On Tuesday, an Arizona judge ruled the state must finalize draft protocols and allow all fitness centers to re-open on August 11.
The ruling came about through a Temporary Restraining Order/Injunctive Relief bid by Mountainside Fitness and EoS Fitness, in response to Arizona’s governor Doug Ducey’s executive order on June 29 mandating gyms, bars and other businesses close for 30 days.
According to the ruling, Ducey’s executive order violated procedural due process. The ruling states: “The Executive Orders, as implemented, violate procedural due process. As set forth above, fitness centers must be provided a prompt opportunity to apply for reopening. The process for doing so must be in place within one week from the date of entry of this Order. The Executive Orders, however, do not violate substantive due process.”
Mountainside Fitness plans to re-open on August 11 and resume normal business hours.
“Relief is how we are feeling today,” said Tom Hatten, the founder and CEO of Mountainside Fitness, in a statement. “Since the first shut down, we have continued to do everything the governor and the state have asked us to do to safely operate our business and finally today thanks to Judge Thomason we have an avenue to open and stay open.”
According to Hatten, Mountainside Fitness is prepared to re-open safely again and stay open. “We as an industry worked extremely hard to not only open safely the first time, but also the second and third time,” he continued. “We have the best protocols and practices in place to do that and we are excited to once again open our doors and allow our members to continue improving their health and mental well-being.”
EoS Fitness also expressed plans to re-open as a result of the ruling.
“When the state of Arizona re-closed gyms in late June, we made it clear that we would do everything reasonably within our power to get our gyms open to continue to support our members and their health,” said Rich Drengberg, the CEO of EoS Fitness, in a statement on the brand’s Facebook page. “We have been diligently and relentlessly working on fulfilling that promise because we knew how important it was to our EoS members and team members. Today is the culmination of our two-month effort to show how important and vital a role our gyms play in the lives of our members. We plan on continuing with this progress in working with the Arizona Governor’s office and the Arizona Department of Health Services to get our gyms open next week.”
A press conference held by Mountainside Fitness concerning the ruling can be viewed in full here.
