Is Bally’s Gym Really This Icky?

I’ve never set foot in the Bally’s Total Fitness at 1720 Sheepshead Bay Road (and it’s probably fairly obvious from my squishy disposition). But I thought it was a pretty popular place and must be doing well financially.

So I was shocked to hear from a reader about the conditions in there. The reader wrote:

to begin with there is no AC at 90F outside, no paper towels, no hand dryers, disgustingly dirty and barely cleaned restrooms and showers, most of the machines are not working, water fountain w warm water and 1 out of 3 of them is not working; manager ignores requests from members and usual excuse is they are working on it, it been like this for about 4-5 months already; conditions are unbearable and unhealthy… i’m not even going to describe their pool

I wasn’t sure if the reader’s experience was just a lark or if he had an ax to grind, so I turned to Yelp and Citysearch. On both sites, the Bally’s Sheepshead Bay location has low ranking (1.5 of 5 starts on Yelp; 1 of 5 starts on Citysearch).

The complaints? Dirty, smelly, hot and constantly filled with ugly, old naked people – according to the critics. One Yelper wrote “that my poor little lock seemed to have disappeared into the crevice of” an “older Russian lady.” She abandoned her lock, bag and everything. Just up and walked out and never returned.

Some, though, stood up for the facility, pointing out that it’s cheaper than others and you get what you pay for. And even some of the critics praised the staff.

But what say ye, Sheepshaed Bay? Ever been to Bally’s Total Fitness in our area? Is it as bad as it sounds?