{"id":8834,"date":"2025-10-17T19:20:06","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:20:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/8834\/"},"modified":"2025-10-17T19:20:06","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T19:20:06","slug":"plano-aerobats-gymnastics-program-to-close-end-of-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/8834\/","title":{"rendered":"Plano Aerobats Gymnastics Program to close end of October"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tPlano\u2019s Aerobats<\/a> Gymnastics Program is coming to a close Oct. 31, according to a city spokesperson.<\/p>\n

What you need to know<\/p>\n

The program has faced several challenges in recent years, including declining enrollment and difficulty recruiting qualified coaches, according to the statement.<\/p>\n

Additionally, the city\u2019s new cost recovery goals and tighter budgets have limited the Parks and Recreation department\u2019s \u201cability to subsidize underperforming programs in the Recreation Revolving Fund,\u201d according to the statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognize the history and community value of this program and have not made this decision lightly,\u201d the spokesperson said. \u201cContinuing to subsidize the program is not sustainable and would compromise the recreation revolving fund\u2019s ability to meet cost recovery goals established by city policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the statement, the program has seen a net loss of approximately $98,000 in 2024-25 despite consistent marketing efforts and program adjustments.<\/p>\n

Plano Aerobats Head Coach Carlos Perez retired in 2021 after leading the program for more than 30 years, according to a city news release<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What they\u2019re saying<\/p>\n

Plano resident Sunaina Ahuja said at the Oct. 13 Plano City Council meeting<\/a> that the closure should be postponed so their kids can still participate in the program, as most private competitive teams have already been formed and cannot take new gymnasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were told just during the beginning of this week that it is going to be shut down, … and we have no other place to take our girls because all the teams are already formed,\u201d Ahuja said. \u201cWe did not get enough time to look for other options.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zooming in<\/p>\n

Plano City Council approved<\/a> the city\u2019s new cost recovery policy<\/a> for Parks and Recreation programs in February to ensure programs were recouping costs.<\/p>\n

While some services have target cost recovery ranges of 41-61% or 61-90%, recreation program fees, including Plano Aerobats, have a target cost recovery of 100%, according to city documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plano City Council also approved<\/a> increasing service fee prices for various Parks and Recreation programs in June.<\/p>\n

Some fees had not been updated since 2008 or 2012, while others were last changed in 2019.<\/p>\n

The new fees were expected to generate $314,445 for the recreation revolving fund, according to city documents<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Quote of note<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 50 years, Plano Aerobats has been a proud part of our community\u2014introducing thousands of young athletes to the joy, discipline and achievement of gymnastics,\u201d the program\u2019s website<\/a> states. \u201cWe are deeply grateful to the generations of families, athletes and coaches who made Plano Aerobats a lasting legacy.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Plano\u2019s Aerobats Gymnastics Program is coming to a close Oct. 31, according to a city spokesperson. What you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8835,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[8321,8320,160,8312,8313,8317,8322,8316,8314,162,161,8315,8323,8319,8324,8318],"class_list":["post-8834","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-plano","tag-cox-playhouse-rental-rates","tag-high-point-tennis-court-fees","tag-plano","tag-plano-aerobats","tag-plano-aerobats-gymnastics","tag-plano-city-council-parks-decision","tag-plano-facility-rental-changes","tag-plano-fee-increase-2025","tag-plano-gymnastics-program","tag-plano-headlines","tag-plano-news","tag-plano-parks-and-recreation-fees","tag-plano-parks-budget-update","tag-plano-pool-rental-fee-hike","tag-plano-recreation-inflation-impact","tag-plano-recreation-membership-cost"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8834"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8834\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8835"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}