quedup said:
In a ironic twist I really thought that OnQ was going to make it because pool was not the primary source of income! Obviously the table return did not pay enough for the space they took up..
Leagues may not be everyones cup of tea but to a succesful pool hall they just may be the difference between making it or not..
Dan
I don't agree with that statement about leagues and I will tell you why (and this is my experience). In the past few years, the leagues have started bullying room owners and threatening to leave if their demands were not met. In my case, I had the league operator trying to twist my arm so they could get free pool for the league players during the week during non-peak hours. I refused because I would have lost money. I required them to have at least a two drink purchase minimum to get the free pool. To make a long story short, the league operator switched that team to an establishment that gave in to her demands - unannounced - and she took my players with her, well, all but 3 or 4 of them.
I tried starting an in-house league and it was mildly successful, but when you do that you are in direct comeptition with the APA and BCA leagues that can promise the players cues, trips to Vegas, etc. I love my customers, but I cannot offer them cues and trips to Vegas. Sorry.
I believe that leagues, if run correctly by the right people, can assist the room owners with making money. However, more times than not (in my experience) you get a group of people that show up with only enough money to pay their league dues (whatever they are these days). Of course the room gets a cut, but these days, they want the tables for free, or they will find somewhere else where they can get them for free.
Their players didn't buy many drinks, and in return they expected free pool during the week to practice. I'm in business to put money in my register, not to lose money out of my register. In my experience, I was losing money on the league nights. I had 3-4 tables occupied and making no money from any of them. The first week the league was gone, I noticed an increase in my sales. That was because I was able to put other customers on those same tables, and they actually purchased drinks, and paid an hourly rate. Imagine that.
At one time in the mid-1990's I had 7-8 separate league teams (male-female-mixed-seniors-juniors,etc) running out of my room, plus a King of the Hill style competition on Saturdays. I also ran a wednesday night tournament and an 8 ball tournament on Mondays. The leagues really were great and they helped my business a lot. The way leagues are trying to manipulate room owners these days is ridiculous. This is some, not all. I am sure that there are many good league operators that understand the plight of room owners and do not participate in these types of tactics. The league people that use these tactics need to understand that the money being lost is passed along to the paying customers that are not in the leagues. That is why it is important for the leagues to support the rooms, and vice versa. That is the way it was supposed to be.
