We are a lifeline for kids and can produce Olympic champions ... but we need £150,000 to stay alive
A HEARTFELT PLEA FROM A TOP GYMNASTICS ACADEMY IN MANCHESTER
NOVEMBER 25, 2017 was a proud day for Mike and Maxine Grech. After 18 months of working 18- hour days, the Manchester Academy of Gymnastics was officially opened by Olympic medallist Nile Wilson — and a sanctuary for Salford’s children was born.
‘It was an incredible moment,’ Mike tells Sportsmail. ‘When you walk through the doors and look at the centre you are blown away. That is how I felt three years ago and how I still feel today.
‘You will not find a facility anywhere in the country as good as this. This centre can produce Olympic champions.’
The 20,000 square-foot facility boasts state- of-the-art equipment and is the home for 1,200 gymnasts, including likely Team GB Tokyo 2020 squad members Wilson and Giarnni ReginiMoran. A registered charity, the club also offers sessions for children with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds and trains 500 boxers.
It has been described as a ‘lifeline for all kids’ and Mike and Maxine have spent £2.5million of their own money with the aim of getting ‘children off the streets and back into sport’.
Yet all of that cash and kindness could soon be for nothing. The Manchester Academy of Gymnastics (MAG) is on the brink of closure because of the coronavirus pandemic.
‘It is not looking good,’ admits Mike. ‘ We need £ 150,000 to ensure the centre stays open. With there being a vaccine now, there is light at the end of the tunnel but we have to get to the tunnel — otherwise it is going to close down.’
The centre had begun to break even at the turn of this year. In February, it landed a major coup when Team GB star Wilson — who won bronze on the horizontal bar at Rio 2016 — left Leeds Gymnastics Club for MAG. But it was forced to shut from March to July because of the first national lockdown, and then again for November, further squeezing already fragile finances. ‘That was the final nail in the coffin,’ admits Mike. ‘That is when I said, “Right, we need help here”.’
Maxine adds: ‘ When we re-opened in mid- July, it took us until October to get the numbers back up to about 75 per cent (of the pre-lockdown total). We had to build confidence back up with the parents to make sure they felt comfortable that we were doing everything to make everybody safe.
‘We usually have 20 kids in each class but now we have 10. We are now probably running only 50 per cent of our classes.’
As well as membership being down, takings from the club’s restaurant — which usually counts for 15 per cent of revenue — have been hit hard by the area’s tier three restrictions.
It all adds up to MAG no longer being able to afford its £14,000a-month rent. Having initially offered a rent payment holiday, the centre’s landlord now wants all arrears paid off and is refusing to accept a new payment plan to allow the charity to continue. ‘We have got the landlord issuing solicitor’s letters,’ says Mike. ‘The wording of the letters is getting stronger and stronger. You can just sense they are going to come in overnight and change the locks. That is the worry. Businesses that have been going for more than 25 years are going to the wall, so how can a charity like us survive this?’
MAG has now been forced to set up a crowdfunding page in order to survive. They have received a £10,000 grant from the local council, £ 7,000 from Sport England and £7,000 from the National Lottery this year — but it is still nowhere near enough.
‘If this centre was unlucky enough to not get any funding from the community it will be a crying shame — and it will hit the community hard in the future,’ admits Mike.
Maxine says: ‘I want to survive, that is all I am asking. I am not bothered about making money. Make a pound, spend a pound — every penny will go back into that club to buy new or better equipment, get better coaches, just build and build. We are more like a community centre. You phone any gymnastics club in the country and tell them you have a 12-year- old child who wants to get into gymnastics for the first time, nobody will touch them because they are over the age that they are going to progress and be anything.
‘But that child still wants to do sport and we are different because we will take those kids.
‘We thought we would build this gymnastics centre to get the kids off the street and hopefully companies or the council would come on board to support us.
‘ It has been the complete opposite. We have used all our funds now. There is only a certain amount an individual can provide and it has burnt us out.’
GB’s Regini-Moran admits he is ‘devastated’ at the plight of his home club.‘We don’t know how long the club can last and when, or if, it will be open again,’ the 22-year-old says. ‘Every little helps.’
As well as senior squad member Regini-Moran, MAG is the home of a number of British junior gymnasts, including rising stars Reuben Ward, Joe Ferry, Finlay Hazelton and Rocco Grech — the founders’ son.
Maxine adds: ‘There is a lot of talent in that club and a lot of talent has been homegrown kids we have had from day one.
‘There are little superstars in Salford and we want to keep them on their journey. Kids love coming here and it’s their life.
‘I understand that everyone is going through trauma and their own individual crises so it is really difficult to fundraise in this environment.
‘But I just want everyone to open their hearts to help us keep the doors open.’