Are successful pool halls downtown or further out?

Pierre Shakes

Pierre Shakes

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Are successful pool halls downtown or further out?
And why? With examples from the last fifty years.

By ‘downtown’ let me suggest that there is some other ‘nightlife' within walking distance. Movies, theaters, music, dancing, sports, restaurants, bars...

Further out the rent is less (pool tables take up a lot of room). Easier, cheaper parking for more car-driving customers.

In town you get more casual and walk-by customers. More available by bus. Harder to find large-enough spaces. More crime?
 
Any town that can support multiple halls is required to have a recordable crime rate. In big metropolae My guess is they break down into crowd preference.
 
I would say it depends on the size of the town or city you are talking about. In towns or smaller cities (maybe up to 200K or so) I would say the chances of success downtown would be about equal to those in the outer areas. In larger cities I would say the outer areas have a much greater chance of success.

Many large cities don't have a downtown area that is worth visiting, and in those that do the emphasis will be on upscale eating, drinking, dancing, sports, live music and theater venues. High rents mean the businesses there need to pull large numbers of people by catering to a wider range of people than pool halls typically do. Sure, small bars or restaurants can thrive among larger venues in an active downtown environment, but that's because they rely on getting business from patrons of the larger entertainment venues. Pool halls, on the other hand, are competition for the entertainment venues rather than complimentary to them. Also, these bars and restaurants generally don't require the real estate that even an average sized pool haul does.

Keep in mind that I don't have any evidence to back this up other than my own reasoning and experience, both of which are limited and questionable according to those who know me.
 
Personally I feel the best locations are within a miles of major interstates which I guess technically could be in a city or rural area..JMO
 
The pool hall downtown closed decades ago...the poolhalls further out, the last one, just recently closed.
 
A long time ago, say 1950 and earlier, downtown was the best place to locate a pool hall. That's where the greatest concentration of residents lived, and walking was the main form of urban transportation at that time. Also, many people traveled by train rather than car back then, with the train depots and most hotels being located downtown.

With the growing availability and popularity of cars, people began moving to the suburbs, and at the same time train travel declined. The return of the servicemen after WWII and the strong postwar economy caused a housing boom that accelerated the migration away from downtowns. As cities began to spread out walking to a destination such as a pool hall became less practical so people typically drove where they wanted to go. This put downtown businesses at a disadvantage because those areas were already more or less fully developed and parking was limited. As there were a lot fewer people with cars when those areas were built not much land had been allocated to parking.

Tearing down existing businesses and residential buildings to create more parking was something that was not seen as profitable until the 1980s, when the downtown areas of many cities were in heavy decline. By then the suburban model of city life had pretty much taken over, and despite a growing amount of successful urban renewal, it remains so today.
 
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