WAG Making Money On A Team Program?

[Muddlethru]

To reiterate, yes I agree rec classes bring in the bulk of a gym's income. However, in my daughtee's old gym, believe it or not it is not the case. So, I can only speak of what I've personally experienced. My daughtee's old gym had only one or two rec classes in the afternoon and maybe one in the morning, 6 days a week. The classes had no more than 10 gymnasts paying $350 for 16 one-hour classes (roughly four months). I am very familiar with the rec schedule because I looked into rec classes for my youngest daughter. See the math below:

three classes a day with say 10 students each for 6 days equals 180 (30 students X 6). Multiply that by $350 is $63,000 and divide that by 4 months brings the gym an income of only $15,750. Our team of say 55 at $400/month brings in an income of $22/month. I guess that explains why our ratio of team coach to team members is so high, And that many of our rec coaches have never even done gymnastics. Note the gym owners/head coaches are not business people. We did not even have a sign on our door, no advertising, etc. In contrast, I checked Chow's gym and he has what seems like 32 classes A DAY, 6 days a week. He appears to have a very selective team of 40. So clearly in this instance it is a no brainer, the rec classes are the bread and butter of the gym or even the sole money maker.

Actually, I don't know where this post is going and why I am even involved in the thread.:-D. I really could care less one way or the other because it does not even concern me. I guess it is just my argumentative side.

Sorry about typos: daughter's instead of daughtee's (hehehe), $22,000/month instead of $22/month, ratio of coach to gymnasts is low not high. Sometimes I feel like I argue about the craziest things. :cheeky:

 

[JessLW]

We did not even have a sign on our door, no advertising, etc. In contrast, I checked Chow's gym and he has what seems like 32 classes A DAY, 6 days a week. He appears to have a very selective team of 40. So clearly in this instance it is a no brainer, the rec classes are the bread and butter of the gym or even the sole money maker.

I actually think this supports the point you're making about team quite nicely. Would Chow's be able to have 32 rec classes a day if he did not have a team that trained two Olympic champions? Chow's business must have absolutely exploded after 2008, and again after 2012. Team, especially a very successful team, provides a huge amount of publicity and advertising for a program. The benefits of a team are sometimes indirect, but they are there.

Team gymnasts are also a long-term client base. If you have a rec-only gym your kids are going to eventually leave or quit. Having a team extends the life of your program. Sure, only a small percentage make it to level 10, but if you take a girl who starts gym in a rec program at 5 -- if she doesn't go to team, is she really going to keep doing recreational gymnastics until she's 12? The rec gym has to constantly replenish its customer base without a loyal group of team gymnasts helping to keep the lights turned on. Will most gyms survive with only a team bringing in tuition money? No. But that doesn't mean that teams necessarily operate at an overall loss either. Having one changes a gym's business model is all.

I know that most coaches love their jobs and love gymnastics, and I know coaching is not a really lucrative career. Many gym owners are also probably motivated by their love of the sport. But most gyms are not non-profits and it is a bit disengenuous to discuss them as if love of the sport is the only factor ever motivating a gym owner's decision with regards to his/her team gymnasts.

 

[tooootsie]

My oldest DD pre-team at 5 hours a week is $195, it was $155 for 3 hours a week. So at our gym there is a price break for sure as they go more

 

[Gymmommy71]

One angle about rec. vs. team that wasn't brought up that I thought might be worth bringing up is that it does require a certain amount of natural talent to be a team level gymnast. I'd guess that maybe only 10% (if that) of girls posses that type of talent - you need to be strong, flexible, coordinated AND fearless. Then, add to that the hard work and dedication that even the talented ones need to have to keep going, and you're probably reducing your "customer base" for team girls even more. Rec vs. team may be a bigger function of supply vs. demand for the area than it is the owner's choice.

I'd think this supply vs. demand situation may impact a lot of the regional difference that come out on this board...like tuition rates, attitudes towards gym hopping, contracts, etc. Perhaps certain areas are "gym owner markets" where others are "gymnasts markets"? ...

 

[JBS]

Demographics it is.........location...location...location...

How many Starbuck's are within a 10 mile radius of your gym?

 

[sglemon]

I am fully aware that the hourly rate paid by rec kids is higher than team kids. Note however that rec kids get full supervision the entire hour and the ratio of coaches and gymnasts in rec classes are also lower than that of the team at least in my personal observation. We had two full time coaches for our team of almost 60. Rec classes sometimes had two coaches if there was more than 6 gymnasts. Maybe you are right in that "most" gyms make very little off of their team program. But that may be because "most" gyms do not have a successful competitive team. I believe we are talking about competitive gymnasts in this thread and not rec gymnasts switching gyms. So, a competitive team of 50 gymnasts who pays a tuition of $400/month brings a revenue of $20,000/month or $240,000 a year. It may not be as much as what the rec kids bring in an hourly basis but it certainly is not jump change either. But this is not what the thread is about. I wish most gyms operated with the mentality of which Aussie_coach speaks.

That has never been our experience what so ever, our team kids get 1 coach per 10 kids, level 4 -6. For example we have 12 kids in level 5, we nave 1 main coach and 1 assistant coach, working with that group. Level 7-10 is even a smaller ratio. The ratios are equivalent in the rec program.

 

[kayjaybe]

Demographics it is.........location...location...location...

How many Starbuck's are within a 10 mile radius of your gym?

Ahhh...so that's how we get such low pricing. Zero. There are 0 Starbucks within 10 miles of the gym. I pay $170/mo for 12 hours of L6 instruction.