Bathhouses disappearing 🙁

[meetme]

Steamworks, Chicago, Berkeley, Toronto. Who runs it? It is the only possibility for the future. Every other place across the country was busy in the 1970s and then milked like a cash cow and allowed to disintegrate over time. Every health crisis has taken a toll, AIDS, Covid, Monkey Pox, and gay owners, don’t reinvest or pass businesses onto another generation. New York City has only one left and it offers very little.  Surely banks don’t endorse development. Gay money, it must exist, but it won’t come out of the closet. Steamworks Chicago was lavishly refurbished in 2004, maybe they have some answers on how to save these gay institutions.

[ellentonboy]

Tampa Men's Club pricing is through the roof.  You pay for a pass to enter, plus either a locker or a room, which is similar to "the old days".

But these prices?  Well here we go:

A one day pass is $16, 3 months is $49, and 6 months is $69.

Then, on a weekend starting at 4 pm on Friday, the rate for a locker is $32, a "deluxe room" is $44, a premium room is $70 and the Premium 2.0 Room (whatever that is????) is $130.  

So for someone who decides to go for the first time, just to get a feel for the place, the lowest cost with day pass and a locker is $48.  That's a day pass only, remember that part.

Their  web site is very glossy.  I cannot confirm just how nice their "rooms" are.  But one thing I have heard is that the parking lot seems empty, even on weekends and holidays.  Now if anyone has spent time there, I sure would love some feedback regarding the facility.

These prices seem very high to me.  One other thing to mention is that this facility has a bit of a "stranglehold" on the bathhouse market in Tampa. If you pull up their site, they proudly announce they are "Tampa's Only Gay Bathhouse". With the Rainbow Cabaret now a thing of the past, I am not sure how many of those guys have gone over to this location.

Again, any comments are greatly appreciated.

[topblkmale]

 

The type of men I like - working class blue-collar family men -  cannot afford to pay $40 bucks for a 4 hour locker on their way home from work.

 

[cuckie]

6 hours ago, meetme said:

Steamworks, Chicago, Berkeley, Toronto. Who runs it? It is the only possibility for the future. Every other place across the country was busy in the 1970s and then milked like a cash cow and allowed to disintegrate over time. Every health crisis has taken a toll, AIDS, Covid, Monkey Pox, and gay owners, don’t reinvest or pass businesses onto another generation. New York City has only one left and it offers very little.  Surely banks don’t endorse development. Gay money, it must exist, but it won’t come out of the closet. Steamworks Chicago was lavishly refurbished in 2004, maybe they have some answers on how to save these gay institutions.

A couple Steamworks have dropped off the website as well.

[topblkmale]

Sadly Steamworks San Juan closed many years ago - which I had heard was notorious. 
 

[LoadMyHoleSF]

Surprisingly, there is talk in San Francisco of reopening bathhouses. They closed in the 80s due to the AIDS pandemic. Oddly enough, the license jurisdiction became the purview of the police department, which for years never allow them to reopen. Surprise surprise. The law was recently revoked. The local papers have reported the possibility of two bath houses opening. The cost is projected to be in the million so we’ll see what happens. Fingers crossed! I’m hoping that San Francisco can be a Mecca for gay people once again, especially with everything happened in the United States. 

[hntnhole]

On 4/3/2025 at 12:48 PM, ellentonboy said:

Again, any comments are greatly appreciated.

It seems that everything is more costly - and I'm not referring to the price of eggs, the recent hullabaloo caused by the tariffs (indexes have absolutely tanked today), etc etc.  Removing the Presidential causes of the recent loosing of the hounds of hell from the equation, it's the nature of things to gradually increase in price (operative word being "gradually").  

i think our group-sense of being something of a fraternity - a "place" - an "identity" - has faded substantially over the years, particularly given the hiv issue.  Even with all the medical advances, every guy other than a teenager can remember what happened, and that has a residual effect too.  

But nothing ever remains the same - everything is always in a state of flux - one thing fading, another advancing - and we wind up with "change" being the only thing that never does.  Things always change, and we just have to do our best to keep up (but, we can't help but remember how things used to be (filthy grin).

 

[ellentonboy]

14 minutes ago, hntnhole said:

It seems that everything is more costly - and I'm not referring to the price of eggs, the recent hullabaloo caused by the tariffs (indexes have absolutely tanked today), etc etc.  Removing the Presidential causes of the recent loosing of the hounds of hell from the equation, it's the nature of things to gradually increase in price (operative word being "gradually").  

i think our group-sense of being something of a fraternity - a "place" - an "identity" - has faded substantially over the years, particularly given the hiv issue.  Even with all the medical advances, every guy other than a teenager can remember what happened, and that has a residual effect too.  

But nothing ever remains the same - everything is always in a state of flux - one thing fading, another advancing - and we wind up with "change" being the only thing that never does.  Things always change, and we just have to do our best to keep up (but, we can't help but remember how things used to be (filthy grin).

 

I agree with what you said, but I do take exception to 'the HIV issue".  When I was going to the baths in Lauderdale HIV was a very present and real threat.  Yet I never saw condoms being used, mostly discarded.  The age range was 20s to perhaps 70s during the Sunday cookout they had by the pool. I don't believe people's behavior really changed, or they were already positive.  

We had chatted about the Cubby Hole, look at the behavior that went on in the bathrooms! I mean, I only wish I had stumbled upon that place earlier. Who would have thought?  That tiny bar, yet all the action that went on.

I know bathhouses have to cover expenses, rising rents and it's pushing many of them out of business. I don't blame HIV for any of that.  I believe it's the economy, it's almost inevitable. I believe that "times like this" will create almost a "sub-culture" where bars will be gone, bathhouses as well. Instead, apps like Sniffies will allow men to meet in anonymous places and take chances they know they should not (I try not to think about my behavior at the Cubby Hole).

But HIV?  Sure, many guys are concerned.  But, in the long run, the worst of that plague I believe, is over. Or I pray it is.

HIV didn't stop gay men from having sex in organized places in the 80s 90s or 2000s, and I doubt it will now.  But the economy?  It may force all of us to consider our options when it comes to "location".

 

[VersGuyAnon]

In the UK, the sauna scene seems to continue to change. It must be an expensive business to run, which probably accounts for closures.   

Edited 3 hours ago by VersGuyAnon

[hntnhole]

34 minutes ago, ellentonboy said:

but I do take exception to 'the HIV issue

First, thanks for your response.  What I meant by that phase, is that the advent of hiv was exponentially more deleterious than the normal "ebb and flow" of changes in human history.  It was such an earth-shaking situation for those of us that lived through it, nothing can compare.  Back in Chicago, we were all going to the tubs, the fleshpots just as always too, until that virus came along. The shock, however, was the same across the board when our friends started becoming so ill, with many dying before they even reached their prime.  You're right, of course - that condoms were unheard of at the time*, until it was either condoms or nothing if we wanted to live.  

Your point about the costs of being in business is a good one.  Insurance costs are an easy one to pick at, and I would imagine fuckjoints present some special situations.  No one wants to work for $3 an hour either these days.  What does surprise me though, is the dearth of gh joints in Ft. L.  There were plenty back in Chgo, but I don't know of one gh joint around here.  I don't get it.  HIV can't possibly have anything to do with that (meaning, what might have made sense to local legislators years ago makes no sense presently).  

*At least in the gay community ... I remember there was a group of guys at CHC down on Leavitt that fetishized condoms, and the rest of us thought them a bit odd.  But hey - different stokes, right?  I too think that the worst of hiv is behind us, given the medical advances, etc.  It's not the automatic death-sentence that it once was, for which I am eternally grateful.  

Finally, given the advances in preventative treatments, it seems that hiv is slowly retreating from the center of our group consciousness.  From some of the submissions here on BZ, one would think it's not much more than a common cold, regardless of the actual facts.  I'm certain that if my other half and I hadn't stopped all outside sex when we did, we'd both have left many years ago.  

To the economy, it already has forced uncounted numbers to make more room in their economic plans for their retirements.  These days, nothing is guaranteed, and each of us is on our own.  But, better that than the alternative, I suppose.  

Thanks for your commentary.