Don't know exactly what the meaning is behind the above post, but gyms are in business because of the gymnasts that pay tuition. In addition, many girls start gymnastics at 3 and stay in their gyms until they graduate from high school. That is about a 15 year stint.
I know that this is a bit of an off topic comment, but I can assure you that most gyms are not making much (if any) money on their team programs. Most of the kids that stick with gymnastics through high school are team kids, paying a drastically reduced (per hour, compared to a rec kid) tuition rate with coaches that are paid a drastically higher salary than rec coaches.
Just had to kind of put that out there.