Sky Zone

A typical Sky Zone Indoor Trampoline Park consists of several trampoline courts, which are arrays of trampolines placed horizontally and surrounded by trampolines placed at angles that serve as the court's walls.[5] The springs for each trampoline are covered by mats to prevent visitors from falling into these holes. Larger courts allow for many visitors to bounce and jump simultaneously, while smaller courts are used for games of baseball and basketball, where players can bounce around to avoid being hit by other players' throws. Some courts allow visitors to bounce into a pit filled with foam blocks, and others feature basketball goals placed above trampolines, permitting visitors to bounce and slam dunk shots into the goals.[5] Some centers have started exercise classes using the trampoline courts.[6] Additional space in the facility is set aside for birthday parties and similar events, a refreshment stand.[7] Some locations don't let you access their internet for parents and chaperones, as well as access to monitors to observe the various courts.[5]

Sky Zone parks are also known to include non-trampolining activities such as rock climbing, ninja warrior courses, foam pits and laser tag.

Sky Zone is the creation of entrepreneur Rick Platt, who originally intended for the trampoline courts to be used as part of a new sport with professional athletes.[8] In 2004, Platt spent US$2 million to build a 17,000 square foot (1,600 m²) trampoline arena in Las Vegas and to hire athletes for the sport, which would have included rotating hoops and mid-air acrobatics.[6] The sport failed to generate interest, but local skateboarders learned of the facility and wanted to bounce on the court, which prompted Platt to open the facility to the general public at the cost of $8 per person.[8] Within six months, the facility had hosted 10,000 visitors,[8] and total revenue for the first year was $412,000.[6]

In 2006, Platt's son Jeff, who was a student at Washington University in St. Louis, opened a similar park in Missouri, which became profitable within six weeks of opening.[8] Jeff Platt is currently the CEO of the company that operates the company-owned parks and arranges franchises for other locations around the United States and Canada.[8] In 2011, revenues from the facilities reached $16 million.[6] When Sky Zone appeared on the CBS series Undercover Boss, Platt was the youngest CEO to have been featured.[9]

Sky Zone was one of the founding members of the International Association of Trampoline Parks which was formed in 2012. The member funded group was started to provide information and support for park owners. The IATP focuses on safety from design, construction and operational point of view.[10]

Ultimate Dodgeball is a dynamic new sport created by and played inside Sky Zone Trampoline Parks[19]. Started in 2011, Sky Zone has created and organized this extreme dodgeball competition where teams all from different Sky Zone locations scattered around the world come together and compete for the $65,000 shared cash prize. Prior to the championship, UDC Regional Qualifiers are held in North America, the U.K, and Australia to determine eligibility. The winning team or qualified teams from each of these are then invited to participate in UDC. In the case that the team declines the invitation, the following team is then offered to compete.

Team Doom, composed of California natives, have won five of the seven UDC titles and are ranked the #1 dodgeball team.[20]

Team Awesome, originally known as BAMF, took the UDC title in 2015 making them one of the only teams besides Doom to win.

Team ToThe, composed of California natives were announced as the winners of 2018 Ultimate Dodgeball Championship. They eliminated the 5 time champions, Doom, in a best of 5 series of matches.

Past championships have been featured on ESPN as well as Snapchat's global stories where they gained more than 200 million Snapchat impressions.

2018 was also the first year UDC introduced a women's division won by Team Vendetta.

Sky Zone announced that The Ultimate Dodgeball Championship[21] will be indefinitely suspended due to funding issues.

An average Sky Zone park hosts 1,000 guests per day.[5] Visitors are encouraged to purchase tickets online in order to guarantee admittance at a specific time.[7] Along with birthday parties, Sky Zone parks have hosted after-prom parties and leagues for its trampoline dodgeball games.[7]

Sky Zone ranked #453 on the Entrepreneur 2013 Franchise 500 list.[22] In 2015, Sky Zone becomes the company having 100 locations spread over 4 countries.

The company relies heavily on word-of-mouth and social media to promote the parks.[6]

In January 2019, Sky Zone in Surrey, British Columbia permanently shut down without notifying guests who had booked events there. Customers who had paid in advance for events and annual passes were unable to recover their money from the venue or the corporate office. [25] [26]

• Official website