Did you even read the whole post? I didn't say every franchise school was like that, I am saying this is the general trend in franchise MA schools. I've seen franchise schools all across the Northeast and I'm sorry, but from what I've seen, most (not all, but most) of these schools are run poorly and the classes are taught by black belts that must have been rushed through the program.
And I'm not advocating only "backyard" schools either.
It's all personal preference. I'll never go to a school where the classes are taught by the sensei or sifu's lackeys. Why should I settle? I could pay $80-100 a month to take classes at a franchise school where I'm getting taught by one of the other students, or I can pay the same thing and get taught by the actual sifu, who is loyal to their one school.
Loyalty to a school is a two way street. I'm not going to waste my time and loyalty on an instructor who is spreading his attention across 2 or more schools.
And now for what I'm sure will be interpreted as a personal attack:
am I somehow a "lesser" martial artist because I run it as a business?
Yes, in my opinion you are. There are plenty of serious martial artists who share this opinion too. All of the instructors that I had and respected did have nice, properly equipped facilities. Furthermore, they just had the one school. They lived well enough off it too.
Why is it that the image of the business martial artist is lumped with the McDojo people?
Because it's the same thing. You are no longer an educator, you're a businessman. This isn't to say that you can't start a school and charge people for classes, but if you own 7 school in the Tri-county area (or even 2 or 3), you're not an instructor, you're a manager. And that's fine if you're doing some Tae Bo or Cardio-Karate (that's just exercise), but a real martial art, some people have higher standards.
What kind of alleged MA instructor are you anyway? You either didn't read the whole post, or just didn't understand it. Then you start spouting off about Mr. Miyagi? What is up with that? Like I say, sloppy sloppy...Temper, temper, sensei.
You're American, aren't you? Thinking about the business...the money...the "bling bling" if you will.
"Face it. People are fukked. Why would you want a career helping anyone? Go find a mountain and farm sheep for a living." - Serpent on Personal Training
"Its a cool show, but I think this young super man is a very stupid mother ****er." - yenhoi on Smallville
"They could have had the tagline "Watch Joe Millionaire. More stuff will happen," and they'd have been there." - eulerfan on TV watching Americans
"Anyway, I used to pick girls up all the time in the gym when I was in college. We'd hang out until the aerobics classes ended, and then swoop in while all their endorphins were still pumping.
It's like shooting fish in a barrel." - ghthomason on dating
"I would say that there is a greater chance of a paper dog catching and asbestos cat in hell, while in the lost city of Atlantis, Elvis and Ghengis Khan are using butterfly nets to catch the opera-singing monkeys flying out of my butt, but that implies there's still a chance." - Starboy on optimism