosse
mom. In the Midwest, the sport has grown remarkably, and
Maxine was a part of it. She knew parents and coaches and
players, and she had observed that lacrosse players weren’t
taken care of as well as soccer players were. When she opened
Players Indoor Sports Center, she wanted to take care
of the football players and baseball players and rugby players
and ultimate Frisbee players–of all the players who, like lacrosse
players, did not necessarily have someone looking out for their
best interest. She set out to do just that, and she hired three
people from the lacrosse community to help her, which ended up
being a big mistake.
“I was looking to do something with all these other sports and all
these other activities and still have soccer. I hired three lacrosse
guys. One of them was supposed to be a general manager and,
well, manage. One was supposed to be in charge of lacrosse.
The other was supposed to run all the other programs. A year
and a half into it, I realized the three of them were doing nothing
but lacrosse. I lost dog shows because my general manager
was very rude. I lost soccer groups because nobody was
paying attention to them. I had no adult soccer leagues–I had,
like, four teams. And it was because these guys were doing
nothing but lacrosse.”
Maxine had been talking to people about programs and special
events, but no one had contacted any of her leads.
She told the guys she hired that things were not working out
and offered to sell them the lacrosse business. “You can still play
here, you can still be the best of the best lacrosse guys, but I
can’t do this anymore with the rest of the business suffering,”
she recalls telling them.
Instead of buying the lacrosse business, however, they
downloaded her 16,000 contacts and went and did their own
thing. They now operate a facility two miles away.
“It was a tough year after that because of the way they did it, but,
suddenly, I had every other lacrosse group in the world coming to
me saying, ‘Well, they’re out now. Can we come in?’ We had to be
real careful how we rebuilt from there.”
Players Indoor Sports did not have a GM after that, because
Maxine realized she did not need one. She hired a few different
program people, mostly recent college graduates, whom she
knew would not last long–who were having a hard time finding a
job and thought an indoor sports facility would be a fun place to
work (until they realized they had to work nights and every single
weekend).
Then she took a big risk and hired her daughter, whom she knew
was a great candidate for the job because of her experience
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in programming and marketing and because of her lacrosse
background. At the same time, Maxine also knew working with
her daughter would be tough. “Think about it,” she says. “You
love your mother, but would you want to work with her?”
What Maxine could not have predicted, however, is that her
daughter’s boyfriend, who became her fiancee shortly after she
was hired and is now her husband, would become Maxine’s righthand man. She originally hired him as a closer. “He is amazing!”
Maxine says. He’s a former rugby player and, according to
Maxine, very sharp. He’s been at the facility for three years.
The other manager is a former Marine who, Maxine says, runs
the place like an embassy guard. She also has a part-time
bookkeeper and a part-time administrator. Maxine is thrilled
with the current staff.
SPECIAL EVENTS
The irony of all ironies regarding the indoor sports business is,
of course, that your success depends upon what you can do
besides indoor sports. Luckily, Maxine figured this out early.
“Special events have competition on rates, and I know I’m the
most expensive one in the suburbs, but our fields are a little
bigger. We didn’t do the standard 80 x 180; we did 100 x 200
because that’s the size of indoor lacrosse, football, baseball and
cricket.” (Naperville has 500 cricket teams!)
The fields are surrounded by glass, and once organizations realize
that the glass can be taken out, they see many opportunities. For
example, Players Indoor Sports is a great place for a home show.
The demographics of Naperville are perfect for one as well.
“Red Robin had their trainers in here–140 of them–and we did
this big Survivor Day. We can do anything because it’s just a big
space.”
How do you do your homework to get special events like that at
your facility? Maxine’s response: “Oh, man, you just gotta keep
talking to everybody. Just keep talking to everybody.”
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