Staff, utilities and insurance run whether three people jump or thirty. Dividing the fixed cost of a session by what each jumper contributes after socks, wristbands and card fees tells you the minimum crowd that makes the session worth opening.
A $420 session at an $18 ticket with $2.50 variable cost needs 28 jumpers to break even.
The example
Three session types. Weekend sessions carry a higher ticket and higher staffing cost.
| A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Case | Session cost | Ticket | Var cost | Break-even jumpers | Per jumper |
| 2 | Weekday | $420 | $18.00 | $2.50 | 28 | $15.50 |
| 3 | Weekend | $650 | $24.00 | $3.00 | 31 | $21.00 |
| 4 | Late night | $300 | $16.00 | $2.00 | 22 | $14.00 |
The formula
Contribution per jumper is ticket minus variable cost; round up because a fraction of a jumper does not pay the bills:
How it works
Here is the logic, one piece at a time:
C2-D2is what each jumper adds after variable costs.B2/(C2-D2)is how many contributions cover the fixed cost.ROUNDUP(...,0)rounds to the next whole jumper.
Compare break-even to capacity; a session needing 90% of capacity to break even is priced too low.
Try it: interactive demo
Enter the fixed session cost, ticket price and variable cost per jumper.
Variations
Profit at expected crowd
Profit if 40 jumpers show.
Ticket for a target crowd
Ticket price that breaks even at 30 jumpers.
Pitfalls & errors
If the ticket is below the variable cost the formula returns a negative number. Wrap in IF(C2>D2, ..., "Reprice").
Birthday party guests often pay less than walk-in tickets; run them as their own session type.
Add a column for park capacity and flag sessions where break-even is above 70% of it.
Practice workbook
Frequently asked questions
What counts as variable cost?
Does this include overhead?
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