The founder is back — but the industry has changed
In 2005, Mark Mastrov sold 24 Hour Fitness — the gym chain he'd built from a single location to 420 clubs and 4.5 million members. Twenty years later, he's buying it back. That kind of return is extremely rare in any industry. In fitness, it's unprecedented.
The deal, structured in partnership with LongRange Capital, puts Mastrov back in as owner and executive chair. Financial terms weren't disclosed. But the market signal is clear.
Why was 24 Hour Fitness available?
The chain went through Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring during 2020, closing dozens of locations and emerging with a leaner footprint. But it was entering a market that had shifted significantly — boutique studios on one end, ultra-low-cost chains like Planet Fitness on the other, plus a wave of fitness apps eating into casual gym memberships.
For a typical private equity buyer, 24 Hour Fitness was a complex bet: too large to pivot quickly, too established to ignore. For its founder, the calculus is different.
What this deal says about the gym industry in 2026
Mastrov's return is happening in the middle of the fastest consolidation wave the fitness industry has seen in years.
Flynn Group just acquired 98 Planet Fitness locations in a single transaction. Mindbody, ClassPass, and EGYM merged to create a $7.5 billion combined entity. Now 24 Hour Fitness returns to the hands of the person who built it.
The pattern emerging: mass-market fitness — large clubs, accessible pricing, high geographic density — remains an opportunity for operators who know how to run it at scale. Valuations are off their 2021-2022 peaks, creating attractive entry windows for strategic buyers.
What it means for gym operators
The Mastrov playbook — high membership volume, low unit cost, optimized fixed costs — is exactly what chains like Basic-Fit built in Europe. And those chains are still expanding.
For independent gym owners or small chains, the message is twofold: consolidation favors large formats and groups with patient capital. And founders who actually know operations — not just spreadsheets — hold a real edge in these deals.
Mastrov built 24 Hour Fitness from the inside out. He's coming back with that same knowledge, into a harder market, but with assets that are likely undervalued. The question now: can he rebuild what he created, in an era where member experience expectations have fundamentally changed?
Sources
Athletech News, 24 Hour Fitness Sold to Founder Mark Mastrov, PE Firm — read the article