Parents New trend in gym ownership? (The Business Side Of Gymnastics / Powers Gymnastics)

[gymhootmamma]

When they were cutting the program boys and girls were about the same

 

[txgymfan]

The Houston piece is poorly written. It mentions three gymns shutting down their women’s team but only names one. They also only spoke to one parent, or at least that’s what they showed.

 

[mezzamare]

Don't know personally, but on mymeetscores it looks like about 30ish gymnasts, roughly half in XCEL. Of the JO girls, most are in compulsory.

 

[gymhootmamma]

The Houston piece is poorly written. It mentions three gymns shutting down their women’s team but only names one. They also only spoke to one parent, or at least that’s what they showed.

We are trying to get more to speak on camera. We got their attention and they want to run with it. If you would like to speak, contact Sabirah with KPRC2. If you are out of state we can zoom

 

[Anonymous Post]

Bull city Anon parent here. The daytime schedule will stay for the school year. Perhaps kids who cannot do daytime once summer ends will find other options, but it was made abundantly clear that will be NO evening optional program going forward as of 6/5. Not just for summer, but ongoing. The evening group has been scrambling to find new gym or flexible school options, so this is for real.

 

[gymcoach41]

BAD NEWS and BAD BUSINESS in my opinion. They are buying gyms all over the US and then months later completely closing and shutting down the competitive programs. This is leaving thousands of hopeful collegiate athletes without a gym to train or traveling hours to find new gyms to train. Not all gyms they are purchasing are in large cities. They are making false promises to coaches and families they never intend to live up to. There are several articles regarding this online and posts by hundreds of team families this is happening to. The article quoting the owner makes it seem like they are doing this for the right reasons to make gymnastics "fun" for all rather than cater to the elite athlete programs. However, if this was their true goal, why were they not purchasing recreational only gymnastics facilities to improve those? Seems like something more sinister is occurring here. In general gymnastics is not a business that is highly profitable. Most gyms are open for the love of the sport and children and a chance to make a difference. No one is in it to get rich. So their business model of purchasing gyms doesn't make sense. Furthermore, I don't understand the investors purpose for funding these endeavors. I used to do the financials for a highly competitive program and I knew the ins and outs of what programs brought in financially each month and how much they were spending out in coaching salaries alone, which doesn't include all the other overhead to run a business. Does not make sense and it seems like they are trying real hard to ruin competitive gymnastics.

 

[Dsbass]

They aren’t opening up more recreational gyms, they’re buying out successful competitive gyms and eliminating the competitive programs. They bought our gym and promised “exciting renovations” ( I was thinking “oh good, they’ll fix that broken sink in the bathroom”). Instead they just took part of the gym space and put in a ninja gym (didn’t fix up anything else). About 6 months in they cancelled all Jo programs with about a weeks notice. They kept the xcel program which my daughters are on, but almost every coach quit, all the upper level girls quit, half of the xcel girls have quit over the past year. Both of my daughters repeated a level and scored worse than last year. They just announced they are reducing the hours for xcel. There are fewer rec kids because the gym was marketed by word of mouth and all the parents are pissed. There’s really no silver lining here.

In many ways it sounds very positive. The more recreational gymnastics programs there are available, the better.

Gymnastics is one of the best things a child can do. It is the foundation of all sports, and kids who do gymnastics, when they are young, can take you almost any sport later and do well. The types of movements in gymnastics also benefit everyone so much cognitively.

Competitive gymnastics is an exciting icing of this sport, but it can be quite exclusive. As many facilities as possible that offer recreational gymnastics to as many people as possible (kids and adults, the Us needs a lot more adult gymnastics) will be beneficial to everyone.

It won’t destroy competitive gymnastics in the area, in fact it will enhance it. More recreational kids, means more kids doing gymnastics. They then tell their friends, and word of mouth increases it further. When a new gymnastics club opens, the result isn’t usually that it takes kids away from other clubs, the result is that more kids do gymnastics.

With lots of kids doing recreational gymnastics, the competitive gyms will have an Avenue for more recruitment too. There will be kids in those gyms who take up the Rec classes and decide from that, to take their gymnastics to the next level, and competitive clubs will benefit.

Of course they are money minded, businesses need to be money minded. But they are making money by getting lots and lots and lots of kids involved in gymnastics to build their strength, agility and confidence. This is Not a bad thing.

 

[RTT2]

I feel like it might be time to start introducing conspiracy theories- the Powers group is funded by a country looking to destroy the women's team program. This group came up with the nefarious plan to buy successful gyms in the States and end their competitive programs, thereby insuring that the US will begin to fall behind developing talent while the unnamed country surges ahead!

Seriously, the whole thing sounds like a nightmare for girls and families who have been impacted by these gym purchases. And pushing good coaches out by requiring them to sign non-compete agreements and then firing them or marginalizing their role in the gym? That is evil.

 

[NutterButter]

I feel like it might be time to start introducing conspiracy theories- the Powers group is funded by a country looking to destroy the women's team program. This group came up with the nefarious plan to buy successful gyms in the States and end their competitive programs, thereby insuring that the US will begin to fall behind developing talent while the unnamed country surges ahead!

OMG! I just did some digging around and I see it.

 

[RTT2]

OMG! I just did some digging around and I see it.

I haven't done any digging, but based on the articles posted it does start to read like something out of a movie plot. They have gone after some really good programs. If you just want to buy up gyms, aren't there plenty of mostly rec gyms out there to buy and easily set up a Ninja/rec program? And why try to torpedo the careers of talented coaches?

 

[Geoffrey Taucer]

*shrug* it's not some nefarious plot, it's capitalism greed and profit motive doing what they always do: taking good things and destroying them to squeeze out a few extra dollars.

 

[Pineapple_Lump]

but almost every coach quit, all the upper level girls quit, half of the xcel girls have quit over the past year. Both of my daughters repeated a level and scored worse than last year. They just announced they are reducing the hours for xcel. There are fewer rec kids because the gym was marketed by word of mouth and all the parents are pissed. There’s really no silver lining here.

This is my biggest issue. Regardless of what or why they are doing this... This has just removed a lot of coaching experience and potential future coaches from the gym.
Generally strong competitive programs have the best recreational programs as far as giving the customers what they want (which is to learn skills). Long term these gyms are going to end up with staff who know very little about teaching gymnastics and have limited staff able to teach/mentor.
They might survive if they are the only option in town/demand exceeds space elsewhere - but I just don't see families sticking with these gyms long if there is a better option nearby especially if they keep raising fees as rumored.

 

[Aussie_coach]

What I don’t understand is why these good gyms are selling their gyms?

I’m the owner of a large gym, I just can’t understand why so gym owners would be selling up their gyms?

Sure, one or two may sell because it’s not going well financially or they are ready to move onto something else in life. But why so many?

 

[GymnastMomX2]

What I don’t understand is why these good gyms are selling their gyms?

I know at least one or two of the gyms they bought had some bad press around past coaches with safe sport investigations, maybe owners were just looking for an easy out? Maybe they were secretly struggling financially? Who knows.

 

[Gymmom237]

The Houston piece is poorly written. It mentions three gymns shutting down their women’s team but only names one. They also only spoke to one parent, or at least that’s what they showed.

Yes they reached out to speak to the other gyms, but went ahead and ran the story to get the word out. The 3 gyms here are Rowland Ballard (2 locations), Houston Gymnastics Academy, and Mazeika’s. They even had the audacity to approach Simone Biles gym. At Rowland Ballard, the gym was doing very well and in no way struggling. The previous owners were just ready to retire. I was coached by him myself and do not believe he would have sold to them had he known what they were planning to do. I fully believe they fed him lies and he hasn’t been able to speak on it due to signing an NDA. There was literally ZERO communication from these awful people. We found out about the sale of the gym on FB! They came in and lied to everyone, said there would be “no changes” and immediately made most coaches sign non competes. One dance instructor who had been there probably 30 years wouldn’t sign and left. Parents were never notified and found out ON FB about her being gone and didn’t even know who was teaching their child’s class that night! They then fired the gymnastics director who had been there 20 years, which they also never notified anyone of and we again found out ON FB! Then the first piece of communication we received from them was their copy and pasted email stating they were eliminating the JO program and going to Xcel only. Not ONE single coach stayed on to coach Xcel and not ONE single girl stayed. The new schedule showed the highest level of Xcel they offered was 5 hours less than what my daughter had previously been practicing, but the same exact price! Which isn’t that the entire point of Xcel? Less time and less money?? They’re raising prices and making class sizes larger. However, I think Powers underestimated our tight knit community and how word spreads because moms did not hold back on social media letting everyone know what they did to us and to not trust them. And from everything I’ve heard and seen, the parking lot is emptier and class sizes are SO small. I do think there’s more to it - if they wanted to just do Rec and Ninja warrior fine, go buy Rec only gyms. They are intentionally targeting successful USAG programs and eliminating them along the way. Something is not right.

 

[txgymfan]

Thank you for the insight. That is horrible! Hopefully future gyms will be able to avoid selling to them.

 

[AnonAtx]

So we are in the middle of attempting to move gyms for a multitude of reasons, but the top one being a complete coaching change in her current gym that we travel an hour each way for currently. My daughter is in high school and a multi year level 10. There are a couple of options nearby that will cut our travel time and have great level 10 teams with a proven track record of sending girls to college. Until this week, our top choice was Capital. All of the recent news has me very concerned about this now. I can’t imagine moving her, only to have it crumble. Very worrisome.

 

[gymmon22]

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Has anyone had experience with Powers Gymnastics? I am curious to hear about it and if it was positive or negative.

It sounds like Jill Powers owns this company and is buying up quite a few gyms in Arizona, Texas, and North Carolina. She appears to be shutting down quite a few of the compulsory and optional programs after purchasing the gyms because those programs are not profitable. The gymnasts are then left having to find another gym, sometimes increasing their commute by an hour, or more.

Powers Gymnastics Secures $16.8 Million Series A Led By Relevance Ventures to Scale its Multi-Vertical Approach

/PRNewswire/ -- Powers Gymnastics ("Powers"), the youth sports, facilities, equipment and gymnastics program provider, announced today $16.8 million in Series...

www.prnewswire.com

EDIT: Image added by ChalkBucket

I do have experience with Powers and it was definitely negative. I can say with confidence all my fellow parents would agree.
They bought our old gym in 2020, told us they were looking to expand our DP program, put in a Ninja warrior course, look for a better building etc., but most importantly that they would not change anything. The only thing they did was the Ninja Warrior after they cut the DP program in 2022. They told us that the coach was not qualified to coach upper levels and they had looked but couldn’t find anyone. Xcel or leaving was our only option they told us. So we left, and I’m so glad we did.
Fast forward to 2 weeks ago and they have cut XCEL at all 3 locations in AZ. I believe they may have done that a few other locations. Thankfully we did not go through a 2nd heartbreak at the hands of Powers.

 

[gymmom2027]

does anyone know this gym? how "small" is the womens program?

We had about 30-35 girls across Xcel and DP programs. One of our level 8s won AA at regionals this year.

 

[gymmom2027]

This is my biggest issue. Regardless of what or why they are doing this... This has just removed a lot of coaching experience and potential future coaches from the gym.
Generally strong competitive programs have the best recreational programs as far as giving the customers what they want (which is to learn skills). Long term these gyms are going to end up with staff who know very little about teaching gymnastics and have limited staff able to teach/mentor.
They might survive if they are the only option in town/demand exceeds space elsewhere - but I just don't see families sticking with these gyms long if there is a better option nearby especially if they keep raising fees as rumored.

This is my biggest issue. Regardless of what or why they are doing this... This has just removed a lot of coaching experience and potential future coaches from the gym.
Generally strong competitive programs have the best recreational programs as far as giving the customers what they want (which is to learn skills). Long term these gyms are going to end up with staff who know very little about teaching gymnastics and have limited staff able to teach/mentor.
They might survive if they are the only option in town/demand exceeds space elsewhere - but I just don't see families sticking with these gyms long if there is a better option nearby especially if they keep raising fees as rumored.

This is very true. Our gym had brought on and was training a very highly motivated rec coach to work with women's team. When they let go our head coach, he remained with team, but he didn't have a mentor with as much experience at coaching.
Another very seasoned rec coach also "retired" after they cut the women's team. He was known for identifying talent in rec classes and moving those girls up to team. Rec classes are mostly helmed by people with little experience in gymnastics/tumbling. Without the funnel of talent to team, I think rec classes will be primarily preschool/lower elementary, then kids will move on to other sports with more potential for competition. And coaching staff is left without all the knowledge of technique the team coaches bring to the table.