Clubindustry

Two years ago, reporting on our time at the IHRSA show at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, I wrote about the man for whom the Moscone Center is named. Looking back at that post now, it’s almost funny how I described former San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and how I stumbled upon who he was. During our stay in San Francisco, I read an obituary of a man who had served as Moscone’s press aide. In the post, I wrote how Moscone was assassinated in 1978 “along with another city official.”

Another city official. That other city official was Harvey Milk, the subject of the Sean Penn movie “Milk” in theaters now. I’ve been wanting to see this movie for some time, so with the office closed on Monday for President’s Day, with the Oscars coming up this Sunday (Penn is up for Best Actor) and with the IHRSA show just weeks away at the Moscone Center, this was the perfect time for Mom and me to see it.

I had read that Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official in the United States (some might dispute that fact), but I had no idea his influence as a San Francisco Supervisor spread throughout California and around the country. “Milk,” above all else, was a civil rights movie. There are so many parallels of the gay civil rights movement of the 1970s to the larger civil rights movement of African-Americans in the 1960s. Both had police interventions. Both had marches. Both had casualties.

The motives of Dan White, the ousted city official who assassinated both Moscone and Milk on Nov. 27, 1978, are still unclear, whether he was still mad about not getting his job back or whether he was anti-gay or just jealous of Milk’s and Moscone’s publicity. One thing that is clear is that White was a troubled individual. I encourage you to read the San Francisco Chronicle’s account of Milk and the assassinations. Fascinating stuff. I would also encourage you to see the movie, too.

Like many industries, the club industry still has issues grappling with the essence of the gay community and its place in society. Recent examples in Idaho, Minnesota and Iowa are reminders of the opposition that same-sex couples and their families face regarding the subject of health club memberships.

If you attend next month’s IHRSA show in San Francisco, think not only about the man for whom the Moscone Center is named, but think about “another city official” who lost his life the same day Moscone did more than 30 years ago.

I had a really good conversation and interview with the new CEO of Gold’s Gym, James Weaver on Thursday. We’ll get more into what we talked about in our next Executive Insights feature, which we have penciled in for the April issue.

Even though we did the interview over the phone, it sounded like Weaver had his sleeves rolled up. Weaver, a 60-something business veteran with tons of energy, has already made an impact on Gold’s since he took over for former CEO David Schnabel in November. Weaver said he recently had a 23-hour day, which is surprising, because I thought there were only seven or eight hours in the workday. Weaver spends a lot of his time talking to and reaching out to franchisees, and I think the general focus of Gold’s is more toward its franchisee community, whereas the recent past has been centered on its corporate clubs.

Weaver talked openly about taking over for Schnabel, whom he praised during the interview. Weaver also talked about the recent changes at the executive level with just as much candor.

Gold’s is set to make a big announcement at the IHRSA show next month. Hopefully, our staff can meet the Gold’s staff face to face when we’re out there. The last time I had a chance to meet Gold’s executives—last fall at Club Industry in Chicago—I wasn’t so successful, through no fault of anybody involved. Here’s hoping that, like the Gold’s corporate office and its franchisees, we can get on the same page.

Our February issue should be arriving at your doorstep in the next few days, and the issue will appear on our Web site by next Friday.

One thing I want to point out is that we have a spelling error in our IHRSA show preview. The name of one of the speakers at the IHRSA show is Seth Godin, not Seth Goldin. Apparently, I saw an imaginary “l” in his name. Or, maybe I just wanted his name to sound more like my last name (Goldin=Goldman?). In any case, it’s an embarrassing error, and one that I hope not to repeat in the future.

At least I was consistent with the error throughout the story and the show schedule. That reminds me of something Bobby Knight once said about consistent players. “If you’re consistently good, I’ve got a spot for you (on the court). If you’re consistently bad, I’ve got a spot for you (on the bench). If you’re inconsistent, I don’t know where the (heck) to put you.”

Overall, the issue itself is pretty solid, if I/we say so myself/ourselves. Let us know what you think when you receive your copy.

The editors recently called and e-mailed more than a dozen club operators and talked to two industry consultants to find out how club operators fared in January. As you can read in the news story that we wrote based on these conversations, the month seemed mixed. Although one of the consultants spoke to several club operators who had disappointing Januaries, I only heard back from one club operator who had a disappointing month. I’m not sure if that’s because only club operators who had good results wanted to share.

So, let us know how your January went. Were your new member numbers higher or lower than January 2008? What about your revenue? How was your attrition in January 2009 compared to last January’s? Did you offer deals to get people through the door? What kind of performance expectations do you have for your company this year?

By the way, if you want some advice on how to survive in today’s economy, make sure to read the stories on our Special Report on the economy page for advice on ancillary revenue, retention, selling, marketing, cost cutting and financing.

Escalating attrition rates, funding woes, a decline in new members … these are just some of the issues facing many club owners today. But owners of a Gold’s Gym in Lawrence, NJ, have a new one for the list – a 10-foot tall inflatable rat.

During a protest by an electrical workers’ union, the outside of the Gold’s Gym facility was graced by a large rat balloon, a.k.a. Scabby the Rat.

The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the union had a right to use the rat balloon under free speech protection, even though local ordinances banned the use of inflatable signs. The court found that the ordinance wasn’t content-neutral because it allows businesses to use inflatables for grand opening events.

Scabby first made his appearance at Gold’s Gym in 2005, when Local 269 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers protested outside the club because of a dispute with a contractor working at the gym. A union protester received a summons for reinflating the rat after local police ordered it to be deflated. Visit the CNN Web site to read more about the case and to view a likeness of Scabby.

The game-winning drive engineered by Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in the Super Bowl on Sunday night was reminiscent of the game-winning drive by Joe Montana in the Super Bowl 20 years ago. Speaking of “Super Joe,” Montana is one of the featured speakers at next month’s IHRSA show in San Francisco, where Montana’s legend was cemented after winning four Super Bowls with the 49ers.

For the second year in a row, however, I will not get to see and hear a favorite sports icon at an IHRSA show. I didn’t go to last year’s show in San Diego, where Dick Vitale and Martina Navratilova spoke. Although I plan to be at the IHRSA show next month, I’ll arrive the day after Montana speaks. Olympic swimmer Dara Torres will also speak at the show, but I’m due to leave the show before her presentation. So that will make me 0-for-4 at IHRSA the last two years.

Truth be told, though, you never know what you’re going to get when a sports celebrity is a featured speaker. Just because they were great athletes doesn’t mean they are great speakers. Emmitt Smith, the all-time leading running back from the Dallas Cowboys (and three-time Super Bowl champ), drew quite a crowd two months ago at the Athletic Business show in San Antonio. Emmitt was good, and he talked a lot about his life’s story (most of which I already knew), from his time as a high school star, to his days as a star at the University of Florida, to his days playing with a star on his helmet in Dallas, to his winning the title on “Dancing with the Stars.” Was his talk life-altering? Probably not, but it was still entertaining.

Interlude: This is the first blog post related to the December AB show that I’ve written. Normally, we blog like crazy after a show, but for one reason or another, I didn’t get around to it. (Blame it on the economy—it gets blamed for everything anyway.)

While we’re on the subject, here’s a brief rundown of my AB show highlights:

• I attended a seminar presented by Rob Bishop and Barry Klein from the Elevations Health Club in Pennsylvania. Rob’s one of those readers who gives us good feedback from time to time on our stories. I included some of their information about cutting towel service in our January cover story.

• Kathleen Passanisi was the keynote speaker on the first day, a late sub for the scheduled speaker, Amanda Gore. Passanisi, who from a distance looked and sounded like comedienne/former TV star Roseanne Barr, offered a lot of good tips about how to live a balanced life. Here’s a question that she posed that’s appropriate for clubs and everyday life: What do you value?

• The next day, I attended a roundtable discussion about legal issues. The roundtable included Doyice Cotten, who we’ve featured in stories involving AEDs. Cotten says you’re never too big or too small of a business to need insurance, even if you’re a personal trainer. Cotten also said that a club is more likely to avoid a lawsuit if it has an AED.

• In the last seminar I attended at the show, I saw our good friends Michael Scott Scudder and Casey Conrad, but they weren’t presenting—they were taking notes along with the rest of us in a jam-packed room. The seminar was about how technology will increasingly affect the fitness and wellness industries. Bryan O’Rourke was the speaker. He was also the second presenter (the first was Kathleen Passanisi) that I heard at the show reference the “frog in the pot” scenario. (Basically, if you put a frog in a boiling pot of water, it will jump out immediately, but if you put the frog in a pot of water, then heat it up, it won’t have the sense to jump out.) Anyway, O’Rourke used a lot of cool images and videos in his presentation (always a must in seminars). He said that Apple has surpassed Blockbuster and other outlets in terms of video sales. That says a lot.

Finally, I attended the Emmitt Smith speech. To bring this post full circle, the day before Emmitt was to speak, I chatted with the guy in the booth next to ours named Tony Banks, who was a quarterback in the NFL and won a Super Bowl ring as a backup with Baltimore. Banks, who was at the show exhibiting an outfit called Learning Through Sports, was a little leery about how Emmitt would fare as a public speaker.

“But he’s on TV every week on ESPN, right?” I said.

“Then you know what I’m talking about,” Banks said, and we both had a laugh.

We found another story involving a club staff member saving the life of a gym goer thanks to an AED. This one comes from a Bally in Michigan. Bally has had its issues with AEDs in the past—some not so positive—but this recent story has a happy ending.