Coach Launches Unmanned 24/7 Baseball Training Facility

My career-defining moment was opening MVP Cages as a 24/7 unmanned facility when everyone told me it was too risky. Coming from coaching youth baseball, I was frustrated watching families drive 45 minutes for mediocre cage time that closed at 8 PM.

I invested everything into keycode access systems, surveillance tech, and automated waivers—basically betting my family's future on parents trusting an unstaffed facility with their kids. The liability concerns kept me up at night, but I knew flexibility was what baseball families desperately needed.

Within six months, we hit profitability and doubled our customer base. Parents loved booking 6 AM sessions before school or 10 PM after games. Our retention rate jumped to 85% because families could finally train on their schedule, not ours.

The real game-changer was pre-selling memberships before we opened. Instead of taking loans, I sold $15,000 in credits during construction, which covered startup costs and gave us a built-in client base on day one. 

My advice: Don't ask for permission to solve a problem you know exists. Most "traditional" business owners in youth sports told me unmanned facilities would never work—meanwhile, we're booked solid while staffed competitors struggle with overhead. Trust your instincts over industry veterans who profit from keeping things complicated.

Steve Sliker, Owner, MVP Batting Cages