All-Star Cheer Companies Affiliated With/owning Gyms

[Goosepatrick]

Especially in smaller markets this is common. Larger event producers won't come to town and the more remote areas need and want to compete... So someone starts to be an event producer to help the smaller gyms do their hung without costing a fortune traveling.

 

[chyeeaaa69]

As far as I'm aware Cheer Alliance (now known as Cheer Evolution) was a competition company started up by gym owners across the country (Canada) and many gyms were affiliated with it. Now, I don't know what has come of it. chyeeaaa69 might be able to elaborate.

As far as I know the owners of Cheer Evolution currently are only affiliated with Cheer Force, but I could be wrong as I don't know everyone's affiliation. I don't know much about how the company started either really... I've just always known Frank to "own" it essentially.

 

[tumbleyoda]

There is no issue with a gym owning a cheer company. I worked for one that had a smaller company, and for other gyms that ran a cheer competition or two as a fundraiser. It definitely allows you to see things from the EP side as to why some things are done the way they are.

The issue is when you allow your cheer teams to compete there at your own event against other teams for prizes, trophies, bids, etc. IMO there is nothing that can remove the appearance that something fishy is going on when that happens. Unless your cheer teams come in last in every division. Now if they only go as an exhibition that is fine. However some teams just don't gear up the same for an exhibition as they do for an actual competition.

 

[cheerKT]

There's a smaller EP called UCF ( ucfcheer.com their Nationals in Columbia, SC is actually quite well done production, vendor wise etc.) but I'm almost positive the owner of ACX is also the owner of UCF.

The ACX teams will go to Nationals, but they're only out there as exhibition. Which, if you're going to own both, that's the way to do it. Let your kids get some experience but opt them out of any awards on principle.

You are correct. Randy Dickey, the owner of ACX owns UCF. ACX teams only exhibition but when I cheered there we still got scored by the judges. Score sheets were handed directly over to the coach of that specific team so we could see where we would have placed. I'm assuming it's the same now. It was very beneficial.

 

[yojaehs]

Is there a USASF rule about this? I think it's pretty simple, any direct affiliation btw gym and EP, gym is not allowed to compete (IMO a scored exhibition is completely fine). Seems pretty simple to me. I've actually heard some Premier gyms that got some backlash bc coaches wanted to attend non-Varsity events.

 

[yesucan]

Ct spirit owns spiritfest I believe..

 

[CharlotteASMom]

Charlotte Allstars and Cheersport

CHEERSPORT was created by the CAC owners back when there were no national competitions and they saw a need for one. You have to remember that CAC has been around for over 20 years.

Now don't hold me to the years here because I am "guestimating" but about 6-7 years ago the owners started pulling themsleves away from coaching teams and the day-to-day running of CAC. I believe this was mostly due to CHEERSPORT becoming so big and they simply didn't have time to coach. At the same time, people in the industry starting alluding to the connection between the two and how it helped CAC. As 12stepcheermom said, in the last 8 years that I have been involved with the program only our Special Needs has competed at Nationals. We have had teams exhibition. A coach said to me one time "A CAC team could win a bid at Nationals and have been the best team there and people would still say it was favoritism".

In addition, we do compete at Regionals. If you have ever been to a regional CS comp that CAC has attended, you'd have a hard time suggesting anything was unfair. It's kind of a joke between parents that if the teams are close, the CAC one will probably lose.

In the last few years there have been more steps taken to separate the two even more. So much so that the gym feels like some CAC teams can compete at Nationals now. There was talk of some going this year but I'm not sure where that stands. I think from an outsider looking in, you'd say the relationship is unfair and benefits CAC. However most kids and parents feel like it is the opposite and more of a burden. Most of our kids will never get the privlegde of earning a CS jacket and for any win that CAC receives at a regional you still have the snarky people saying they didn't earn it.

 

[crazycheermom]

But that too is a problem. If you lose to the gym affiliated with company you wonder if it was fair. Same goes if you lose...you wonder if your team was judged more harshly. There is..or may be.. Questions either way.

 

[cydcydchick]

Adding onto this, there are a very large amount of cheer companies that have a large amount of staff from the same gyms .
USA and JAMZ come right to me right away.

Ya a lot of Jamz staff seem to come from the same gym

 

[coachlex1019]

Xtreme Spirit and Twisters Elite used to be affiliated. As far as I know that is no longer the case.

 

[OnceUponACheerleader]

But that too is a problem. If you lose to the gym affiliated with company you wonder if it was fair. Same goes if you lose...you wonder if your team was judged more harshly. There is..or may be.. Questions either way.

It should be scored fairly either way if the owner of the competition company wants to remain professional.

 

[CricketCheerMom]

I think there was a thread about this a while back. Do I have it right that some competitions event producers own allstar gyms? I mean, I can kind of see how it would evolve. Coach A builds a successful gym/cheer team and then branches out to competitions. I just wanted to see if this was actually the case. I do not want to sling mud, call anyone out, but I really just wanted an answer.
Thanks.

yes, there is one down here that just started an EP company. There are a couple of moms down here that do it too.

 

[GreatWhite92]

Is there a USASF rule about this? I think it's pretty simple, any direct affiliation btw gym and EP, gym is not allowed to compete (IMO a scored exhibition is completely fine). Seems pretty simple to me. I've actually heard some Premier gyms that got some backlash bc coaches wanted to attend non-Varsity events.

I am not so sure about this. I am not sure when we became varsity owned but I can distinctly remember when I was little we stopped going to uca because our coaches thought we were scored unfairly. Over the past few years that I came back to we went to WSF and cheersport consistently every year without any problems. I know we went to cheersport when I was younger because I have a jacket in my closet but again I'm not sure when we became varsity owned. I do know some of our old coaches who started the gym work there but like I said in my previous post we don't get any breaks there.

 

[fierceeflyeer]

As far as I know the owners of Cheer Evolution currently are only affiliated with Cheer Force, but I could be wrong as I don't know everyone's affiliation. I don't know much about how the company started either really... I've just always known Frank to "own" it essentially.

I know that at one point it was the owners of Cheerforce (Chris and Frank), PCT (Nat) and UCC (Doug) all owned and started it together. I know a lot of things have been changed over the past year and I'm not sure if this is entirely true anymore. However, I do know for a fact that Frank and possibly still Chris are still involved in Cheer Evolution.

 

[crazycheermom]

It should be scored fairly either way if the owner of the competition company wants to remain professional.

I do not think that just because a company owns a gym, it is automatically not scored fairly. I guess what sticks in my mind is that in a close competition divion, there are going to be questions for whoever finishes second. As I have said before, it's best to guard against the appearance of bias, too.