This is Ames Mister

[L.S. Dennis]

"No Bars, no pinball machines, no bowling alley just pool this is Ames Mister!" Now in the shadow of the closing of Steinway, how long do you think a pool room would stay open if they used this as their business model? It's no wonder why so many rooms have closed here in the states with today's business climate. Sad state of affairs for pool in this country.

 

[realkingcobra]

All those "IF" advisers actually turned their "IF's' into action and actually OPENED a pool room, that would be a different thing, BUT all those "IF" advisers fail to realize a business plan made 20,30, 40 years ago DON'T work today! Pool rooms around the world are opening in record numbers, players from out of country are dominating the pool events here in our country, so what's the REAL reason pool rooms here have been closing for the last 20 years!!!

 

[maha]

its all bad business people. in high rent cities there are full stores paying the rent and making money.

its just in cheap areas a bad business person can scratch out a living running a pool room poorly.

and less people are willing to just scratch out a living.

 

[realkingcobra]

The only way I'd open another pool room today is if I have a full bar service and restaurant sales. Then I'd charge $20 an hour for the table time, requardless of how many were playing, and credit the food and alcohol sales against the table time, that way the customers are actually spending money based customers, NOT as pool players! Don't want or need the players that just want to come in and practice, and insist I need to charge a daily rate that they can afford, if I want THEIR business! Pool tables are the excuse to draw customers in and spend their money, not the reason to keep the doors open just so someone can practice playing pool!

$20 per hour to play pool can actually be free pool, when you're a real customer eating and drinking, SPENDING $20 an hour as a CUSTOMER!

 

[sammylane12]

The only way I'd open another pool room today is if I have a full bar service and restaurant sales. Then I'd charge $20 an hour for the table time, requardless of how many were playing, and credit the food and alcohol sales against the table time, that way the customers are actually spending money based customers, NOT as pool players! Don't want or need the players that just want to come in and practice, and insist I need to charge a daily rate that they can afford, if I want THEIR business! Pool tables are the excuse to draw customers in and spend their money, not the reason to keep the doors open just so someone can practice playing pool!

$20 per hour to play pool can actually be free pool, when you're a real customer eating and drinking, SPENDING $20 an hour as a CUSTOMER!

I don`t know man, I think you would lose your ass. So a guy walks into your place and wants to play by himself for 2 hours. Doesn`t want food or drink, just pool. Is it going to cost him $40?

 

[Island Drive]

problem is good business people dont open pool rooms very often. so only dreamers and bad ones do and so they go broke.

Such optimism.... often a band that plays great but never becomes truly great, should try another instrument.

 

[couldnthinkof01]

A members club where the overhead is covered by monthly/ annual dues. Non profit.

I'd rather play in a room like that regularly than some sports bar with drunks, loud music, and "non-pool players" bumping into me or standing around the table the whole time while waiting for their shot. I also realize that isn't a money generating machine.

 

[Bavafongoul]

Well, one thing is for sure. If Ames were to open again, or any pool room, Times Square is the worst location
for any pool room. Horrible accessibility, no parking unless you wanted to pay $75-100 a couple blocks away
and the rent would be astronomical. Pool rooms are no longer a neighborhood establishment and have to rely
upon the local communities. In NYC, that encompasses 5 burroughs and almost 9 million residents. In order to remain successful and thriving, any business has to serve & cater to the contemporaneous needs & desires of the local population. Pool just isn’t high up the list of priorities except for a relatively small following across the USA.

 

[AtLarge]

https://m.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091239107293

Tin Man and I just opened this private room/training facility in St Paul

We have seven 9 ft Diamonds and a barbox

"No bar, no pinball, no bowling alley"

Poolrooms aren't dead

Now listen here. Your carpet bombing of our hallowed grounds with your posts has to stop. It looks like you've been here only about 17 years now and you've already posted 48 times. That averages out to about once every 4 months (stats are always helpful in analyzing situations like this). The authorities may be on your tail soon. And, by the way, what's this about calling something a "barbox" in a place with no bar?

 

[Bavafongoul]

A members club where the overhead is covered by monthly/ annual dues. Non profit.

I'd rather play in a room like that regularly than some sports bar with drunks, loud music, and "non-pool players" bumping into me or standing around the table the whole time while waiting for their shot. I also realize that isn't a money generating machine.

We have the equivalent of that in Fresno right now. A. beautiful new pool room with a commitment to keeping the pool tables in tip top shape and a membership rate of $65/month to play any time. The hourly rate is $12.00/hr. days and $22.00 evenings. It is one of the nicest pool rooms I’ve frequented, the best equipment, spaciously designed, perfect 9’ table lights, brand new Diamond tables and high def TVs everywhere. It is really top shelf.

Yesterday we watched the Chuck Markulis Tournament stream from Sacramento, The beer selection is huge & hard alcohol drinks is just awaiting their liquor license to be approved. It is not a private club which I think I’d prefer but it’s only costs a little over $2 a day & that is pretty affordable for any pool devotee. Oh, they stream music during the daytime for free and you can request the music type. We listened to Tom Petty yesterday for hours and then switched to The Rolling Stones…for free instead of feeding the jukebox. Gosh, it seems like a pool room anyone would like and opening it in Fresno was just a blessing that I now get to enjoy.

 

[couldnthinkof01]

We have the equivalent of that in Fresno right now. A. beautiful new pool room with a commitment to keeping the pool tables in tip top shape and a membership rate of $65/month to play any time. The hourly rate is $12.00/hr. days and $22.00 evenings. It is one of the nicest pool rooms I’ve frequented, the best equipment, spaciously designed, perfect 9’ table lights, brand new Diamond tables and high def TVs everywhere. It is really top shelf.

Yesterday we watched the Chuck Margolis Tournament stream from Sacramento, The beer selection is huge & hard alcohol drinks is just awaiting their liquor license to be approved. It is not a private club which I think I’d prefer but it’s only costs a little over $2 a day & that is pretty affordable for any pool devotee. Oh, they stream music during the daytime for free and you can request the music type. We listened to Tom Petty yesterday for hours and then switched to The Rolling Stones…for free instead of feeding the jukebox. Gosh, it seems like a pool room anyone would like and opening it in Fresno was just a blessing that I now get to enjoy.

I watched some of the stream. Room looks beautiful.

 

[realkingcobra]

I don`t know man, I think you would lose your ass. So a guy walks into your place and wants to play by himself for 2 hours. Doesn`t want food or drink, just pool. Is it going to cost him $40?

Customers keep the bills paid, not pool players. A customer comes in and spends, a player comes in and wants to know how LITTLE they can spend and still practice!!!

 

[L.S. Dennis]

There was a place in San Francisco called "The Great Entertainer" that opened in the 90's that had everything, full bar, full beatiful restaurant, private rooms and about 40 or more brand new Gold Crowns, plus 2 6x12 snooker tables and a 3 cushion table. Their policy was anyone eating at the restaurant tables got 1 hour free pool time, they had a reasonable monthly membership fee, the place was huge who knows how much they had to pay to remodel that old paint building that was there for years.. They had full week of tournaments schedule, they even hosted a WPBA tournament stop. It opened during the 'Color of Money' boom but didn't make it through the decade. Sad, loved that place...

 

[maha]

monthly rate is a joke for a room. the regs. pay almost nothing and take up the pool tables. and 65 a month is a steal and will break the room.

maybe give a 100 dollar punch card and lose 5 bucks every hour you use it. that is more than a 50% break for the regs.

the room i go to in florida charges 100 a month or 7 dollars for the day, and all the 9 foot tables are full from noon to 5 when the discount stops. and not one of the players spends a nickel for anything in the room.

and all their monthly players probably doesn't even pay for the one shift of the low wage hourly employee who doesnt give a sh--t about the success of the room.

 

[couldnthinkof01]

Why all the complaints about who spends what in the pool room?

Many pool rooms have mediocre service, even worse food.

Some people just want to hit some balls.
If you don't have a pool table at home or just want to hit some with others on a regular, maybe adding an extra $20+/- everytime isn't your cup of tea.

League players, gamblers, daters and fornicators, people who want to play one pocket or golf buy one coffee and bounce, people who want some dinner or lunch, people who want to have some drinks....as long as all these groups like the place.. there should be some profit and space for all.

 

[maha]

there is profit from all but if your contribution is only a few bucks then you aren't considered a customer. but maybe in your mind you are.
a lunch costs 20 bucks even at a cheap place to eat.

a pool room is many times the size of most lunch spots and wont make it on those spending just a few bucks.

 

[L.S. Dennis]

Another place that certainly deserves honorable mention in the now defunct pool rooms was Tony Annigonsi's (RIP) Q Club in SF. Tony got together several investors to bring back to life the old 'Cochran's Billiards' on Market St in SF again in the 90's . Anybody that knows anything about pool will have heard of Cochran's one of the most fabled pool rooms in the country back in the 50's and early 60's. Tony did a wonderful job of bringing that place back to life after sitting vacant for so many years. There were about 50 tables all with 760 cloth, a beautiful mahogany bar with J.T.S. Brown bourbon proudly displayed and severed and he even had the old cue lockers still there from the old Cochrans restored.

If the walls in that room could speak, you would hear stories of the legendary players of the past that would delight you for hours on end. Unfortunately what worked for Cochrans in the 50's no long was tenable for the 90's. The place was in a horrible part of SF called the Tenderloin where you had to run the gauntlet to get in and out from crime plagued streets below. You never knew if your car was still going to be there when it was time to leave. It was one of the last vestiges of the old billiard emporiums from the 30's and 40's. Tony did a bang up job of setting that place up but like all others it was not to be. It did become Hollywood Billiard for a while but ultimately closed like all the others.

 

[Dunnn51]

I only read pg1,so forgive me if it has already been addressed.
Has anyone considered Demographics?? All the greatest generation are about dead, and the baby boomers are retiring. I bet these two are probably 70-80% of the current room owners.
Gen X running pool rooms?? That's the 40's - 50's crowd.
I will agree on location. The room I go to closed down for COVID, then the owner retired, and now a dedicated player is running the show. The regs are still there, plus the weekend date crowd. They even come in during the week. There's a college University nearby, and ALOT of Asian transfer students regularly stop by.
Rooms should sell beer and wine,... there is a good profit margin there.
Bottom line, FOOT traffic required.

 

[ChrisinNC]

We have the equivalent of that in Fresno right now. A. beautiful new pool room with a commitment to keeping the pool tables in tip top shape and a membership rate of $65/month to play any time. The hourly rate is $12.00/hr. days and $22.00 evenings. It is one of the nicest pool rooms I’ve frequented, the best equipment, spaciously designed, perfect 9’ table lights, brand new Diamond tables and high def TVs everywhere. It is really top shelf.

Yesterday we watched the Chuck Margolis Tournament stream from Sacramento, The beer selection is huge & hard alcohol drinks is just awaiting their liquor license to be approved. It is not a private club which I think I’d prefer but it’s only costs a little over $2 a day & that is pretty affordable for any pool devotee. Oh, they stream music during the daytime for free and you can request the music type. We listened to Tom Petty yesterday for hours and then switched to The Rolling Stones…for free instead of feeding the jukebox. Gosh, it seems like a pool room anyone would like and opening it in Fresno was just a blessing that I now get to enjoy.

$65/month for an unlimited play at any time membership seems ridiculously low. What if you’re practicing by yourself and there is a waiting list for tables?

 

[straightline]

If covid is the excuse used today for pool rooms closing, what's the excuse for all the pool rooms closing pre-covid?

Precovid, obviously. Bad stuff...

Seriously, I think C19 put the brakes on a lot of hustle and bustle masking the real problems - biggest for instance is there is no way to shut down this monster for repairs. Be that as it may, danger behind us, people just want BAU, which unfortunately includes the decline of pool. It's the people that's broken...

 

[tim913]

Growing up the bars were the big draw for all the players, slap your quarters down on the challenge table, and enjoy the competition for hours. Halls were considered dead zones for most except the more serious players. No challenge tables! No fun, play with the person you came with or someone wanting to play for big bucks.
I enjoyed all the trash talking too, they would slap the money down on your table and say, “you’re going down Tim” I’d just laugh it was all in fun!