Gyms get no mercy
The Federal Council remained firm in its latest decisions and rejected all requests to be allowed to resume operations in closed rooms. This not only affected restaurants, but also fitness centers, which are now supposed to remain closed until April. It should only be relaxed at shops, museums and zoos. Interiors where people stay longer are considered to be the drivers of the pandemic and places where the greatest risk of infection threatens. For fitness centers, this means that the struggle for survival will continue. Customers have stayed away long enough, because they have long since gotten tired of having to pay for a service that they do not receive. Just out of sympathy, hardly anyone has enough money left to extend their membership in the fitness center.
Fitness center operators are disappointed
Understandably, the operators of the fitness center are disappointed, because after all, sport in closed rooms should only be possible again from April 1st. This means that the time with the highest sales for the studios is over, because they generate the highest sales between January and April. The reason is the good resolutions that many Swiss make at the end of the old year and that they implement in January. One of these resolutions usually concerns the amount of physical activity that should be significantly increased, and a healthy lifestyle in general should also be pursued. But now the fitness centers are closed and in spring and summer most people prefer to do sports outside. In this respect, the loosening from April is no longer of much use, it is little more than a drop in the ocean. The President of the Swiss Fitness and Health Association, Claude Ammann, recently said that the decisions of the Federal Council would mean a black day for the SMEs in the fitness industry, because the extension of the closure is the death knell for many.
Actually, there had been a very lively exchange of ideas about the policy to be pursued and yet no agreement had been reached. The small and medium-sized studios are dependent on the members coming to training, they do not have large financial reserves like the big representatives of the industry and consequently can no longer exist. Running costs still have to be managed, even if there has been no more money in the coffers for months.
The association is defending itself
Now the fitness association is standing on its back legs and is planning a claim for damages against the federal government. It is not just that in many cantons the promised aid money is not paid or is only paid to a limited extent, there is also no equal treatment in the cantons. So there are fitness centers that still have a chance and others that are now running out of breath. The association has already asked for fitness centers to be classified as systemically relevant, but this request had not yet been heard.
The planned lawsuit cannot easily be implemented either, because the hurdles are high. The money for this is now to be collected via crowdfunding. The beginning was made through the many small payments made by employees and members of the gyms.
Conclusion: fitness studios lose in a crisis
Fitness studios have a problem: According to the Federal Council, they will remain closed, at least until April. They do not really benefit from the fact that the Berlin study assesses the risk of infection indoors as particularly high and even certifies fitness centers with a factor of 3.4 when they are half occupied. Like restaurants and secondary schools, they are supposed to be a haven for contagion, which is supposed to be far more dangerous than shops.
