Bally Total Fitness Holding Corporation is a chain of American fitness clubs. At its peak in 2007, before the first filing of two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, Bally operates nearly 440 facilities located in 29 US states, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, China and the Caribbean under Bally Total Fitness, Crunch Fitness, Gorilla Sports, Pinnacle Fitness, Bally Sports Clubs, and Sports Clubs of Canada brands.
Bally Total Fitness is a former former non-gambler broker from Bally Manufacturing for the acquisition of Bally Technologies by Scientific Games Corporation in 2014.
Video Bally Total Fitness
Histori
In 1983, the manufacturer of slot and arcade machines, Bally Entertainment bought Health and Tennis Corporation of America, entered the entertainment industry and created the Bally Health and Tennis Corporation division of the company. He also bought Lifecycle (Life Fitness), exercise bike manufacturer, changed the name of the company Bally Fitness Products. In 1987, it was the owner and manager of the largest fitness center in the world. This is further expanded with the purchase of American Fitness Centers and Nautilus Fitness Centers, who were once connected to Vic Tanny and Jack LaLanne.
Various brands were consolidated under the Bally Total Fitness brand in 1995. In that year, the company was the owner and manager of the largest health club in the world. It operates as many as 325 health clubs in the United States and Canada. The rebranding process is carried out to take advantage of Bally's name and rename Tanny and LaLanne's existing locations.
In 1996, Bally Total Fitness spun from the casino owner's parents. In May 1998, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker BFT. The company brought $ 300 million in debt at the time of the initial public offering.
Paul Toback, a former White House assistant in the Clinton administration who joined Bally as a corporate development officer in 1997, was appointed Chief Executive Officer in December 2002, shortly after his predecessor Lee Hillman resigned.
On November 18, 2011, Bally Total Fitness announced the sale of its 171 clubs located in sixteen states and the District of Columbia for LA Fitness affiliates for $ 153 million. In February 2012, he sold the Toledo Airport Road club to Red Fitness 24/7. In April 2012, Bally sold 39 additional facilities to Blast Fitness. Blast Fitness has started operating the new facility in their own name gradually, the transition entirely from the name Bally. Both sales left Bally with 44 locations, 27 of them in New York, 8 in San Francisco, 1 in Louisiana and 8 in Colorado. After the LA Fitness transaction, Bally has about 800,000 members; the sale allowed Bally to stop his company's debt.
All clubs in the Cleveland area are sold to Red Fitness 24/7, effective December 31, 2012. Some employees receive a notice of termination on the same day.
The number of clubs still in the Bally chain continues to diminish. For example, the location of Bally Total Fitness in Danville, California is closed on June 22, 2012 and reopened as Danville Fit .
Former Bally club in Colorado Springs, CO changed ownership in June 2014, and became Voretex Fitness.
In December 2014, thirty-two locations located in New York, New Jersey, Denver, and San Francisco Bay Area were acquired by 24 Hour Fitness.
Location Greece, New York closed without notice on 30 December 2014.
The 106th NYC location became Tapout's fitness center in August 2016. In October 2016, Bally took to his final location in New York City. The last Bally location in Penta NYC closes on October 26, also a Tapout fitness center. As a result, Bally Total Fitness becomes completely dead.
Maps Bally Total Fitness
Bankruptcy
Bally filed for bankruptcy in August 2007, with an extraordinary debt of $ 761 million. Over the past ten years, its share price has dropped from a high of about $ 37.00 to less than $ 0.37 on the Pink Sheets, more than 99% of its value. It was removed from the NYSE shortly thereafter.
On October 1, 2007, Bally announced its emergence from bankruptcy court protection, 100% owned by hedge fund, Harbinger Capital. Earlier that year, it sold 16 of its Toronto health clubs to the existing chain: 10 locations were sold to GoodLife Fitness, and 6 to Extreme Fitness, allowing the last company to move first to the city center for what has until now become a suburban network..
On December 3, 2008, Bally filed for bankruptcy due to problems arising from the global credit crunch. The company indicated at the time that they would explore options including reorganization or perhaps even sales, but hoped to emerge from bankruptcy as soon as possible.
Investigation and controversy
Bally Total Fitness has been the subject of controversy over the sale and practice of membership cancellation, with some customers claiming they were misled into signing loans on a condition of up to three years using documents that contained less used languages ​​such as "Retail Installment Contracts". Customers suspect that they later find themselves dealing with a collection agency.
In April 1994, Bally paid $ 120,000 to settle a Federal Trade Commission bill for illegal billing, cancellation, refunds, and debt collection practices. However, consumers complain, that little has changed over the years. From 1999 to 2004, more than six hundred customers complained to the New York Attorney General's office, leading to further investigation and approval by Bally Total Fitness to reform their sales tactics in February 2004.
Bally has been the subject of at least one federal investigation, in addition to the foregoing investigation into a consumer complaint against Bally, conducted by the State Attorney General of New York, on the company's sales practices. In April 2004, Bally revealed the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is investigating its accounting practices, and in February 2005, the US Department of Justice joined the investigation. The company finally restated its financial statements for 1997 to 2003.
On February 28, 2008, the SEC filed a financial fraud suit against Bally Total Fitness. The SEC alleges that in 2001, Bally exaggerated shareholders' equity was initially reported by approximately $ 1.8 billion (more than 340%), and that Bally played down a net loss of $ 90.8 million (or 845%) in 2003.
In December 2009, the SEC announced that the Ernst & amp; Young has agreed to pay $ 8.5 million to settle charges against six current and former, five Chicago-based partners, for failing to detect and report on accounting fraud in Bally. The SEC also completed a lawsuit against former chief financial officer of Bally, John W. Dwyer, and former controller of Theodore Noncek. Dwyer agrees to pay a $ 250,000 fine. He is permanently barred from serving as an officer or director of a public company. Noncek approved the same order for two years. Ernst & amp; Young Chicago partners - where Lee Hillman and Dwyer had worked before working at Bally - audited Bally from 2001 to 2003 and failed to find and report fraud despite the fact that Ernst & Young previously identified Bally as the most risky account in the Chicago area. Bally exaggerated shareholders' equity by the end of 2001 for $ 1.8 billion and a low net loss in 2002 of $ 92.4 million and $ 90.8 million in 2003.
In 2010, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced that the company had sent over 11,000 fake notifications to former members. The Attorney General alleged that Bally had urged consumers to immediately pay their late fees and that the action was part of a scheme to get consumers to rejoin the club.
References
External links
- Maze, Jonathan (May 2007) "Problem Weight: Bally works to fend off bankruptcy", Jonathan Maze. Franchise Times .
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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