How can a pool hall stay in business?
- Thread starter jdxprs
- Start date
Open a Starbucks inside. :grin-square:
Hard Times Bellflower does not sell beer.
Lots of soda and table time.
You can walk into my local room and it is truly quite as a church. Been going there everyday since I moved up here. And it said that sometimes it has more to do with the owners. I mean you not only have vending company's sucking out as much money that they can telling the room owner what he can or can't do.
I'm not a room owner so I'm not really sure. A place like Hard Times is a little unique as it has a rep. For most places I would think it require long hours by the owner to keep payroll down and and either a very good deal on the rent or ownership of the property.
You might as well ask how any business can stay in business. Those that do have the right balance between their expenses and their income.
But here are a few ways to generate business -
Leagues
Specials
Tournaments
Good Food
Private Parties
Events
Action
Leagues (worth repeating)
Bar Tables - bangers love them
I owned a pool room. We did serve alcohol but we also did very well on table time, in fact the table time paid the rent.
I guess it's hard for me to say how a pool room could do really well without at least beer. But as with any business it's all about management and accounting. I am sure that there are ways to make a non-alcohol room work and be profitable.
How profitable? Well that's another thing altogether. I seem to remember a pretty big place on the outer edges of OKC that didn't serve alcohol, had about 30 barboxes, 10 or so foosball tables, and probably 50 video games that was packed every weekend with a line out the door. I know it because me and my buddies used to hustle the cowboys there when we were younger. I'd guess that they were making good money judging by the attendance.
The name will come to me later.
My local room is dying, and the owner sells beer, good food, and has leagues. It is sad, but poor management is to blame. I love the place, but the rumor is that it is gonna be a laundry mat by June. :frown: I hope it makes it, but everyone saw the writing on the wall some time ago.
Joe
Joe
Well I guess the owners are making money off the beer sales in your league sales.
But where I played the tables weren't free. We pumped quarters into the tables every league night.
One room I can think if in Baltimore has something like 40 bar tables and they hold team tournaments there once a month as well as all the citywide and regional tournaments. They regularly have a couple hundred people in there playing pool, eating and drinking.
I like the way they do it in China. Table time is never free. When people play the loser always pays time. In tournaments the loser pays time. Room owners host a lot of tournaments with long races.
I don't think pool rooms are doing anything wrong, there are just too many other ways to fill your free time.....that and the general cost of living now coupled with a crap economy equals death to anything that requires extra $$$.
>>>this next rant actually comes from my Dad, we talked about the death of pool rooms and the "guy life" not long ago.
Think about it, years ago we didn't have 798 HD channels, and the internet, we had 3,6,10,17,29,48.....and 12, but PBS sucked
so if nothing was on, and the kids are driving you nuts, you go to the pool room or bowling alley to get out of the house for a while.
On the same note and not to be non-PC the little ladies in our life rarely followed you to the pool room unless you were in trouble. It was like on "the honeymooners" Ralph and Norton would head out to the pool room, or the "lodge", or bowling to get away from it all. Today, guys don't really have their lodges, or clubs, like they used to. Pool rooms used to be the place to get away from it all....not anymore! now....most rooms, and I say MOST, not all.... are glorified game rooms that scream stupid music, keep shrinking the tables, and have lost the "private secret club" feel us guys loved back in the day.....Pool rooms used to be an oasis to hide out in and not be bothered.
Now we are whipped into feeling bad when we want to go out without the wife to hang with the guys. And sorry ladies, no matter what us guys say....it's just not the same hanging out at the pool room with your wife. You can't crack dirty jokes, or look at playboy, or lie about past girlfriends
I guess I would agree with what Pop said. It's a different time now, but even when I first came up in the pool rooms in the 80's there was still an old school feel to some of them.....you know the ones where you got a look when you brought your girlfriend in. Hard to explain unless you were there.
>>>this next rant actually comes from my Dad, we talked about the death of pool rooms and the "guy life" not long ago.
Think about it, years ago we didn't have 798 HD channels, and the internet, we had 3,6,10,17,29,48.....and 12, but PBS sucked
so if nothing was on, and the kids are driving you nuts, you go to the pool room or bowling alley to get out of the house for a while. On the same note and not to be non-PC the little ladies in our life rarely followed you to the pool room unless you were in trouble
. It was like on "the honeymooners" Ralph and Norton would head out to the pool room, or the "lodge", or bowling to get away from it all. Today, guys don't really have their lodges, or clubs, like they used to. Pool rooms used to be the place to get away from it all....not anymore! now....most rooms, and I say MOST, not all.... are glorified game rooms that scream stupid music, keep shrinking the tables, and have lost the "private secret club" feel us guys loved back in the day.....Pool rooms used to be an oasis to hide out in and not be bothered. Now we are whipped into feeling bad when we want to go out without the wife to hang with the guys. And sorry ladies, no matter what us guys say....it's just not the same hanging out at the pool room with your wife. You can't crack dirty jokes, or look at playboy, or lie about past girlfriends
I guess I would agree with what Pop said. It's a different time now, but even when I first came up in the pool rooms in the 80's there was still an old school feel to some of them.....you know the ones where you got a look when you brought your girlfriend in. Hard to explain unless you were there.
About 20 years ago I asked a friend that was a former hustler about opening a PH. He asked "What do you want to do, run prostitution, back room poker, back room games, or numbers? Without any of that you can't make it."
Looking at the situation today even doing that I think it would be hard because of the lotteries, many legal poker rooms, and free sex everywhere.
Looking at the situation today even doing that I think it would be hard because of the lotteries, many legal poker rooms, and free sex everywhere.
I always wanted to open a brewpub. The more I think about it, it seems it would go perfect with a pool hall combination. But I think it is the new halls that have the hardest time. The old places that own the buildings outright can survive off of regulars and leagues. That is until new taxes and laws drive them under. I see govmt pool halls in the near future. Hope not! :frown:
jd, here is one example: My 9-ball team shoots out of a poolhall on Thursday nights. They furnish us for free with three oversized 8' tables, one for each team to practice on, and one for the matches. Now, on a typical Thursday night BEFORE our league team showed up, you may see a handful of people at the bar and another handful shooting pool (this hall has twelve 8-footers and two 9-footers). So, our league teams bring in 16 players (8 per team) and who ever else tags along. I would say that most of the time at least 75% of the players (and friends) drink. Thats at least 12 people running up a bar tab. If the average tab is $15, and that's a reasonable estimate, that is $180, not including tips, that bar made simply because of our league, on a typical slow night where few (and sometimes NONE) of the tables were going to be used. I can tell you this, they LOVE to see us walking through the doors!!!
Now, if you had more than one team, say several, shooting league out of that poolhall and bring in another two or three teams as visiting opponents, and you had leagues going on almost every night of the week, it brings in a LOT of revenue. And that's even with FREE table usage. Some places you still have to pay table time also!!!
Maniac
Maniac
I think it's a mistake to apply the "does it make money" test to everything you do as a business owner.
Sure it's reasonable to charge some modest fee to use the tables for an in-house league. But the bigger picture is you're generating a buzz, bringing in a lot of people who have family and friends, showing others it's the "place to be," pumping up the sport, and demonstrating to the players you want them there...
The answer is hidden somewhere in your post!!!:wink:
The business of running a pool room is no different than any other retail business. It's the promotion part most owners have no clue about. Most wait for customers to enter and do nothing to facilitate new customers. Visiting local schools, senior centers, Boy and Girl Scouting, adding a dart league or two, combining promotions with other businesses in their immediate area. Just do something.
Gerry, I remember the good old days of dark, hidden pool rooms. And all the things that went along with it. Today, that business model will not work! Our new room owner re-painted the entire room. Walls and ceiling. What a difference. Actually a nice place to visit. Bright and airy. Will it invigerate the room? Only time will tell. Sure hope it will.
There is no such thing as free pool in our room anymore. If the leagues choose not to pay, they can find another place to play. In some cases, I believe that decision is short-sighted. Again, only time will tell.
The last area is quality of play. For the "ball bangers", our room is perfect. For the players really trying to get better (or maintain), it is the "Little Shop of Horrors". Our eight Gold Crown III's are so bad (insert your joke) it makes one not want to practice. Correction, one of our Gold Crowns does play reasonably well. Mike Sigel practices on it when in the room. Slow cloth, dead rails. He can let his stroke out. Unfortunately, we are mortals. Nothing a top flight table mechanic like RKC couldn't fix. Not as bad as some I've read about but pretty bad. Would fixing the tables help? I sure think so. The owner has talked about buying some Diamond's for a new area added to the main room. I can only dream.
Lyn
Gerry, I remember the good old days of dark, hidden pool rooms. And all the things that went along with it. Today, that business model will not work! Our new room owner re-painted the entire room. Walls and ceiling. What a difference. Actually a nice place to visit. Bright and airy. Will it invigerate the room? Only time will tell. Sure hope it will.
There is no such thing as free pool in our room anymore. If the leagues choose not to pay, they can find another place to play. In some cases, I believe that decision is short-sighted. Again, only time will tell.
The last area is quality of play. For the "ball bangers", our room is perfect. For the players really trying to get better (or maintain), it is the "Little Shop of Horrors". Our eight Gold Crown III's are so bad (insert your joke) it makes one not want to practice. Correction, one of our Gold Crowns does play reasonably well. Mike Sigel practices on it when in the room. Slow cloth, dead rails. He can let his stroke out. Unfortunately, we are mortals. Nothing a top flight table mechanic like RKC couldn't fix. Not as bad as some I've read about but pretty bad. Would fixing the tables help? I sure think so. The owner has talked about buying some Diamond's for a new area added to the main room. I can only dream.
Lyn
Last edited:
jdxprs
Banned
the point was whether or not a room could make it WITHOUT selling alcohol.