How Does a Fitness Center Determine Member to Equipment Ra..

I am writing a business plan for our new commercial membership fitness
center. It will be a fairly large facility.

Before I can determine space requirements and equipment outlay, I have
questions about the business plan assumptions:

Given that I will have XXX members, only XX of them will typically be
in the gym at any given time, so how do I determine how many pieces of
equipment I need for a certain target number of total active members?

For example, if there are 500 active members, there might only be 30 of
them in the facility at any given moment. Are there any statistics on
this member-to-equipment ratio that are publicly available?

I have contacted 24 hour Fitness and others, and they will not give the
information out because it is of course trade secret information. But
I am hoping there are stats out there. i have not been able to find
any through exhaustive Googling.

Thank you very much!

Ike wrote:
> I am writing a business plan for our new commercial membership
> fitness center. It will be a fairly large facility.
> Before I can determine space requirements and equipment outlay,
> I have questions about the business plan assumptions:
> Given that I will have XXX members, only XX of them will typically
> be in the gym at any given time, so how do I determine how many
> pieces of equipment I need for a certain target number of total
> active members? [....] Are there any statistics on this
> member-to-equipment ratio that are publicly available?

I doubt it, partly because I believe that is the wrong question to ask.

Major fitness center chains (24-Hour et al) pride themselves on
getting large numbers of memberships, knowing full-well that most
will rarely use the gym after some start-up enthusiasm. My guess
is: it is more likely that there is a statistic on the number of
"core"
members, which is mostly independent of the number of
memberships. This will vary from one area to another.

Moreover, the amount of equipment needed is related less to the
number of "core" members and more to (a) peak activity (arrival
rates of members and how long they work out), and (b) types of
equipment used by members. Both will vary from one area to
another.

Suggestion .... Find existing fitness centers that appeal to the
same clientele in similar area, sit in a car in a parking lot, and
measure the arrival and departure rates. Then purchase
memberships in one or two gyms in order to gain access, and
measure the machine usage. Also take note of the space used
by the facilities. Consider additional features that you might
want to provide in planning the space.

A statistician will talk about probabilities of arrival rates based
on a Poisson distribution or something similar. But you do not
need to be so sophisticated. The informal measurements above
should give you a pretty solid idea of your requirements.