Steinway

Rusty in Montana said:
This is near the top of my bucket list of places I'd love to play a few racks of pool at , I hope they remain open for as long as they want to .
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I have been there a few times to play and once to watch a pro tournament.
I had a half day in NYC not long ago for a long flight layover. I made the trip to Queens and played a few hours. I was aware that the end was possibly near and it was confirmed by some of the staff.
The room had the feel like they had quit putting money into the equipment.
I am glad that I have been able to play there on several occasions and was able to sweat a tourney with my son and sjm.

If you get to go it will be a treat but it should be soon. It has been much more than a pool room for many locals over the years and will surely be missed by many that used it as a social gathering spot.

I would love to get a piece of the carpeting as a memento of the times I have stood on it.
 
It's crazy how the businesses that make an area desirable get pushed out when that desire drives up the property values. Then corporate businesses move in with their buying power, lowest common denominator appeal, and high profile/name recognition. They are the only people who can afford the rent, and then pay low wages to hire people who can't afford to live there.

I read a story about a fabrication shop near Broadway. The got a good amount of work from set builders for all the theaters, as well as your regular fab/ machine shop stuff. They owned the building and sold it and shut down the business in 2010 ish. They sold to a developer for more money than the shop had made in its entire 50+ year existence.
 
Since I live here in the middle of Montana literally chances are unless I win the lottery I won't get a chance to play pool there but I'm going to give them a call to find out if I can get a shirt or cap with their logo on it to add to my collection .

I'd like to play Earl Strickland or get some instructions from him when he was here last winter I didn't get signed up in time for it back then .
I figure if you're going to dream dream big ha ha
 
jtompilot said:
I think the key is owning the building if you can. you can't get pushed out after years of building your business.
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In New York or California??? It's REALLY common to get pushed out whether you own the building or not. It's called imminent domain and the corrupt officials that decide whether or not to push you out, couldn't give two shits whether or not you're going to lose everything or not.

Jaden
 
Jaden said:
In New York or California??? It's REALLY common to get pushed out whether you own the building or not. It's called imminent domain and the corrupt officials that decide whether or not to push you out, couldn't give two shits whether or not you're going to lose everything or not.

Jaden
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Im in MA and the only pool hall within an hour of me had their lease illegally terminated and got thrown out of the building. She tried to save her business, but Someone with a lot of money and connections to the local good ol boys club made her go away.
 
couldnthinkof01 said:
Is a pool hall really a pool hall if old men can't gather to drink coffee, talk stupid, and gamble cheap table games all day? I think not. That is the saddest part of the story to me. I hope they find an amazing new hang out that welcomes them with open arms.
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I'm think it's hard to run a business if your core customers spend only $3 per visit (from a single cup of coffee sold in the morning ). I'm not certain how the great halls of old (Bensinger's, etc) ever made money over an extended period of time.
 
kling&allen said:
I'm think it's hard to run a business if your core customers spend only $3 per visit (from a single cup of coffee sold in the morning ). I'm not certain how the great halls of old (Bensinger's, etc) ever made money over an extended period of time.
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The smell of stale smoke, domino's clacking, cards shuffling, dice rolling in a wooden box. Dim and musty. Balls roll slowly across a large table with a low rumble.
Then, at 6:30 they stampede in with their fancy cases, pocket chalkers, slippery Jersey shirts, and all black shafts. Buy 75 beers and terrible food. Subsidizing the room. Promptly at 10 you kick them all back out and the late night hardcore's return the room to normalcy.
 
The sad thing is when a market like LA squeezes out most all the pool rooms-that happened 20 years ago here. People forget about pool. The occasional players-not like AZB people who are league, lifers, and hardcore pool people(we are the minority)

Bangers keep pool rooms open. Not players.

The occasional players forget what pool is in the absence of pool rooms. And after 20 years it’s just gone.

Right now I 100% guarantee if I bought a building, paid all cash for it-so my expenses would be property tax and electricity.

Built it out and paid for everything so no debt. Just payroll, property taxes and what ever variable overhead from the bar/food would be. I still couldn’t make a pool room work here.

People in LA don’t remember what a pool table is, there’s very few players and not much league action. And no $ action. A perfect pool room by a banger, drinker, players room would sit empty in LA now. Pool has left the City.

Drive 5 hours to Sacramento and you have a completely different story. Sac is a pool players city. There’s deep roots in pool there, new guys coming into pool. I cut my teeth and earned my bones there in the mid to late 80’s and it’s still going strong. Sacramento is a completely different market.

Once an area loses pool, it’s hard to get it back. That’s my point.

Let’s do some fun math. In LA a 7500sf room is $21,500/mo in rent. So $650/day, call it $500/day for employee’s (less on week days, more on weekends-just averaged all that) so we are now at 21.5K plus $15K and another $5k/mo for insurance and electricity, permits, licenses, cloth on the tables, shampoo the carpet etc. we are at $42.5 to $45k a month or $1500/day to open the doors.

How in the world in a city of 20,000,000 people who forgot what pool is are we gonna cover a $1500/day nut on a leased space that’s 7500sf(not a big room)???

Impossible.

In Sacramento you can cut that number in half and there are players there and recreational players that could support a room with a $750/day nut.

NYC idk enough about. But if there isn’t a replacement room in a few years-it’s all done…..that gap between rooms is toxic to the existence of pool.

Fatboy<——-would open a room if it made sense. But it doesn’t here
 
jtompilot said:
My buddy Jerry owns the building his room in Ventura is located. He doesn’t make a ton of money but loves the game. If he had to pay rent to some money grabbing landlord, he probably would have been priced out long ago.
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Jerry has a great room. He owns the building and his tax basis is low. It’s long established and I wish it was 40 minutes closer to my house.

Jerry has no debt and doesn’t need a ton of biz to keep it going. Also he has enough $ that he doesn’t depend on it for a living.

He was smart during covid he took that time to freshen it up. Smart move. Jerry is a smart guy/biz man.

Sal lost his room due to covid as the landlord wanted rent and Sal couldn’t fade it. That’s a super sad story. There’s still pool in Ventura county.

LA not as much, not for a very long time. Mid 90’s pool was going along ok in LA.

Best
Fatboy
 
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