All-Star Shift In The Industry

[xpressjag]

Just wanted to know how people felt about the shift in the all star cheerleading industry, especially those who have been in it for a while. There was a time when you would go local and national events and their was a variety of styles, teams and gyms placing in the top 5, but now you are getting these big powerhouse franchise gyms who are starting to dominate specific regions, and in some cases, even states. I just notice that the franchise of gyms is really becoming popular. Will it hurt or help the industry? Will you see less teams in each divisions or less competitions?

 

[Drkilluzionz]

I really only consider a handful of these franchises to be successful and here's why:

What makes each successful gym successful? The Staff...and I feel that most of these franchises are either

A) Buying out unsuccessful gyms and keeping the gyms unsuccessful staffs

or

B) Buying out unsuccessful gyms and diluting their successful staffs by sending them out to these franchised or satellite gyms.

 

[BowsnBling]

I really only consider a handful of these franchises to be successful and here's why:

What makes each successful gym successful? The Staff...and I feel that most of these franchises are either

A) Buying out unsuccessful gyms and keeping the gyms unsuccessful staffs

or

B) Buying out unsuccessful gyms and diluting their successful staffs by sending them out to these franchised or satellite gyms.

I totally agree with you, but the above poster is def talking about a franchise that is working . I can agree with him that the competition scene in some areas has somewhat become an 'exhibition' of one program with the other teams competing for 2nd place so to speak. Personally if they are continually winning first then I would consider changing up my style a little bit or trying to offer something they are not.

I don't love it but I do think that free enterprise should exist in all genres so there really is nothing to do unless you want to avoid the comps they go to which would pretty much rule out all of them and then what are you doing, running away from the best, you don't want to teach kids to do that. Ok rant over. Goodluck xpressjag, you have a good cheer soul and do what you love! :shaka:

 

[BamaCheerGuy]

It's not real hard to deal with. Especially in the Southeast you have several "big powerhouse" names. However sometimes they are biting off their own noses to spite their faces. Ihave heard more complaints about why is my gym competing against my gym? It happens alot. There was a recent event where the same gym name had 3 teams in the same division. Now granted this is a corporate gym with various locations. Still it bothers people in their own organization. The biggest way we avoid is stay away from all events that do that Varsity rewards program. These huge gyms slam the events for the huge kickbacks. We are a small gym of around 120 we travel all over, WSA, Jamfest, and others. We pay up front to keep the costs low for the parents and we do ok. We have won back to back at INDY and New Orleans the past couple years. This "monopoly" will take care of itself. People are getting fed up with it and you can start to see the smaller gyms getting the athletes. I look to to Green Bay Elite as a prime example. What she did was amazing. Plus if the USASF and Varsity people pull another stunt like they just tried with rules without proper procedure. You are gonna see a divide quickly. The IEC has more pull than it thinks and a heckuva lot more support.

 

[cupieqt]

Since I have no control over what other gyms do, who we compete against or what the outcomes are at competitions, I focus solely on my teams and getting them to perform difficult, clean, deduction free routines. It's the best I can do. I just can't worry about the rest of it. Do I see what you're talking about? Yes. But I can't fix it or change it so I just don't worry about it.

 

[yojaehs]

First let me say you can't please everybody BUT, franchise gyms franchise because they feel they are fulfilling a need. Whether it be location, staff, choreography, price, any number of a ton of different things. My gym has one location and we feel that we have our hands full, I hope one day in the future we have multiple locations but currently we don't. I'm sure the "small gyms" aren't a fan but big gyms are big for a reason and multiple locations/franchise gyms are franchising for a reason. If the negatives outweighed the positives, they wouldn't have multiple locations. Hate all you want but I don't see ANY of these going away. I see MORE in the future. Where will it go, who know's, but I don't see it as a negative. One MAJOR plus that a franchise has is RESOURCES which make them tough to go against.
Example : Gym A needs choreography help, Gym B can help. Gym C needs help in tumbling, Gym A can help etc. etc.