The Golds Gym chain should be able to afford a flagship-Mecca club. Then need a showroom for their clubs and Venice is that. As you know that gym gets most of its equipment donated by equipment companies. So the cost of running that club isn't that much. They do have lots of members so who knows what the books look like. All I can say is it is not easy to keep a gym afloat for decades without changing things and spending money.
I can conceive of a much better bodybuilding gym than the current Venice facility. The World Gym at Marina del Rey isn't as good as Golds. Everyone knows that. However, the World Gym is still a nice gym. Hey, I hope someone saves all those amazing old scales that Joe collected!
Joe visited my gym in Sydney when he was out here for the 1980 Mr Olympia. At that time I didn't have even one weight stack. My lat machine ran on shafts but you loaded plates. I installed large 8 inch pulleys, though, and after using it Joe said it was smooth and that was all that mattered. He was just being nice. It was always my goal to build great equipment and have a really good gym. We have grown and evolved far beyond a bodybuilding gym. We have a separate free weight room and our main equipment area is chock a block with machines.
Imagine a great gym that was huge and well lit with a large adjacent car park for 200 cars. There would be a separate aerobics room and a few other rooms where fitness nuts could do specialized training. There would be a large cardio theatre where zillions of the latest computerized machines would be installed.
In the main room, which would be about 20,000 square feet would be over 200 of specialized machines targetting every bodypart. Machines would be chosen from different companies according to how effective and different they were. Only the best machines from each company would be bought. For example, no line would be bought just because one or two machines were great. There would be an arm area, shoulder area, etc., etc.
Adjoining the main equipment area would be the free weight room. Stainless steel handles would be on all the dumbbells. There would be rows of dumbbells between rows of specialized benches. There would be an area for plate loaded machines such as leg presses, hack machines, Smith machines, etc., etc. This area would be as large as the main equipment room. Can you imagine rows of racks and Olympic bars? What a sight that would be.
In between the main rooms would be an outdoor swimming pool surrounded by palm trees. There would be lounge areas and a store for apparel and supplements. The whole complex would be ultra modern and have plenty of natural light.
The complex would be about 60,000 square feet. That would be some club. It could be feasible for a city the size of Los Angeles that has a good density of population. I am sure we could all build an ideal gym in the sky.
