All-Star Renting Space In Gymnastics Center

[cheercoachtiff]

We are an all-star program that is considering closing our gym and renting space in a gymnastics center instead, due to increasing costs and high overhead of having our own facility. I've been a gym owner for many years and have always had my own facility, so this is a hard transition for me to wrap my head around. Are there any gym owners on this forum who are currently, or have in the past, rented space in a gymnastics center for your all-star cheer program that is not affiliated with the gymnastics center? It seems most gymnastics centers that have all-star cheer programs are hosted by the center itself, so I'm looking for advice from all-star programs who are not owned by the gymnastics center. Would love to pick someone's brain if I could!

Here are a few of my initial questions:
1. Do you only have access to the spring floor when you rent space? We are finding that to be the case with our local gymnastics center, so we would not have a permanent space to function as an "office" for our program.
2. How do you establish a home base for your teams when you do not have a permanent "office" in a gymnastics center? How do you conduct business (ie: take payments, sell clothes/food/drinks, post announcements, etc).
3. Do you only accept payments online, since you will not have an office?
4. Where do you keep trophies and banners?
5. Do you find that athletes choose other gyms because you do not have your own facility? We have a loyal following who I believe would stay with us no matter where we practice, but new incoming athletes would be the concern. Do you feel there is a stigma of being less attractive of a program if you do not have your own facility?

 

[Official OWECheer]

Bumping.

 

[Charolais]

We are an all-star program that is considering closing our gym and renting space in a gymnastics center instead, due to increasing costs and high overhead of having our own facility. I've been a gym owner for many years and have always had my own facility, so this is a hard transition for me to wrap my head around. Are there any gym owners on this forum who are currently, or have in the past, rented space in a gymnastics center for your all-star cheer program that is not affiliated with the gymnastics center? It seems most gymnastics centers that have all-star cheer programs are hosted by the center itself, so I'm looking for advice from all-star programs who are not owned by the gymnastics center. Would love to pick someone's brain if I could!

Here are a few of my initial questions:
1. Do you only have access to the spring floor when you rent space? We are finding that to be the case with our local gymnastics center, so we would not have a permanent space to function as an "office" for our program.
2. How do you establish a home base for your teams when you do not have a permanent "office" in a gymnastics center? How do you conduct business (ie: take payments, sell clothes/food/drinks, post announcements, etc).
3. Do you only accept payments online, since you will not have an office?
4. Where do you keep trophies and banners?
5. Do you find that athletes choose other gyms because you do not have your own facility? We have a loyal following who I believe would stay with us no matter where we practice, but new incoming athletes would be the concern. Do you feel there is a stigma of being less attractive of a program if you do not have your own facility?

I'm not a gym owner but will attempt to answer based on experience.
1. Unless your rental agreement identifies a dedicated, exclusive practice area, you will not have unfettered access to the spring floor. If you can manage a dedicated entrance/exit for your program, even better.
2. You have to develop a mobile office. In other words, identify a certain section of the gymnastics center where you will set up a temporary office to receive payments and post announcements on a portable board. If the gymnastics center sells food/drinks, there is likely a prohibition in your rental agreement for engaging in activities that conflict with the gymnastics business.
3. Get a Square reader and accept mobile payments.
4. Your rental agreement must spell out where you may keep trophies and banners. This is a lot easier to do if you have a dedicated, exclusive practice area.
5. Yes, athletes will choose other gyms because they seek a physical home. Your loyal followers may grow weary of feeling like guests at the gymnastics location, and leave in search of a home. Difficult to grow your brand if you cannot hang out a shingle.

You don't mention the conundrum presented by gymnastics kids wanting to switch over to competitive cheer...

 

[All*Star*Addict]

Our gym is actually set up this way, we are the opposite though. We are a completely new gym just starting out, so we are testing the waters before we go and put up the cost of an actual gym upon ourselves.

To answer your questions:

The gym that we rent floor space from, only rents us the actual floor spring board floor space. We have no access to any other equipment. It's cheap, so we aren't complaining , although personally I'd love for us to find our own space soon. Also, we have to work around them. We are in there two days a week (weekends only), and we are on their timing terms.

As far as payment goes, we have a finance officer and a fundraising coordinator that takes on the role of collecting payments and these are kept track in an excel spreadsheet and all money is deposited into accounts. They take cash, checks, and paypal for payments. Our announcements to our parents are all run though our parent groups on facebook.

So far all of our trophies can be kept at the gym so that hasn't been a problem.

We are literally only in our first "trial" season, so I can't answer the question about recruiting and keeping members.

Feel free to pm me with anything else you may want to ask.

 

[BlueCat]

It has been a while (20 + years), but we rented space our first couple of seasons from gymnastics centers and other places. There were minor issues, but we turned out OK.

 

[Ren]

The majority of teams in the UK (although it is changing) rent space from schools/gymnastics centres etc., rather than having their own facility, so I can't really help in terms of keeping athletes.

I would just say make sure you work out/discuss anything you think might potentially pose a problem with the gym before you sign a contract - that way you know what you're getting and can work around it. You may be able to hire a small "office" room for a few hours over the weekend where you can take payments/have meetings etc. if you feel you need it, although you can probably do everything online if that's easier.

 

[Michael White]

There's a very successful gym here in Maine that shares space with a gymnastics facility.

 

[AScheer]

I believe @cupieqt rents from a gymnastics gym.

 

[cupieqt]

I believe @cupieqt rents from a gymnastics gym.

We are actually a part of the facility. We are a multi-program gym. We have Acro teams, Gymnastics teams and All Star Cheer teams. Plus recreational classes for gymnastics, cheer, tumbling, preschool gymnastics and Ninja Zone. And we also have large after school, preschool, swim and summer camp programs too. I think we have 16 total departments if you count our gift shop, concessions, birthday parties and special events too (we count them lol). Check us out Leaps and Bounds Sport Center |