Not sure I'd want to see that.
NEW pool room - Key West
- Thread starter commswatch
- Start date
Not sure I'd want to see that.
Key West
Not to be a jackass but Key West has so much more to do with your business than anything else that most normal advice to a new room owner is worthless. First, good food, the better food is the better off you will be year around. After that, you are going to make money during tourist season and hang on the rest of the year. If you get enough support from locals during the off season to break even you will be lucky. Probably lose money and have to make it back off of the tourists.
I would consider different pricing scales and such, maybe consider memberships and special rates for members. We have a saying in South Louisiana, "Let the good times roll!" You are going to have to do that, cater to tourists when they are there, others when they aren't. Memberships that aren't justified for a few days play will let you do that.
Never been to Key West so this is just from what I have seen in other spots in Florida. A chuckle on the gulf coast closer to home, a little cafe had a line stretching out the door for over a hundred feet. They had a juke box near the door that people were standing in line to feed too. No chance in hell they would ever hear the songs they played but bored people fed the jukebox every day. At night they reset the jukebox and it all started again the next day. Wish I would have just had a fifty-fifty split on that juke box, hard to even guess what it raked in. A damned good living all by itself!
Hu
Not to be a jackass but Key West has so much more to do with your business than anything else that most normal advice to a new room owner is worthless. First, good food, the better food is the better off you will be year around. After that, you are going to make money during tourist season and hang on the rest of the year. If you get enough support from locals during the off season to break even you will be lucky. Probably lose money and have to make it back off of the tourists.
I would consider different pricing scales and such, maybe consider memberships and special rates for members. We have a saying in South Louisiana, "Let the good times roll!" You are going to have to do that, cater to tourists when they are there, others when they aren't. Memberships that aren't justified for a few days play will let you do that.
Never been to Key West so this is just from what I have seen in other spots in Florida. A chuckle on the gulf coast closer to home, a little cafe had a line stretching out the door for over a hundred feet. They had a juke box near the door that people were standing in line to feed too. No chance in hell they would ever hear the songs they played but bored people fed the jukebox every day. At night they reset the jukebox and it all started again the next day. Wish I would have just had a fifty-fifty split on that juke box, hard to even guess what it raked in. A damned good living all by itself!
Hu
@RealkingCobra
So, after being on here a bit, I see the general consensus is you are one of the best, if not the best installer out there.
I wondered can you take a table like a GC I and make it play great, or maybe even a cheaper table, or are some designs just fundamentally flawed so much they can't ever reach a true connoisseur level of play? Or possibly the amount of money and time makes it not practical?
To the OP, I wish you nothing but the best and many years in business. If I am ever down that way I'd love to stop in and play a few games.
So, after being on here a bit, I see the general consensus is you are one of the best, if not the best installer out there.
I wondered can you take a table like a GC I and make it play great, or maybe even a cheaper table, or are some designs just fundamentally flawed so much they can't ever reach a true connoisseur level of play? Or possibly the amount of money and time makes it not practical?
To the OP, I wish you nothing but the best and many years in business. If I am ever down that way I'd love to stop in and play a few games.
Yes, for the most part I stick to Gold Crowns and Diamonds as they both have a decent design I can improve on.
This is a GC1 I rebuilt, and redesigned for a customer that needed to be able to move the table every night to park his car inside. The slates are steel plate joined together turning the 3 piece slate into a 1 piece. The frame is built on a hydraulic lift system, all it takes is one foot to lift the table, spin it 90 degrees, then roll it forward out of the way. Putting it back in place is just as easy, and to make sure its level, all the customer has to do is line up the mark on the levelers with the alignment marks on the floor, and the table is level. Been over two years and still playing level.
I see you’ve been to Key West or have heard of the place.
Who knows, I might just be the smartest guy in the room! Any one of you know of one single table on the market today that can match what my customer can do with this one???? All I hear is birds chirping....figure, I guess I need to find another room to stand in!!!
non smoking, full bar
But, just to be clear, installers don't do to pool tables what I do.
Full kitchen as well, with great food?
To answer your question, a Restaurant & Lounge that can still stay in business even if you shut down the pool room portion!!
deets
Although I'm the OP, I'm not the owner or investor or silent partner in the new room. I'm just excited to be able to shoot in public again w/o relying on 6 or 7', beat to hell valley's in a smoky bar.
some things ill respond to here -
There is food - small plate/tapas mediteranean
the bar is full.
No smoking/vaping
the 12' imperial table is a pyramid table - so the pockets are reverse cut, the balls are 2.5", the pocket mouth is approx 2.55". I anticipate this will turn into the golf/snooker table for the locals once the owner realizes no-one is going to play pyramid.
The owner is a good guy, but alas - he doesn't have any billiards experience, and the pool playing population in KW is dismal. so he's going to have to get creative IMHO to stay alive more than a year. We have no leagues, no tourneys, not a single public 9' table to be found with 40 miles.
Although I'm the OP, I'm not the owner or investor or silent partner in the new room. I'm just excited to be able to shoot in public again w/o relying on 6 or 7', beat to hell valley's in a smoky bar.
some things ill respond to here -
There is food - small plate/tapas mediteranean
the bar is full.
No smoking/vaping
the 12' imperial table is a pyramid table - so the pockets are reverse cut, the balls are 2.5", the pocket mouth is approx 2.55". I anticipate this will turn into the golf/snooker table for the locals once the owner realizes no-one is going to play pyramid.
The owner is a good guy, but alas - he doesn't have any billiards experience, and the pool playing population in KW is dismal. so he's going to have to get creative IMHO to stay alive more than a year. We have no leagues, no tourneys, not a single public 9' table to be found with 40 miles.
How does this room racking up another 50k in pool table debt make them profitable?
Lots of players, particularly old timers, love to play on Gold Crowns. I have 5 in my room and 5 Diamonds. It works just fine because everybody gets what they like.
36k then
Rule number one is don't overspend. If I couldn't open a room at a reasonable expense I would never have tried.
Some might drop a quarter million on a fancy room only to have a guy with 1962 Gold Crowns cut their balls off...just not my idea of a good time, In most areas pool is shrinking rapidly. Going big often means going broke.
Believe it or not, I've more than likely witnessed more new pool rooms opening in this country than ANY member here on AZB. Guess what, I'm batting a 1,000 on my predictions as to who will make it and who's going to fail within the first 1-2 years!!!