Metro rock Boston makes a shitload of money.

And you know this how? Do you have figures you can share? Especially illuminating would be:
* capital required for start up
* monthly P&L
* ROI
* all the additional things that no one thought about that added to the cost

Making a "shitload of money" doesn't matter - how much more you make over your operating costs is what determines the viability of the business.

Edit to add a forgotten thought.

Have you been to Boulderz? Its not exactly a multi-million dollar facility. The guy did a great job on a budget and he actually caters to climbers, not people who might want to try climbing.

I think probably 80% of business owners end up just buying themselves a job... and they are happy to be their own boss and not make a million. And it doesn't take smarts, but moreso mangement and drive. I have seen a number of "not so smart" guys make lots of money on simple things, because they are singularly focused, Delegating is tough. Winners are generally anal micromanagers. Unfortunate but true (&necessary)

And it will most likely be his demise.

If you asked the question without being so damn elitist and condescending, I might've considered keying you in on the details. But, you're a prick.. so.....

In March of 2010 my wife and I bought the local climbing gym to try and save it from going under. The gym so far has just broke even for us or just above so we have not taken home a paycheck yet. The gym was built in 96 and the last new wall was somewhere around 2000 so any money that has been made has gone into new walls and a new training area as well as holds, rentals, etc. I still work a full time job as a welder so my weeks are Monday-Friday 8am-12am and weekends noon-10 or midnight. Now I don’t fit into your original criteria as I live in a town that has 145,000 in the metro area and we are the biggest city for hours so I’m not sure how helpful this will be but: Sure it’s a lot of work but really it’s not that hard of work (well unless you’re a pansy). Most of the time it’s like hanging out with friends and I even get my climbing in 3 days a week, well at least gym climbing I do miss climbing outside. From Oct-Feb we do high school comps so we’re setting routes for 2 weeks out of every month and that gets to be a big drain energy wise. The wall construction takes up a lot of time in the summer months. As far as money goes, I got this gym dirt cheap because the previous owner was in it for the money. If you’re not a climber and/or don’t do it somewhat for the lifestyle no one will respect you and it probably won’t do well. At least that is what I’ve seen here. I do have to keep telling myself it’s just for a couple more years, then it will all be easy. Good Luck, if you’re just in it for the money the next owner will appreciate getting the gym at a huge discount, I know I did.


Edit: Sorry for the choppy post, I'm really tired right now.

Not necessarily, his model kinda reminds me of a gymnastics club. Lots of training facilities, tons of kids programs and frequent mini-comps.

Tourism need not be the only source of revenue.

Cool, I'm working on the kids programs and the comps, I'm glad to hear it's working for someone.

Walk in/never climbed before is where we make our money. That and groups/parties.

We focus on route rotation and setting the full range from supper begginer to V10/5.13. We do our best to have good harder routes and a great training area for the harder climbers but our money to keep the doors open comes from the walk ins.

Oh, and yes numerous gyms have gone out of business.

This post should tell you a lot, OP. Despite getting a used gym dirt cheap, they still barely break even. In this economy, no way I'd invest my hard earned capital in a gym, not in the US anyways. If the purpose is, as one poster says, to generate a revenue stream, it's a capital intensive risk with low returns at best.

Getting a commercial loan isn't exactly easy these days either....have you saved up a mill or so? If not.......

I think you are looking at it in a glass half empty kinda way. I look at it as we’re breaking even in this economy in our first year and a half in business. Any business will struggle for the first few years and most of them don’t break even for at least three years. A clientele needs to be built, kinks need to be ironed out, mistakes need to be learned from etc. I look at this as I bought myself a job, and I was happy to do it. I can see this gym doing well enough for me to take home 30-40k a year in a few years but I have no delusions that I will ever make a fortune here. I don’t think of myself as an entrepreneur, I prefer to think of myself as a small business owner.

You are one insightful guy....

So would you agree approximately that the potential membership base might be 1% of the gen pop.? This is also understanding that "walk-ins" could add 50-100% of that volume at a higher dollar per user rate. An avid climber is paying $40/12 or $ 4/visit. A birthday party is $ 15-20/visit.
Thanks for the thoughts on "fear". Good idea.

I estimate approximately 1% of the population base might be your membership. I think lots of gyms in cities run 3-5,000 memberships plus birthday parties for kids. I hate the kid thing, but in some cases it's the stabilizer. Capital costs can be big, but your overhead is NOT SMALL. Do the hours, manpower and rent on 10,000-15,000 ft is a killer. Having said all that, and it seems more lifestyle income... the gyms seem quite profitable.