All-Star Gym Question

[jersey_girl]

Question to all you ahtletes and former athletes

I am a co-owner of a brand new program in South Jersey starting in 2011-2012. The building that we are looking into for the gym has given us 2 different options.

Option 1: Pay a very low rent for 1 unit. However this unit will be about 10 feet short of a full floor. We will not be fielding a level 5 team. We will most likely only be having lower level teams.

Option 2: Pay a significantly higher rent for 2 units. This will give us the full floor.

What would you do?

 

[wcsstilldeath]

go for the two units. My gym is two panels short of a full floor and it sucks even for a level 3 team. Also in the future you may want to have a level 5 team an you will need a full floor for that too. Good luck!

 

[cheeeeer93]

Every team needs a full floor.. it's not always about level 5

 

[cheer101]

i've been to programs that practice out of gymnastics facilities and do not have the luxery of a full size cheer floor but still make it work and produce quality teams levels 1-6... if you need to make it work, then you will. After all, you can always expand...

 

[coachFIERCE]

Definitely go with option two! Having to pay more, as much as that sucks, is totally worth it in the end if it gives your teams the ability to practice on the full-size floor!

Best of luck to your program!

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Bigger floor definitely. What will you do in a couple years when you need more space and Unit 2 has already been leased to someone else? You'll be stuck.

Best of luck to you! I'm jealous!

 

[MissBee]

If you can still pay the bills, go for the larger unit. However, if the rent for that is going to be so much higher that you'll be struggling everywhere else financially, go with the smaller unit and as your program grows, grow your space. It is better to start small and grow with your program, than to try and start off with the biggest, flashiest gym out there but you fold after a year or two because you can't make the rent.

The better problem to have is to have to close your gym for a week in the summer to move across town to a larger space, than to have to close your gym down completely (file bankruptcy) because you started out too big.

 

[Just-a-Mom]

Miss Bee makes a good point. If you can move later when you need to then go with the smaller space. Just be careful not to get locked into too long of a lease, so you can move when necessary.

 

[gaheatgirl]

Bigger floor cause even though every team maynot use a full floor you can use the extra for just stre ting or warming up jumps and stunts and tumbling

 

[CGAcheer]

What are the dimensions of your potential units?

 

[jersey_girl]

The unit we would lease would be in the middle of two other units that are currently unavailable. The thing with this unit is it is 2 years old but never used. This would probably show that in the future, the other units will still be available. We will have the option to expand if we need to later on.

I believe the actual space where the mat will be is 56x33. So we are just a little bit short.

Expanding to two units will double plus a little more our rent then if we just did the one unit.
We are a brand new program so we want to make sure we don't dive head first into this.

 

[MissBee]

I believe the actual space where the mat will be is 56x33. So we are just a little bit short.

You'll only be able to fit 5 rolls in that space. The rolls are 6' x 42'...so a 54' x 42' is 9 panels (the 9x6'=54')...you'll be able to get 5 rolls in for 30'x42'.

 

[MakeYourMark]

At the gym im coaching at, we do not have a full sized floor, and we make it work perfectly fine!
I'd choose option 1, especially if u have theo ption to expand/more when u absolutly need to.

 

[CGAcheer]

from personal experience, I coached out of a gymnastics gym that gave us 3 strips to work on, it was absolutely terrible. When we opened up it was in a 56 x 40 space, we had another 15 x 40 for restroom, lobby he and office. It was adequate to start with. one down side of going small with the hope to expand, is the spring floor and carpeted foam costs. You most likely will have to cut a lot of stuff to make it fit which might not work too well with the expansion.

But if you were going to go with the smaller unit, I would suggest setting it up to where you have 9 33' strips. you could make that work, but if you want to have mats or a tumble track or anything beyond just the spring floor, you would need to expand

 

[newcheerdad]

The unit we would lease would be in the middle of two other units that are currently unavailable. The thing with this unit is it is 2 years old but never used. This would probably show that in the future, the other units will still be available. We will have the option to expand if we need to later on.

I believe the actual space where the mat will be is 56x33. So we are just a little bit short.

Expanding to two units will double plus a little more our rent then if we just did the one unit.
We are a brand new program so we want to make sure we don't dive head first into this.

I'd ask myself if I can justify the more expensive unit at this time. You don't want to overextend yourself financially with a facility you can't afford and/or your revenues don't warrant.