Another Poolroom Closes After 20 Years

[!Smorgass Bored]

I awoke to a story on local TV about another poolroom closing locally. West Coast Billiards is the room that Billy Miles plays out of. There was a recent thread inquiring about Billy's speed.

There are some interesting pool statistics at the bottom of the article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article772898.ece

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[stick8]

yea

I awoke to a story on local TV about another poolroom closing locally. West Coast Billiards is the room that Billy Miles plays out of. There was a recent thread inquiring about Billy's speed.

There are some interesting pool statistics at the bottom of the article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article772898.ece

.

know how he feels, i been in bussines 10yr, and this is the worst yr i have ever had!! sumer kills me!1 can just make leas& light bill money!! but if i close the kids wont have a thing to do ?? all donations excepted!!!:grin: :grin: :grin: p.s.i just love the sport!!

 

[Johnnyt]

I awoke to a story on local TV about another poolroom closing locally. West Coast Billiards is the room that Billy Miles plays out of. There was a recent thread inquiring about Billy's speed.

There are some interesting pool statistics at the bottom of the article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article772898.ece

.

Wasn't that the room C.M Lee's brother opened about a year after C.M opened his? Johnnyt

 

[jimmyg]

$2.90 per hour, no jukebox??? Why ask why? Smorg, contact Warren Buffett immediately, I smell a leveraged buyout, turnaround opportunity.
Jim

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o16uVon2NRQ

"Miracle charges $2.90 an hour to rent a table, well below the national average of about $10 an hour. But even as his taxes and insurance climbed to nearly $40,000 a year, he resisted upping his rate.

We need a jukebox, more food, bigger bar ... things we weren't willing to do to raise the extra money," he said. "I wanted this to last a couple more years, but we can't."

 

[!Smorgass Bored]

Wasn't that the room C.M Lee's brother opened about a year after C.M opened his? Johnnyt

No, that was another room, whose name escapes me at the moment.
West Coast is on 4th Street about a mile from Derby Lane Greyhound Track.
Doug

 

[Johnnyt]

No, that was another room, whose name escapes me at the moment.
West Coast is on 4th Street about a mile from Derby Lane Greyhound Track.
Doug

OK, I,ve been in there a few times. When I was leaving Derby Lane I use to stop at a bar on the left on Park Bld. Two tables plenty of action, usually a ring game on one table. C M Lee played there a lot before he got his place as did a lot of the local pros, The Green Parett was another action bar, and believe it or not I took tons of money out of Good Time Charlies on Waters in Tampa $100 to $200 a night for a lot of months. Then they figured it out and tried to hurt me outside one night. Johnnyt.

 

[!Smorgass Bored]

$2.90 per hour, no jukebox??? Why ask why? Smorg, contact Warren Buffett immediately, I smell a leveraged buyout, turnaround opportunity.
Jim

LOL, you know, I've seen it all in the past 22 years here. People move to Tampa and think they're the first to have their brainstorm:
Maryland Crabs
N.Y.Pizza
Philly Cheese Steak
New Orleans Seafood
Chicago Steaks
Alabama B-B-Q

It's a gas station and soon it's a Dairy Queen, then a Chinese takeout, then a Lounge, a bookstore, etc.
If you don't like it, wait a week.....

Doug
(West Coast Billiards is alot of square footage on a busy street and will make a great furniture store)

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

Time are tought right now for a lot of business like Starbucks that grew like a house on fire.

Think in the last year and a half in the Valley of the Sun between Pool Rooms, and Pool Bar about 6-7 are gone.

 

[!Smorgass Bored]

The Evils Of DRINK

OK, I,ve been in there a few times. When I was leaving Derby Lane I use to stop at a bar on the left on Park Bld. Two tables plenty of action, usually a ring game on one table. C M Lee played there a lot before he got his place as did a lot of the local pros, The Green Parett was another action bar, and believe it or not I took tons of money out of Good Time Charlies on Waters in Tampa $100 to $200 a night for a lot of months. Then they figured it out and tried to hurt me outside one night. Johnnyt.

Me too. I used pretend to be stumble drunk in Good Time Charlie's and loved their bar tables. Right up the street from GTC was The Blue Parrot and The Green Parrot was on Dale Mabry. Farther down Waters Ave. was The Why Not pub and was filled with above average players and gamblers. They later bought and opened Planet 9-Ball.
Doug
(if you crossed the bay from Derby Lane on Gandy Blvd. and turned left on Westshore Blvd. you could pick up some bucks at the Green Iguana and a little bar named Top Of The Bay right behind the Circle K)

I onetime started drinking and hustling in the bars along Hillsborough Ave. (hwy92) heading east and ended up meeting another player at Art's Place on east Hwy.92
Somehow,we ended up about $600 apiece winners in VERO BEACH. We don't even know how we got there. We got back to Tampa and never saw each other again.



.

 

[Johnnyt]

Me too. I used pretend to be stumble drunk in Good Time Charlie's and loved their bar tables. Right up the street from GTC was The Blue Parrot and The Green Parrot was on Dale Mabry. Farther down Waters Ave. was The Why Not pub and was filled with above average players and gamblers. They later bought and opened Planet 9-Ball.
Doug
(if you crossed the bay from Derby Lane on Gandy Blvd. and turned left on Westshore Blvd. you could pick up some bucks at the Green Iguana and a little bar named Top Of The Bay right behind the Circle K)

I onetime started drinking and hustling in the bars along Hillsborough Ave. (hwy92) heading west and ended up meeting another player at Art's Place on west Hwy.92
Somehow,we ended up about $600 apiece winners in VERO BEACH. We don't even know how we got there. We got back to Tampa and never saw each other again.



.

Yes I use to hit all those places. You better be able to play some in a few of them. High stakes and evey other guy was a shortstop at the least. Those were great times. Johnnyt

 

[highrun55]

yes I know it

know how he feels, i been in bussines 10yr, and this is the worst yr i have ever had!! sumer kills me!1 can just make leas& light bill money!! but if i close the kids wont have a thing to do ?? all donations excepted!!!:grin: :grin: :grin: p.s.i just love the sport!!

I feel your pain, 15 yrs for me and its the worst summer ever.
Summers have always been slow but this one is a w.m.d.

highrun55

 

[march11934]

I'm sure 6.6% unemployment rate doesn't help. Almost moved near there. Thank god I didn't.

 

[Johnnyt]

Most poolrooms are just hanging on month to month. All it takes is one disaster like the central A/C goes, rent goes up, factory down the street closes or moves to China. Just too much room needed for the tables. If I opened one it would be 90% 7 footers. Bar and a hand book. Johnnyt

 

[MisterBanker]

There are some interesting pool statistics at the bottom of the article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article772898.ece

.

From the article:

The numbers on billiards players

. Nearly 47-million in the U.S., and 13.4-million are frequent (more than 25 times a year) players

. 60 percent are male

60% are male? In the rooms I frequent it's more like 90% male, where are these chick rooms at?

 

[instroke75]

Nothing sadder than when another great room goes under!
Jeremy

 

[jimmyg]

Trouble in Tampa Bay:

I awoke to a story on local TV about another poolroom closing locally. West Coast Billiards is the room that Billy Miles plays out of. There was a recent thread inquiring about Billy's speed.

There are some interesting pool statistics at the bottom of the article: http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/article772898.ece

.

It's a conspiracy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s60hOgqLFGg

Jim

 

[olauzon]

Time are tought right now for a lot of business like Starbucks that grew like a house on fire.

yeah, and GM lost 12B last quarter. they're still going though, as is starbucks. could you explain to me, coco, why poolrooms are closing while starbucks isn't? my iq is 2 points short of a plants.

 

[jimmyg]

yeah, and GM lost 12B last quarter. they're still going though, as is starbucks. could you explain to me, coco, why poolrooms are closing while starbucks isn't? my iq is 2 points short of a plants.

Starbucks recently announced the closing of 600 stores, Steak N' Ale has filed for bankruptcy (200 stores), and Pizza Uno just defaulted on several of it's bond payments and is on death watch, also several hundred stores.

It's not JUST pool.

Jim

 

[jay helfert]

We are in a recession thanks to GWB and friends. The only ones that got rich the last eight years were his buddies in the oil biz, and Cheney and Haliburton. But pool and the poolroom business will come back, just like the rest of the economy. It just runs in cycles and we're in a down cycle now.

 

[jimmyg]

We are in a recession thanks to GWB and friends. The only ones that got rich the last eight years were his buddies in the oil biz, and Cheney and Haliburton. But pool and the poolroom business will come back, just like the rest of the economy. It just runs in cycles and we're in a down cycle now.

Yes Jay, our economy is in recession, basically because of the policies and abuses of our current, and past, administrations. And, eventually, we will emerge from it.

The fear is that this one may be much deeper, and longer than most others. :angry:

Jim