The Family Athletic Club Opportunity

Though in early focus groups, the family athletic club did not surface as one of the industry's major growth opportunities in the decade ahead, the family athletic club may well in the long run constitute the greatest opportunity of them all.

Consider a typical profile. The family club is usually located in upscale suburban markets, often involving outdoor as well as indoor facilities. These generally include racquet sports, swimming pools and basketball gyms, as well as the complete spectrum of fitness facilities. Not only can such clubs serve the broadest continuum of adult fitness and wellness needs, but they can also become an immense community resource for families in providing sports and recreation opportunities for youth. Clubs that excel in these two dimensions-namely, adult fitness and youth athletic and sports programming-are positioned to serve the entire community, from children in their earliest developmental years, to seniors in their 70s and 80s.

Furthermore, clubs of this type tend to be exceptionally good at discovering fresh ways of serving their communities' social, leisure, and educational needs, as well as their athletic and fitness needs. Many of these clubs have already developed an extraordinary menu of social and educational programs that not only complement their athletic and fitness programming, but also continually expose their total facility to potential future members.

Already, in every part of the country, benchmark facilities of this type have blazed a path of opportu- nity that many more clubs are certain to follow. To mention but a few, The Atlantic Club in New Jersey, the Bel Air Club in Maryland, the Highpoint and Newtown in Pennsylvania, Franco's, Red Lerille's, the Elmwood in Louisiana, Cedardale in Massachusetts, Forest Grove and Willowbrook in Illinois, the Colorado Athletic Clubs in metro Denver, and the PRO Club and Columbia Athletic Clubs in the State of Washington has each, in its own distinctive way, broadened and deepened the defin- ition of how a club can serve its family market.

Over the next decade, America's health clubs look out upon four immense demographic opportunities: youth, young adults (Gen Xers), Baby Boomers, and seniors. Uniquely, the family athletic club has the opportunity to serve all four segments. Such clubs, more than any other type, are positioned to serve the full range of each generation's athletic, fitness, educational, and leisure needs. Clubs already posi- tioned to serve this market will continue to reassess and redefine the program menus that they offer to their respective communities. In so doing, they will also continue to expand the industry's understand- ing of its future potential. For these clubs, possibly more than any other category, the decade ahead promises to be an immense mine of opportunity waiting to be unearthed.