Should I open or buy a Get Air trampoline park franchise in 2027?

Open a new park versus buy an existing one

The single biggest decision is not "Get Air or Sky Zone" — it is whether you build from dirt or take over a park someone else already built. These two paths have almost nothing in common operationally, and most first-time franchise buyers underestimate how different they are.

Opening new means you sign a franchise agreement, get a territory, and then spend six to fourteen months finding 20,000–40,000 square feet of clear-span warehouse with adequate ceiling height (trampoline courts and ninja/climbing attractions typically want 18–22 feet clear, and a low bar-joist ceiling can disqualify an otherwise perfect box). You negotiate a lease, run permitting through a municipality that may never have permitted a trampoline park before, hire a general contractor, install courts, hire and train 15–25 staff from scratch, and open into a market that has never heard of you. Your entire investment goes out the door before the first dollar of revenue comes in. Total capital lands in the $1,000,000–$3,000,000 range: franchise fee around $40,000–$60,000, leasehold and buildout $300,000–$1,100,000, trampoline courts and attractions $350,000–$900,000, POS and waiver technology $30,000–$120,000, launch marketing $30,000–$120,000, insurance and permits $25,000–$90,000, training and travel $8,000–$25,000, and working capital of $100,000–$300,000 to survive the first three to six months.

The upside of opening new is that you pick the site, the attraction mix, and the buildout quality. You do not inherit a bad lease, worn foam, a poor safety record that follows you into insurance underwriting, or a local reputation earned by a previous operator's understaffed weekends. In a genuinely underserved suburb — a growing market with no indoor active-play option within a fifteen-minute drive — a new build in the right box can be the highest-return version of this business.

Buying existing means you acquire a park that already has revenue, a customer list, a party booking calendar, trained staff, and a permitted, built-out facility. You see real numbers before you commit. You skip the twelve-month construction dead zone where you are paying rent, interest, and salaries against zero revenue. Trampoline parks generally trade in the range of 2.5x to 4x EBITDA for well-run locations, with weaker parks — declining revenue, tired equipment, an unfavorable lease — trading closer to 1.5x. A park throwing off $200,000 in EBITDA might sell in the $500,000–$800,000 range. Against a $1M–$3M new-build cost, that arithmetic is not close.

The catch is that healthy parks rarely come to market cheap, and the ones that do come cheap are usually on the market for a reason. Every resale requires franchisor approval of the buyer, which adds six to eighteen months of process. Transfer fees in the $10,000–$25,000 range are common. And you inherit everything: the lease and its remaining term, the equipment and its remaining life, the claims history that drives your insurance quote, and the local perception of the brand.

A third path deserves mention because it is often the real answer for people drawn to this category: buy an existing park in a different but adjacent format. The experiential-entertainment space now includes axe throwing, indoor climbing gyms, indoor playgrounds for the under-six crowd, family entertainment centers with bowling and arcade, and hybrid adventure parks. Several of these carry one-third to one-tenth the capital requirement of a trampoline park and share the same underlying demand driver — parents buying a place for kids to burn energy and hold birthday parties. If what attracts you is the party-revenue business model rather than trampolines specifically, widen the search before committing $2M to a single format.

How to choose between building and buying

Work the decision in this order, and be honest at each gate — the expensive mistake is talking yourself past a red flag because you have already emotionally committed to the category.

Gate one is capital and liquidity. A new build needs roughly $300,000–$600,000 liquid plus financing capacity for the balance. If you are stretching to hit the minimum, stop — this business has an 18–36 month ramp to breakeven, and undercapitalized parks die during the ramp, not at the opening. Buying an existing cash-flowing park changes this math substantially because a lender underwrites against demonstrated cash flow rather than a projection, and because SBA 7(a) financing behaves very differently for an acquisition with historical financials than for a startup build.

Gate two is the market. Count trampoline and adventure parks within a fifteen-minute drive. Three or more, and you are entering a discount war — ticket prices in saturated markets get pushed down noticeably as parks cut to fill weekday capacity, and the pressure lands hardest on open-jump pricing. Then count the actual youth population, not just households. A large box needs a real base of kids and teens plus enough birthday parties to fill weekend blocks. Census data at the tract level is free and will tell you in an afternoon whether the trade area supports the box.

Gate three is the specific asset. For a new build, that means the site: ceiling height, column spacing, parking count, visibility, anchor co-tenants, and the lease's escalation schedule. For an acquisition, it means the diligence package: three years of P&Ls, the party booking calendar by month, the claims history, the equipment age by attraction, the remaining lease term, and the staff retention picture.

The numbers behind each path

Revenue at a mature trampoline park lands in the $1.2M–$3M range, and the composition of that revenue matters more than the total. Open-jump admissions fill the box but carry the thinnest margin after labor. Birthday parties, group and corporate events, school and church bookings, camps, leagues, and concessions are where the money actually is. A park doing $1.8M with 45% party-and-group mix will out-earn a park doing $2.2M that is 85% walk-in open jump, because parties come with prepaid deposits, predictable scheduling, higher per-head spend, food attach, and staffing you can plan against instead of guessing.

Run the cost stack on a $2M park. Labor is the largest line and it has moved: budget 25%–35% of gross depending on your state's wage floor, versus the 22%–28% that was typical a decade ago. Rent and facility costs run roughly 12%–16%. Insurance in this category is not a rounding error — general liability premiums for trampoline parks commonly land in the $40,000–$120,000 per year range, driven by your claims history, your waiver and injury-tracking discipline, and your state's regulatory posture. Royalty runs about 5%–6% of gross with a marketing fee of roughly 2% on top. Marketing, utilities, and remaining opex absorb the rest. Net margins in the 12%–25% band are realistic, producing owner profit of roughly $120,000–$400,000 at a well-utilized park.

Then subtract the line most projections forget: maintenance capex. Foam pit cubes need replacement every two to four years. Trampoline mats and springs run three to five years. Padding, netting, and court surfaces wear on similar cycles. Budget $20,000–$50,000 annually as a standing reserve, and treat it as non-optional — deferred maintenance in this category does not just look bad, it shows up in your claims history, which shows up in your premium, which shows up in your P&L two years later. A park that skipped foam replacement to protect a quarter often pays for it three times over.

Now compare the two paths on the same page. New build: $1M–$3M out, 18–36 months to breakeven, then $120K–$400K annual owner profit if you execute. Your money is fully at risk for over a year with no revenue signal to course-correct against. Acquisition of a $200K-EBITDA park: $500K–$800K out plus a $10K–$25K transfer fee and whatever capex the equipment needs on day one, with cash flow starting the month you close. Even after adding $150,000 of deferred maintenance and a refresh, the acquisition typically has the better risk-adjusted return — you are buying proven demand rather than betting on it.

The scenario where new build genuinely wins: no acquisition targets exist in a market you know is underserved, you have identified a site with real structural advantages, and you have the capital to survive a slow ramp without stress. That is a legitimate case. It is just less common than the number of people who choose it.

One more comparison worth running before you commit: Get Air's smaller-footprint format sits between the mega-park operators and the independents. Urban Air and Sky Zone builds frequently exceed the top of Get Air's range because they layer in go-karts, laser tag, ropes courses, and full arcades. That extra capital buys extra revenue lines — arcade and attraction revenue that keeps working when trampoline demand softens. A leaner park has lower entry cost and fewer things to maintain, but it is more exposed to a single demand driver. When a mega-park opens four miles away, the leaner park's differentiation has to come from price, service, toddler programming, or league play rather than from breadth of attractions. Decide which side of that trade you want before you sign, not after.

Building the park and getting to cash flow

Sequencing determines whether you open into revenue or into a hole. The parks that struggle almost always got the order wrong — they treated party sales as something to start after opening rather than something to start during construction.

Days 1–20: read the documents and price the insurance. Get the FDD and read Items 5, 6, 7, 19, and 20 carefully — fees, ongoing costs, investment range, financial performance representations, and outlet turnover. Item 20's transfer and termination counts tell you how many franchisees left and how many resold. In parallel, get preliminary insurance quotes. Bring the actual attraction list to a broker who writes this category. A quote that comes back at the top of the range tells you something about the risk profile that the marketing materials will not.

Days 21–45: talk to owners. Eight or more, and include former franchisees, who are listed in the FDD and are usually the most informative calls you will make. Ask specifics: what percentage of revenue is parties, what is weekday utilization, what did insurance actually cost last year, what did you spend on foam and mats, what is your labor percentage, what would you do differently. Ask what the ramp actually looked like month by month.

Days 46–70: validate the market with data, not enthusiasm. Pull tract-level youth population and household income. Map every competing park, indoor playground, climbing gym, and family entertainment center in the trade area. Drive the competitors on a Saturday afternoon and again on a Tuesday — the gap between weekend and weekday tells you the real problem in this business, which is that a park earns most of its money in roughly a quarter of its operating hours.

Days 71–110: lease and build. Ceiling height, column spacing, and floor load are pass/fail before anything else. Negotiate a term with enough runway that the lease itself is an asset at resale — a buyer will not pay a good multiple for a park with two years left. Push for a build-out allowance and free rent during construction; landlords do give both for a tenant filling a large vacant box.

Days 111–150: install attractions and pre-sell parties. This is the step that separates good openings from bad ones. Book birthday parties before you open. Sign school and church group commitments. Sell summer camp blocks. Line up league play. A park that opens with eight weekends of parties already on the calendar has a working revenue engine on day one; a park that opens and then starts calling schools spends its first two quarters discovering that party sales is an outbound sales job, not a marketing job.

After opening: run it as a sales operation. The persistent operational challenges are staffing and safety, and they are linked. You need 12–25 people on a peak shift — court monitors, front desk, party hosts, café, maintenance. Wages in the $12–$18 per hour range are typical depending on market. Turnover in this category can exceed 100% annually, so your training system is not overhead, it is the thing that keeps your court monitors competent, and competent court monitors are what keep injuries down, and injuries are what drive your insurance premium. Parks that hold injury rates low can negotiate better renewals; parks with frequent claims face rate hikes or non-renewal, which is an existential problem rather than a budget problem.

Weekday capacity is the standing puzzle. Toddler and homeschool programming, fitness and jump-based classes, senior and special-needs hours, corporate team events, and after-school programs all exist to fill hours that would otherwise be dead payroll. The operators clearing the top of the profit range are almost always the ones who solved weekday.

Plan the exit from the beginning. Selling takes six to eighteen months and requires franchisor approval of your buyer. Clean books, current equipment, a lease with real term remaining, and a documented party pipeline are what move a park from a 2x multiple to a 4x multiple. Continued consolidation in the category may create opportunities to sell to a larger regional operator, which tends to reward parks that look institutional rather than owner-dependent.

Adjacent plays worth pricing before you commit

If the appeal is the underlying business model — prepaid party revenue, local family demand, a physical box with recurring weekend throughput — several adjacent formats deliver a version of it at a very different capital level, and it is worth pricing them side by side rather than assuming trampolines are the only door.

Other trampoline and adventure brands. Urban Air, Sky Zone, Altitude, DEFY, Launch, and Rockin' Jump all compete in this category with different footprints, attraction mixes, and support models. Compare them on the same axes: total investment range, royalty and marketing fee, attractions included, average unit volume disclosures in Item 19, and franchisee turnover in Item 20. The differences between brands are real but smaller than the difference between a good site and a bad one.

Lower-capital experiential entertainment. Axe throwing, indoor mini-golf and social entertainment concepts, escape rooms, and small-footprint indoor playgrounds carry meaningfully lower buildout requirements and much lighter equipment maintenance. Margins can be comparable and the downside is far smaller. Several of these skew toward adult and corporate group revenue rather than kids' birthdays, which changes your weekday problem entirely.

Independent build. You keep all the equity and pay no royalty — but you also assume all the brand, safety-system, supplier-relationship, and insurance-underwriting risk yourself, and insurers in this category price unbranded operators differently than they price franchisees with a documented corporate safety program. For a first-time operator in a liability-heavy segment, the royalty is buying something real.

Multi-unit as the actual goal. Single-unit trampoline park economics are decent; multi-unit economics are better, because regional marketing, area management, purchasing, and party-sales infrastructure amortize across locations. If you can realistically get to three units, the return profile changes substantially. If you can only ever fund one, weigh that against a lower-capital concept where one unit is a complete business rather than the first third of one.

Related questions

How long does it take to break even on a new trampoline park?

Typically 18–36 months from opening, and longer if the ramp starts slow. Parks that pre-sold parties during construction and solved weekday utilization early sit at the fast end; open-jump-dependent parks in competitive markets sit at the slow end or never get there.

What percentage of revenue should come from parties?

Well-performing parks generally see birthday parties, group events, and concessions carrying a large share of gross and a disproportionate share of profit. If parties are under roughly a third of revenue, the park is over-exposed to walk-in open jump and weekend weather.

Can I finance a trampoline park with an SBA loan?

SBA 7(a) financing is commonly used for franchise acquisitions and builds. Lenders underwrite an acquisition against historical cash flow, which makes buying an existing park meaningfully easier to finance than a ground-up build with only projections behind it.

How much does trampoline park insurance actually cost?

General liability premiums commonly run $40,000–$120,000 annually, driven by claims history, attraction mix, waiver and injury-tracking discipline, and state regulation. Get real quotes with your specific attraction list before you sign anything — this line item can move your whole model.

Does a smaller-footprint park compete with a mega-park?

It can, on price, service, toddler and league programming, and location convenience — but not on breadth of attractions. If a 40,000+ square foot competitor with go-karts and arcade opens in your trade area, plan the differentiation before it happens, not after.

FAQ

What is the total investment to open a Get Air franchise?

Total investment generally falls in the $1,000,000–$3,000,000 range depending on market, box size, and attraction mix. That includes a franchise fee around $40,000–$60,000 plus buildout, trampoline courts and attractions, technology, launch marketing, insurance, training, and three to six months of working capital.

How much can a trampoline park owner actually earn?

Mature parks gross roughly $1.2M–$3M. After labor at 25%–35%, rent at 12%–16%, insurance, royalty of about 5%–6% plus a marketing fee, and maintenance capex, owner profit typically lands in the $120,000–$400,000 range at well-utilized locations. Weak party mix pulls it well below that.

Is it cheaper to buy an existing park than to open a new one?

Usually, yes. Parks trade around 2.5x–4x EBITDA for healthy locations, so a $200K-EBITDA park often sells for $500,000–$800,000 versus $1M–$3M to build. You also skip the construction period and start with cash flow — but you inherit the lease, the equipment condition, and the claims history.

What kills trampoline parks most often?

Undercapitalization during the 18–36 month ramp, dependence on open-jump revenue without a party sales engine, saturated markets where three or more parks discount against each other, deferred maintenance that drives injuries and insurance costs, and weekday hours that generate payroll without revenue.

How competitive is this segment heading into 2027?

Mature and consolidating. Sky Zone, Urban Air, Altitude, DEFY, Launch, and Rockin' Jump all compete for the same suburban families, and the era of easy growth ended after the mid-2010s expansion wave. Site quality and operating discipline now matter far more than brand selection.

What should I check in the FDD before signing?

Items 5, 6, and 7 for fees and investment range, Item 19 for any financial performance representations, and Item 20 for outlet counts, transfers, terminations, and the former-franchisee contact list. Call the former franchisees — they will tell you what the current ones cannot.

Sources

• https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/7a-loans — SBA 7(a) loan program terms and eligibility
• https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/franchise-rule-compliance-guide — FTC Franchise Rule and FDD disclosure requirements
• https://www.franchise.org/ — International Franchise Association, franchise economic research
• https://www.census.gov/ — US Census Bureau, tract-level population and household data
• https://www.bls.gov/oes/ — Bureau of Labor Statistics, occupational wage data by metro area
• https://www.cpsc.gov/ — Consumer Product Safety Commission, trampoline and amusement safety guidance
• https://www.astm.org/ — ASTM International, amusement ride and device safety standards
• https://www.iaapa.org/ — IAAPA, global attractions industry association and research
• https://www.franchisebusinessreview.com/ — Franchise Business Review, franchisee satisfaction research
• https://www.getairsports.com/ — Get Air official site, park locations and formats

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