WAG Gym closing mid-season, any experiences with this?

[lotsofgym]

Just wondering, has anyone been through a gym going out of business mid-season? Was it feasible for the parents' organization to somehow transform itself such that it could rent gym space from other gyms and continue paying the coaches' salaries? Or that an individual like the head coach became the employer of the other head coaches?

 

[gymdog]

At this point I think your best bet is to coordinate as a team and if there are other facilities nearby then you could use the coaches as a resource and figure out which one may be the closest to their current coaching philosophy and see if they can accommodate new team members as long as new coaches come along. It's not ideal but I also don't think most gyms will go for what you're proposing and logistically it seems a lot more complicated. Also a tax nightmare. So I would suggest that if there are other facilities then you just see what's out there. If there aren't other facilities - that's a little more tricky. It's possible that you guys could try to set up a non profit program or petition the county and see if you can make a case for a parks and rec program (it's been done before). In which case they may let you use a school space (some places already have high school gymnastics).

 

[leotardmakermum]

The idea of starting your own gym in place of the old one is an attractive idea, but unless you've got an awful lot of money behind you, it's not practical. Or easy. At one stage I ran some numbers on this and wondered how anyone can make money out of a gym. Not that you'd necessarily be wanting to make money, but you'd need to cover costs.

Good luck and I hope that you can sort things out for your gymnast's continuing gym career.

 

[JBS]

Find a new gym.

 

[2G1B]

My DD went through a similar situation. We ended up just going to a new gym.

 

[GymmieC]

In my personal experience, I have seen it done. Parents pooling money together, training alongside another team at their facility. It lasted for a year at another gym, then they opened their own gym with head coaches in tow. However in the long run, gym closed down after a stint of perhaps five years...and people did eventually go elsewhere. It can be done, but there are tons of expenses and risks. Good luck to you! I know what it means to 'hang in limbo'. It's not a fun place to be. Try to find a stable, well established gym. The only one you owe anything to is your gymmie. I'm not trying to sound harsh, but I too felt some /okay a lot of allegiance to coaches, parents, DDs friends. That was way too heavy a load! Again, good luck!

 

[skschlag]

I would think insurance would be the biggest issue with this....

 

[lotsofgym]

Thanks all for your comments and good luck wishes. Right, I am wondering whether insurance is the deal-killer, who would hold the insurance policy for general liability and workers compensation claims? What if one of the coaches gets injured? Am I missing any other major risks? I guess someone would still have to step forward and become the owner, to collect the parents' tuition and be the responsible party for the tax liability for wages and insurance policy, etc. even if gym space is being borrowed...?

 

[Cartwheelmom]

My DDs first gym closed mid season. Thankfully the gym we go to now knew about this and excepted the girls from that gym to their team without any issues.

 

[bogwoppit]

My DDs first gym closed mid season. Thankfully the gym we go to now knew about this and excepted the girls from that gym to their team without any issues.

I think you mean accepted not excepted.

 

[raenndrops]

There was a gym near us that closed down mid-season a while back (first, it went through a buy out complete with name change - where they lost SOME girls). When they closed, the girls either went to gyms 30+ miles away or they came to our gym or they decided to do dance or they gave up on gymnastics.

The ones that came to our gym finished the season in their old team leotards (it didn't make sense to have them buy new ones mid-season, especially since their colors "worked" with ours.

Good luck with whatever you end up doing!