Most people don’t get into youth sports for the board meetings. If data analysis and key performance indicators (KPIs) aren’t your bread and butter, don’t worry – you’re not the only one. That said, every mission-minded organization should have measures of success, and picking the right metrics is vital to seeing what’s under the hood of your business. Here’s how to determine the best benchmarks for your club, along with 12 worthy KPIs that can help track growth.

Getting the numbers right vs. getting the right numbers

With payments to collect, expenses to track, facilities to manage, and any list of programs to oversee, club management can already feel like drowning in an ocean of numbers. Plus, it feels like every part of your business can and should be measured at all times. Where do youth sports leaders even begin?

If there’s no plan in place, monitoring the performance of the club vis-à-vis its objectives fades into an afterthought at best. Questions like, “Are registration counts on pace to reach our goals?” may not have a clear answer. This can lead to missed growth opportunities, a program that’s losing money, or even a departure from the club’s original vision.

Fortunately, that doesn’t have to be the case. By selecting KPIs that are attainable, action-oriented, and aligned with the club’s mission, staff can cut out the noise and focus on the metrics that matter most.

Before determining the KPIs your club will focus on, start by zooming out. Perhaps this looks like a conversation with the board of directors or executive staff. What questions about your organization do you want to answer?

Here are some starters to consider:

• How are different age and gender groups performing year over year?
• Are players returning from one season to the next?
• What’s our fastest-growing program?
• What is the financial impact by team, age and gender, including financial aid?
• What are our biggest expenses and how are they trending?
• Overall, how is the club performing from season to season, year over year?

Each of these areas of your organization (and more) can be assigned KPIs, providing insight into how your club is performing over time. There’s no one-size-fits-all formula for youth sports staff, but if the KPI meets all of the following criteria then it’s probably one worth considering.

• Attainable 
• Can this data be reliably accessed and distributed?
• Is the KPI quantitative and specific?

• Action-oriented
• Does this measure something we have direct influence over?
• Are we equipped to improve on this KPI over time?

• Aligned
• Would knowing this information help us better accomplish our goals and ambitions as an organization?
• Is this topic an ongoing priority for our organization? 

If the answer to any of these is “no” for a given metric, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not valuable. It just may not be one of the fundamental building blocks of your performance evaluations or weighed as heavily as others.

Recognizing your distinct priorities, opportunities, and personnel will give you clearer vision to see the right measures of success for your club and its goals.

Even within the same organization, the details will differ from program to program. Take a club with an in-house recreation league for example. If the mission of the rec program is “serving the community by providing accessible opportunities for local youth,” that will dictate what data is being taken and why.

The rec side is likely better suited to focus on membership growth rate or financial aid granted, while the competitive program works to maximize its percentage of fees collected or retention rate. Knowing what goals you’re working toward will help you put strategy into action, and following this do’s and dont’s checklist will help you get started.

Getting down to business and defining your KPIs

Selecting the right performance metrics might sound about as exciting as mowing the grass with a pair of scissors, but doing so is vital to understanding the complexities of your business. (The metrics, not the mowing.) Because whether your organization is a bustling non-profit with a team of directors or a solo venture run by the admin/president/registrar-in-one, it is a business at its core.

To continue serving your players’ best interests and maximize the needed resources to support them, it becomes necessary to operate like an efficient and effective business would.

So, what does “efficient and effective” look like?

Program

1. Program enrollment percentage

• Formula: Number of players registered ÷ number of total spots
• Example: “Our girls rec programs were down 10% this spring. How can we promote more participation this fall?”

2. Active participation rate

• Formula: Active participants in program ÷ total program members in system 
• Example: “Our U12-U14 programs had the highest participation rates in summer camps at 95%.”

3. Membership growth rate

• Formula: ((Current members - previous members) ÷ previous members)
• Example: “Overall, the club has grown by 83% since 2021.”

4. Player retention rate

• Formula: ((Remaining number of players - new number of players) ÷ beginning number of players)
• Example: “We retained 95% of players this year.”

Business

5. Operating expense ratio

• Formula: Total operating expenses ÷ gross revenue
• Example: “Field maintenance costs went up last year, putting our OER at 60%. Do we need to run a fundraiser to help compensate?”

6. Customer lifetime value

• Formula: Average revenue × frequency × length of average lifetime
• Example: $450 per season × 2 seasons per year × 5.5 years  = $4,950 CLV

7. Financial aid

• Formulas: Sum of amount granted, count of families served, or average amount granted
• Example: “We met our goal of surpassing last year’s financial aid total, exceeding $22,500 in funds granted.”

8. Return on Assets

• Formula: Net income ÷ total assets
• Example: $150,000 ÷ $1,000,000 = 15%. “We netted $150,000 this year and our facilities are currently valued at $1,000,000. Should we invest in a new building?”

Experience

9. Player development

• Formula: Average player score at end of season - Average player score at start of season
• Example: “Our players went up by an average of 0.6 points on a 1-5 scale.”

10. Member satisfaction | Net Promoter Score

• Formula: Average satisfaction rating on a 0-10 scale based on likelihood to recommend. (0-6 are detractors, 7-8 are passives, 9-10 are promoters)
• Example: “Our average satisfaction rating among parents dropped to 7.6. Are there areas we need to address?”

11. Staff & volunteer turnover rate

• Formula: Number of staff who left ÷ total number of staff
• Example: “Based on the previous turnover rate, we’ll need to bring in about 20 more coaches for the fall season.”

12. Volunteer Lifetime Value

• Formula: Hourly value of work × hours worked per year × number of years)
• Example: A volunteer mows for 2 hours a week from summer to fall. Valued at $20 per hour, for 26 weeks of the year over 2 years. ($20 × 52 hrs × 2 years = $2,080)

Forming an action plan

In youth sports, there’s a significant focus on player development. (How is Jonny doing this year compared to last year?) Yet, development of the club is just as important, and focusing on metrics that matter will play a role in helping shape your organization into the best version of itself.