Canyon Café opened at the Calabasas Tennis & Swim Center with a soft opening on Friday, October 23, 2026. It offered free samples, 15% off food, and music. On January 1, 2027, a larger change arrives at 23400 Park Sorrento. The second phase of a fee schedule the City Council approved on December 3, 2025 takes effect then. Current members don't need to do anything. The new rates apply automatically.
Most of the increases are modest, and some are close to zero. The large ones are concentrated in one place. A child's lap swim more than doubles in a single year. A daily swim was always the cheapest way into the Center, and in percentage terms it is now the most expensive part of the schedule to keep using. The reason comes from one table in a consultant's study.
A city-owned club that covered about half its costs
The City of Calabasas bought the Center in 1994 and runs it as what its own membership page calls "a semi-private club with memberships and some public use privileges." Top Seed Tennis Academy has been the City's partner since that year. It manages the tennis department, the front desk, and maintenance, and the City reports that Top Seed has contributed more than $500,000 toward capital improvements.
The facility is substantial. It has 16 lighted tennis courts, three hitting walls, a 25-yard heated Junior Olympic pool, a fitness area, and rentable rooms such as the Fireside Room and the Centre Court Room. According to the cost-of-service study prepared by Matrix Consulting Group for the December 3 Council meeting, the Center brought in about $4.51 million a year against a baseline cost of about $9.14 million. That works out to 49% cost recovery, comparing FY26 fee-related costs with FY24 fee revenue.
That 49% average conceals a wide spread between categories. At the old fees:
| Category | Share of cost covered |
|---|---|
| Tennis activities | 100% |
| Fitness classes | 81% |
| Tennis court rentals | 65% |
| Memberships | 39% |
| Aquatics | 23% |
Memberships accounted for the largest dollar gap, about $4.35 million. The pool had the lowest percentage. Daily swim fees covered less than a quarter of what aquatics cost to provide.
The targets explain which prices move most
The study set different recovery goals for different users: 90% for adult memberships, 60% for youth memberships, 50% for senior memberships, 100% for rentals, and 60% for aquatics. Each target sits at a different distance from where its category started, and that distance accounts for most of the January increases. Aquatics has to climb from 23% to 60%. The individual senior membership has a 50% target, the lowest of the individual membership tiers, and the senior Full Access rate stays flat.
The consultants stated in the report that choosing a price is the Council's decision:
"The setting of the 'rate' or 'price' for services, whether at 100 percent full cost recovery or lower, is a policy decision to be made only by Council, with input from City staff and the community."
The staff report recorded what the community said during that process. Some residents asked for lower fees or for residents to get priority over non-residents. Others objected to higher fees without facility improvements. The adopted schedule lists one price per item, with no separate resident rate.
What changes on January 1
The approved fee schedule shows three columns: the fee before the vote, the 2026 rate now in effect, and the 2027 rate.
| Item | Before the vote | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full Access, family, per month | $142 | $207 | $303 |
| Full Access, adult, per month | $100 | $110 | $122 |
| Full Access, senior, per month | $73 | $73 | $73 |
| Fitness Access, family, per month | $100 | $150 | $228 |
| Lap swim, adult, per visit | $9 | $14 | $22 |
| Lap swim, youth, per visit | $3 | $7 | $16 |
| 10-swim package, adult | $65 | $115 | $204 |
| Family swim, adult, per visit | $6 | $8 | $11 |
| Public court, weekday, per hour | $15 | $20 | $27 |
| Public court, weekend, per hour | $12 | $24 | $27 |
| Open swim pool party, under 25 guests, 3 hours | $99 | $148 | $220 |
Compare the 2027 increases. An adult Full Access membership goes up 11%. A youth lap swim goes up about 129%, and an adult 10-swim package rises from $115 to $204. Every walk-in court hour becomes $27, so weekday court time rises more than weekend court time, which had already doubled in 2026. A small birthday party at the pool rises roughly 49%. Two charges barely change. Fitness classes move from $15 to $16, and weekday guest passes from $16 to $17.
The pattern matches the targets. Pool fees started furthest below cost and rise the most, while charges that were already near their targets, such as fitness classes, barely change.
Getting in without a membership
The fee change matters most to people who use the Center without being members. Both membership types, Full Access and Fitness Access, currently have waitlists. The City doesn't publish a size or an expected wait, and it asks people not to submit the waitlist form more than once, because duplicate submissions don't change anyone's position.
Until a membership comes through, these are the ways in, using the City's posted fees:
- Walk-in court time. Tennis and pickleball courts rent by the hour, on a walk-in basis only.
- Lap swim or family swim. Both are daily fees. The aquatics page describes year-round swimming in a pool heated to 81 to 83 degrees.
- Drop-in fitness classes. These cost $15 per class or $157 for a package of 12, for ages 14 and up.
- Visiting as a member's guest. Guest fees apply, with higher rates on weekends.
The members-only areas are the strength and cardio rooms. Members also get court reservations up to two days ahead, starting at 8 a.m.
The Center went back to regular hours on October 5: 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends.
The newest reason to stop by
For the many non-members who come in on daily fees, Canyon Café gives them a reason to stay after the swim or the match. The City describes it as a place for "members and guests" to eat before or after tennis, swimming, or fitness, "or simply spending time at the Center."
The operator is Giovanni Ortega. He lives in Calabasas, is a member of the Center, and has owned and operated a Peruvian restaurant for 20 years. The café came out of a City request for proposals issued April 16, 2026, for a three-year cold-kitchen concession serving Center patrons. The Center has had a café before. In 2013, The Acorn reported that Atmosphere Events & Catering had taken over café and catering service there.
The City's August e.News previewed the menu: salads and healthy bowls, paninis and sandwiches, smoothies, brewed coffee, breakfast, and snacks, with a focus on healthy and value options. The posted hours are tentative while the café gathers feedback and learns its peak times. They are 7 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday, and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends. Those hours closely follow the Center's own and open one hour after it on weekdays. The café page links to a feedback survey, and the operator can be reached at [email protected].
The café isn't on the Council's fee schedule, and it's the only new feature at the Center this fall. On January 1, a youth lap swim goes to $16 and an hour on a walk-in court goes to $27. Families who swim regularly, or who have a pool party planned for early next year, can compare the 2026 and 2027 columns now. Questions about how the change affects a specific membership go to [email protected] or the front desk.
Our team at Valerie Punwar Associates has watched places like the Tennis & Swim Center shape life in Calabasas for decades, and we keep track of the costs that come with it, from monthly membership rates to the price of a Saturday pool party. If you're wondering how what you've built here translates into value today, ask us, "What's My Home Worth?"
