Opening a new poolroom

durhamcueist

durhamcueist

Brandon W
Silver Member
Hello bar owners,
I'm trying to open a new pool hall here in the Raleigh/Durham area. Where can I get the best tables and lights for my money I need 10. Also any advice you can help me with.
 
durhamcueist said:
Hello bar owners,
I'm trying to open a new pool hall here in the Raleigh/Durham area. Where can I get the best tables and lights for my money I need 10. Also any advice you can help me with.
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What kind of tables are you looking for...size? I might be able to help you, ya never know!

Glen
 
I'm personally fond of Olhausen tables but I'l probably go with 9 gold crowns and 1 tournament table in a separate room. I'm also going to need kitchen equipment ie..fryer, grill, fridge
 
Hey durhamcueist,
Sent you a PM, check it out when you have a chance.
 
durhamcueist said:
I'm personally fond of Olhausen tables but I'l probably go with 9 gold crowns and 1 tournament table in a separate room. I'm also going to need kitchen equipment ie..fryer, grill, fridge
Click to expand...
You just missed a bar liquidation here. Complete kitchen setup, hood, icemakers, tables, chairs and stools, etc. 3 walk in coolers went for like $150 each to give you an idea of how cheap stuff went. Complete draft system with tanks and 2 - 8 tap heads was $100. Everything was in great shape too - no trash.
 
Gold Crowns are probably your best value right now. Most every major tournament is going with Diamond tables so fewer room owners are buying GC's. I just bought a new Diamond for our one-pocket table. Brunswick seems to have deserted the pool community the past few years:( . Diamond also has a much longer wait for tables. A sure sign they are in demand. You can probably get some GCIII's for $1800 in pretty good shape. Of course you will always make more money off bar boxes. Depends on the demographics of the crowd you are trying to attract. Good luck in your search!!!:)
 
Pool Rooms Are Tough Action!

Just a few hopefully helpfull words of advice, your in the Raleigh/Durham area just as I am. Before buying a failing pool out of desperation I spent almost 2 years looking for a good location w/suitable accomidations. It was a dead end everywhere I went. I didn't want to be to close to another pool room and compete for the same players. No matter where I went or what town I looked there was always something in my way. It was either the town wouldn't allow it without a long drawn out battle, or the zoning wasn't correct for a billiard/bar. Even if it was zoned correctly their are always restrictions for billiard and bar business. A church or school, residential area's are all very common deal killers. Even if the zoning is correct for your business most commercial property owners that have been in the business for any amount of time have probably had a bad taste in their mouth from a previous tenant in the bar business. They hear "pool" and "alcohol" they certainly shy away. Especially without proven experience and success. Usually the larger shopping centers have some sort of anchor tenant like a food lion, ace hardware, WalMart, etc and almost all of these deep pocketed corporations will require the property owner to restrict any businesses like ours from operating in the same center. Although I did find numerous areas that would allow the billiard tables just not the alcohol. With the commercial rental rates around the triangle you would have to keep 15 tables going around 7-8 hrs a day to actually see a return on your investment. And I really haven't seen to many places around here that can achieve that goal. So with all of my failures in trying to start from scratch I was pretty much forced to buy an existing business due to very little capitol left. I didn't have enough money to buy one that was actually making money but I was so determined to get my feet wet in the business and achieve the goal I had fought and saved for since the age of 18. I don't know you and your dedication to this but it really isn't glorious and fun like some people think. If you have the funds, I recommend purchasing and building your own building. You would probably need at least $200k in cash or assetts to back any type of loan to build your own building. I don't know your financial situation but even leasing a space if you think that a bank or the SBA will loan you 75% of what you need to startup (which is what I thought), you can't. For a start-up business of almost any sort, a bank or lender will loan you 100k if you have 95k in assetts to secure it. Which to me is just liquidating your assetts (home, mutual funds, 401k, etc) in the form of a loan. Which is leverage and a good thing but most people especially at a younger age don't have that kind of assetts. Then you can always take on a partner but then you are doing all the work for half the money. And even a very successfull room isn't a business that your going to get rich on. Very few are going to make more than 100k profit. Many are like mine and really doesn't make any money. So if you want a billiard business just to make money and not because it is what you have always dreamed of doing, most likely you will burn out very quickly unless you are just doing great numbers and are able to afford a management team, which not to many rooms I have seen were able to do that. Basically I am not trying to preach to you or discourage you from pursuing your business venture and I have no clue what you have done already and haven't done but if I can save you some of the true heartache and financial losses that I have suffered and help you avoid the mistakes I made due to being nieve. So good luck and just send me a line if you have questions. pool1874@aol.com
 
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