Not-for-profit small town climbing gym

Does anyone have any experience starting a "private" or "member-owned" or "co-op" climbing gym?

I live in a small town (Owen Sound, Ontario - about 20K people). Opening a climbing gym as a business doesn't make sense as it wouldn't be profitable enough to pay employees and cover the other costs of operating a business like marketing, payroll, etc...

It's also an old town and there aren't many garages or dry basements so a home gym isn't possible for most of us.

There is a small group of climbers here and I think if we pooled our resources we could open something private and member-owned.

Has anyone seen this type of model in the past?

What was the "business" structure? Was it member-owned or some type of co-op or was it structured some other way?

Was it sustainable or did the cost of a lease + insurance + bills become too expensive?

We're currently just at the research stage so any input would be awesome!

Thanks!
Eric

There is something kind of like this in Juneau AK. The local for-profit gym was closing, so a few of the local climbers with other jobs bought the place so they would have a place to climb. My understanding is that they are not really out to make a money, just have a place to climb.
 

No idea but the Squamish Bouldering Co-Op seems to be what you'd model it after.

Oreamnos wrote: Does anyone have any experience starting a "private" or "member-owned" or "co-op" climbing gym?

I live in a small town (about 20K people). Opening a climbing gym as a business doesn't make sense as it wouldn't be profitable enough to pay employees and cover the other costs of operating a business like marketing, payroll, etc...

It's also an old town and there aren't many garages or dry basements so a home gym isn't possible for most of us.

There is a small group of climbers here and I think if we pooled our resources we could open something private and member-owned.

Has anyone seen this type of model in the past?

What was the "business" structure? Was it member-owned or some type of co-op or was it structured some other way?

Was it sustainable or did the cost of a lease + insurance + bills become too expensive?

We're currently just at the research stage so any input would be awesome!

Thanks!
Eric

Have you ever tried to herd cats?

Your town is too small to support even a tiny Co-op. I think what you should do is simply create a home wall for anyone to use perhaps with a small mandatory donation for upkeep.

However for a model check out the Minnesota climbers Co-op

check out http://www.summitclimbing.org/

Awesome! Thanks everyone for the names and links of other places already doing this. I'm glad to see it's actually a viable model! :)

The Cube Climbing Center, Nelson BC.  Developed after the local gym lost its space.  The Cube rents space at Selkirk College.  Their address is620 Tenth St. and you can find them on the web.

These are great examples! Thanks for everyone's input!

John Wilder wrote: The original successful co-op was SLO-OP in San Luis Obispo, which ultimately went private late last year and now has two locations and a full size facility. Originally it was in a storage shed in town- totally home grown and alot of the gyms mentioned used them as a model.

The owners of what is now The Pad (renamed when it went private) have always been pretty great about helping those wanting to do what they did with information and such. Probably worth reaching out to them.

+1 on talking to them. Loved climbing at the last warehouse before they went private. Great facility with great volunteers and route setting.

The new facility is nice but just doesn’t have the same feel to it.

kansascliffclub.org/

JohnnyG wrote: There is something kind of like this in Juneau AK. The local for-profit gym was closing, so a few of the local climbers with other jobs bought the place so they would have a place to climb. My understanding is that they are not really out to make a money, just have a place to climb.
 

Woah. People know about us.

http://www.rockdump.com/

Very interested to see what kind of info comes of this, we’ve been talking about doing the same in Moab for the last couple years.

Bringing this to the top again. Have there been any new coops on the scene that you know of?

I've come across a few:

• The Ice Coop: Ice climbing coop in Boulder
• Gold Crush: Grass Valley, CA
• Mount Washing Valley Climbers' Cooperative: For the Granite State

I'm writing an article about climbing coops (the history, the current state of things, etc.) so if you are part of a coop or know of one, please reach out!

Aaron Gerry wrote: I'm writing an article about climbing coops (the history, the current state of things, etc.) so if you are part of a coop or know of one, please reach out!

That's cool! Post a link where we can read it when you're finished. Thanks!

New Paltz had a coop, but it burned down.

http://newpaltzclimbinggym.com

Aaron Gerry wrote: Bringing this to the top again. Have there been any new coops on the scene that you know of?

I've come across a few:

• The Ice Coop: Ice climbing coop in Boulder
• Gold Crush: Grass Valley, CA
• Mount Washing Valley Climbers' Cooperative: For the Granite State

I'm writing an article about climbing coops (the history, the current state of things, etc.) so if you are part of a coop or know of one, please reach out!

MWV co op is still a ways from being opened, sadly. They are getting closer, but there is a lot that still needs to be done. North Conways year round residency rate is something like 3k, but swells to almost 20 times that with seasonal influx of tourists. 

Tradiban wrote:

Have you ever tried to herd cats?

Your town is too small to support even a tiny Co-op. I think what you should do is simply create a home wall for anyone to use perhaps with a small mandatory donation for upkeep.

However for a model check out the Minnesota climbers Co-op

Yeah, it seems easy for a small group to pool money and build a nice woody, especially since many folks do it on their own. I'm no huge fan of bouldering but with the right setting(juggy easy ones) you can get as strong as you want with minimal injuries.  

Who has space in their mom's garage or attic?

I believe the Dojo in W Mass is a co-op

Saltspring Island in British Columbia, Canada had a very tiny rock gym. I think it was open only two days a week and run by volunteers.
I recall that there was a webpage for it, at least back in 2015, the last time I visited. 

Bringing this forum back to life!

I am in the process of funding and getting a gym built in my local city of Pocatello Idaho. I am pretty confident that i can secure investors and get the thing built, but I am not confident that it would ever be a big money maker.

I was wondering if making it a non profit or a co op was a viable option.

Does anyone in the Mountain project community have first hand knowledge about how to set something like that up, or could help connect me with people that know the ins and outs.

I will follow all the links on this page and see what I can find out. Thanks 

Not specific to climbing, but the Northwest Cooperative Development Center is a great general resource, offering remote courses and mentorship.  https://nwcdc.coop/

I think that co-op models for independent operations in many service industries are going to become more and more common in the coming years, as it is generally becoming more difficult to be profitable while trying to do things like pay fair wages while also just remaining financially viable.  

Shaun Johnson wrote:

Bringing this forum back to life!

I am in the process of funding and getting a gym built in my local city of Pocatello Idaho. I am pretty confident that i can secure investors and get the thing built, but I am not confident that it would ever be a big money maker.

I was wondering if making it a non profit or a co op was a viable option.

Does anyone in the Mountain project community have first hand knowledge about how to set something like that up, or could help connect me with people that know the ins and outs.

I will follow all the links on this page and see what I can find out. Thanks 

I don't know anything about co-ops, but a non-profit gym is definitely viable and there are examples of this around the country (Memphis Rox being the most prominent example). I'm about a year into the process of trying to make a non-profit climbing gym happen in a small rural Colorado town. The crux thus far has been securing non-profit status, which seems to take about 9-12 months right now (we did not plan accordingly for that long of a wait). 

Figuring this out as I go and I'm certainly not an authority on this yet, but happy to talk about it + grow a network of folks trying to do similar things.