KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) -- Donnie Summers and hundreds of others have called the health club at 1501 Kirby Road their gym way before it was 180 Sports and Fitness.

"We heard rumors and talk of people in the club, he says.

"But we were assured everything's gonna be fine."

Come Wednesday afternoon?

"Guy comes in behind me, changes the locks as I go in the door," Summers says.

Friday, the sign on that door, "Closed Temporarily" says more than the building's new occupants; employees of Wells Fargo Bank which, the club's co-owner Greg Copelan claims, shut him and his partners out and shut their gym down,on the heels of foreclosing on their landlord--CJ Sports.

The club's lead investors also own CJ Sports.

They (180 Sports & Fitness) have worked through troubles before," says Bill Pruitt, a long-time member.

"They were planning on opening up a gym over in Hardin Valley that didn't work out, so we thought we had some stability with this particular place."

180's owners admit CJ sports fell behind on the mortgage, taxes and bills last year.

They filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization,--only to have the Internal Revenue Service petition to throw out the bankruptcy in July, on grounds they broke an agreement to keep the gym running using collateral cash.

Since then, co-owner David Johnson says, the IRS has agreed to settle.

"You know, Greg and David have done some things they probably didn't have to do," Summers says.

"They've honored a lot of people;s contracts that are a lot older than mine, and don't pay anything and continue to come here."

In a phone interview, co-owner Greg Copelan says
he's doing everything he can to re-open 180 and to take care of its members -- old, new, and renewed.

"Since it's just temporary, that's okay," Pruitt says.

"They're trying to straighten out their business."

Summers says he'll give the owners' pledges the benefit of the doubt even though competitor Court South has stood at the club's entrance--pledging it'll honor all members' contracts.

"I'm gonna see what happens here. If it goes 2-3 weeks, you've gotta do something."

Copelan says an appeal hearing is set for 2pm Tuesday, December 15, in Knox County Chancery Court.