1) It's cool of you to keep paying if you can afford to as the small gym business is tough.
If you can’t afford to, they know, and they’re still charging you, it’s a dick move. The risk of being an entrepreneur is their responsibility ultimately.
Long Version:
It’s one of those things where most gyms are going to just tack those months on to when you come back as pre-paid months, and you continuing to pay ensures there’s still a gym for you to go to when the smoke clears.
Most gym owners aren’t profitable enough to pay their contracted rent, insurance, and utilities and remain in business if this drags on for months, so continuing to pay them is a really good thing to do and you’ll end up with a bunch of prepaid once you’re back so it’s a win win if you can swing it.
With that said, if they aren’t going to credit you the months that you’re paying for on the other side, that’s bullshit and straight up wrong IMO, and if you really can’t afford to keep paying, it shouldn’t fall on you to bail them out. Risk of doing business.
If you can, support your local gym! The big chains like LA Fitness or GoodLife can fuck off though, don’t let them bill you rn they’ll be fine.
pretty much this. IF you are able to pay you should, as people want to have a place to train. Else go get some mats and see if you can get some friends to roll with as having a quality school isn’t cheap. Now to me the gym should already have a family vibe to where you know you are part of the group and feel valued, hence you wanting to be there. If you feel zero sense of respect/loyalty then go ahead and cancel and just find a new hobby or new gym to train at post this crap (and I mean find a place that you want to see stay afloat and tries to make you part of the actual culture instead of just using you as a ATM).
If you want it to be there when this is over, you should pay. But I'd have alot more respect for a gym that's willing to work with folks that lost jobs.
This.
IF you have the means and wouldn't donate to keep your club running... why are you still at that club? There's a million places that are a BROTHERHOOD, they're your family. If you don't have that, man, keep looking for it because it's out there.
I found out the old gym I used to train at is still charging people monthly fee's and saying every month they pay that they cannot train they will be given those same amount of months at the end of their contract without having to pay.
Seems like bullshit to me because you're demanding people who cannot work to pay you, the one gym owner and when things are convenient for the gym owner is when people will get their free memberships. It's not like if the gym owner doesn't pay the rent it will get taken away. They are putting holds on stuff during the lockdown.
I found out the old gym I used to train at is still charging people monthly fee's and saying every month they pay that they cannot train they will be given those same amount of months at the end of their contract without having to pay.
Seems like bullshit to me because you're demanding people who cannot work to pay you, the one gym owner and when things are convenient for the gym owner is when people will get their free memberships. It's not like if the gym owner doesn't pay the rent it will get taken away. They are putting holds on stuff during the lockdown.
Seems greedy imo
I was thinking the other day what would happen in the scenario where a gym continues to charge members and still doesn't open up whenever this is open. What if only a few members continue to pay while the majority freeze their memberships due to financial hardships and the gym closes up shop? Will those who pay be given privates by the instructor/owner? It just seems like a lot of exposure on either side.
I own a small gym in California. We had to close on March 15th and I froze everyone’s memberships. Some of my students wanted to support the gym so asked me to continue charging them, but about 75% are frozen. It is going to be a struggle but I believe gyms will be some of the last places to open and I simply can’t justify trying to charge people for a service they can’t access. Some of my fellow gym owners are trying really hard to maintain students by offering Zoom classes and I applaud that. I just don’t think quality instruction is possible in that format so I have forgone it. I am more interested in seeing how many people actually return to BJJ when this is over. Their will always be hardcores but will the casual practitioner be in a rush to be in extremely close contact with other people?
Gray_Ghost - I own a small gym in California. We had to close on March 15th and I froze everyone's memberships. Some of my students wanted to support the gym so asked me to continue charging them, but about 75% are frozen. It is going to be a struggle but I believe gyms will be some of the last places to open and I simply can't justify trying to charge people for a service they can't access. Some of my fellow gym owners are trying really hard to maintain students by offering Zoom classes and I applaud that. I just don't think quality instruction is possible in that format so I have forgone it. I am more interested in seeing how many people actually return to BJJ when this is over. Their will always be hardcores but will the casual practitioner be in a rush to be in extremely close contact with other people?
I think it’s easy to imagine that casual people will never come back. I think this will happen AT FIRST. Kids programs and casual people will stay away. As time ticks on, people will trickle back and be back to where it was . How long until we are allowed back on the mats is the million dollar question.
Every owner needs to SURVIVE long enough to get the ball rolling again. If it’s a few months it will be a pain - but doable for many gyms. If it’s not until next year, many owners will be out of business and this will be a whole different set of circumstances.
I vividly remember people were deathly afraid to fly after 9\11 for months. I flew to Hawaii two months after for less than $300 and a hotel in downtown Waikiki cost $30 a nite. Then slowly confidence grows and it goes beyond where it used to be.
Can someone please breakdown what they mean by “if you don’t pay, you may not have a gym to come back to”?? Is this regarding rental fees? I would’ve thought that most landlords would have granted free rent (maybe I’m only referring to the UK).
If a gym cannot provide but is asking for students to pay - what exactly are they paying?