Please note that this article has no official endorsement or fiduciary connection to Ballys Incorporated. This is a consumer reaction to events and apparent policies which appear to the writer to be offensive.
Well, it almost isn't worth it any more anyway, as my lifetime gold membership is nearly up to the rate I can get a monthly membership for at any number of clubs, including Ballys. Wonder when the class action suits will commence as Ballys raises the lifetime yearly fee at the maximum rate allowed under the contracts - 15% per year, in my case, from a contract that started with Jack LaLanes back in the late '70's. I personally plan to contact an attorney soon on this issue. There's probably a few million bucks in the balance.
The actual contract terms indicated that Ballys could only raise the rates as necessary to cover costs. There seems to be a real conflict here between their choice to lower monthly rates to the point that the lifetime rates are soon going to be higher.
But that's not why I'm writing tonight. In the past few weeks, I've gotten slammed twice by Ballys personnel. First, I was doing an exercise on the stretching platform that I have done for many years with no problem, when a new manager approached me and informed me that I could not do that exercise anymore, as the platform was not properly anchored and might tip over. It was clear that this was virtually impossible, and I could have pointed out several truly dangerous situations at that same club, but he needed to show his authority.
Then, at another club, last night, I did my first power workout in several weeks, having first suffered a work injury and then had to move - involving some 45 pickup truckloads of goods. So, the workout went fine, and then I headed for the sauna/jacuzzi, first doing a thorough shower. I usually just go into the shower with my shorts and shirt on and use them as washrags/towels, so that I just hang them up at home and they're ready two days later for another round.
So, I'm in the jacuzzi and this other new manager comes in and demands that I remove my shirt and bottle of soap from the bench where I had laid them. His grounds were that the shirt was not a proper workout shirt and therefore could not be in the sauna area. All around me there were backpacks and duffel bags and soaps, etc., much more egregious than my single shirt and shampoo bottle.
It is difficult to see how he even noticed my shirt from outside, as the opaque wall comes up to about four feet high, much less somehow identifying it as "not an exercise shirt." Nonetheless, he made no attempt to go after the really blatant violaters of the rules, and instead very beligerantly demanded that I remove the offending articles.
So, I assume that someone has it in for me at Ballys. That's fine. For every minute of trouble they cause me, I can cause them a week of headaches. My google ranking is REALLY good, stemming from this blog as well as the fact that I am a recognized, published journalist, going back over twenty years. So, a $1 of pain for me will equate to $1,000 of loss to Ballys.
This is far from the first time that I have experienced this kind of gratuitous meanness at Ballys, and other members have spoken to me about their similar incidents over the years. I recall going to the club at Beach Blvd. and Warner a few times, where they have the best equipment and the biggest pool locally. What stopped me going was that a manager approached me and told me that I was using too much weight on the machines and I was breathing too hard! It was so completely idiotic that I made sure that any members within thirty feet heard what the issue was.
I do HARD workouts, altho I'm only 5' 8" and ~160 lb., and I'm in my 50's. So, why does the machine have the weights that it does if you are not allowed to use them? And, I'm supposed to NOT work-out to the point that I'm breathing hard? Has anyone every heard of aerobics? Duh... Actually, I think that the real issue was that I was using the equipment in the "ladies preferred" area. Of course, Ballys knows that it can't legally forbid me, a man, from using that equipment, but it can make a totally silly and nonsensical issue over my breathing too hard, right?
Of course, the reason I was using that equipment was that it simply didn't exist anywhere else in the club. But probably some woman complained that a MAN!! was in THEIR AREA!!!, an area, BTW, which is not visually separate from the rest of the club, and is only ten feet or so from the non-"ladies preferred" area. Whatever. When I raised my voice to make sure that the other members heard what was going down, this guy runs for the club manager who demands my card. So, I just walked out.
Meanwhile, every night at any of the clubs I see people coming into the jacuzzi to wash their feet - or their whole bodies - totally dry and dirty, no shower. Some people even regularly wash their shoes in the jacuzzi! The Ballys attendee just turns the other way when this sort of thing happens. Ballys general policy, so far as I can see, is to completely ignore any real health and safety concerns until one of my friends at the local newspaper writes about it (gee, wonder how they found out?) or the health department weighs in.
However, let anyone - especially a woman - complain that someone is "breathing too hard," and THAT becomes a major issue. In fact, if a woman complains about ANYTHING, right or wrong, my experience is that Ballys goes after the man. Women are their bread and butter, after all. I constantly see them come in with a year membership and then disappear after an few weeks of posing on the machines, tieing them up for 20 minutes, using zero weight, which means zero health or strength benefit, BTW. This is virtually straight profit. Most of the guys seem to actually get the value out of their memberships, which means a net loss to Ballys.
BTW, has anyone else noticed what organ of the body the Ballys icon actually distinctly and clearly resembles? And how totally appropriately?"