Running a tennis club is equal parts rewarding and stressful. You get to create a community where people play, compete, and connect, but behind the scenes, the finances can feel like… their own sport.
Membership dues come in waves, major maintenance projects hit all at once, and payroll often involves a mix of tennis pros, seasonal staff, and administrators.
If you have ever sat in a board meeting wondering why the financials look different from the reality you see every day, we hear that exact scenario from tennis clubs all the time.
Many clubs face the same issue, and the root cause is usually simple: Most accountants do not understand how tennis clubs actually operate.
They treat clubs like any other business, which means important details get missed.
The right accountant for a tennis club needs to understand more than just tax forms.
They need to know the rhythms of membership revenue, the reality of court maintenance, and the complexity of staffing a facility that runs year-round but peaks during specific seasons.
Let’s look at the biggest financial challenges tennis clubs face, and what a good accountant should be helping you solve.
Planning for Big Maintenance Costs
Every tennis club eventually has to resurface its courts, replace lights, or upgrade HVAC systems. These are not small projects. A single resurfacing can run $75,000 to $100,000, and lighting upgrades often fall in the same range. The mistake many clubs make is treating these as surprises rather than planned events.
We have seen clubs forced to take out six-figure loans at high interest just to keep the courts in playable condition. That debt lingers for years and puts pressure on membership fees that were never designed to cover emergency financing.
A good accountant will help you build reserves over time so that when the bill comes due, you are ready. Instead of borrowing or scrambling, you can write the check confidently.
Getting Membership Revenue Right
Membership dues are the lifeblood of most tennis clubs. But recording them correctly is trickier than it looks. Many clubs collect dues upfront at the start of the year. On paper, the club looks flush with cash in January, but by late summer, the financials suggest the club is broke, even though members have already paid.
This creates confusion for the board and makes it difficult to plan for projects, payroll, or investments. It also means decisions are being made based on misleading financials.
The fix is proper revenue recognition. An accountant who understands tennis clubs will record dues as they are earned, not just when the payment hits. This way your financial reports reflect reality every month, and the board can make decisions with confidence.
Managing Payroll for Coaches and Staff
Tennis clubs are unique when it comes to staffing. You might have a head tennis pro, a few assistant pros, part-time front desk staff, seasonal help for summer programs, and full-time administrators. Some staff are employees. Others work as contractors. If they are misclassified, the IRS will eventually come calling.
We have seen clubs penalized heavily for treating employees as independent contractors. The fines and back taxes can be devastating.
The right accountant will not only set up payroll correctly but also create systems that make paying staff simple and compliant. That means pros and staff get paid on time, with the right withholdings, and you do not have to worry about surprise letters from the IRS.
Taking Advantage of Overlooked Deductions
Another area where tennis clubs lose money is taxes. Accountants unfamiliar with the industry often miss deductions that are completely legitimate for clubs. Groundskeeping, facility upgrades, tournament hosting costs, and even certain staff travel expenses can often be deducted.
One club we worked with had been paying for major facility improvements personally through a board member. Over three years, they put more than $100,000 into the property that never made it onto the books.
When we stepped in, we corrected the accounting, amended prior tax returns, and secured thousands in refunds. Those savings went right back into improving the club.
Real World Example: Green Valley Tennis Club
Take one of our clients, let’s call them Green Valley Tennis Club. They’re a mid-sized club with about 950 members in the Midwest. The club was well-loved in the community, but behind the scenes the finances were a mess. Annual dues were recorded all at once in January, which made the first quarter look like a boom and the last quarter look like a bust. The board had no idea how much money was actually available throughout the year.
On top of that, payroll for their tennis pros was being misclassified. Some were reported as contractors, others as employees, but there was no clear system. To make matters worse, the club had just resurfaced its courts, funding the project with a $120,000 loan that came with a painful interest rate.
When Green Valley came to us, the first step was cleaning up the books. We restructured the way dues were recorded so financial reports matched reality month by month. Next, we corrected payroll classifications and moved everyone onto a clean system that eliminated compliance risk. Finally, we built a reserve plan for future maintenance so the club would never need to borrow again for resurfacing or lighting projects.
The results spoke for themselves. Within a year, the board had clear monthly reports, payroll ran without issues, and the club was on track to build a healthy reserve. Just as important, we amended their past returns and secured more than $40,000 in tax savings from missed deductions.
Why the Right Accountant Matters
For tennis clubs, accounting is not just about taxes and bookkeeping. It is about making sure members have great courts to play on, that staff are paid fairly and on time, and that the club has the money it needs to thrive long term.
The wrong accountant leaves money on the table and creates stress. The right accountant makes sure your club is financially secure, compliant, and prepared for the future.
What You Can Do Next
If you’re on the board of a tennis club or running one day-to-day, the best thing you can do is start looking closely at how your finances are set up.
Ask questions like:
- Are membership dues being recognized the right way each month?
- Do we have a plan in place for the next big resurfacing or facility upgrade?
- Is payroll clean and compliant, or are we taking risks without realizing it?
- Have we gone back to see if past returns left money on the table?
Even just tackling one of these areas can bring a lot more clarity to your finances and reduce stress for your board or management team.
And if you’re curious how other clubs are handling these same challenges, or you want to see what your numbers look like through the lens of someone who works with tennis clubs every day, we’d be glad to have that conversation.
At The Fitness CPA, we specialize in working with fitness businesses, and tennis clubs are some of our favorite clients.
We know the challenges you face, from seasonal memberships to major maintenance, and we know how to turn those challenges into opportunities.
Get in touch with us today using the form on our Contact page to start the conversation.
We’re always here to help.
Until next time.
Fitness is such a big part of who I am. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle, eating well (mostly paleo), hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, practicing yoga and Crossfit are all important cornerstones of life. But I love ice cream and cookies too much to say no!
I love helping owners make sense of their business and finding ways to grow it. It’s an honor to help you see situations, scenarios and opportunities from all sides so you can make informed decisions.
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