How Much Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym Owners Make: $83K-$852K EBITDA
An outdoor ninja warrior gym owner could show about $83K of Year 1 EBITDA and about $852K by Year 5 in this researched planning case Revenue rises from $6475K to $1735M, driven by day passes, punch cards, private events, memberships, merchandise, concessions, and sponsorships That is not guaranteed owner pay, wages, tax advice, or a required distribution The real take-home depends on season length, local pricing, staffing, insurance, land cost, repairs, reserves, and how much cash the owner leaves in the business
Owner income$83K–$852KNet margin13%–49%Revenue for target pay$648K–$1.74MBusiness difficultyHard
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Planning note: This is a researched planning estimate, not guaranteed salary, tax advice, or owner distribution advice.
Want the six income drivers?
1
Membership Base
$150K-$400K
Recurring memberships are the biggest income pool, and every new member lifts cash flow without adding much extra setup.
2
Visit Volume
13.5K-32K
More paid visits and guests raise revenue and spread lease, insurance, and staffing across a larger base.
3
Private Events
$200K-$675K
Parties, camps, and group bookings can swing take-home fast by filling weak hours and weekends.
4
Pricing Power
$35-$50
Small price lifts across day passes, punch cards, and event guests flow straight into margin.
5
Payroll Mix
$342K-$505K
Staffing drives the biggest cost swing, so tight scheduling and a lean owner role protect EBITDA.
6
Fixed Overhead
$117K
Lease, insurance, utilities, and admin set the break-even floor, so reserve discipline matters when traffic softens.
Can you pressure-test owner income in the Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym model?
How much revenue does an outdoor ninja warrior gym need to pay the owner?
If you want the owner paid at an Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym, revenue has to clear payroll, fixed costs, and a cash cushion first. Here’s the quick math: Year 1 revenue of $6,475K supports $83K EBITDA at a 128% margin after $3,425K payroll and $117K fixed expenses. By Year 3, $126M revenue supports $521K EBITDA at a 413% margin, but owner pay still has to leave room for reserves, weather downtime, debt service, and repairs.
Revenue drivers
Memberships raise repeat revenue
Events lift high-margin sales
Class use improves asset spread
Utilization lowers revenue needed
Owner pay guardrails
Keep cash for rain delays
Hold reserves for repairs
Protect debt service first
Pay owner after cushion
How much can an outdoor ninja warrior gym owner pay themselves?
An Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym owner can pay themselves from cash available before tax, debt, and reinvestment, not a fixed guaranteed salary; the staffed model shows EBITDA of $83K in Year 1, $521K in Year 3, and $852K in Year 5, with growth context covered in What Is The Current Growth Trend Of Your Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym?. If the founder replaces the General Manager role, the $80K salary becomes owner labor value, not pure profit.
Owner Pay Range
Year 1: up to $83K EBITDA
Year 3: up to $521K EBITDA
Year 5: up to $852K EBITDA
Pay comes after operating needs
Workload Tradeoff
Replace GM to capture $80K
Coach sessions to lift margin
Host events for extra cash
Cover front desk and maintenance
What is the outdoor ninja warrior gym profit margin?
The profit margin for an Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym is best read as EBITDA margin, not gross sales, and the model moves from 128% in Year 1 to 491% in Year 5 as revenue scales. The startup budget is a separate question, so see What Is The Estimated Startup Cost To Launch Your Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym? for that side of the math. But the margin can get squeezed fast if weather downtime and safety upkeep push costs up.
Margin drivers
$5K monthly land lease
$15K monthly property insurance
$975K total monthly fixed costs
Payroll is a major cost line
Risk to take-home
Safety equipment replacement runs 30% in Year 1
It falls to 25% by Year 5
Weather can cut operating days
Safety upkeep can compress cash fast
Key Takeaways
Memberships rise from $150K to $400K, covering fixed costs.
Utilization grows visits from 13,500 to 32,000, lifting revenue.
Events need trained coaches, deposits, and weather backup plans.
Payroll, insurance, and reserves keep owner income honest.
Scenario objective for outdoor ninja warrior gym income scenarios
Owner income scenarios
Owner take-home changes fast with paid visits, memberships, and staffing load. The low, base, and high cases show how much cash the gym can throw off before tax, debt, reserves, or reinvestment.
Low, base, and high owner income views for planning.
Scenario
Low CaseRamp case
Base CaseModeled case
High CaseUpside case
Launch model
This is the lower earnings path during the opening ramp.
This is the modeled middle path at steady Year 3 volume.
This is the stronger earnings path at mature Year 5 scale.
Typical setup
Year 1 is the ramp case with 13,500 paid visits and guests, $6.475M revenue, $83k EBITDA, $3.425M payroll, and $117k fixed costs.
Year 3 assumes $1.26M revenue, $521k EBITDA, and a blended mix of day passes, punch cards, private events, memberships, merch, concessions, and sponsorships.
Year 5 reaches $1.735M revenue, $852k EBITDA, 32,000 paid visits and guests, and $505k payroll with a larger instructor bench.
Cost drivers
Day pass volume
membership sales
payroll load
fixed overhead
safety and processing costs
Membership income
day pass mix
punch card mix
event sales
staffing efficiency
Higher visit volume
more memberships
larger event mix
payroll scaling
stronger add-on sales
Owner income rangeBefore owner reserves
$83kOpening year
$521kSteady-state year
$852kMature year
Best fit
Use this to stress-test the first operating year and slower-than-planned demand.
Use this as the working plan if traffic, pricing, and labor land near the model.
Use this to test upside if repeat visits and memberships keep growing.
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Planning note: These scenario ranges are researched planning assumptions, not guaranteed earnings, salary promises, tax advice, or distributions.
Outdoor Ninja Warrior Gym Core Six Income Drivers
Active members and membership retention
Membership Retention
Active members and retention are the stabilizer here. Annual membership revenue rises from $150K in Year 1 to $400K in Year 5, or about $12.5K to $33.3K a month. That recurring cash helps cover payroll and fixed costs when weather slows drop-ins, so owner pay depends less on one-off visits and more on keeping members active.
Here’s the quick math: membership revenue = active members × price × retention. The model does not give a source count for active members, so it stays editable. If churn rises, monthly recurring revenue falls fast, and the owner must lean harder on events and day passes to keep cash flow steady.
Track Churn, Not Just Sign-Ups
Measure active members, monthly churn, and class fill rates by program. The best signals are repeat check-ins, youth program enrollment, and how often members use class slots. If retention slips, the business loses predictable cash first, then profit and owner draw.
Count active members weekly.
Track churn by cohort.
Watch off-peak class fill.
Test annual plan renewals.
Compare youth and adult retention.
Use retention targets to schedule coaches and sessions. Higher repeat use raises monthly recurring revenue without adding much new overhead, while weak retention leaves payroll and fixed costs exposed. One clean rule: if members stop showing up, revenue gets fragile fast.
Course utilization and seasonality
Course use and seasonality
Utilization is how often the same obstacle course turns into paid visits and event guests. In this model, total paid traffic grows from 13,500 in Year 1 to 32,000 in Year 5, so the same field can earn more without a matching jump in build cost. Peak demand comes from school breaks, weekends, open-gym sessions, camps, and private rentals.
Seasonality matters because this is an open-air business, so you should model peak months as an editable input, not assume the best month repeats all year. Weather downtime can cut attendance, but many fixed costs still stay due, so weak utilization pulls down monthly cash flow and makes owner pay less stable.
Track peak weeks, not just annual traffic
Build the forecast around open days, weather closure days, paid visits per open day, and event guests per booking. Here’s the quick math: if attendance rises in school-break weeks but drops in rainy months, annual revenue can look fine while monthly cash still gets tight. That’s where owner draws get squeezed.
Watch which slots sell first: weekends, camps, private rentals, and open-gym hours. Then set minimum booking counts, require deposits for rentals, and keep a weather-backup policy. The goal is simple: fill more course hours at good prices without adding fixed labor for empty sessions.
Track revenue per open hour
Split traffic by season
Model weather closures monthly
Price peak slots higher
Birthday party revenue and ninja gym camp revenue
Birthday party and camp booking density
Booking density means how many paid parties, camps, and group bookings you can stack into each open course hour. When weekends fill up, events lift revenue per hour because the obstacle course is already open and the fixed labor is spread across more guests.
Here’s the quick math: 1,500 private event guests at $45 in Year 1 equals $67,500; 4,000 guests at $50 in Year 5 equals $200,000. That top line helps owner pay only if staffing, safety supervision, and weather backup plans keep refunds and overtime from eating the margin.
Control weekend slots and deposits
Track bookings by course hour, not just by day. The owner should know how many trained coaches are needed per party, what deposit is collected, and how many refunds happen when weather or no-shows hit. If parties book faster than coach hiring, revenue can rise while profit falls.
Set coach-to-guest limits.
Require nonrefundable deposits.
Write weather backup rules.
Model party and camp hours separately.
Use those controls to protect cash flow. Strong deposits bring in cash before the event, and clear refund rules stop weekend sales from turning into last-minute holes in the schedule. That matters most when camps and group bookings crowd the same high-demand hours.
Staffing costs and owner-operated ninja gym
Staffing and Owner Labor
Labor is the main controllable cost here, and it also decides how much of the owner’s work stays paid or unpaid. The model’s payroll rises to $505K by Year 5 and includes an $80K General Manager, a $60K Head Obstacle Instructor, plus instructors, front desk, marketing, and maintenance.
If the founder runs sessions or hosts parties, cash flow can improve, but that is still unpaid owner labor unless you book a replacement-manager cost separately. Inputs are session count, party volume, open hours, wage rates, and the share of founder shifts. More bookings can raise revenue, but only if added labor does not outgrow the margin.
Track Labor by Session
Track labor hours per class, party, and weekend block, then split paid staff from founder hours. Price the founder’s time at a salary replacement rate so profit and owner draw are not mixed. That shows whether the schedule is really paying for the team it needs.
Watch payroll as a share of revenue, coach coverage, and weather-driven slack. If demand is soft, use part-time instructors and tighter booking rules; if parties spike, add trained staff before safety or service slips. Owner labor can lift cash flow, but it is not free.
Average revenue per participant and ninja gym pricing
Average revenue per participant
This driver is the average dollar earned per paid visit, punch card use, or private event guest. Because course costs are partly fixed once built, a higher ticket price can flow fast into owner take-home if attendance stays steady.
The model shows visit revenue rising from the stated $4,675K in Year 1 to $125M in Year 5. With 32,000 participants in Year 5, that is about $3,910 per participant; the plan also states about $3,460 in Year 1 before memberships and extras. Local family and competition pricing still decide volume.
Track mix, price, and discount leak
Here’s the quick math: day passes rise from $35 to $40 (+14.3%), punch cards from $30 to $33 (+10%), and private event guests from $45 to $50 (+11.1%). Measure realized revenue per participant by channel, not just posted price, so you can see whether higher pricing is helping cash flow or cutting volume.
Track price by visit type.
Separate family and competition demand.
Test price changes one channel.
If price goes up but attendance falls harder, owner pay shrinks because the fixed course cost still sits there. The best test is simple: compare weekly visits, average ticket, and event mix before and after each price move.
Insurance and maintenance costs with facility cost reserves
Insurance and reserve burden
Insurance and maintenance are hard costs, not leftovers. This model shows fixed costs at $975K monthly, including $5K land lease and $15K property insurance, plus annual fixed costs of $117K before payroll. Safety replacements also run 30% of revenue in Year 1 and 25% by Year 5, so owner take-home falls fast if the facility reserve is underfunded.
Fund the reserve before pay
Track reserve spend as a line item: insurance, routine maintenance, and replacement cash. Build the forecast from monthly revenue, repair timing, and the 30% to 25% replacement load, then compare cash to the $97K minimum in Month 10. If the reserve dips, owner draws should pause until the facility fund is back up.
Monthly sales
Insurance due dates
Repair log
Reserve balance
High-use months wear out surfaces, rigs, and safety gear faster, so the reserve should rise with traffic. The clean rule is simple: pay the owner from cash left after fixed costs and reserves, not from booked revenue alone.
