Quick answer: Six numbers run a soccer academy: cost per lead, cost to acquire a member, lifetime value, facility cost per player, coaching cost per player, and profit per location. Each one has a formula, a healthy range, and a specific decision it should drive. If you cannot state all six from memory, you are managing on feel.
Why most academies track the wrong things
Ask an academy owner how the business is doing and you usually hear total players and total revenue. Both are vanity numbers. An academy can add 40 players and make less profit than the year before, because the new players arrived in under-filled sessions that cost a full coach wage and a full pitch rental to run.
The metrics below are decision-grade: each one, when it moves, tells you to do something different. Work through them in order — they build on each other.
1. CPL — cost per lead
Formula: total marketing spend in a period ÷ number of enquiries generated in that period.
Worked example: You spend $600 on local ads and $200 on flyers in a month and receive 40 enquiries. CPL = $800 ÷ 40 = $20.
What good looks like: For local youth soccer, CPL commonly sits between $8 and $35 depending on market density and season. During tryout season it falls; in mid-season it rises.
Decision it drives: Channel allocation. Calculate CPL per channel, not in aggregate. A channel producing leads at $12 and another at $45 should not receive the same budget — unless the expensive channel converts far better, which is why CPL alone is never enough.
2. CAC — cost to acquire a member
Formula: (marketing spend + sales cost) ÷ number of new members enrolled.
Sales cost is real even when nobody is called a salesperson: the coach who runs trial sessions, the admin who answers enquiries, the free session you gave away.
Worked example: $800 marketing plus $400 of staff time on trials and follow-up = $1,200. You enrol 8 new players. CAC = $150.
What good looks like: CAC is only meaningful against LTV. A $150 CAC is excellent if players stay two years and terrible if they stay two months.
Decision it drives: Whether to scale spend. If CAC is comfortably below one third of LTV and you have capacity, spending more is usually the highest-return action available.
3. LTV — lifetime value
Formula (revenue LTV): average monthly fee × average months retained.
Formula (margin LTV, the one to use): (average monthly fee − variable cost per player per month) × average months retained.
Worked example: Fee $120/month. Variable cost per player (coaching share + pitch share + admin) $70. Average retention 14 months. Margin LTV = ($120 − $70) × 14 = $700.
How to find average months retained if you have never measured it: divide 1 by your monthly churn rate. At 6% monthly churn, average retention ≈ 1 ÷ 0.06 ≈ 16.7 months.
What good looks like: Margin LTV at least three times CAC. In the example above, $700 LTV against $150 CAC is a ratio of 4.7:1 — healthy.
Decision it drives: Where to invest effort. Notice that adding two months of retention in this example adds $100 of LTV per player, which is worth more than cutting CAC by a third. Retention work usually beats acquisition work once you pass 100 players.
4. Facility cost per player
Formula: total facility and pitch cost for a site in a month ÷ active players at that site.
Worked example: $4,200 monthly rent across all bookings, 120 active players. Facility cost per player = $35.
What good looks like: As a rule of thumb, keep facility cost under roughly 30% of the monthly fee. At $120 fees, $35 is 29% — right at the edge.
Decision it drives: Scheduling. This number falls when sessions are fuller, not when rent is cheaper. Before renegotiating rent, check session utilisation: a group running at 8 players in a slot built for 16 is doubling this metric on its own.
5. Coaching cost per player
Formula: total coach wages in a month ÷ active players. Better: calculate per session as coach cost for that session ÷ attendees.
Worked example: A session pays two coaches $40 each and has 10 attendees. Coaching cost per attendee = $8. The same session with 18 attendees = $4.44.
What good looks like: Typically 25% to 40% of fee revenue in total. Above 45% and you are effectively subsidising under-filled groups.
Decision it drives: Group sizes and coach ratios. Review your five most expensive sessions per attendee every month and either fill them, merge them, or retire them.
6. Profit per location
Formula: site revenue − (site facility cost + site coaching cost + site marketing cost + allocated admin and overhead).
Allocate overhead honestly. The most common accounting error in multi-site academies is leaving central costs unallocated so every site looks profitable while the business is not.
Decision it drives: Whether to keep, fix, or close a site — and whether you are actually ready for another one. A site below break-even for three consecutive months needs a fix plan with a deadline, not optimism.
Healthy benchmark summary
| Metric | Formula | Healthy range | Decision it drives |
|---|---|---|---|
| CPL | Marketing spend ÷ enquiries | $8–$35 (local youth) | Channel budget split |
| CAC | (Marketing + sales cost) ÷ new members | Under one third of margin LTV | Whether to scale spend |
| Margin LTV | (Fee − variable cost) × months retained | 3× CAC or better | Retention vs acquisition focus |
| Facility cost per player | Site rent ÷ active players | Under ~30% of fee | Session scheduling and utilisation |
| Coaching cost per player | Coach wages ÷ players | 25%–40% of fee revenue | Group sizes and ratios |
| Profit per location | Site revenue − all site costs | Positive by month 9–12 | Keep, fix, close, or expand |
Where to get the inputs
You do not need specialist software to start. A single spreadsheet with four tabs will do: enquiries by source, enrolments and leave dates, session attendance, and monthly costs by site. Enter data on the same day each month. The discipline matters more than the tool — academies that review six numbers monthly outperform those with beautiful dashboards reviewed twice a year.
If you want a structured starting point, our academy business score walks through the same areas and shows where your biggest gap sits.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good LTV to CAC ratio for a soccer academy?
Three to one or better, using margin LTV rather than revenue LTV. Below two to one, growth consumes cash faster than it creates it.
How do I calculate lifetime value if my academy is new?
Use churn as a proxy. Average months retained is approximately 1 ÷ monthly churn rate. With only a few months of data, recalculate every quarter rather than trusting the first estimate.
Should marketing cost include my own time?
Yes, if you want an accurate CAC. Assign yourself a realistic hourly rate. Founder time looks free and is the most expensive input in most small academies.
What counts as a variable cost per player?
Anything that increases when you add a player: coaching hours needed to keep ratios, payment processing fees, kit, insurance per head. Rent is usually fixed in the short term and variable in the long term, which is why it is tracked separately.
How often should I review these numbers?
Monthly for all six, weekly for enquiries and enrolments during recruitment season. Any slower and you find out about a problem a full season after it started.
My CAC is rising every season. Is that normal?
Some rise is normal as you exhaust the easiest local demand. If it rises faster than your fees, respond by improving conversion and retention rather than by adding budget — both lower effective CAC without spending more.