Masters fees

$33/mo for two 90 minute coached practices a week (Friday evening, Sunday afternoon). Coach also writes a third workout weekly to do on your own, should you choose. You do have to be a member of the YMCA where we practice. That's not a deterrent to me, since I'd be a member either way. I do think there are a few people we may be missing, however, who prefer to do their solo swimming at one of the two other facilities in the area (neither of which has a Masters team). For that, we get 4-5 lanes per workout, even though we only have 15 members and a typical turnout of 8-10. It's pretty rare when we have to swim more than two to a lane.

Our team fee is $50/month. That covers Mon-Fri 6:00-7:30am with a USMS certified coach on deck. Occasional coached Saturday morning sessions (depending on the junior team schedule & lane availability) at no additional fee. If you swim outside the scheduled practice times there is a $2.00 use fee. We think it is a pretty good deal.

The masters team I train with inside the 610 Loop in Houston is $60/month and offers twelve 90 minute workouts per week with a USMS certified coach on deck. There is also a punch card option of $120 for 20 swims ($6/workout). The punch card does not expire. In cooler weather, we are in a 7-lane 25 meter outdoor heated pool and have use of all 7 lanes during workout. In warmer weather, we are in an unheated 7-lane 50 meter pool. Lane space varies between 5-7 lanes depending on the time of day as the general membership of the facility also uses the pool. Our expenses for pool rental have increased so there may be an increase in masters fees in 2019. I would suspect the increase will be only $5-10 per month if there is an increase. The team I just began coaching in League City, TX (suburb SE of Houston) is part of a very nice fitness center. There are five 75 minute workouts offered per week with a USMS certified coach on deck. Fitness Center Members: $50/month or $80 for a 10-swim punch card (expires after 4 months) Non-Fitness Center Members: $60/month or $100 for a 10-swim punch card (expires after 4 months) It is a 6-lane 25 meter outdoor heated pool and the master's team is alloted up to 5 lanes. Right now the program is very small and we normally only use 4 lanes. Both teams above have USAS and USMS programs. In both cases, the workout times are different and the masters group never has to share lanes with USAS groups.

Thank you all for the information. I'm gathering it all for our meeting next week. To answer some questions, we are down to 1 lane on Monday and Wednesday mornings and it's LCM. Fridays we get 4 lanes for SCY and generally only have 2 per lane. Mondays and Wednesdays we have a level 5 coach who is also coaching three groups of age groupers (8-13 kids per morning). So we lost a lane and now we are dividing our time with the coach. It used to be just us in the water and we had great attention. We still get good attention but, to me, not enough to warrant a $20 a month increase. In the mornings it is LCM, the team (age group and masters) have 3 lanes and there are 5 lanes of open lap swimming. The lap lanes have a group of about 5 that I swim with on my own on Thursdays. The rest of the lanes have 2-3 people. On SCY days, there are about 20 lanes and plenty of space to swim on our own. I buy the yearly pass to the pool for $320/year. Sadly, we know with only 1 lane, there is no room for expansion and with an increase in our dues from $420 annually to $660, I fear we will never grow. Thank you all for the info. Please keep it coming as I get prepared to present my case.

So here's where we are now: $45 a month/ 3 hours a week offered/ pool fee not included/ age group and masters combined. If you're able to attend all of the workouts and the coaching is good, that rate seems reasonable. However, six masters swimmers in a lane (in yards) could be tough because the ability levels usually vary. The other tricky part about 2-3 workouts per week is that any canceled workouts will drastically change the average practice cost per month. I think it boils down to the attentiveness of the coach and quality of the workouts.

My YMCA team practices MWF, but has 3 different morning options to choose from. It's $45/mo if you only do masters and not the Y membership. My last club in the Dallas area went through pricing changes for masters and there definitely is a point where you lose folks. It was $80/mo with a crappy coach, then we went down to, I think $60/mo and gained some members back after the coach left. There were discussions of bringing it back up, but some of the costs were being absorbed by the kids team until the masters could get back to a point where they'd be viable again. They had 2 different pools with M-F swimming in the morning, 1 pool with Saturday and MTTh evening practices. It was a lot to offer. For that many options, I'd be fine paying $60-70 knowing I could swim any day of the week, basically, if I missed. With only 3 hours/week, $45 seems reasonable, but like GDanner said, one missed workout increases the costs and opportunities. ONe lane for masters isn't going to drive any new business, though. You'll be limited to only 6 people max and even that isn't going to be fun for your swimmers. Time to think of alternatives.

Here is really the issue with it. If your facility has plenty of lane space available to lap swimmers throughout the day and week, and then you have a masters program and members have to circle swim,. then you are not going to keep members. Aside from the value added of having coaching. There are people who want to compete and will do the masters workouts no matter what.. but I know of facilities where they have bigger masters programs just because for a fee they can dedicated lap time in lanes less crowded than other times. But to answer your question.. 25 per month.. free for annual members..

This is great. Thank you.

I haven't swam with our 2x weekly Masters group in a while, but would say that you tend to get what you pay for. Actually, what we have at our facility is better than than that (Masters is free, included in the cost of the monthly membership ~$60-$80 a month for the gym/pool in a wealthy, HCOL area), but it's not great for various reasons. There's only two active members left that I know of.

Here is really the issue with it. If your facility has plenty of lane space available to lap swimmers throughout the day and week, and then you have a masters program and members have to circle swim,. then you are not going to keep members. Aside from the value added of having coaching. There are people who want to compete and will do the masters workouts no matter what.. but I know of facilities where they have bigger masters programs just because for a fee they can dedicated lap time in lanes less crowded than other times. But to answer your question.. 25 per month.. free for annual members.. Yeah my pool is pretty much open for lap swimming all the time minus some lanes for kids lessons, swim team, and water aerobics at peak hours, which is awesome, so it’s an easy choice to make. Also at the times I swim, there’s no issue with having to circle swim as it’s relatively uncrowded. 2 per lane is the max.