Nestled in the eastside of Cincinnati lies a hybrid club, combining the best parts of a health club, a medical wellness facility and a city social hub. The Cincinnati Sports Club has been serving the community since 1990 and is constantly evolving to meet the needs of members.
“Cincinnati Sports Club was founded by a group of local families who saw a need and had a vision for the eastside of Cincinnati: a sports mall that would serve as a one-stop shop for athletes with a high-quality club,” said Mary Frank, the vice president of sales and marketing. “Over the years, that concept has evolved into a large-scale medical, health and social destination. The owners have been active investors since Day One, allocating funds for capital every year that have greatly improved the facility. The original seven-acre site and 50,000-square-foot club has grown to almost 16 acres and more than 110,000 square feet.”
Beyond the physical additions, another improvement to the facility was the creation of the executive leadership team in 2014.
The purpose of the team was to create an environment that’s both supportive and challenging, allowing the senior managers to work on the business. The team meets twice a month, separate from the bi-monthly full-management team meeting. Just like how the facility is always a work in progress, so is improving leadership.
Then in 2017, Gerry Faust, a longtime IHRSA supplier member and founder of the Club Executive Roundtables, completed an organizational diagnostic of the Cincinnati Sports Club. Frank said this revolutionized how the executive leadership team operated.
For example, now when a problem is brought to the team and a decision needs to be made, Frank said there’s a balance between democratic and authoritative leadership styles. Decisions aren’t always based on a majority decision and are routinely evaluated. Frank elaborated often the outcome isn’t the decision of the group, but rather the most informed person at the table who has brought more historical data to make the final decision.
“Situational leadership is the foundational core of decision making, and we give ourselves the grace and space for healthy conflict and accountability,” said Frank. “Once we leave the room with a decision, it’s vital everyone buys into the decision, even if it wasn’t their preferred decision. Since every decision is evaluated after the fact and given a grade, this overall buy-in is easier.”
Before making decisions, Frank said they analyze trends, demographic data, member comments and club usage, investing in and realigning the club to stay in step with the changing needs of members and the surrounding community.
Sometimes the club is even one step ahead before things happen, like having a pandemic response plan in place since 2005.
“A member of the management team read John M. Barry’s book, The Great Influenza, that was published in 2004,” said Marco Fiorini, the general manager of the club. “Our greatest concern was that at no time did we want the club to be considered a hotspot for any type of infection — whether respiratory or skin-to-skin.”
In 2018, the facility benchmarked local schools and hospitals and determined they needed an electrostatic disinfecting machine to be deployed after hours in their childcare, locker rooms and fitness floors to close any gaps from cleaning. “We wanted to pull data from industries where disinfecting is a core competency and implement them at our facility,” said Fiorini.
Cincinnati Sports Club’s Disaster Recovery plan is unique to the industry and disaster recovery planning in general. Frank said they wanted a living document they could grab at any time and begin the implementation of the plan. In the event of a disaster, this allows the decision-making process to be easier because it’s already laid out.
“We have yet to identify any other club in the country that had a pandemic plan in place when COVID-19 hit in 2020,” said Frank. “The club actually began implementation of the plan prior to COVID-19 being declared a pandemic. Our efforts were spent on executing rather than creating a plan.”
Cincinnati Sports Club has also been one step ahead of the second emergency that exploded during and after COVID-19 — the mental health crisis.
In early 2023, the club rolled out confidential counseling where members can get up to three free, one-on-one sessions with a licensed therapist from hospital partners at TriHealth. It’s a one-of-a-kind program that isn’t offered at any other health club in the country.
“While regular exercise five days a week has been proven to ease both depression and anxiety, many people still struggle, needing additional help and guidance from a mental health professional,” said Fiorini. “We are now ‘filling the gap’ for our members by providing them with this extra support that serves the whole person, helping them to better navigate the stress, anxiety and other issues that may arise in their day-to-day lives.”
The club believes in the total wellness of the person, which means going beyond their physical health to also support members’ mental, spiritual and emotional health. As such, Frank said they believe offering an opportunity for member connections outside the workout in a comfortable social setting is critical to the individual’s mental health and is part of their core mission.
“Building member connections outside the workout enhances emotional well-being,” said Heather Luttrull, the club manager. “We take it a step further by having old-fashioned ice breakers at events to help nudge members along and reward them with gifts and prizes. An example of this is by using color-coded nametags at our monthly Tuesday Tasting where members engage with other members with the same color nametag.”
The club also offers small, medium and large-sized social events and piggyback many of their activities: the BodyPump launch with a post-class social; men’s 21 and over basketball play followed by a pizza party; and Friday nights on the racquet courts with drinks and lite bites. Other activities include multi-generational events such as a book club, monthly learn-and-sip wine education series with a wine sommelier, holiday events, and their very popular winter and poolside weekly Fab Fridays that average 700 attendees in the summer and 300 over the winter.
Another way they focus on improving members’ mental health is through the great outdoors and bringing the outdoors inside.
“The expansive indoor/outdoor campus provides members a multitude of options to enhance their well-being,” said Luttrull. “Inside at the club you will find efforts to increase natural light, such as skylights and additional windows over the years. Most of our doors to spaces are glass doors to increase the spread of light on campus, and to allow members to be invited into spaces visually and imagine themselves participating. I remember when we introduced windows and natural light to the group exercise spaces. Many members were not in favor. It was a paradox of enjoying yoga on the beach while on vacations, but they wanted their studios to be dark and quiet. We were ahead of the time in implementing natural light as more studies have come out about the positive effects of natural light on one’s well-being.”
Having served the community for over 30 years, the club has constantly had its eyes on the future and is always looking for ways to improve the member experience. The team is able to stay ahead of the curve by having a solid brand reputation and truly knowing who they serve.
They do this by studying the macro trends and identify gaps and opportunities to enhance and grow the membership experience. For Cincinnati Sports Club, it’s not just about the current member but the knowledge of the other 80% market share.
“We know our members and the markets we serve and provide what’s important to them,” said Fiorini. “We listen with our ears, our eyes, our head and our heart. We listen for the impassioned voices and the whispers. We measure the megatrends and the micro-counter trends, balancing our success to outweigh our missteps. We conduct transactional surveys, 90-day surveys, annual surveys, exit surveys, focus groups and have multiple mobile kiosks through Medallia for members and staff to provide feedback/comments.”
As the club looks ahead to serving the community for many years to come, it’s focused on ongoing evolution and constant pivoting.
“Our dream is to continue to be the finest hybrid health club in the Midwest, if not the country, as we remain stewards to the mental, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of our growing member community,” said Fiorini.
