Why are tennis lessons expensive?

There are many factors that determine the cost of a tennis lesson. The most important factor is the location of the court. Court operators set the prices for lessons based on their interpretation of market or submarket demand. This usually means that tennis lessons cost more in places where enough people have free time and surplus money such as wealthy coastal areas and large metros.

The next factor is court management. Most publicly accessible courts are privately managed and employ coaches as independent contractors. The management may set fees for the coaches and split the commission or allow the coaches to charge what they want as long as they pay a court fee. Courts at private clubs typically employ coaches as employees with a salary retainer/ wage. In any case, the operator may take 20-50% of the lesson fee, anywhere from $20 in low rent areas to more than $100 per lesson in affluent submarkets like Manhattan or Beverly Hills.

A significant issue facing tennis as an industry is how unstable business can be. Limited and unreliable working hours, varying court fees and commissions, equipment costs, and frequent cancellations mean that coaches cannot predict what kind of income to expect each week. A conservative estimate might be that 1 out of 8 bookings cancels and goes unfilled. Weather-related cancellations and personal time off will mean that most coaches lose about 8-10 weeks of productivity each year. And since not all hours are prime time, a full-time coach will have to hustle hard to get 25-30 hours per week on court. Given all of this, a living wage as a tennis coach has to net between $50 and $80/hour after an, depending on local cost of living. To earn this hourly, coaches have to offset their expenses and charge more, typically in the range of $75-150 per hour.

As a consumer, paying this amount per hour for a lesson seems high, but there are options for players on a budget. Group lessons and clinics cost less and allow coaches to collect a higher hourly wage. Win-win.

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Independent coaches that work on backyard courts benefit from higher rates in the market. If club coaches receive $120 per hour, independent coaches can ask for slightly less to edge out the competition. They’ll make a higher net wage because they don’t have to share their commission or pay court fees. Moreover, totally privacy is a commodity that can sell itself, especially for new players that want a quiet, judgment free zone to work out in. Wealthy clients with their own courts may also be willing to pay a premium to have a private coach visit them.

But, then again, these coaches have to hustle a lot more to make ends meet. They do not have organizational backing nor can they run multiple courts at once for large clinics. Rather than passively allow an organization to bring them clients, they have to find courts (usually a singular court) and clients through their own marketing and reputation. If they travel, they have to factor that into their rate as well, and they may not be able to take multiple lessons on the same court in the same day.