Any thoughts about Pool Clubs?

mnorwood

mnorwood

Moon
Silver Member
Recently a friend of mine was invited to a pool club in Lufkin Texas. They have 4 diamond bar tables and a 9 foot table. They maintain the club by charging a monthly membership and from the looks of the picture they have a vending machine. My friends experience with it was so good that he is thinking about starting a club in the Houston area. Many years ago I was exploring the possibility of having a room for a junior program but the cost for space was out of site with no practical way to generate revenue just to break even. I ended up using space provided by the school district. Does anyone here have current of past experience/knowledge on how to establish and maintain a pool room as a club and not a bar?

Thanks,
Marcus
 
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There's Red Door in Montreal. A couple tables there. [not to be confused with Red Door Den] One is opening in NY as well. Both private clubs, private entry, membership required, no bar, no servers. [edit: I don't think they advertise and I haven't seen marketing or internet info on them, but I know they exist]

Also, check out Ox billiards in Seattle. They have both club and pool hall combined. That's a good system IMO. https://www.oxbilliards.com/

-td
 
td873 said:
There's Red Door in Montreal. A couple tables there. [not to be confused with Red Door Den] One is opening in NY as well. Both private clubs, private entry, membership required, no bar, no servers. [edit: I don't think they advertise and I haven't seen marketing or internet info on them, but I know they exist]

Also, check out Ox billiards in Seattle. They have both club and pool hall combined. That's a good system IMO. https://www.oxbilliards.com/

-td
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That place looks amazing.
 
td873 said:
There's Red Door in Montreal. A couple tables there. [not to be confused with Red Door Den] One is opening in NY as well. Both private clubs, private entry, membership required, no bar, no servers. [edit: I don't think they advertise and I haven't seen marketing or internet info on them, but I know they exist]

Also, check out Ox billiards in Seattle. They have both club and pool hall combined. That's a good system IMO. https://www.oxbilliards.com/

-td
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My thinking is it would have to be run & organized like a Rod & Gun club. Most are donated land, non-profit and run by committee.
Where is the one in NY? PM me if need to keep it private.
 
mnorwood said:
Recently a friend of mine was invited to a pool club in Lufkin Texas. They have 4 diamond bar tables and a 9 foot table. They maintain the club by charging a monthly membership and from the looks of the picture they have a vending machine. My friends experience with it was so good that he is thinking about starting a club in the Houston area. Many years ago I was exploring the possibility of having a room for a junior program but the cost for space was out of site with no practical way to generate revenue just to break even. I ended up using space provided by the school district. Does anyone here have current of past experience/knowledge on how to establish and maintain a pool room as a club and not a bar?

Thanks,
Marcus
Click to expand...
I think he could open a successful club in Houston. Since covid there are lots of empty spaces and if the plan is to offer no alcohol he wouldn't face the licensing process or restrictions. If he put in 4 Predator Bar Boxes he would get the attention of the BCA league players that have no place to practice before Nationals. 4 Diamond Bar Boxs would bring in the APA players now that APA has switched to those tables at Nationals and 4 Diamond 9's for the One Pocket Players and he'd have action.

The game is still stable and even growing in Houston. All the Pool halls are either upgrading or remodeling and theres three more Pool halls coming to a city with more Pool halls then any other. I hope he does it, I think he'd succeed.
 
In the WPA handbook it says Internet Offense is growing in popularity.

Has anyone actually participated in an organized internet offense match?

I bring it up as a way to gather interest, without directly selling the membership dues.
 
I know of several private clubs. They are usually in industrial areas where presumably the rent is cheap. There are three near me. A snooker club has three 6x12 snooker tables and maybe a pool table or two. Another is a single carom table in an old factory that has been converted to small office/work spaces. The third has just a snooker table and a pool table. Two of those use an app that allows members to schedule times and keeps track of a small hourly charge. There was another club in this area that I think closed due to a rent increase. Regular retail space in this area seems to run about $1000/month/table-area so finding a good "industrial style" location is important.
 
I ran my pool hall as a club fir awhile after covid.
Get an electronic door lock with fingerprint/card access and a camera system covering the whole room that can be pulled up on your phone. I had them pay into a drop box. Vending machines are the best because even people you know will steal drinks. Monthly membership is best but some will not join because they won't that much. The regulars paying each day will pay more than a membership would.

Have to let in only trusted people. Guests are fine, but they leave when the member does.
 
I was a member of something similar many years ago. It was called simply the men's club. Women were not allowed to be members. It was definitely more of a social club, but the basic model may work for a billiards club. There were tiers to the membership with the basic getting you a code to the front door.

Inside there were 4 or 5 poker tables, a 7 foot and 9 foot table, 3 electronic dart stations. There was a walk-in humidor, 5 or 6 flat screens, awesome bar, small dining room, and lounge area with leather sofas and easy chairs. The whole place had a state of the art filtration system.

The next membership tier got you a locker (mostly to store liquor) and the code to the walk in humidor.

The top tier got everything the others got along with a monthly box of cigars and maybe a different bottle of whiskey, can't remember.

It was available to members 24-7 except for Wednesday evenings when "mother" would come in and clean and restock the fridge with water and soft drinks.

Every other Friday night was a membership dinner provided by the club. guests were allowed, but it was pretty pricey. The club would have a couple of scantily clad girls to be servers and tend bar. They worked for tips only and probably made a killing.

The other two Fridays of the month were when you could bring wives or dates, but you had to pay for the dinner.

Mostly it was a bunch of rich older business men who sat around and smoked cigars and did questionable things with young girls out of sight of their wives.

I had the basic membership and I was paying $300 a month. I think the next tier was 500 and the highest was 1000 a month. When I left, we had 25 or 26 members and a waiting list half a mile long. Last I heard, they got some bad publicity for excluding women. They started letting the wives hangout and slowly people drifter away to other
 
There is a number of private clubs in minneapolis. I can think of at least 3 of them...It would cool if they started challenge matches against each other.
 
A few thoughts I had about the OP.

What you want.
Parking....boiler heat (saturant) no blown air.
Ceilings 10'
Make sure the city wouldn't make you install a planter outside due to code/appearance codes that all Biz is has to have.
May need wiring too.
You could easily have to pay for an Upgraded bathroom due to type of business.
Don't want hard walls, hard ceilings, the noise will run em out early.
And location/location yeah Kinda but, this is a destination site, people plan. Make sure it fits in well for traffic, full exposure lots sitting ring n the high way or the gas station corner TOO expensive.
 
One question about these "club" memberships. Can an owner discriminate against anyone who may want to join??? I would think in the Houston area there could be problems with gang-type individuals wanting to join and get enough "buddies" to join and take over and ruin the place. You know, kinds use it for their hangout. Just curious how the vetting process works.
 
At one time there were lots of men's clubs in the US like the Elks and the Moose lodges. In the San Francisco area there were maybe a dozen active Elks lodges and they had a 3-cushion league. They seemed to represent a large fraction of the 3-cushion play in the area. The US 3-C Nationals were held several times at Elks lodges. Most of them have either gone away or greatly reduced their activity. I think that sort of club just went out of style. Also, some of them were really bad at recruiting new members -- the older members seemed to be territorial.

That kind of club had a lot more going on than just one main activity. The large ones had things like swimming pools, gyms, and large dining rooms. I guess it was a kind of country club for not-so-rich city folks.
 
Maniac said:
One question about these "club" memberships. Can an owner discriminate against anyone who may want to join??? I would think in the Houston area there could be problems with gang-type individuals wanting to join and get enough "buddies" to join and take over and ruin the place. You know, kinds use it for their hangout. Just curious how the vetting process works.
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The ones I've seen got new members all by word of mouth and personal knowledge. I think the "Board" or whoever is responsible for paying the bills has to have the right to cancel memberships. They are not democracies.
 
Maniac said:
One question about these "club" memberships. Can an owner discriminate against anyone who may want to join??? I would think in the Houston area there could be problems with gang-type individuals wanting to join and get enough "buddies" to join and take over and ruin the place. You know, kinds use it for their hangout. Just curious how the vetting process works.
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Go to Red Shoes in IL. John sits the room. 27 yrs now. There probably hasn't been any ''pants hangin'' down in that Great Brother Room, since that ''thing'' was a thing. Any BS they tell OnCe.
Old school, white pool room owner, in a black area, all works includin' the shuckin' and jivin'.... on the South Siiiiiiiiiiiiiidah.
 
Speaking of Illinois, Jim Parker’s Illinois Billiard Club has beautiful tables.
This is a real club and is loaded with history.
IMG_0687.jpeg
 
mnorwood said:
Recently a friend of mine was invited to a pool club in Lufkin Texas. They have 4 diamond bar tables and a 9 foot table. They maintain the club by charging a monthly membership and from the looks of the picture they have a vending machine. My friends experience with it was so good that he is thinking about starting a club in the Houston area. Many years ago I was exploring the possibility of having a room for a junior program but the cost for space was out of site with no practical way to generate revenue just to break even. I ended up using space provided by the school district. Does anyone here have current of past experience/knowledge on how to establish and maintain a pool room as a club and not a bar?

Thanks,
Marcus
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Maybe TinMan will comment. He's involved with Slate Billiard Club that recently opened in St. Paul. They have 8 9' Diamonds and 1 7' with about 40 members. Very nice place in an industrial building.
 
A club called Cloud 9 Billiards Club is supposedly opening in Omaha, Nebraska on October 1st. I'm curious to see if the concept works out, because it will be the first time it has been tried this in this area, to the best of my knowledge. From the Facebook post in the Eastern Nebraska Western Iowa Billiards group:

All Diamonds, 4 7' tables and 4 9' tables. There are some on the wait list and will get them added. We'll re-evaluate once open for a while to see if we can support more members.
Projected Opening is October 1st!
Your membership will include:
24/7 access
BYOB-Commercial Fridge to keep your items cold
Music Service(Touchtunes backed out of our agreement. There is a sound system and you'll be able to select what you want to listen to for no charge)
Priority registration for tournaments
Theater seating for sweating matches
Smart TV's for watching Big Matches or screensharing from your device
Membership Costs per month:
$85 Regular
$120 Couple
$150 Family
$20 Daily Rate for Guests(must be accompanied by a member)
$45 Long Distance(over 30 miles from the club-basically outside of Omaha/CB Metro area)
Long Distance members will only have access for 2 visits per month, not counting any tournaments they play in. They will still have Priority Registration for tournaments just as a regular member. If a Long Distance Member wants to visit more than 2 times per month, they can purchase a Regular membership.
Address is 13501 A St, Omaha
Use the link below to let me know if you want a membership.
There will be a Member Agreement(Contract) stating rules and guidelines of the club. Members will be expected to abide by the agreement and will be responsible for their guests.
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