Game calculator

What it is

The calculator works out the economics of one game: how much the participants bring in, how much the court rental costs, the costs you choose to include, and what is left at the end.

• Calculates in your browser. The result updates with every change, and the page does not reload.

How to open it

Sports

The calculator supports three sports: Pickleball, Padel and Tennis. You choose the sport in the “Game” card.

When you change the sport, the calculator fills in its own starting values: rental time, court price, participation fee, number of courts, number of participants and game length. The game format, turnout and planning mode stay as they are. Cost amounts do not depend on the sport.

If you clear the sport with the “Clear” button, the values you entered stay, and the result is hidden until you choose a sport again.

Form cards

The form is split into four cards: “Game”, “Courts”, “Participants” and “Costs”.

A large icon on the left of each indicator shows its size at a glance:

• Courts, rental time, invited people and expected turnout change their icon with the value: more courts means more courts in the icon, and the circle for time or turnout fills as the number grows.
• Court rental and participation fee are shown as banknotes with the currency sign. The higher the amount, the more banknotes in the icon.
• Logistics, operator and prize fund have fixed icons.

Game

• Sport — Pickleball, Padel or Tennis.
• Game format — two tiles: “Singles: 2 per court” or “Doubles: 4 per court”.
• Game length — one of three tiles.
  • Pickleball: “To 11”, “To 15”, “To 21” — about 15, 20 and 30 minutes.
  • Padel and Tennis: “Tie-break” — about 10 minutes, played to 7 points, a super tie-break goes to 10; “To 4 games” — about 15 minutes; “To 6 games” — about 25 minutes.

Game length does not affect income or expenses. It is used only in the “Per participant” block.

Courts

• Number of courts — how many courts you rent. It has a field and a slider from 1 to 20.
• Rental time, hours — for example, 1.5 means one and a half hours. Enter it in steps of 0.05 hours. The ”−” and ”+” buttons change the value by 0.5 hours. It has a slider from 0.5 to 6 hours.
• Court rental per hour — the price of one court for one hour. It has a field and a slider.

Participants

• Participants — how many people will play and pay. It has a field and a slider from 1 to 60.
• Plan for no-shows — a switch under the “Invited” field. It is off by default, so all participants are counted as coming. When the switch is on, the field is called “Invited”, the “Expected turnout” field appears (starts at 75%, slider from 0% to 100%), and the result is calculated for the expected participants.
• Participation fee — how much one participant pays. It has a field and a slider.

Costs

• Include costs — a switch, off by default. While it is off, costs are not part of the calculation.
• When the switch is on, three fields appear:
  • Logistics: travel and organization;
  • Operator or game referee salary;
  • Prize fund.
• Enter the ready amount for one game. An empty field counts as zero. These fields have no sliders.
• When the switch is turned on, the fields are filled with starting amounts for the site currency (see “Starting values”).

How to enter numbers

• The ”−” and ”+” buttons change the value by one step. Sliders are available for courts, rental time, participants, turnout, court rental price and participation fee.
• You can type numbers on the keyboard. Regular digits 0–9, Arabic-Indic digits (٠–٩) and Persian digits (۰–۹) are accepted.
• Money and counts are whole numbers without spaces: 1000, not 1 000.
• Percentages allow up to two decimal places, with a dot or a comma: 12,5 or 12.5. You do not need to type the ”%” sign.
• The result is always shown with regular digits 0–9.

Starting values

Starting values depend on the sport and on the site currency. They are guidelines, not market prices: court prices in your city may be different.

For other currencies, the USD values are used without converting the exchange rate.

Starting cost amounts, used when the “Include costs” switch is on. They are the same for every sport:

For other currencies, the USD amounts are used without converting the exchange rate.

What the result shows

The result is shown on the right of the form. On a phone, the profit block is pinned to the top of the screen, so the number stays visible while you change the fields.

• Profit — in large type. It is income minus expenses. Profit can be negative: that is a loss.
• Income — money from participation fees: number of participants multiplied by the participation fee.
• Expenses — the rental of all courts for the whole time (number of courts × hours × court price per hour), plus costs if they are included.
• Logistics, Game operator, Prize fund — separate rows under expenses. A row appears only if its amount is greater than zero.
• Profit share — the part of income that remains as profit. If there is no income, “No income” is shown.

Per participant

• Games played — an approximate number of games, for example ”≈ 8”.
• Rest between games — how many minutes a participant rests between games on average. If there is no rest, “none” is shown.

What could change

This block is collapsed. Open it to see:

• To cover costs — how many participants are needed at the current participation fee, and the minimum participation fee needed at the current number of participants. The calculation includes costs if they are on.
• Recommendations — if the participation fee is below the minimum, the calculator suggests raising it to the required level. The recommendation appears only when the fee does not cover costs, including the costs you added.

If you open this block, it stays open even when a field is temporarily filled in incorrectly.

Input errors

• If a field is filled in incorrectly, the reason and the allowed range appear under it, for example “Enter a value from 0 to 100”.
• Instead of the result on the right, you see “Fix the highlighted fields to see the result”.
• If no sport is chosen, the right side says “Pick a sport to see the result”, and the sport field shows “Choose a sport”.

Calculation example

Pickleball, currency USD, starting values: 2 courts, 2 hours, 8 participants, doubles, “To 11” (about 15 minutes). The “Plan for no-shows” and “Include costs” switches are off. Fee 20 USD, court 40 USD per hour.

Income: 8 participants × 20 USD = 160 USD. Expenses: 2 courts × 2 hours × 40 USD = 160 USD. Profit: 160 − 160 = 0 USD.

The “What could change” block shows:

What the calculator does not include

The calculator counts court rental, participation fees, and the costs you include. It does not include:

• taxes;
• discounts on the fee;
• the platform commission;
• sponsor support;
• equipment: balls, nets and everything else needed for a game;
• any other expenses that have no field in the form.

A game is considered held with any number of participants, starting from one. If there are no participants, the calculator says the game is cancelled.

The rule “all participants pay” with turns holds only while there are no more than 100 invited people per court (a limit of the calculation core). Typical games do not reach this limit.

Frequently asked questions

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