Indoor Sports Facilities

Indoor Facility Design – More Than Just Your Batting Cages

How to Maximize Space When Designing an Indoor Sports Facility

When planning an indoor sports facility – especially a baseball and softball facility – the biggest concern and most time spent during planning often goes to the batting cages and indoor fields that players will be working on. While this is one of the vital parts of running a successful facility, often times it leads to other areas of the facility being forgotten or overlooked.

At On Deck Sports, our team of indoor facility design experts make sure your whole building gets the attention it needs while ensuring you will have a safe, efficient space to run your business.

Some of the important areas of facilities that are often overlooked include entrances, offices, pro shops, concession stands, weight rooms, walkways and other rooms. All these areas can factor in when maximizing the space in your facility, and we know how to help you plan for them.

“Many of the facilities we see are not built with some of these areas planned out,” Gordon said when asked about planning for these other areas. “They’re there for the training – using every available inch of area for that. We want to make sure the people working in the building have somewhere to go that is away from the cages. Whether it is for a pro shop, a room to break down film in a quiet space or somewhere to keep important files or a storage area to keep their equipment safe – we want to make sure they get that space if they have the room for it.”

One recent example is a baseball facility that we have been working on that was over 48,000 square feet. It had three separate batting cage areas and a full field for the coaches and athletes to work on. They also knew they needed a wide variety of other areas to run a successful facility.

Gordon worked with this facility to properly lay out a plan to maximize the space while still leaving enough room for the training areas. In the picture below, the red box area is a 36-foot wide area that Gordon and the facility owners carved out for a pro shop. This area would have been left as empty space by many new facility owners, but became a new revenue stream within the facility area after careful consultation. This pro shop works well with the existing area that has bathrooms, a storage closet and concession stand that is the same width and immediately next to the pro shop area (circled).

In an adjacent area, there were existing offices (pointed out by red arrows). By placing the pro shop in the same hallway as the check in area, the facility can direct players, parents and coaches past the pro shop as they make their way to the batting cages and field.

In another area of the facility, Gordon made sure to plan for walkways between two of the batting cage areas that would safely allow people to walk past the cages. The red line in the upper portion of the image (below) represents an existing wall that houses the weight room. As has been discussed in other blog posts, many facilities place cages too close to the existing walls and can cause damage. Gordon and the facility owners made sure to leave close to 12 feet of clearance between the edge of the last cage and that existing wall – allowing for coaches and athletes to safely wait outside the cage and keep the cage from hitting the existing wall.

more-than-cages3

Gordon also worked to ensure the safety through the middle walkway, an area that goes between the ends of both batting cage areas. Gordon and the facility owners accounted for the nets movement when they are hit on either side, leaving more than 13 feet for people to safely walk through the area and to the full field. This is an area that could have easily been crowded with batting cages on either side, but we made sure to use our experience in other facilities to create a safe walkway.

“We’re in the business of making sure these owners get the most out of their facility,” Gordon said. “We are going to maximize the training areas and batting cages – but we are also going to make sure that there is a common area that allows for a safe, beneficial space for everyone that isn’t in the cages.”

8 Comments

  • Rick Krider-park supt-churubusco In

    What is the fee for designing an inside baseball-softball pitching-hitting facility. We are in the early stages and from measuring I am going to say 140×65 is the most space we could get for a building. Probably retracting cages, small weight lifting area, carpet, restrooms, small kitchenet etc.

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hi Rick,
      The price of outfitting a facility can vary greatly depending on all the different options. I will forward your message along to one of our indoor facility experts, they will be able to give you a more exact answer. You can also fill out the form at the bottom of this page: http://www.ondecksports.com/indoor-facility-design, and someone will be in contact with you as soon as possible. Please feel free to ask any questions. We look forward to working with you.

  • Matt Tobias

    I am looking into putting an indoor batting cage facility in a building I’m planning and wanted to know what size I should consider, currently I have about 2000-2500 sq ft I’m considering. Would that be possible with a 2-3 cage facility?

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Thank you for reaching out, we would love to help! There are many considerations to think about when trying to plan a facility space, including ceiling height and building layout. We have many experiences sales representatives that can further help you maximize your facility. Please contact us at 800-365-6171 or e-mail us at info@ondecksports.com. We look forward to speaking with you.

  • Ken Babcock

    Looking for some assistance with a layout design of a 10,000 sq ft approx indoor space for an indoor baseball training facility. I can send the schematic drawing of the space.

  • Heather Kirby

    Trying to find a price of transforming an old college gym into a permanent workout and practice facility for the baseball, softball and college teams we have here.

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