The 2026 FDD reports official 2025 EBITDA medians for the four U.S. franchised-park size cohorts. The aggregate median was $475,169 per park, while qualifying Model Parks reported median EBITDA of $667,077. EBITDA is the strongest available earnings measure, but it is not owner take-home pay.
- Legal franchisor
- Sky Zone Franchise Group, LLC, a Missouri limited liability company; parent company CircusTrix Holdings, LLC.
- Current disclosure
- Franchise Disclosure Document issued May 6, 2026; Item 19 reports the 12-month period ended December 31, 2025.
- Applicable population
- 106 U.S. franchisee-owned Sky Zone Parks grouped by square footage; 34 Model Parks are reported separately. Corporate-owned park sales are a separate population.
- Evidence mode
- Mode A — Official Earnings Disclosure, because Item 19 directly reports EBITDA for franchised parks.
- Supplemental benchmark
- May 2025 Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling, used only to illustrate owner labor value.
- Date checked
- July 18, 2026.
Evidence confidence is high for the disclosed EBITDA measure because the current Item 19 covers 106 of 122 U.S. franchised parks and defines the included operating expenses. Confidence is lower when translating EBITDA into personal cash available after debt, capital expenditures, owner compensation, and taxes.
Median for 106 reporting U.S. franchised parks in the 2025 fiscal year.
Average park-level EBITDA for the same franchised population.
Revenue, not earnings; shown to frame the operating scale of the parks.
For 34 parks with at least 25,000 square feet, four party rooms, and a full reporting year.
86.9% of U.S. franchisee-owned parks open at year-end 2025.
6% Royalty Fee, 3% Ad Fee, 4% local advertising, plus the annualized Technology Fee.
What does Sky Zone Item 19 actually measure?
Item 19 officially measures Gross Sales and EBITDA, not salary, distributions, or after-tax take-home pay. The applicable period is the 2025 fiscal year, and the primary population is 106 U.S. franchisee-owned Sky Zone Parks that satisfied the reporting criteria.
- Gross Sales
- Total park sales of products, services, programs, merchandise, food, and beverages, excluding applicable sales, use, or service taxes and customer refunds. Gross Sales is revenue.
- EBITDA
- Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. The FDD also states that debt-service costs, including principal and interest, are excluded.
- Expenses included
- Cost of Goods Sold, occupancy, advertising, payroll, insurance, and Other Costs. Payroll includes personnel wages, management salaries, benefits, and payroll taxes, but excludes owner compensation. Other Costs explicitly include royalty fees, repairs and maintenance, processing fees, and minor expenses.
- Manager-run owner earnings proxy
- Park-level EBITDA before owner compensation, financing, personal taxes, depreciation, amortization, and capital expenditures. It is a useful cash-flow proxy, not a complete owner cash statement.
- Owner-operator benefit
- Manager-run EBITDA proxy plus the market value of management labor performed by the owner. Part of this amount compensates the owner for active work and is not passive business profit.
The aggregate median park produced $2,140,768 in Gross Sales, while aggregate median EBITDA was $475,169. Those are different statistics from separate distributions, so dividing the two would not produce a valid “median margin.” The compatible aggregate average figures imply a 22.0% average EBITDA margin: $496,683 divided by $2,255,992.
Source: Sky Zone Franchise Group, LLC, 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document, Item 19, pp. 63–66. Franchisee information was reported to the franchisor and was not audited or independently verified by it.
How much did franchised-park EBITDA vary by size?
Official median EBITDA ranged from $348,099 to $560,191 across the four Item 19 size cohorts. The highest median belonged to the 25,001–30,000-square-foot cohort, not the largest cohort, so more square footage did not translate mechanically into higher earnings.
Official park-level EBITDA for the 2025 fiscal year
Interpretation: the 25,001–30,000-square-foot cohort had the highest median EBITDA. The largest cohort’s median was lower, which indicates that local sales productivity and cost control matter more than square footage alone.
Source: Sky Zone Franchise Group, LLC, 2026 FDD, Item 19, Table 2B, p. 65. Values are official EBITDA medians for 106 franchised parks.
| Franchised-park size cohort | Parks | Median Gross Sales | Median EBITDA | Derived average EBITDA margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16,000–22,500 sq. ft. | 25 | $1,800,570 | $348,099 | 21.7% |
| 22,501–25,000 sq. ft. | 21 | $2,120,549 | $512,059 | 20.6% |
| 25,001–30,000 sq. ft. | 30 | $2,231,719 | $560,191 | 23.3% |
| 30,001–58,004 sq. ft. | 30 | $2,291,994 | $476,812 | 21.7% |
| Aggregate | 106 | $2,140,768 | $475,169 | 22.0% |
The margin column is derived from each cohort’s compatible average EBITDA divided by average Gross Sales. It is not median EBITDA divided by median Gross Sales.
The 34 Model Parks were a narrower, mature subset: at least 25,000 square feet, at least four private party rooms, and open throughout the reporting period. They reported $710,790 average EBITDA, $667,077 median EBITDA, 23.6% average EBITDA percentage, and 25.0% median EBITDA percentage. Those results should not be applied automatically to smaller, newer, or differently configured parks.
How does owner involvement change the annual result?
A manager-run owner can treat the official EBITDA figures as the closest park-level earnings proxy, while an active owner who replaces a paid general manager may capture additional labor value. Using the May 2025 national mean wage of $89,750 for Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling, the estimated owner-operator benefit ranges from $437,849 to $649,941 across the three analytical scenarios below.
The FDD requires the franchisee or an approved Operating Partner to personally manage and operate the Park and exert best efforts. It also permits day-to-day management by an on-site general manager, assistant manager, or trained hourly team lead. The official Sky Zone U.S. franchise page similarly describes an operating model that uses a general manager and part-time hourly employees. That structure makes “passive ownership” an inaccurate assumption.
Three analytical scenarios using official cohort medians and a $89,750 manager-labor adjustment
Interpretation: active ownership can raise the owner’s total economic benefit, but the increase represents management labor. The underlying business profit has not become passive or guaranteed.
Sources: Sky Zone Franchise Group, LLC, 2026 FDD, Item 19, Table 2B, p. 65; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 OEWS, Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling. Owner-operator figures are independent calculations.
| Scenario | Official manager-run EBITDA proxy | Owner labor value | Estimated owner-operator benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Conservative Lowest size-cohort median |
$348,099 — official Item 19 median EBITDA | +$89,750 | $437,849 |
|
Base Aggregate franchised median |
$475,169 — official Item 19 median EBITDA | +$89,750 | $564,919 |
|
Upside Highest size-cohort median |
$560,191 — official Item 19 median EBITDA | +$89,750 | $649,941 |
The scenario labels are analytical, not probabilities or promises. Owner-operator benefit equals the official EBITDA anchor plus $89,750. It remains before financing principal, personal income taxes, and capital expenditures.
Which recurring costs are already reflected in EBITDA?
Royalty fees, advertising, payroll, occupancy, insurance, Cost of Goods Sold, repairs, processing fees, and other operating costs are included in the Item 19 EBITDA calculation as defined. The main classification uncertainty is the Technology Fee, because Item 19 does not identify it separately by name.
| Recurring obligation | Current amount | EBITDA treatment | Decision relevance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Royalty Fee | 6% of Gross Sales | Explicitly included in Item 19 Other Costs. | Directly reduces park-level EBITDA as sales rise. |
| Ad Fee | 3% currently | Advertising Expenses include National Advertising Fund contributions. | The FDD permits an increase to 4% of Gross Sales. |
| Local Advertising Funding Requirement | 4% of Gross Sales | Item 19 Advertising Expenses include local marketing. | Applies after the first month of park operations. |
| Technology Fee | $1,480 monthly | Not separately named in the Item 19 expense categories. | Annualizes to $17,760; confirm whether every reporting park classified it inside Other Costs. |
| Master Insurance Program | 2.4%–13.0% of Gross Sales | Insurance is included in Item 19 EBITDA. | Adjusted every six months and varies with exposure, losses, compliance, location, and other risk factors. |
Applying the disclosed 2.4%–13.0% Master Insurance Program range to the aggregate median Gross Sales of $2,140,768 produces an illustrative annual span of approximately $51,378–$278,300, before other required third-party coverage. This is a sensitivity illustration, not an estimate of what a specific park will pay.
The FDD’s startup investment is not an annual operating expense and is not subtracted from one year of Gross Sales. Item 7 estimates total initial investment of $3,246,160 to $6,400,210 for a new park, but Item 19 EBITDA excludes financing principal, interest, depreciation, and amortization. Consequently, two owners with identical park EBITDA can have very different cash available after debt service and capital spending.
Sources: Sky Zone Franchise Group, LLC, 2026 FDD, Item 6, pp. 7–16; Item 7, pp. 17–28; Item 19, pp. 63–66. The insurance illustration equals median Gross Sales multiplied by the two disclosed percentage endpoints and is rounded to the nearest dollar.
How reliable is the annual earnings range?
The range is strong evidence for the FDD-defined EBITDA measure, but it is not a complete forecast of an individual owner’s cash income. The 106-park franchised sample is broad, yet it excludes certain new, transferred, and incomplete-reporting parks, and the franchisor states that franchisee submissions were not audited or otherwise verified.
| Population issue | Count | Effect on interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. franchisee-owned parks at December 31, 2025 | 122 | System population identified in Items 19 and 20. |
| Franchised parks included in system-wide EBITDA tables | 106 | Represents 86.9% of the year-end franchised population. |
| Excluded for incomplete expense and EBITDA reporting | 7 | Missing full-period cost data may affect representativeness. |
| Excluded because they opened during 2025 | 4 | New-unit ramp-up performance is not captured in the full-year earnings tables. |
| Excluded because ownership transferred during 2025 | 5 | Transfer-year results are not included in the system-wide EBITDA cohort. |
| Corporate-owned parks in separate Gross Sales table | 110 | Corporate EBITDA was not disclosed; corporate sales must not be treated as franchised owner earnings. |
The largest gap between disclosed EBITDA and actual owner cash is the combined effect of financing, maintenance capital expenditures, remodel obligations, and owner compensation policy. Item 19 does not provide a standard debt structure or a complete post-EBITDA cash-flow statement, so an after-debt or after-tax owner figure would create false precision.
Item 20 also shows that franchised outlets increased from 120 to 122 during 2025, with four openings, one termination, one non-renewal, and five transfers to new owners. Those movements do not prove success or failure, but they make franchisee interviews and location-specific records essential before applying a system median to a proposed park.
Sources: Sky Zone Franchise Group, LLC, 2026 FDD, Item 19, pp. 63–66; Item 20, pp. 67–76.
What should a buyer verify before relying on the figures?
A buyer should reconcile the Item 19 EBITDA definition to actual park-level financial statements in the same size, market, maturity, and management model. The official figures are a screening benchmark, not a substitute for written substantiation and direct franchisee diligence.
- Request the written substantiation for Item 19. The FDD states that it will be made available on reasonable request. Confirm the chart of accounts, reporting consistency, and treatment of the Technology Fee.
- Interview current and former franchisees from Item 20. Prioritize parks with similar square footage, party-room count, wage market, rent structure, insurance cost, and operating age.
- Separate manager compensation from owner compensation. Ask whether the park employs a general manager, what total compensation is paid, and how many hours the owner or Operating Partner works.
- Build a post-EBITDA cash schedule. Add debt principal and interest, recurring maintenance capital, attraction replacement, remodel spending, owner salary or draw, and required reserves.
- Stress-test labor, occupancy, and insurance. These costs are market-specific and can move faster than systemwide averages.
- Compare monthly results, not only annual totals. Review seasonality, memberships, parties, food and beverage, discounts, and peak-period staffing.
- Do not estimate personal taxes inside the park model. Entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances determine after-tax outcomes.
What is the strongest defensible Sky Zone owner-earnings range?
The strongest defensible range is $348,099 to $560,191 per park annually in official Item 19 EBITDA, with an aggregate median of $475,169. Qualifying Model Parks reported a higher $667,077 median, but that subset is larger, mature, and party-room intensive. An active owner replacing a general manager may realize estimated owner-operator benefit of roughly $437,849 to $649,941, but the added amount compensates the owner’s labor and is not passive profit.
The most important earnings driver is not square footage alone; it is the interaction of Gross Sales with labor, occupancy, insurance, local marketing, and operational execution. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the bridge from EBITDA to cash after debt service, capital expenditures, and owner compensation. Before relying on the range, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable park financials, and test the assumptions with current and former franchisees listed in Item 20.
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