Why you should move from MeetUp to OpenSports

If you’re looking for an alternative to meetup to organize sports and recreation events, OpenSports is your full solution

Why make the switch from Meetup to OpenSports?

We get asked a lot: “Why would we choose you guys and not Meetup?” The truth is that for a lot of groups, as they expand and get bigger, they get frustrated with Meetup. Here’s a few reasons why OpenSports is a much more valuable sports specific solution than Meetup:

• It is very unlikely that organizer feedback will influence product decisions at Meetup. We at OpenSports build out platform with our organizers. We promise to work closely with you
• On Meetup, there’s no automatic waitlist for pre-paid games
• Meetup doesn’t support waivers
• OpenSports has a discounts tool that allows you to set up automatically applying or manually applying discounts
• Meetup doesn’t support simple sports specific features like the ability to open up multiple types of spots (i.e., goalie vs regular player), and set-up teams
• OpenSports has a very granular invite system (invite by sport, gender, skill level, availability, tags, membership status, and past event participation)
• OpenSports has a much more sophisticated RSVP, payment, discount, and check-in on site system
• OpenSports allows you to set up filters for your group, which will allow players to easily filter all of your events by the event type and quickly find exactly what they are looking for
• Meetup Glitches and what ends up happening is players pay to play, they show up, and the game is overbooked and uneven. In the words of one of the frustrated Directors of a big charity pickup soccer group in NYC that made the switch to OpenSports : “Thats the biggest thing we need Meetup to do — is just help us manage RSVP’s — and it’s glitching.”
• OpenSports allows you to create and offer memberships (i.e., a 10-game pass) for your players, and it is automatically managed. See our Full Time Club plan here.

OpenSports really is the full package that organizers can rely on, covering the full gamut of features that pickup, drop-in, and open play sports organizers need. If you still have apprehensions about switching platforms, in the words of a very happy customer who made the switch, “the bandaid has to come off eventually”!

What types of organizations are using OpenSports as an alternative to MeetUp?

Throughout North America, the UK, Columbia, France, Australia, and New Zealand, we have hundreds of Sport and Social Clubs and pickup/drop in sports groups. Some have thousands of members, some have fifteen. Common sports that are organized through the platform include: soccer, volleyball, flag football, basketball, badminton, kickball, cornhole, pickleball, hockey, cycling, running, and many more!

Many of these groups have a few things in common. For one thing, they are existing sports and recreation groups that have a thriving community of regulars that come to their events. These are organizers who are so devoted to their groups that they will spend weeks testing and getting to know our web and app platform, before they joyfully and convert with a huge sigh of relief!

Here are 3 large groups that have moved from Meetup to OpenSports and just keep growing:

To learn more about the stories of these groups moving from Meetup to OpenSports, as well as which features really set us apart to them, read here.

1. Chicago Fire Recreational Soccer

2. Philadelphia Volleyball

Here’s one of the announcements Dan, the founder of Philadelphia Volleyball, made on Meetup, about switching platforms:

3. Sons of Pitches FC

Check out SOPFC’s Pickup soccer page on their website to see how they embed OpenSports events onto their web page.

🌟How to facilitate the Transition from Meetup to OpenSports

To create a group on OpenSports, just click Create a Group on web. Then you’ll need to create events and invite your members to your new group! Read here on three easy steps to facilitate the transition!

Worried about losing your 4000 MU members?

“Out of 150 new people joining (through MeetUp) every season, we may see 60, of the 60 maybe 30 come out 3 times and maybe 10 come out 6 times and 4 become ‘regulars’ that attend 10 or more times a year.” — MU Organizer of a Paddle Group in Florida

Based on conversations we’ve had with MU Organizers, there is a distinction between retaining all members vs. retaining ACTIVE members. Most MU organizers have been able to migrate about 90% of their active users to OpenSports, because those are the people who want to continue participating in events no matter what. Most MU organizers don’t care about the inactive lurkers anyways. Just bring on the regulars!

A few testimonial from groups that have switched

Changed our whole sports club operations. Fewer No-Shows, handled memberships and payments all in 1 place. A wonderful messaging system as well. — Jeremiah Thomas, Doylestown Pickleball

Since switching over to OpenSports, management has become so easy, members are happy with the fairness and automation that’s built in, and collecting payments has become a breeze. — Pittsburgh Badminton

That’s it for now! ✌️

I’d love to hear from you at alicia@opensports.net :)