Making a dream pool room

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Drater

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
If you could start your own pool room, how would you design it? I'm hoping we can discuss everything including decor, clientelle, tables, food & drink, regular events, tables, leagues, and general ammenities.

I suppose you can call this "market research", but I'm in the process of buying an existing room in my area. It's roughly 8500 sq. feet with 16 tables, full bar & kitchen, ample seating (and parking!), and has a small-ish dance floor which is regularly used on Karaoke nights.

As a pool player myself (and long time customer of this particular room), I have all sorts of ideas of what to change, how to fix things up, events to organize, and so on. But I thought it would be great to get input from other pool players.

What is it that keeps you going to your favorite room and what would you do to make it better?
 
I havn't put a pen to paper just yet, but I plan on opening my own place in the next 10 years. I would definetely like an upscale type atmosphere. I like the idea of having a great website and live webcams. I would also have, at the least, weekend tournaments and dream of having a professional tournament annually. That's about all that comes to mind for now. Do you mind sharing the cost of a place like you are considering?

Matt
 
Drater said:
If you could start your own pool room, how would you design it? I'm hoping we can discuss everything including decor, clientelle, tables, food & drink, regular events, tables, leagues, and general ammenities.

I suppose you can call this "market research", but I'm in the process of buying an existing room in my area. It's roughly 8500 sq. feet with 16 tables, full bar & kitchen, ample seating (and parking!), and has a small-ish dance floor which is regularly used on Karaoke nights.

As a pool player myself (and long time customer of this particular room), I have all sorts of ideas of what to change, how to fix things up, events to organize, and so on. But I thought it would be great to get input from other pool players.

What is it that keeps you going to your favorite room and what would you do to make it better?
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Drater, I think this may help, check out this link.

http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=48461

Enjoy Craig
 
Low level music, good ventilation if it allows smoking, alot of space between tables, padded carpeting around table areas, at least 2 weekly tournaments (maybe 8ball one night and 9 ball another), and NO KARAOKE! Nothing is more aggravating to a serious poolplayer than some drunk screaming and butchering some song while your shooting your money ball. Just a few suggestions.
 
Fairly large facility. Four Diamond tables for good players and action games. This should be in the corner of the facility, with two walls separating it from the rest of the room. 10-12 chairs for sweators.

Rest of facility - about 10-20 tables of whatever brand is convenient. Don't break the bank buying all new tables for the whole facility. Buy used tables.

1 Golden Tee game. Two computerized commercial dart machines. 2-4 metal tip dart boards. There's a certain competition brand. Get them. Hold leagues for darts and pool. If league directors try to screw you, then start your own in house league. Think up some prize you can give the winning team(s). Don't try to make money on leagues, just keep people in your pool hall.

Hold Golden Tee, darts (both type) , and pool tournaments weekly. If you have a digital camera, take pictures of winners and start a "wall of fame". Talk a bunch of junk over a PA system about how "so-and-so" whipped everyone so badly at last week's tournament. This will drive people to practice. The PA system is a good way to keep a "party" atmosphere going.

On a side note, find a customer who might like to try his/her hand at DJing. Wire your sound system to allow hookup for a computer. Of course you need a pay jukebox, but have a weekly "DJ-off" where customers run the sound show, and you can introduce a "Gong Show" mentality. Buy a Gong, and if someone starts playing Barry Manilow as a joke, they get "Gong'ed" off stage.

Get 3-4 countertop gaming systems, the kind you put quarters in. Hand out monthly prizes for high scores... Digital camera, color TV, etc. Glue the prize info to the top of each machine. Change the game the prize will be awarded on every month. (Each system has about 100 games) If your prizes are cool enough and generate enough traffic on those machines, people WILL spend enough to pay for the prizes.

Get a barwide infrared trivia system. Each team holds a system where they choose the correct answer by pressing A, B, C, or D. They compete against every other "team" in the place that has a box. Award prizes/free drinks.

I know this isn't going to be an "upscale" room, and would be more of a sports bar. Hey, this is what it takes to survive today. I think they key to survival in a place like this is to have LOTS going on, and to give people a place to go where they have a choice of 10 different things to do, where something new is ALWAYS going on.

Involve your customers in your business. Let them entertain each other. That's what creates repeat customers, and word of mouth.

Let me know if this is what you were looking for. It's not upscale, but in a young market, it's what works.

Russ
 
Opie said:
Low level music, good ventilation if it allows smoking, alot of space between tables, padded carpeting around table areas, at least 2 weekly tournaments (maybe 8ball one night and 9 ball another), and NO KARAOKE! Nothing is more aggravating to a serious poolplayer than some drunk screaming and butchering some song while your shooting your money ball. Just a few suggestions.
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Hmmm... Sounds pretty dry. "Serious players" don't pay the bills. You HAVE to cater to the young party crowd. You can try to set aside a place for the serious player out of love for the game, but you can't give them a place to paly if you're out of business.

Russ
 
mattman said:
I havn't put a pen to paper just yet, but I plan on opening my own place in the next 10 years. I would definetely like an upscale type atmosphere. I like the idea of having a great website and live webcams. I would also have, at the least, weekend tournaments and dream of having a professional tournament annually. That's about all that comes to mind for now. Do you mind sharing the cost of a place like you are considering?

Matt
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Thanks Matt. I'm thinking along the same lines as you. I'm located in an economy where "upscale" doesn't describe the clientele, however, I believe that can be offset with volume.

I've also considered hosting a weekend-long $5,000 guaranteed 1st place tourny w/ maybe $125-$150 entry fee which goes to pay out the first 4 or 6 spots. Do this once a year w/ some of the marketing budget. It seems a great way to get big name players into the place for a weekend. Who would pass up a chance for $5k guaranteed?

I agree on the weekly tournament idea. It's a must. The current establishment hasn't hosted a tournament in about a year, so it'll take awhile to get a good turnout. They have a decent number of league players, so it shouldn't be hard to get regular tournaments going.

I'm really not in a position to discuss costs. I hope you understand.
 
Russ Chewning said:
Hmmm... Sounds pretty dry. "Serious players" don't pay the bills. You HAVE to cater to the young party crowd. You can try to set aside a place for the serious player out of love for the game, but you can't give them a place to paly if you're out of business.

Russ
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Thanks for the input Russ. You're right that "serious players" don't pay the bills and that you've gotta have all sorts of other activities, including Karaoke, to keep people coming in the door and staying all night buying drinks. In talking with other room owners in my area I was very surprised to learn the amount of money they take in on the bar-top video games. Not enough to sustain the business, but it's an appreciable percentable of their overall revenue.

However, Opie makes some good points from the perspective of a "serious player". He's right that serious players and karaoke don't mix. OTOH, you're right in that it's almost necessary.

To help mitigate inconveniences to "serious players", I've considered having a local pro use the space to offer private lessons. Raffle off "beat the pro" tickets at weekly turnaments for a few bucks each. Maybe provide a cheap/free monthly exhibition and Q&A session. Just some things to keep the serious players serious and to maybe convert some of the other players into serious ones.
 
Opie said:
Low level music, good ventilation if it allows smoking, alot of space between tables, padded carpeting around table areas, at least 2 weekly tournaments (maybe 8ball one night and 9 ball another), and NO KARAOKE! Nothing is more aggravating to a serious poolplayer than some drunk screaming and butchering some song while your shooting your money ball. Just a few suggestions.
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HAHAHA, lol!!! I know what you mean!!!
 
college billiards in san diego (where Jay Swanee played)was the best layed out pool room I ever saw, for the bangers to B players and then a back room like hardtimes in sac for players and action, that combination of about 40-50 tables with a bar box section for league- off to the die near a bar so they dont disrupt the other players-not a knock just making it good fun for everyone.
 
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