Insurance Allies, LLC, division of Specialty Program Group LLC. Doing business in California as SPG Insurance Solutions License No. 0L09546.
© Copyright 2024 PickleballInsurnace.com
There are numerous ways you can be sued hosting a pickle ball tournament, camp, league or
stand-alone venue. It is our goal to help educate you and help you build an insurance program
in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. Unfortunately, there is no one insurance
policy on the planet that just COVERS YOU FOR EVERYTHING (ugh, we wish insurance was that
easy); however, it is our goal to help you pick and choose the coverages that matter to you.
Let’s start with the basics:
Insurance is purchased for one of two reasons:
1. You Want To
2. You Have To
When you are the owner/operator of a league, camp, or stand-alone venue, you may be
worried about being sued, and therefore choose to protect yourself with an insurance policy.
On the flip side, if you are hosting a league tournament, or camp at a leased stand-alone venue,
the landlord of the premises you are renting may require you to.
Insurance costs can be drastically impacted by contracts from landlords. As stated above, if you
are signing a contract for a league, camp or stand-alone venue, the landlord of the premises
most likely will have insurance requirements, and these can vary as every landlord is different
and some are stricter than others. We are by no means lawyers and our advice would be that
we would always highly recommend outside legal counsel review; however, if you are unsure of
what your landlord is asking for and how much that can impact your costs, please feel free to
contact us about a free lease review. Service@insuranceallies.com
As mentioned, above, there is no one insurance policy that covers everything, and as such, let
the following serve as a high-level guide of some of the main types of coverages you may be
facing:
General Liability covers bodily injury OR property damage to others. This is almost for sure
going to be required if you are operating on someone else’s premises. A standard liability
policy in America (whether you are a flower shop or Pickle Ball Company) comes with the
following limits: $1M per Occurrence and $2M in General Aggregate. What does this mean?
Occurrence and Aggregate, huh? Here is an example: If one court was wet and three people
slipped at the same time, that is one occurrence. Technically, you could have three lawsuits
from that one slip and fall. An occurrence limit is the maximum amount your insurer will
reimburse you for one covered incident or claim. The aggregate limit is the maximum amount
your insurer pays for all covered claims over the term of your policy. Depending on your policy
limits, one claim or multiple claims reach your aggregate limit. This covers participants,
coaches, and spectators.
I am sure you have heard this term before. This is one of the most misconstrued terms in
America. People often think, “I have an Umbrella, I am covered for anything that goes wrong.”
FALSE FALSE FASLE. All an Umbrella does is provide higher liability limits. You can raise your
$1M per Occurrence and $2M in Aggregate to whatever you want. For example, if you
purchase a $1M Umbrella, you will now have $2M per Occurrence and $3M in General
Aggregate.
THIS IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and is included as part of our program. A general liability
and/or an umbrella liability policy is only triggered in the event of someone ACTUALLY calling a
lawyer and ACTUALLY suing you. The policy is not going to just pay out. This is where an
accident policy comes in play. Unfortunately, this is America, and we live in a VERY litigious
society. People that are hurt, broke, and receive a huge medical bill in their mailbox tend to call
-a lawyer. Lawyers in turn do not typically ask for $7,000 of medical expenses, they ask for $1M
in mental anguish on top. The point of an accident policy is to provide a no-fault medical
expense sum of money to deter small incidents from turning into a large lawsuit, i.e. Customer,
I am sorry you were hurt, send in your medical expenses and no questions asked, our insurance
company will take care of them (up to the specified limit of which $25,000 is typical).
Unfortunately, as mentioned above, there is no one insurance policy that just covers
everything. General Liability only covers BODILY INJURY OR PROPERTY DAMAGE to others;
however, it does not cover allegations of inappropriate touching. This is a coverage that is
highly recommended and arguably speaking is one of the biggest risks facing businesses in
2022. This is a coverage that is built in for various limits into our policy. This is a coverage that
is typically sub-limited from your $1M down to a smaller limit; however, upon request, this can
sometimes be increased on our policy and if you prefer higher limits, we can always obtain a
stand-alone policy for you, but unfortunately, it does come at a cost due to the risks involved.
Assault Battery can often be excluded from a General Liability Policy. Assault and Battery from
a high level covers emotional and physical injury resulting from altercations between patrons
on your premises. This is a very real possibility in which situations may get tense on the court.
Liquor Liability protects the party selling, serving, or furnishing alcoholic beverages. Some of
the biggest and most expensive lawsuits in the hospitality industry arise from liquor liability
claims. This can entail incidents in which someone is served alcohol, drives home, and then is
involved in an auto accident for which the parties impacted can then turn around and sue you
for alleging that you “overserved them.” Most states require licenses to sell alcohol and it is
very important to abide by local and state laws. Liquor Liability can sometimes be purchased in
conjunction on the same policy as a General Liability Policy (“Packaged” together), but it can
also be obtained on a stand-alone basis. It is typically always better to package coverages
together, but it is very situational on what can and cannot be done, and a lot of it is affected by
the state you are in.
When a business does not own a car, it does not mean you cannot be sued for the use of cars
for business purposes. Hired and Non-owned Auto Liability is a type of auto insurance that is
highly recommended if someone is running errands or driving for business purposes in a vehicle
that your business does not own. This can cover owners, employees, or independent
contractors. i.e. “Hey Bob employee, go pick up pickleballs from the local sports store!” If Bob
were to get in an accident running an errand for you, whoever he hits can sue you and your
business. What if Bob forgot to pay his insurance bills on his own auto insurance or what if he
has minimal liability limits and hits a Mercedes Benz with three kids inside? They will want
money from someone and as such, there is a good chance they will sue you too. Hired and
Non-Owned Auto covers your business for vehicles used for business purposes that your
business does not own.
Property Limits are chosen by the insured and is relative to whatever you pick and choose.
There are several different property coverages explained below. The cost of property is so
relative to whatever you pick and choose and a lot has to do with the limits you choose, the
location you are in (i.e. property is more expensive in Florida), and the specifications of your
property (i.e. wood burns faster than steel and as such, if you have a wood structure, it is more
susceptible to fire damage than a steel building)
Building: Typically, one would only insure the structure of building if you actually own the
building. This can also refer to the courts themselves.
Betterments/Improvements: This coverage typically applies to renters of a building. If a tenant
does not own the building, they would not insure the structure of a building, but they may have
put thousands of dollars of construction into the unit. Typically, anything affixed to the walls
and floors would be considered build-out. If you own the building, this would typically be
included in the building value.
Contents: Contents refers to all of your stuff. Imagine you flip a building upside down, anything
that would fall out (i.e. balls, rackets, equipment, tables, couches, etc., pens and pencils).
Outdoor Sign: Outdoor signs typically need to be scheduled on a property policy
Equipment Breakdown: This is a coverage that is really meant for stand-alone facilities that can
help pay for the damage, repairs or lost revenue arising from the breakdown of equipment such
as boilers and machinery, air-conditioning units, motors. This can also even cover the spoilage
of food and loss of income from it.
Inland Marine: Property Insurance is typically very location specific (think at a specific address).
Inland Marine is a scheduled value of property that can follow you wherever you go.
Business Income and Extra Expenses (Business Interruption Coverage): This will provide
coverage for lost revenue and expenses you incur in the event of a direct physical loss to your
premises that prevents you from operating. Unfortunately, this does not apply to COVID as it
does require a DIRECT physical loss to your premises such as a fire or tornado.
There are two major exclusions on almost every property insurance policy. If you are
concerned with either of the below and would like to obtain coverage, please let our team
know and we will help you obtain a separate quote/policy.
1. Flood
2. Earthquake
Also, another quick reminder is that if you are in pretty much the entire state of Florida or along
certain coast lines, Wind or Hail (i.e. Hurricanes and Tropical Storms) are not always
automatically covered by your property insurance policy. You either need to get it specifically
endorsed/added on or we can help you obtain a property policy that does specifically also cover
it. Note that it does typically come with an increased cost though.
Unfortunately, I am not sure it is possible to get coverage for Virus shutdowns as it would
bankrupt every insurance company in the country.
Directors and Officers Liability helps to protect the directors and officers, and their spouses, in
the event they are personally sued for mismanagement or actual or alleged contractual
disagreements. Maybe you are putting on a huge tournament, things go south, and a third
party is out money due to your actual or alleged mismanagement. In many states, you can
actually be sued PERSONALLY for this, and your corporate veil may not protect you.
Employment practices liability covers a business or person for allegations of age, sexual, gender
or racial discrimination. We operate AxeThrowingInsurance.com and we have a client who held
a “ladies” night in which two men were turned down due to their gender. This can also cover
you for employment related claims such as failure to promote, wage and hours disputes,
breach of contract, or wrongful termination.
Most insurance is optional, whereas workers compensation is not. This is a type of insurance
required by law in almost every state the minute you hire one employee. It is meant to protect
your employees if they are hurt on the job.
● Pickleball activities should be supervised at all times by the Insured or their staff
● Ideally for the best pricing, alcohol sales should be 25% or less of total revenue, but we
can obtain coverage if it is higher, but it most likely will make the rates/pricing increase
● There should be rules in place preventing participants from purchasing alcohol prior to
or during their sports activities
● No BYOB/self-serve alcohol permitted.
● The Insured is required to have a liquor license
● The Insured uses TIPS trained bartenders/servers
● For sexual abuse/molestation coverage, the Insured should have a system they are using
for abuse prevention (should be in line with the standard of care that the Safe Sports
Act requires) and should conduct background checks on all
employees/contractors/volunteers.
● For larger abuse limits, insurance companies generally want to ensure the Insured has a
comprehensive system for abuse prevention training and tracking. There are several
different organizations that do it. One is the U.S. Center for SafeSport, which this law is
named after. Another is (National Center for Safety Initiatives partner) Darkness to
Light. And another one is- Abuse Prevention Systems – which may be provided at no
additional cost depending on the insurance company. Those are the types of platforms
that coaches, staff, and volunteers are going to be able to get for proper training based
on the Safe Sport Act.
Insurance Allies, LLC, division of Specialty Program Group LLC. Doing business in California as SPG Insurance Solutions License No. 0L09546.
© Copyright 2024 PickleballInsurnace.com