Gyms put in some fancy equipment, no money being spend on capturing the clients energy though

Checking out the YMCA in spokane, some of the exercise equipment is impressive. They come with LCD video screens and other fancy bells and whistles. I have yet to see any of them generate energy though. Ideally all this equipment would generate electricity, why a gym owner has not yet thought of doing this eludes me. Theoretically with net-metering the gym owner could sell excess electricity back to the grid, and thus start paying off this initial up-front investment, while securing extra income in the future.

The only reason I can think of why this is not yet logical is that electricity is still relatively cheap, here in Spokane it is around 5.4 cents a KW, for inland power. It might be a little more for Avista. But again, instead of buying one bike with an LCD screen, simply buy one with an alternator instead. Just having one will give a gym owner a sense of what is possible, as well as make gym attendents more aware of the energy they generate.

Of course using a real bike or walking to get to work may be the best bang for the buck, as well as the best way to reduce one's resource footprint, but not everyone can do that, gyms will be around for a while. The idea is to improve on it.