Considering opening pool hall

ironhead_79

Let's Just Play To Play!!
Silver Member
my wife and i are considering opening a pool hall here in our home town, we've researched the building and permits and all but our only worry is that the state of ohio just passed a no smoking law, no smoking in public places, there are not any pool halls anywhere near us, over 50 miles away is the closest i believe. but there have been quite a few halls that have opened and closed in a year or less, about 6 or 7 in the last 10 years, and this was before the smoking ban. do any of you have no smoking laws and if so were they enforced on you and did business decline drastically. Thanks
 
ironhead_79 said:
my wife and i are considering opening a pool hall here in our home town, we've researched the building and permits and all but our only worry is that the state of ohio just passed a no smoking law, no smoking in public places, there are not any pool halls anywhere near us, over 50 miles away is the closest i believe. but there have been quite a few halls that have opened and closed in a year or less, about 6 or 7 in the last 10 years, and this was before the smoking ban. do any of you have no smoking laws and if so were they enforced on you and did business decline drastically. Thanks

Check out the room owners section of this forum, there have been a lot of posts lately asking this same question. I think you find a great deal of information there!!!

PS. Be prepared to work 15 hr day's seven day's a week, because without owner hands on control your business can not succeed, again checkout the room owners forum.

Have a nice day!!!!!

Manwon
 
There hasn't been a pool room one that has closed in Washington State yet because of the no smoking ban that wasn't going to close anyway with smoking...because of bad management. If the whole state is no smoking in public places then you have a level playing field. People are NOT going to quit playing pool just because they can't smoke while playing. People are creatures of habit, and they'll adjust there habit to still do what they want to do. The success of your pool room is based on your managerial skills and not the 17% of the population that smokes.

PS. If you relied on smokers only for your patrons, you'd probably go broke before you even opened....and I smoke!
 
i have been a room owner for 14 years and i can tell you it is tougher now than ever. we have sen revenues drop drastically over the last year. poker has been hurting for a while and then the no smoking law hit in july. only time will tell if we can survive. good luck.
 
Anybody here try building an outdoor smoking shelter? Haven't seen them in the U.S., but they're very common now in Ireland. A lot of bars advertise them ... apparently a partially enclosed, heated area with no service out in the back somewhere.

I'm a nonsmoker and am grateful as hell not to have to breathe the stuff, but who wants to see pool halls shut down? Maybe the next big competition will be about who can provide the quickest and most comfortable smoke breaks.
 
Hi, I don't know with is the rule like here in the US but in Bali i put 2 diffrent room Smoking ( Red clothes table room) and non smoking ( gold room) and in indonesia everybody smoke, I have quit smoking for nearly 10 years in the US when I move back to Bali I can't resist to pick up the habits. So when I opened my pool hall with a non-smoking room everybody thinks that I'm out of my mind especially my poolhall is sponsored by Phillip Morris :) But come to everybody suprises the non-smoking generates a new kind of customers. Ladies, younger crowd and actually alot of more serious player plays in there. So I agree with Realkingcobra don't rely to the smokers.
 
ironhead_79 said:
my wife and i are considering opening a pool hall here in our home town, we've researched the building and permits and all but our only worry is that the state of ohio just passed a no smoking law, no smoking in public places, there are not any pool halls anywhere near us, over 50 miles away is the closest i believe. but there have been quite a few halls that have opened and closed in a year or less, about 6 or 7 in the last 10 years, and this was before the smoking ban. do any of you have no smoking laws and if so were they enforced on you and did business decline drastically. Thanks
Hey Ironhead. My friend and I just opened a pool room called 'The Spot Family Fun & Billiards Club in Reynoldsburg, OH (Columbus), back in Oct. before the smoking ban was passed.. We charge a $1.00 yearly membership fee for anyone that wants to enjoy the facility. We also offer a few different levels of yearly memberships for those that regularly use the facility as a incentive. We currently have 370 members enrolled, and about %10 of them have purchsed upgrade memberships to save on pool time, and pool accessories.

We also have a dedicated room called 'The VIP Room', which facilitates a St. Leone 9' Olhausen table, Poker Table, Darts, 50" TV, Xbox 360 Live, plus a few more gadgets. We rent the room to those that want to have privacy, or have 8 or more guests that don't want to be annoyed from the rest of the pool hall. Plus Its a great room to invite all the locals to play to have a good time and show new things learned.

The rest of the Pool Hall is fitted with 15 Olhausen Champion Pro 2nd edition's, 10 - 8' and 5 - 9'. Plus about 15 arcade and touch screen games throughout the facility. It is the only Alcohol Free billiard room in Central Ohio, and we are proud of it! We need to get the younger kids to play pool TODAY to keep the industry going strong for TOMORROW!

As for the Smoking Ban, We continue to allow smoking after 8pm daily. But its quite possible once the ban is in full force this comming June, we may have to go completely non-smoking. But we are looking into the legalities that may allow us to keep smoking in the facility. Since we are technically a 'private' facility and was opened before the smoking ban, and do not have any employee's, its quite possible to continue to allow smoking. I don't know for sure though.. But in any case I'm not really concerned about it.
 
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realkingcobra said:
There hasn't been a pool room one that has closed in Washington State yet because of the no smoking ban that wasn't going to close anyway with smoking...because of bad management. If the whole state is no smoking in public places then you have a level playing field. People are NOT going to quit playing pool just because they can't smoke while playing. People are creatures of habit, and they'll adjust there habit to still do what they want to do. The success of your pool room is based on your managerial skills and not the 17% of the population that smokes.

PS. If you relied on smokers only for your patrons, you'd probably go broke before you even opened....and I smoke!


I agree to a certain extent. If you are in a situation were your room is highly successful (some of the members here appear to be) you will probably be able the withstand the ban. Rooms may not be closing in due strictly to the ban; however a lot of other issues are in play (Poker, general decline in interest, etc.)
I would be interested in hearing from some of those owners as to whether or not their revenues have decreased after implementation of the ban. Mine certainly have. You also stated that 17% of the population smokes, I would like to know what percentage of Pool players smoke. I haven't conducted any scientific polls but gut feel tells me that it approaches 80%. My experience has been that smokers will still come out to play Pool, they just don't stay as long. People don't like paying table time while they are out having a butt. I haven't been able to figure out a practical way of addressing that issue.
The one thing that we do, is to offer day and night "special". You can play all day or all night for the equivelent of about 2 hours of table time. It has helped but we are still down.
To address the original question, I couldn't, in good faith advise anyone to open a new room at this point-in-time (at least in Massachusetts). The interest just isn't there and we're still adapting to the "No-Smoking" thing, even after a year and a half. I'm sure that someone young, with a good head for business and their finger on the pulse of the younger generation and a lot of $$$ to back them up could be successful. If you don't fit that bill, I'd wait until something happens to increase interest in the game.
 
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Right now, if my building and equipment weren't already paid for, I could not stay open.

Summer sucks. Poker sucks. $3 gas sucks when it comes to discretionary income.

Sorry I can't be more positive. But it is being tough for us right now.

DRawls
 
Here in CA there's been no smoking for years. At first people complained but everyone's use to it now. People just go outside to smoke. I think people in general like the clean air and more non smokers are more willing to come out.
 
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