All-Star Recruiting? What Is To Far?

[BlueCat]

This discussion has been had multiple times on different threads. For us, we try as a staff not to initiate recruiting conversations with someone that we know to be at another gym. Also, if an athlete approaches us, we try to limit our discussions to what we think is good about our own program and NOT belittle anyone else or their program. Those can be VERY tempting at times - particularly when we know that the gym the potential athlete is coming from openly bashes us and encourages their athletes to target our kids.

I can't say that the we have never done those things, but we try to discourage them from happening as much as possible.

The flip side is this: Happy athletes rarely leave. If you have more than a couple people leaving your program, try not to assume that the only reason they left is because Gym X talked them into it. It can be a tough pill to swallow, but it can help you keep more of your athletes in the future.

 

[pctmom]

My problem with this is that it's been my experience that the cost of the freebie is often passed on to the paying customers. If the gym eats the cost, that's one thing. When they expect me to pay even an extra dollar to fund the free athlete I take issue.

Don't kid yourself. You are paying. It's called capitalism...if you've got "scholarshiped" athletes at your gym (including males) the costs are absolutely being passed onto you. The owners are not taking it out of their pockets, the coaches are not taking a pay cut. Its you the paying customer at a gym that has folks cheering for free, you are paying for them.

 

[notimeforthat]

What happens when these cheerlebrities mess up? Several have at worlds in the past 3 years....what happens when they are injured? What happens to the perks then?

 

[lakerfantlc]

Don't kid yourself. You are paying. It's called capitalism...if you've got "scholarshiped" athletes at your gym (including males) the costs are absolutely being passed onto you. The owners are not taking it out of their pockets, the coaches are not taking a pay cut. Its you the paying customer at a gym that has folks cheering for free, you are paying for them.

absolutely and you don’t have to give them your business if it upsets you..thats the upside..no one is holding a gun to your head to pay that business...you can leave..isnt freedom great..:)

 

[BlueCat]

Don't kid yourself. You are paying. It's called capitalism...if you've got "scholarshiped" athletes at your gym (including males) the costs are absolutely being passed onto you. The owners are not taking it out of their pockets, the coaches are not taking a pay cut. Its you the paying customer at a gym that has folks cheering for free, you are paying for them.

You are free to look at it however you wish. However, that is not my perspective at all.

Successful teams can be fantastic advertising for your gym. Many owners view it is an advertising expense. The theory is that your resulting success brings in enough new athletes that it more than offsets the costs of those "free" athletes. This, in turn, actually could serve to reduce the tuition costs.

When Nike gives free shoes to Michael Jordan or other famous athletes, do you view that as $.01 more that your own pair of shoes cost?

Also, most expenses of a gym don't go up when you add a new athlete to the team. Unless you are in the rare situation of turning athletes away, putting someone else on the team doesn't mean that the gym loses out on a paying customer.

For further reference: supply/demand, loss-leader, marginal cost, opportunity cost

The flip side of that is that athletes who don't pay the full rate are often the most difficult athletes and sets of parents to deal with. You would think it would be the other way around, but it isn't. That is part of the reason that we are much less "generous" about that type of thing than we used to be.

 

[Aussiekat]

Out of interest, if "off-season" is fair game to let athletes know about your programme, what constitutes as "off-season"? It seems that most level 5 kids have less than a month off, some only have the week after worlds. Every gym has a different comp schedule for their lower level athletes. Some had tryouts in March. So when is this "off-season" that allows for recruitment/advertising without causing other gyms to be upset?

 

[SheCheers]

Out of interest, if "off-season" is fair game to let athletes know about your programme, what constitutes as "off-season"? It seems that most level 5 kids have less than a month off, some only have the week after worlds. Every gym has a different comp schedule for their lower level athletes. Some had tryouts in March. So when is this "off-season" that allows for recruitment/advertising without causing other gyms to be upset?

I would guess it would be different based, then, on the athlete being recruited. If their off season is that week after worlds, then that's when it would be acceptable??? Just guessing as, i'm not the one saying that's the fair game time frame...LOL

 

[pctmom]

I didn't pass judgement one way or another. I'm simply stating that when a gym pays for athletes to cheer for free the costs for overhead, coaches, insurance, music and all the other expenses a gym incurs is spread out across the paying customers. To think otherwise is naive by parents and athletes. We all choose our business practices. Many people justify this practice by stating that they need these athletes to maintain a team (boys) or to remain competitive. I'm not judging, whatever one needs to do to make their business work...go for it. But parents somebody is paying for this and its most likely you.