STARTING A BOX CRICKET OR TURF BUSINESS
Costs, revenue and payback for a turf or box cricket venue — a worked example with every assumption on the table, so you can swap in your own numbers.
Will a turf pay for itself?
Box cricket and 5-a-side football have become part of evening life in Tamil Nadu’s towns and cities — friends, office teams and students booking an hour under the floodlights. For a land owner or investor, that raises an obvious question: would a turf on my land pay for itself, and how quickly?
This guide gives you a way to answer it honestly. We use our published cost logic for the build, then work through an example in which every revenue and cost figure is an assumption you should replace with numbers from your own area.
Nothing here is a forecast or a promise of returns. The example figures are placeholders chosen to show the method — they are not what any CP Sports client earns. Check local booking rates and costs before you invest.
Choose the format first
What you build decides what you can sell. Most commercial venues start with one of these, or a combination:
Turf box
A synthetic turf inside a netted enclosure, lit for evening play. With a fully netted box it can be sold for both 5-a-side football and box cricket, which widens the pool of customers.
Cricket practice nets
Lanes with pitch strips and nets suit coaching, academies and individual practice. They need less land and can sit beside a turf or stand alone near schools and colleges.
Add-on courts
A pickleball or multipurpose court beside the turf can fill daytime hours with a different crowd — morning players, older age groups and families.
Think about who will book in the hours your venue would otherwise sit empty. Evening slots are usually the first to fill; weekday mornings and afternoons are where coaching, schools and corporate bookings make the difference.
What it costs to build
Our cost calculator has no separate box cricket option. A box cricket arena is essentially a synthetic turf in a fully netted enclosure, so the Football Turf line (₹420 per sq.ft) is the closer guide. The Cricket Pitch & Nets line (₹380 per sq.ft × 0.95 = ₹361 per sq.ft) suits practice nets. In both cases the calculator shows a range from 0.9× to 1.25× of the result.
| Facility | Working | Indicative range |
|---|---|---|
| Turf box, 6,000 sq.ft | 6,000 × ₹420 = ₹25.2L | ₹22.7L – ₹31.5L |
| Turf box, 8,000 sq.ft | 8,000 × ₹420 = ₹33.6L | ₹30.2L – ₹42.0L |
| Cricket nets, 3,000 sq.ft | 3,000 × ₹361 = ₹10.8L | ₹9.7L – ₹13.5L |
These estimates allow for civil and base work, the surface, LED floodlighting and fencing with ball-stop nets. They do not include land, buildings (toilets, changing rooms, a reception counter), parking, the electricity connection or finance costs — add your own figures for those (GST is already included in the calculator’s estimates). Our football turf cost guide explains what moves the build price.
A worked example: revenue
Revenue for a turf venue comes down to two numbers: what you charge per hour, and how many hours you actually sell. For this example, assume:
- Hourly rate: ₹1,200 — an assumption. Check what venues near you charge for the same format and time of day.
- Booked hours: 6 a day, averaged across busy weekends and quieter weekdays — an assumption. Be conservative.
- 30 days a month, with no allowance for rain-outs, festivals or maintenance closures — a generous assumption.
That gives ₹1,200 × 6 × 30 = ₹2,16,000 a month in booking revenue.
The hourly rate is the number most people get wrong. Visit or call the venues in your area, note their prices for peak evening and off-peak slots, and use the blended figure you think you can actually achieve — not the peak price. Booked hours are the other big variable: a new venue’s first months are often quieter while word spreads.
Other income to consider
- Coaching programmes and academy batches in off-peak hours
- Weekend tournaments and league nights
- School, college and corporate bookings during the day
- Small extras such as equipment hire or refreshments
Leave these out of your first calculation and treat them as upside. A plan that works on bookings alone is a sturdier plan.
Running costs and payback
Next, list what it costs to run the venue each month. For the example, assume ₹90,000 a month:
| Monthly cost (assumption) | Example |
|---|---|
| Staff (manager, attendant, cleaning) | ₹35,000 |
| Electricity (floodlights, pumps) | ₹25,000 |
| Maintenance and consumables | ₹10,000 |
| Booking platform and marketing | ₹10,000 |
| Water, security and sundries | ₹10,000 |
| Total | ₹90,000 |
That leaves ₹2,16,000 − ₹90,000 = ₹1,26,000 a month before land rent, loan repayments, tax and depreciation. Dividing the build estimate by that figure gives a simple payback period: ₹22.7L ÷ ₹1.26L ≈ 18 months at the low end of the 6,000 sq.ft build range, and ₹31.5L ÷ ₹1.26L = 25 months at the high end.
Now see how sensitive that is to booked hours, keeping the hourly rate and running costs the same:
| Booked hours a day | Monthly revenue | After running costs | Simple payback |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 hours a day | ₹1,44,000 | ₹54,000 | 42–58 months |
| 6 hours a day | ₹2,16,000 | ₹1,26,000 | 18–25 months |
| 8 hours a day | ₹2,88,000 | ₹1,98,000 | 11–16 months |
Two lessons stand out. First, at ₹1,200 an hour the venue needs 2.5 booked hours a day (₹90,000 ÷ ₹1,200 ÷ 30) just to cover running costs — only the hours beyond that pay back the build. Second, utilisation matters more than almost anything else, which is why location, lighting and a well-kept surface are worth getting right. In practice electricity rises with every extra evening hour, so treat the 8-hour row as optimistic.
Our FAQ gives 18–36 months as a typical break-even for a well-positioned urban turf with healthy occupancy. Your own numbers decide where in — or outside — that band you land.
Run it yourself, or use FOCO
Running a venue is a daily job: taking bookings, opening and closing, keeping the surface clean, organising leagues and marketing the slots that do not sell themselves.
If you would rather own the asset without running it, our FOCO (Franchise Owned, Company Operated) model is designed for that. You own the land and the infrastructure; CP Sports manages the daily operations — booking management, coaching programmes, tournament organising, maintenance and marketing — and you receive a monthly revenue share with transparent reporting.
FOCO suits land owners, investors and property developers who want to monetise unused land without taking on the operational work. Revenue-share terms, a feasibility study and projections for your site are discussed during the consultation — so use the worked example above to frame your own expectations, not as a FOCO projection.
A checklist before you invest
- Location and access. Is the plot easy to reach in the evening, visible, and close to the people who will book it — housing, colleges, offices?
- Competition. How many venues are within a short drive, what do they charge, and how full are they at peak times?
- Land and approvals. Confirm ownership or lease terms, land use and any permissions a commercial venue needs.
- Power. Check the electricity connection, and plan backup for evening slots.
- Neighbours. Floodlights and late-night noise can cause friction; plan light direction and closing hours.
- Your own numbers. Replace every assumption in this guide with local figures, and check payback at low bookings as well as high.
Building in the west or centre of the state? Our Coimbatore and Trichy pages cover local conditions. For the facilities themselves, see football turf construction and cricket pitches and nets.
Questions & answers
How much does it cost to build a box cricket turf?
Using our calculator’s turf rate of ₹420 per sq.ft, a 6,000 sq.ft netted turf box works out to 6,000 × ₹420 = ₹25.2L, shown as roughly ₹22.7L to ₹31.5L, including base work, surface, lighting and fencing. Land, buildings and the power connection are extra; GST is already included. A site survey gives you a firm quote.
How long does a turf business take to pay back?
It depends on your hourly rate, booked hours and running costs. In our worked example — with every figure an assumption — simple payback ranges from about 11 months to nearly five years depending on bookings alone. Run the numbers with local figures before you invest.
Can one turf be used for both football and box cricket?
Yes, if the enclosure is fully netted, including overhead, and the lighting and turf are planned for both. Tell us which formats you want to sell at the survey stage so the design suits them.
What is the FOCO model?
Franchise Owned, Company Operated: you own the land and infrastructure, CP Sports runs the daily operations, and you receive a monthly revenue share with transparent reporting.
More answers on costs, timelines and maintenance in our full FAQ.
RELATED GUIDES
Related pages
PLANNING A TURF VENUE?
Tell us where your land is and which formats you want to offer. We’ll survey the site for free and talk you through build costs and the FOCO option.