CrossFit is in a battle to stop their 4,000+ affiliate gyms from being taken over by Anthos Capital.
Anthos, a private investment firm, is reportedly offering $20 million to a non-managing equity partner of CrossFit Inc. to take over the affiliate system.
If this happens, the original affiliate system set up by Greg Glassman would cease to exist, and owners would no longer have to pay the licensing fee for their gym.
However, it would come at a cost. Affiliate owners would lose their right to choose what brands they stock in their boxes, and be forced to sell the Anthos company’s endorsed line of products instead.
The story came to light this morning when CrossFit Staff member Russell Greene posted this thread on the CrossFit Discussion Board.
Since then there has been much reaction on the social media scene with CrossFit veterans Cheryl Brost and Tommy Hackenbruck some of the many athletes to show their disapproval of the move.
CF Level 1 Seminar Trainer, Russell Berger also voiced his opinion, putting out this letter:
Dear CrossFit Affiliates and Trainers,
I’m writing this today to inform you of an active threat to the survival of the community we love and have built together. Even though it goes against everything we at CrossFit HQ believe in, coach Glassman’s non-managing equity partner is attempting to sell her ownership of CrossFit Inc. to a venture Capitalist firm called Anthos for 20 million dollars.
One of the board members of this firm, Bryan Kelly, approached us months ago with schemes and offers to turn each and every one of our 4000 affiliates into a franchise location designed to pimp supplements, clothing, and fitness industry garbage we all rejected when we first turned to this program. When we told him we weren’t interested, he went behind our backs, deceived us, and is now making a move to take what we wouldn’t give him.
Anthos views you all as unexploited resources that need to be tapped and drained, and what they have planned would make them very rich, and kill our entire community in a very short period of time. There is no greater threat to our existence than this.
So what does this mean? What do we do? Why and I writing this?…Because we aren’t going to roll over and play dead. Anthos is barking up the wrong tree and they are going to lose this if we fight back.
What Anthos projections fail to account for is that you as Affiliates have 100% of the power in this situation. If they do win and take over CrossFit, every single one you (Affiliates) is free to tell them where to shove their ideas, de-affiliate, and keep doing what makes you great. If together we educate our community, share this information with others, and loudly voice our intent to Anthos to fight tooth and nail against everything they do, they will back down.
Let’s make this a fight they don’t even want to start.
For contact information for the board of Anthos, go here:http://www.anthoscapital.com/people1.html (WFS)
Don’t be shy, let these sharks know what you think. If you have any questions or want to talk about this, email me- Russell@crossfit.com and I’ll send you my cellphone number.
What would you do if you were a CrossFit affiliate owner? Tell us in the comment section below:
Follow Us