All-Star 2020-2021: New Gyms, Closings, And Acquisitions

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I’m loving everyone’s replies on this topic! It’s really eye opening for me to hear the parents on this thread chime in on the criteria they use to pick a gym. I’m left a little conflicted though… I don’t mean to drag this out so thanks for being so helpful but it’s nice to learn about the ins and outs of acquisitions.
I still have some questions.

According to most of the parents they use the following criteria to pick a program in their area:

1. Location/Convenience
2. Price
3. Staff

Well just playing devils advocate here but wouldn’t most of these things be largely unaffected by an acquisition? I mean, wouldn’t tumbleweed town allstars typically retain their old facility, pricing structure and most of their old staff? (For the most part. I mean no drastic changes are usually happening to these things)
And if that’s the case then what’s the argument for slapping a brand new World Cup logo on their front door? After all, a lot of the tutu tumbling, birthday parties and mommy & me classes are going to attract customers if they had just kept on being tumbleweed town allstars, right? Those people don’t care what name is on the front. So let’s say Tumbleweed town allstars is thriving financially then the ONLY reason they have for taking on a franchise deal would be to attract the talent pools from other local programs and make even more money. Let’s say they’re NOT thriving financially then the ONLY reason that I can imagine they’d take on a franchise deal is to once again attract talent from these other local programs and keep their doors open, right? What other reason would they have to take on a new name if not to attract more athletes from local programs? Especially if their operations are remaining mostly the same beyond just the name.
We have established that parents don’t really care about the name on the front of the door because they use a different criteria to select a program for their cp and we’ve established that most parents who are new to cheer aren’t really familiar with the different programs so what’s the incentive there for Tumbleweed Town allstars to take on a new identity?

Let’s be real, if these kids and parents at these other local programs switch over to the newly rebranded World Cup tumbleweed town location then it would only be because their old gym wasn’t as successful at competitions, right? I mean Tumbleweed Town allstars has always been there so what was stopping them from going there before the acquisition? Because like I said earlier there wouldn’t be a ton of wholesale change happening at World Cup Tumbleweed town besides the name. So the expectation here from these new customers is that World Cup is taking over Tumbleweed and is funneling in what makes their main location so great in order to deliver that to the Tumbleweed town market and attract these athletes from these other gyms. It’s the only thing that makes sense to me. If parents don’t really care about the name on the front of the door or the number of titles being won then why are these mega gyms entering these new markets and these old gyms allowing themselves to be acquired? Location, price, and staff aren’t going to change drastically so what’s the incentive here?

My theory is that these mega gyms know that with a new fancy name on the front of these old facilities there will be a small exodus from those other local programs which will make this old program money and the only reason those people would leave their old program is because they’re expecting a certain product that couldn’t be delivered at their current program which is competitive success. Am I making sense or is that crazy to think?

Now okay let’s just imagine that I’m right and the main incentive for franchises to expand is to attract local talent by convincing them that World Cup is coming to their town and they should be super excited to win championships and leave their current program then the question still remains: Okay you have a few new athletes who said they’d never cheer at Tumbleweed town allstars, even though they’re closer to home, because their teams never do well at competitions but decide they’ll make an exception for World Cup Tumbleweed Town. These athletes and parents also care enough about cheer to know the World Cup name and decide to leave their old gym and try it out… GREAT successful acquisition. More money less problems! But wait a second… The athletes slowly but surely realize that this is just Tumbleweed Town allstars with a new name which is what we’ve seen with most of these satellite programs at competitions besides the few stingray and rockstar locations mentioned above regarding summit placements. I’ve also experienced it firsthand with the Top Gun Orlando acquisition. It was still Orlando Allstars. When I was there they were using most of the same coaches, same techniques, same conditioning, (Orlando allstars used to use top gun choreographers for their worlds teams before the acquisition anyway) same choreographers too. But different location, and different uniforms.

So it brings me back to square one. Okay if you’re not ensuring that these other programs are as closely matched to your main location then why do you continue to expand? Like won’t people start to see through the facade and sooner or later these acquisitions won’t mean anything to these local parents and athletes and Tumbleweed Town allstars will be right back where they started financially?

But then someone said money is the main motivator which makes a ton more sense to me but I still have to wonder if that’s a good long term plan because, like I said above, in terms of brand integrity won’t these local parents and athletes who care about rankings like we do start to see through these acquisitions sooner or later? Which means they’ll go back to the gym that’s better priced and more convenient and these mega gyms won’t have much financial incentive to keep expanding?

So from a business perspective, beyond all the cheer nonsense, this still doesn’t make a ton of sense to me. Like okay, these mega gyms acquire these small gyms when they’re in a bad place financially and get these small gyms to feed them more money and the small gym gets to attract more athletes with the new name. A fix and flip if you will… but the foundation of the house is still the same because the small gym trains their athletes the exact same way they did before and it all comes tumbling down eventually at competition and now the small gym is still in a bad place financially because mom decides to take her cp back to the more convenient gym in the area.
I still think it makes more sense to focus on expanding your vision in its entirety to ONE satellite location before moving on and continuing to expand like some of these Mega gyms do. But I could be wrong.

Genuinely curious here and ready to learn. Thanks again. I know my posts are super long winded. My brain is so scrambled at this point working through this in my head. I also know it doesn’t matter because these mega gyms will continue to expand regardless but at least I don’t need to be baffled every time it happens or perhaps I do. Idk.


I franchised with a big name program for last season. I live in an area where there are a ton of micro gyms that are mostly founded by parents who don't like where their kid is placed at program X (literally, multiple got their start that way....) or rec coaches who want to get more into competitive programs. Most programs in my area (direct area, within about a 30 minute drive) don't exceed level 3. Occasionally you might get a micro level 4 team (I think the last one prior to this year was a team of 7). Coaches don't get opportunity to develop, and when those kids are ready for progression past level 3, they start driving at least an hour each way to get to a gym 50+ miles from home.

I have been involved in programs in this area, since it's where I grew up, but I also went away to school to a big city with a TON of programs, and bounced around other parts of the state as an adult in my working career. I've seen a lot of what works and doesn't work at programs. When I got back to this area, I wanted a program where coaches development and athlete development were important, and we could retain the athletes we grew, trained and developed higher than a level 3 team. I knew I wasn't going to be able to be successful as "tuckxandxtwist allstars", even though I know what my business plan, credentials, ability and ideas are, strictly because of the sheer number of micro programs. I knew I needed the big name behind me, and something to really set me apart from the other programs in the area. I'm the only D1 program in my area. The next closest is in a different state, and a solid hour drive minimum without ANY traffic, and that is unlikely in that area. After that, you're looking at a drive upwards of two hours for the next D1 program. There are some other programs near by with some level 4/5/6 teams, but again, it's at least a 45-60 minute drive for almost all of my athletes.

I found a program that aligned with what I wanted in what I offer, had a solid name to back me up, and would be there for me to utilize and grow with. We opened during covid, had a pretty amazingly successful first season, and have tryouts for season 2 starting tomorrow. We are retaining over 90% of our full year athletes (almost 100% if you didn't include our seniors leaving), growing almost 50% more in our full year program alone, and have seen our kids grow tremendously over the last ten months of being open. It was absolutely the best decision for our program and our location/demographic. That's only my outlook on it though, but figured it was worth sharing the why behind at least one decision (of the hundreds) in franchising lol.
 
I franchised with a big name program for last season. I live in an area where there are a ton of micro gyms that are mostly founded by parents who don't like where their kid is placed at program X (literally, multiple got their start that way....) or rec coaches who want to get more into competitive programs. Most programs in my area (direct area, within about a 30 minute drive) don't exceed level 3. Occasionally you might get a micro level 4 team (I think the last one prior to this year was a team of 7). Coaches don't get opportunity to develop, and when those kids are ready for progression past level 3, they start driving at least an hour each way to get to a gym 50+ miles from home.

I have been involved in programs in this area, since it's where I grew up, but I also went away to school to a big city with a TON of programs, and bounced around other parts of the state as an adult in my working career. I've seen a lot of what works and doesn't work at programs. When I got back to this area, I wanted a program where coaches development and athlete development were important, and we could retain the athletes we grew, trained and developed higher than a level 3 team. I knew I wasn't going to be able to be successful as "tuckxandxtwist allstars", even though I know what my business plan, credentials, ability and ideas are, strictly because of the sheer number of micro programs. I knew I needed the big name behind me, and something to really set me apart from the other programs in the area. I'm the only D1 program in my area. The next closest is in a different state, and a solid hour drive minimum without ANY traffic, and that is unlikely in that area. After that, you're looking at a drive upwards of two hours for the next D1 program. There are some other programs near by with some level 4/5/6 teams, but again, it's at least a 45-60 minute drive for almost all of my athletes.

I found a program that aligned with what I wanted in what I offer, had a solid name to back me up, and would be there for me to utilize and grow with. We opened during covid, had a pretty amazingly successful first season, and have tryouts for season 2 starting tomorrow. We are retaining over 90% of our full year athletes (almost 100% if you didn't include our seniors leaving), growing almost 50% more in our full year program alone, and have seen our kids grow tremendously over the last ten months of being open. It was absolutely the best decision for our program and our location/demographic. That's only my outlook on it though, but figured it was worth sharing the why behind at least one decision (of the hundreds) in franchising lol.


Wow this is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your firsthand experience with one of these mergers. I had no idea that the other small gyms in these markets were operating like that.
Correct me if I’m wrong but it kind of sounds like that old small town trope where people are excited just to have a new McDonalds open up down the street.
In your case, it serves as a place that all these kids can gather in one gym instead of splitting the talent pool amongst these other smaller gyms. As a result, these athletes get the opportunity to progress beyond what could be offered at their current program. Plus, you get the financial stability of being in a relationship with a larger conglomerate. This sounds like a win-win for everyone. This certainly shifts my perspective a bit on how franchising can impact these areas. Thanks again for the reply!
 
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Wow this is amazing! Thank you so much for sharing your firsthand experience with one of these mergers. I had no idea that the other small gyms in these markets were operating like that.
Correct me if I’m wrong but it kind of sounds like that old small town trope where people are excited just to have a new McDonalds open up down the street.
In your case, it serves as a place that all these kids can gather in one gym instead of splitting the talent pool amongst these other smaller gyms. As a result, these athletes get the opportunity to progress beyond what could be offered at their current program. Plus, you get the financial stability of being in a relationship with a larger conglomerate. This sounds like a win-win for everyone. This certainly shifts my perspective a bit on how franchising can impact these areas. Thanks again for the reply!

to be fair, I was not a merger, but a brand new, unaffiliated program when I opened. I didn’t take an old program and change its name. That being said, another local program had just recently announced not having a cheer program for the upcoming season anymore, and most of their athletes and staff came to my program, but again, it was MAYBE 25 kids because it was a micro program. We had athletes from 4ish programs last season, and are pulling from another 6-8 programs for this season.

people ask all the time “which program do you want to take over first” and that’s absolutely not my goal, and never will be. I don’t want to lose our local competition because that’s what is going to keep us at our best, and we have some great d2 programs relatively close. I just want to provide an opportunity for our athletes and coaches to keep developing and not only be a feeder program for other programs further away, or leave cheer all together because they don’t want the drive.

ETA - honestly the biggest thing we have to our advantage is the ability to have a large network of opportunities from our other locations. We learn a lot, both cheer and business wise, having other locations in different demographics, have tons of people to bounce ideas off and can call in reinforcements, mentoring, consulting, help, clinics, etc from each other if we wanted. Those kind of opportunities don’t exist for the standard micro gym around here generally without a large price tag, when I basically just have to unlock my phone.
 
The thing is what do you really get out of being on "that team" or going to "that gym" in the real world, really nothing. Yes a few will get some $$ towards college, but not like any other full ride sports. Lucky for me, my daughter who is in her 15th? year at the same small gym didnt care about any of that. Great for those parents who have the time to drive and to fulfill a dream that some children have! We love our small gym. We were 5th last year and .05 away from 3rd this year at Worlds. So we are known as the little gym that could and can!!! Heres to next season......
 
The thing is what do you really get out of being on "that team" or going to "that gym" in the real world, really nothing. Yes a few will get some $$ towards college, but not like any other full ride sports. Lucky for me, my daughter who is in her 15th? year at the same small gym didnt care about any of that. Great for those parents who have the time to drive and to fulfill a dream that some children have! We love our small gym. We were 5th last year and .05 away from 3rd this year at Worlds. So we are known as the little gym that could and can!!! Heres to next season......


Yup, every kid is different. Some kids want to be the absolute best they can be and want to be on a great team, just for the sake of trying to reach their full potential, not because it's going to lead to a college scholarship or any financial gain. Collegiate cheer is like a different world and not every kid will want to participate in that, but kids might still have dreams of globing at Worlds or attending a Worlds caliber gym. Other kids don't care as much about that stuff and are fine with however their team does, or they might be more into the social aspect of the sport.

Your team was very close to top 3 at Worlds, so your gym is doing really well. But for families who spend a lot of money to go to Worlds and come in 23rd in Prelims and don't really have the skill, it can be wearing and can make a bigger name gym more enticing. Some kids are happy just to take a trip to Disney World with their friends and be on the Worlds stage; other kids strive for more. The assumption is that if you're with a bigger name gym, you'll have a better chance of doing well. Sometimes that's the case and sometimes it isn't. "Satellite Gym-Arkansas" isn't going to be a Worlds contender just became "Main Gym-Florida" is, that's not how it works. Every gym/team is different and is made up of different components (athletes, coaches, etc), even if the same name is on the door.
 
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to be fair, I was not a merger, but a brand new, unaffiliated program when I opened. I didn’t take an old program and change its name. That being said, another local program had just recently announced not having a cheer program for the upcoming season anymore, and most of their athletes and staff came to my program, but again, it was MAYBE 25 kids because it was a micro program. We had athletes from 4ish programs last season, and are pulling from another 6-8 programs for this season.

people ask all the time “which program do you want to take over first” and that’s absolutely not my goal, and never will be. I don’t want to lose our local competition because that’s what is going to keep us at our best, and we have some great d2 programs relatively close. I just want to provide an opportunity for our athletes and coaches to keep developing and not only be a feeder program for other programs further away, or leave cheer all together because they don’t want the drive.

ETA - honestly the biggest thing we have to our advantage is the ability to have a large network of opportunities from our other locations. We learn a lot, both cheer and business wise, having other locations in different demographics, have tons of people to bounce ideas off and can call in reinforcements, mentoring, consulting, help, clinics, etc from each other if we wanted. Those kind of opportunities don’t exist for the standard micro gym around here generally without a large price tag, when I basically just have to unlock my phone.

^^^I think people have been brainwashed to think every business is out to take the competition down, when your mentality is the mindset of every business person I know. Even in Corporate retail we would go to our large competitors, as well as, small businesses and comparison shop. We would introduce ourselves to management and owners, so we could discuss local economy and assortment mix that was and was not working. We all knew to keep each other strong, kept a strong customer population coming back to the mall and that helped everyone.....well, until the internet. On that note, mergers and acquisitions have been demonized and often thought of as hostile takeovers, when in reality it is often the best, or only, way to stop profit margin erosion, save jobs, and not lose a market in a geographic area. I've watched many billion dollar Corps go from booming sales, to struggling margins, and those mergers are their last ditch efforts at life support. I'm very protective of our Corps, because I am very protective of small businesses, they go hand in hand and thank goodness they aren't cookie cutter or they wouldn't meet the needs of all customers.
 
^^^I think people have been brainwashed to think every business is out to take the competition down, when your mentality is the mindset of every business person I know. Even in Corporate retail we would go to our large competitors, as well as, small businesses and comparison shop. We would introduce ourselves to management and owners, so we could discuss local economy and assortment mix that was and was not working. We all knew to keep each other strong, kept a strong customer population coming back to the mall and that helped everyone.....well, until the internet. On that note, mergers and acquisitions have been demonized and often thought of as hostile takeovers, when in reality it is often the best, or only, way to stop profit margin erosion, save jobs, and not lose a market in a geographic area. I've watched many billion dollar Corps go from booming sales, to struggling margins, and those mergers are their last ditch efforts at life support. I'm very protective of our Corps, because I am very protective of small businesses, they go hand in hand and thank goodness they aren't cookie cutter or they wouldn't meet the needs of all customers.

exactly. Do I want every kid in the area to want to come to my program? Absolutely. Do I know I’m not the right fit for every kid? You betcha. Without having to find ways to want to make my program better (regarding everything from finances, to uniforms to which competitions we attend) than the one down the street, I’d never develop as a business and eventually grow stagnant.
 
Question:

I saw that Cheer Athletics had a staff training event with all locations invited/attending.

I know Cali has Cali Camp with all their teams/coaches together for trainings and skills camp.

I wonder how often other mega gyms have group camps and trainings with other locations?

I feel like it would be a huge benefit to be able to learn from (example) other coaches and have some of the larger/more established program coaches work with your kids.
 
Question:

I saw that Cheer Athletics had a staff training event with all locations invited/attending.

I know Cali has Cali Camp with all their teams/coaches together for trainings and skills camp.

I wonder how often other mega gyms have group camps and trainings with other locations?

I feel like it would be a huge benefit to be able to learn from (example) other coaches and have some of the larger/more established program coaches work with your kids.
World Cup is having their camp this weekend in NJ and all of their different locations are coming.
 
Question:

I saw that Cheer Athletics had a staff training event with all locations invited/attending.

I know Cali has Cali Camp with all their teams/coaches together for trainings and skills camp.

I wonder how often other mega gyms have group camps and trainings with other locations?

I feel like it would be a huge benefit to be able to learn from (example) other coaches and have some of the larger/more established program coaches work with your kids.


Top Gun has staff training for all locations after evaluations.
 
that’s really surprising! I though big gyms generally stayed away from markets with existing big gyms?

I really don’t think gyms consider that as much as much as people think.

Also I tend to notice that a city may be big but still lacking in conveniently located gyms.

Example: I don’t live there but people post on here about the DMV area all the time. The general consensus is that while it is a huge metro area with tons of gyms, people are not big on driving more than 20 minutes to get to activities. So while the DMV has multiple CEA locations, multiple MDT locations, tons of other small programs, etc. there is still room in the market for more depending on where you put it.
 
I really don’t think gyms consider that as much as much as people think.

Also I tend to notice that a city may be big but still lacking in conveniently located gyms.

Example: I don’t live there but people post on here about the DMV area all the time. The general consensus is that while it is a huge metro area with tons of gyms, people are not big on driving more than 20 minutes to get to activities. So while the DMV has multiple CEA locations, multiple MDT locations, tons of other small programs, etc. there is still room in the market for more depending on where you put it.

While I’d generally agree with you, Cincinnati is not big, and MW is literally a mile down the road from Woodlands recent expansion. Seems fishy that Rays would open a gym after the season has started, forcing families to buy new uniforms, changing team names. Does that happen often? It seems new locations are usually announced in the spring before tryouts? Or maybe it was a panic move by MW worried that they wouldn’t survive?

For example, Dallas is huge. More than enough athletes to support multiple gyms as it currently does. Seems like a Stingrays could easily pick off enough athletes to be profitable, but why don’t they? CA’s new locations have all been in secondary markets (Omaha, Pensacola, Rochester). They could easily open in…Atlanta and be a viable competitor based on name recognition alone. I don’t know. When you have two big names competing for a finite number of athletes, it seems like no one place will be strong…
 
While I’d generally agree with you, Cincinnati is not big, and MW is literally a mile down the road from Woodlands recent expansion. Seems fishy that Rays would open a gym after the season has started, forcing families to buy new uniforms, changing team names. Does that happen often? It seems new locations are usually announced in the spring before tryouts? Or maybe it was a panic move by MW worried that they wouldn’t survive?

For example, Dallas is huge. More than enough athletes to support multiple gyms as it currently does. Seems like a Stingrays could easily pick off enough athletes to be profitable, but why don’t they? CA’s new locations have all been in secondary markets (Omaha, Pensacola, Rochester). They could easily open in…Atlanta and be a viable competitor based on name recognition alone. I don’t know. When you have two big names competing for a finite number of athletes, it seems like no one place will be strong…

I was under the impression that it's one of the MW locations that is becoming Rays. Tanya is stepping down and it is being taken over by Daniel Quick, who ran a gym in Northern KY called Matrix maybe? I've been out of Kentucky for a bit, so I may be a bit off but that's what I thought.
 
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