Bally Total Fitness Holding Corporation was an American fitness club chain. At its 2007 peak, prior to the filing of the first of two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, Bally operated nearly 440 facilities located in 29 U.S. states, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, China, and the Caribbean under the Bally Total Fitness, Crunch Fitness, Gorilla Sports, Pinnacle Fitness, Bally Sports Clubs, and Sports Clubs of Canada brands. History In 1983, slot-machine and arcade game manufacturer Bally Entertainment purchased Health and Tennis Corporation of America, entering the leisure industry and creating the Bally Health and Tennis Corporation division of the company. It also purchased Lifecycle (Life Fitness), an exercise bike manufacturer, renaming the company Bally Fitness Products. In 1987, Bally was the world's largest owner and operator of fitness centers. It further expanded with the purchase of the American Fitness Centers and Nautilus Fitness Centers, which were once connected to Vic Tanny and Jack LaLanne. The various brands were consolidated under the Bally Total Fitness brand in 1995. By that year, the company was the world's largest owner and operator of health clubs. It operated a total of 325 health clubs in the United States and Canada. The rebranding was done to take advantage of the Bally name as well as rename the existing Tanny and LaLanne locations. In 1996, Bally Total Fitness was spun off from its casino-owning parent. In May 1998, it was listed on the New York Stock Exchange trading under the ticker symbol of BFT. The company carried $300 million in debt at the time of its initial public offering. Paul Toback, a former White House aide in the Clinton administration, who had joined Bally as a corporate development officer in 1997, was named Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in December 2002, immediately after predecessor Lee Hillman resigned. On November 18, 2011, Bally Total Fitness announced the sale of 171 of its clubs located in sixteen states and the District of Columbia to an affiliate of LA Fitness for $153 million. After the LA Fitness transaction, Bally had approximately 800,000 members; the sale allowed Bally to retire its corporate debt. In April 2012, Bally sold an additional 39 facilities to Blast Fitness. Blast Fitness began operating the new facilities under their own name in stages, transitioning entirely away from the Bally's name. The two sales left Bally with 44 locations, 27 of them in the New York area, 8 in