"UFC GYMS Chain" Opening Soon on Your Street: Good or Bad for our industry?

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS -- The Ultimate Fighting Championship has signed deals with two of its top fighters to give them signature gyms in a chain of fitness clubs planned by the mixed martial arts league.

UFC President Dana White said Thursday that the gyms will be named for B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre, scheduled to fight Saturday in Las Vegas for the UFC welterweight title.

White says the fighters will be paid royalties from the gyms whether they are fighting or not.

Mark Mastrov, a former 24 Hour Fitness CEO working to open the new clubs, says the fighters' gyms will be open by the end of the year in Penn's native Hawaii and St. Pierre's hometown of Montreal.

UFC Gym officials say they are close to breaking ground on the first of five health clubs planned in California, and plan to build more such gyms across the country and in Canada

So will this be healthy for our industry or are we looking at a Wal-Mart effect on local mom-n-pop schools??

Whats your opinion? Give us your 2cents...

Tags: Gyms, Large, School, Small, UFC, Wal-mart, vs

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Permalink Reply by Saeed Ashrafinia on February 18, 2009 at 7:08pm

****ORIGINAL POST EDITED BY ADMINISTRATOR****

Posted by Cathal Walsh - Feb 16 2009

Okay...Well here are my thoughts...

1) UFC Gyms are representing themselves as gyms not martial arts schools. As such, I think they could be effective in taking some market share away from health clubs. I don't see the immediate and direct competition with established martial arts schools.

2) From what i understand the UFC gyms will target 18-34 year olds with test gyms opening in major centres (250 000+). Most of us in Martial Arts understand the challenges of servicing that demographic. The bread and butter for most successful schools is 4-14 year olds and their parents 35+. This doesn't appear to be the market that the UFC gyms are after.

3) UFC and MMA in general is a fantastic spectator sport. I enjoy watching the technical and athletic abilities of these great fighters. But that does not necessarily translate into a great business model for a gym or a school. Our curiculum involves jiu-jitsu, muay thai and traditional arts. We deliver our program with utmost care by well trained instructors; even still the aches and pains from our 40+ year olds are always a concern. To think that MMA training will have mass appeal is a stretch. NFL football is very popular in the states but you don't see too many 40+ year olds training 12 months a year. It's a spectator sport and a young man's sport when it comes to participation. You most definitely need to be in a large centre with a endless 18 - 34 year old population to draw from.

4) The culture of MMA still has a long way to go. GSP arrived in Vegas dressed in a suit just like all professional athletes do. He definitely is impacting the face and culture of MMA. But he is just one guy. Most pro fighters look like wannabe gangsters and unfortunately that is not an image embraced by parents (especially mom's) when thinking of a direction for their children. This could be UFC Gyms greatest challenge; gaining acceptance as a non-violent respectful, life changing discipline, something traditional martial arts schools are respected for.

5) Mom and pop schools are facing challenging times ahead. Many will close. This is unfortunately what has happened in every industry over time. Our SHAKU schools are aligned under a franchise structure to allow us to share best practices, take advantage of shared costs for advertising, devlop brand recognition, bulk purchase discounts from suppliers etc...This is definitely the wave of the future. Independents need to come together in order to survive and thrive.

6) Dana White has a bit of a Midas touch. He may very well pull this off; but I think the casualties will be small and large fitness clubs not established martial arts schools.

Cathal Walsh

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Permalink Reply by Harry Grimm on February 21, 2009 at 2:38pm

I believe Dana White will pull this off, but I don't see it having an effect on martial arts or MMA schools that are well run. Just like when Wal-Mart moves into an area small business owners who find their niche will continue to do well. His target market is the casual fan and not the fighters as he said on CNBC during the announcement. Being that he announced the plans on CNBC he is going after the professionals as well. I am sure the training will be adjusted to conform with that population. It will also take a while to move out of the large population centers if at all.

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Permalink Reply by Saeed Ashrafinia on February 22, 2009 at 4:51am

Great response Mr Grimm.

It seems that the target demo is the "fitness" niche. For those of you who haven't seen the CNBC video of Dana White and Mark Mastrov; here is the link

http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1014806439&play=1

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Permalink Reply by Santanu on February 24, 2009 at 6:20pm

I honestly don't think it will impact either the martial arts or the fitness industry. It doesn't seem like paradigm shifts in the fitness or MA industry really happen w/o the stamp of approval from soccer moms. It's a gross generalization, but I think for the most part, true.