---
title: "The Swing Bays Opens First Franchise Location in Calera, AL Less Than Four Months After Signing"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/f3f35171-e731-4ce8-aa87-99cf9d1903be
source: "Franchising.com"
original_url: https://www.franchising.com/news/20260722_the_swing_bays_opens_first_franchise_location_in_calera_al_less_than_four_m.html
category: "Fitness"
industry: "Fitness"
topics: ["Development & multi-unit","Emerging brands"]
published: 2026-07-22T12:00:00.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T14:57:27.999Z
image: https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1503387762-592deb58ef4e?w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop
---

# The Swing Bays Opens First Franchise Location in Calera, AL Less Than Four Months After Signing

**TL;DR:** The Swing Bays has opened its first franchise location in Calera, AL, less than four months after signing with experienced business owner Richardson. Richardson's location leveraged an existing fitness footprint to establish the premium simulator bays and golf services that define the Swing Bays experience.

*originally published in Franchising.com on 2026-07-22. [Read the original](https://www.franchising.com/news/20260722_the_swing_bays_opens_first_franchise_location_in_calera_al_less_than_four_m.html).*

## Story

Richardson is an experienced business owner with a background in printing and graphics. This experience running a production business, with its emphasis on precision, systems, and client relationships, translated naturally into franchise ownership. He leveraged an existing fitness footprint to establish the location. The former gym's layout, infrastructure, and square footage translated into the premium simulator bays and golf services that define the Swing Bays experience. No ground-up construction. No major structural reworking.

"A kickboxing area is very open," said Richardson. "We had to get rid of one closet, raise the ceilings, and build the walls for the bays. Everything else was furniture, fixtures, paint— things any contractor can easily do, and fast."

Richardson came to the brand after surveying the indoor golf market and identifying a gap in the experience. What he found missing was precisely what the Swing Bays is built around.

"When you're playing golf, that's when you want to take care of golf things," he said. "That's when you want to get your clubs regripped, buy a new driver, talk to somebody about your slice. What I saw in the Swing Bays that was so vastly different was that it wasn't just golf simulation. It wasn't just lessons and training. It was the full wrap: lessons, social, retail, repair, fittings, the whole nine."

Richardson's development strategy is centered on the suburban market, bringing the Swing Bays to where golfers live their daily lives.

"If you go to the course and it's too hot, all you've got to do is leave the parking lot, hang a left, and you're at the Swing Bays hitting golf balls in air conditioning," said Richardson. "We started advertising on the course within a week of signing the deal."

Richardson sees the Calera location as proof that experience-driven, membership-based concepts are built for the long run in a way that entertainment-only facilities are not.

"Loren is exactly the kind of operator this brand is built for," said co-founder Dustin Miller, PGA. "He knows his market, he hired well, and he got his doors open and his members in the bays. That's the foundation everything else is built on."

"What we're seeing across the industry is a shift toward concepts built for long-term engagement," said Dan Rowe, CEO of Fransmart, the franchise development firm behind The Swing Bays' national expansion. "The Swing Bays is designed around recurring revenue, multiple income streams, and an experience that drives repeat visits, which creates a more stable and scalable business. Loren's ability to open this quickly and this cleanly is proof of concept for the entire franchise system."

## Entities

- Franchising.com (publication)
- Home Services (sector)
- franchise expansion (topic)
- national expansion (topic)
- Fransmart (company)
- Dan Rowe (person)
- recurring revenue (topic)
- The Swing Bays (company)
- Dustin Miller (person)
- Loren Richardson (person)
- Calera, AL (location)
- indoor golf market (topic)

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Originally reported by Franchising.com (https://www.franchising.com/news/20260722_the_swing_bays_opens_first_franchise_location_in_calera_al_less_than_four_m.html). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/f3f35171-e731-4ce8-aa87-99cf9d1903be).