limerick

one for all

Need a bit of help. Im looking to open up some MA classes in limerick. but not being from there i dont have a clue of the area. Does anybody know of halls or rooms that i could rent out. Rooms with kick bags and floor mats would be a huge plus.

--amadeus--

one for all wrote: »

Need a bit of help. Im looking to open up some MA classes in limerick. but not being from there i dont have a clue of the area. Does anybody know of halls or rooms that i could rent out. Rooms with kick bags and floor mats would be a huge plus.

Limerick city centre is wall to wall with martial arts classes at the moment, the Project School at the top of O'Connell st has two kickboxing acadamies and one tang soo do already, for example. There are also excellent clubs in both LIT and UL.

Maybe look out the Corbally direction - Grove Island has a sports hall that they hire out and there is a scout hut in Shannon Banks or the school hall in Scoil Ide that may be available and there is nothing out that way at the moment. None of them have mats or bags though.

What sort of classes are you thinking of?

Unpossible

Its very hard to find a place in limerick that has mats, it took me ages to get a place. I'm in LIT but they are closed for the summer and I don't think they many (if any) spare slots.
Good luck though.


edit: OP I know of a place that rents to a kickboxing club, its a school with mats but no bags. They will be open again in september but if you're interested drop me a pm

--amadeus--

That's actually something that had crossed my mind before...

There are loads of empty units in town at the minute and rents must be at rock bottom. I wonder if it would be economical to kit out one with mats & bags and hire it out?

There are loads of classes being run throughout the city and a central space would be great for people to come to, organising competitions and teh like. You could have a martial arts supply shop selling gear, books and DVDs as well. You could also rent it out to general fitness people (aerobics, boxcercise). You could have it open for people to pop in and train during teh day on a pay as you go basis as well

Anyone local got any thoughts or experience?

Unpossible

I've seen it work in finland, but it was a large converted underground bunker that could have a max of 6 clubs having classes at the same (5 matted areas and a place with a kickboxing ring & bags).
My concern with such a place in Limerick is that a lot of people here seem to think that an empty hall with a wooden floor is worth 40-60 euros an hour.

--amadeus--

Thats the thing - from what I hear people are being asked to pay silly money for unequipped rooms. Given the choice between a dedicated facility at (for example) €55/hour or a bare room at the same money it's a no brainer.

Does anyone know roughly how many MA / MMA clubs there are in teh city?

Unpossible

How about this for a plan, when that dojo is set up we simply get a bunch of martial arts in the one building. No-one pays rent but no-one accepts money directly from the students. The students pay a monthly membership fee which allows them to go to any class they want that is hosted in the dojo. Everytime they go to a class they bring a card and scan it, this card logs which class they went to. The teacher of the class gets paid per scan, so someone with a class of 20 students will get paid more than someone with a class of 5 students. The money details will be taken care of by the dojo, teachers just come in teach and advertise. The dojo will take care of the equipment etc.

If a club has consistantly low numbers and is costing the dojo too much money then it will have to leave.

--amadeus--

That is a totally brilliant idea, a sort of MA co-operative.

Like I said it wouldn't need to be just MA, with an open space you could bring in non-MA activities (aerobics, yoga, pilates for example). Advantages for the clubs is that they get dedicated facilities and insurance, the dojo owner makes a profit from a % of the club memberships and sales from the shop and a coffee bar. Could work, even under teh fabled "current economic conditions"!

The one potential hiccup off teh top of my head is egos - Limerick is a small town and not all of the MA instructors are best of friends.

[edit] You also usually have to pay a fee to join whatever International Assoc. your club is a member of as well as grading fees. I assume that instructors would have to manage that directly with thier students

Unpossible

Its just a working idea, sure things like registration fee's and the like would have to be worked out.
Its a pity ego's get in the way, personally I would have no problem training or sharing a hall with other martial artists.

--amadeus--

I'm pretty sure that if there was a good enough incentive egos could be put aside. It's not like the Instructors would be spending a huge amount of time together.

I might drop an email to a few estate agents around town. I know there are units down from SuperMacs (Denmark St?) that are offering 18 months rent free...

--amadeus--

Talking to myself now, which is never a good sign...!

I did a quick search online and there is - for example - a building with c. 4500 sq feet of space available at a list price of €40,000.

I'm not sure it would be totally suitable (each floor is 140 sqm which if it is subdivided is too small) but using it as a basis you are looking at roughly €3,250/month in rent.

If we were to pitch membership at €50/month (which is pretty good value) and pass 25% of the membership on to the instructors the facility would make €37.50/month from each member.

So to clear the rent alone you'd need roughly 90 members. Which - on the surface - looks crazy but thinking about it the club I'm in at the moment probably has that split across teh various classes on it's own, so it os doable.

The one thing that is clear is that we probably wouldn't be able to pay instructors a fixed amount per student / per class. It would need to be all the instructor money is put into a pot and divided among the instructors based on who had the most classes / students.

Anyone with any thoughts?

Unpossible

The old kickboxing place in the centre was advertised in the limerick leader for 27,000 per year

just a thought, how much are warehouses/industrial units? They would have a lot of space and parking.

--amadeus--

27k isn't bad. It's quite a small unit though, IIRC (I was only in there once). To make it viable you'd ideally want space for 2 - 3 classes running at the same time and that kickboxing place only has room for one.

I looked at warehousing type units - there are loads of them around and they are huge, have parking and everything. Fitting out would be pricey though. This is a sample - 3,000 sq feet and €15,000 per year. You could start by throwing up partition walls inside and add a steel mezzanine in a year or so if demand allowed to more or les souble your space. You do lose passing trade in the cafe and shop but you'd gain by the parents who do a kids drop off probably staying for a coffee rather than going somewhere else.

A city centre option might be this - good central location, two rooms, canteen, waiting area and just over €2k per month.

Unpossible

With so many empty units in the city and with all the factory closures that rent should be brought down to 1.5 or even 1k . Remember there would also be insurance, rates, heating etc costs per month too.

--amadeus--

Oh yea, the rent will be negotiable. Light and heat won't be crazy - when have you ever seen a heated dojo, thats why you start with star jumps Budget at a couple of hundred euro a month max I would guess. Rates I don't know about. You've also got accountancy fees (2 - 4k per month), staff costs (cafe / shop), tax, insurance...

Start up costs would be a lot lower in that unit - already floored and painted for example. All you need is the kit.

fergal_q

Hi lads,
This might be of interest to you guys, my own Brazilian jiu-jitsu club and Ger Healys combat sports centre are in the process of relocating to a larger facility in Limerick city at the moment. Its gonna be 4000 sq feet total and we are planning on opening the new centre in July. If ye are interested send me a pm. thanks-fergal.

Unpossible

pm sent

diadom

Hey fergal (Fruesli ) Best of luck in this venture man. Hope you get the numbers your teaching and experience deserves. Your off to train at Gordo's in Brasil soon right? Fair play to your dedication. Good luck and hope to get up to you in July. Good luck to Ger too-great idea