If you own a CrossFit box, there’s a very good chance that you’ve either attended a CrossFit competition, or organized one of your own. Either way, where physical fitness inside a ‘globo-gym’ can often be a solitary exercise, CrossFit brings competition to the table in a way that members absolutely love.
With the CrossFit Games getting more and more popular every year, organizing a competition at your box can be a lot of fun. However, as enjoyable as a self-contained competition may be, it also can be pretty rewarding to co-host a multi-gym competition with other popular boxes in your area.
There are several benefits to organizing a multi-gym competition. For starters, it gives your athletes a larger group of competitors to match up with, and can even help your fitness community grow stronger. Competition can build pride in your brand as an ‘our-tribe-against-theirs’ kind of thing. Co-hosting a multi-gym event can also help you save money, as you can share equipment and split the costs of incidentals (food, insurance, merch, etc.)
And, as always, more gym means more spectators, more cheering, and more fun. Who doesn’t want that?
The process of planning a multi-gym event isn’t all that different from planning a competition at your home gym, with a few exceptions:
Identify a few agreeable (!) box owners and collaborate to find a date(s) that will work for all of you.
Wodify Arena is an all-in-one CrossFit competition software that allows organizers to run their events as smoothly as possible, and provides them with a unique URL to help interested athletes get more information and register. One organizer will be the “owner” of the competition, responsible for collecting waivers and tickets, and keeping the other gym owners in the loop.
Will this competition be held at one box, or several? If you want to use multiple gyms over multiple days, take advantage of the physical layout that each box can provide for a unique competition experience. For example, one box may have a better running route, while another may have a better set-up for rope climbs. Talk with your fellow owners to decide which events work best at each box.
One benefit to doing a multi-gym event is the ability to share equipment. Take stock not only of the events you’re planning to run, but also of who has what in terms of the necessary equipment for those events. You can save money on rental costs by sharing.
Marketing materials that are included for free with any Wodify Arena competition help you to advertise your competition directly to a targeted audience, but all participating gyms should get the word out via social media channels, and really put an emphasis on the friendly rivalry theme.
