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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #19 - Mini Golf News, Lucky Strike's Out, and more!
Sponsored by Intercard!
In this episode we spend some time with mini golf with artsy installations like Smash Putt, traditional courses for sale, and themed venues reflecting this classic game's evolution into competitive socializing experiences. We explore how mini golf is being reimagined across America while major industry developments unfold globally.
• The return of Smash Putt in Seattle combines mini golf with provocative art installations in an adult-oriented environment
• Garden City Putt-Putt in Michigan and 2T's Family Entertainment Center in Pennsylvania both up for sale as established venues
• Clint Novak takes us on a Florida road trip to three unique venues including Atomic Claw, a specialized claw machine arcade
• Kevin Williams shares over 30 new venue announcements including F1's Las Vegas expansion and Level 99's growth
• Lucky Strike's acquisition of Vesalia Adventure Park raises questions about the wisdom of extreme diversification beyond core competencies
Don't miss Amusement Expo coming up March 17-20, and sign up for LBX Academy on April 14-16 at Andretti Karting and Games in Dallas, focusing on growing your revenue through group events.
Tuning you in. Now to the LBX Show with your host, brandon Wiley, brought to you by the LBX Collective your community to connect, engage and inspire.
Speaker 2:All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX show number 19 for March 9th 2025. I am your host, brandon Wiley, and we have a great show for you lined up today and we are going to see let's see it's a news you should know first, and that's a kind of a little mini golf theme, and so I'm excited about that. And then road trip with Clint Novak he is back and we have a official formal segment for him and then we'll be actually wrapping up with Open and Shut with Kevin Williams. It's a bit of a longer one because there's quite a number of huge openings and just a few closings we'll talk about as well. But yeah, anyway, there's quite a bit there, so let's just dive right into it and with some Amusement Expo information here.
Speaker 2:So Amusement Expo is coming up. It's like two weeks, guys, actually. In fact, I'm going to be flying out there a week from now when this thing is actually going live. So, yeah, march 17th to the 20th. If you haven't already got your plane tickets, et cetera, I would encourage you to do that ASAP and you know it's going to be a good time. Again, we've been talking about this for a little while. Kevin and I are going to be doing a number of different shows on the show floor to talk about some of the things we're seeing, and so very excited to see all of you guys there and good friends and et cetera. So definitely come and check out Amusement Expo that's coming up.
Speaker 2:And then IAAPA Research is doing a global benchmark survey. If you're not familiar with IAAPA, they are the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions. They say they are the global association for the amusement park or for the attractions industry and they're doing a benchmark survey and this is important because this is how we get all the data that we know to basically go and make decisions about our businesses, about growth strategies, et cetera. So take this survey, scan this QR code. If you are watching the video, if you're listening, you can go to iapaorg or just Google IAPA Global Benchmark Survey and that link will come up for you. All right.
Speaker 2:And then I'm excited to announce we have another LBX Academy coming up. So we haven't had one of these since before. I think the last one was October in Chandler last year, and so we have one coming up April 14th to the 16th at Andretti Carding and Games. This is at the Colony in Dallas, texas, so very centrally located in the US. So, if you are looking, if you want to send your general managers, if you want to come to this, we're basically focusing on expanding your business and growing your revenue through group events. That includes both birthday events as well as group sales. So it is not how to run great, amazing birthday parties as much as it is how to just grow your birthday party business and revenue. Grow your group sales, business and revenue. These are two big, very large components and so, again, if you're watching this, you can scan the QR code on the screen or you can just go to lbxacademycom and you can go ahead and get all signed up for that, all right.
Speaker 2:So that is it for some of the little basics here, some of the high level information, but I've got a couple of observations. So, first of all, smash Putt is back. So I don't know those of you who are familiar with Smash Putt. About 15 years ago in the, during the whole financial crisis, um, there was a bunch of you know buildings that were vacated. I mean, it's a terrible time of uh, you know our economy and this crazy interactive art exhibit was born and it's basically like half sport, half mixed material sculpture making. This was done in some warehouse in Seattle, washington, and it was like, basically, you could have alcohol and there were drinks, and this was like before we had really competitive socializing concept, and so basically it was called Smash Putt and the mini golf melded with all all of this.
Speaker 2:Like Seattle, artists with various disciplines basically came and created like a unique display. Each hole had its own thematic creation, where the goal wasn't necessarily to win, but to investigate and play with the artistic piece before you sometimes even meant to break it. You know, did it. So over the next decade or so, when it started, smash Putt just became a staple of the Seattle art scene and this guy, jeremy Franklin Ross, and a whole collective of others basically were the creators, and so they moved it from venue to venue as they were just trying to basically keep it alive, and it was always changing out old holes for new ones, and so that's what's kind of cool about this is like it just had this like really creative cultural vibe to it and, um, you know, and ultimately, unfortunately, they had to close their doors in 2017.
Speaker 2:And, uh, you know, just basically like they were just tired and they needed to move on to other things, and so you know a lot of the attendees mourned, but you know, basically it just like sat underground for a number of years and then just last year another you know guy came, Nick Federer. He's the founder and creative director of Basecamp Studios 2. And you know, basically it was Bergman's Luggage Belt Town location, so like this old warehouse area, and you know, then he's been hosting Smash Putt now in his studio space since mid-February, so just a little over a month, smash Putt now in his studio space since mid-February, so just a little over a month. And he got inspired to do Smash Putt after talking to one of his artists from one of his first gallery shows and he was like, hey, have you ever heard of the thing Smash Putt? And he's like, I don't know what Smash Putt is. I'm not new to the Seattle scene but I haven't been around for that long.
Speaker 2:And anyway, long story short, they ended up recreating Smash Putt, and so here's just a couple of the locations or, excuse me, a couple of the pictures that I was able to grab, because unfortunately, one of the things I really love their website, which we'll take a look at here in a second, but there's no pictures on their website and all the pictures on Google Maps are of all of the old Smash Putts, so like seven, eight years ago, and nothing from the new smash putt yet, because obviously it's only been open for less than a month. And but you can see, here, I mean, this is a single hole and it really is more like an art installation, feels a little bit like a meow wolf or like a museum of illusions type feel. And then, you know, of course there's things like dildos sticking out of walls and glory holes and all sorts of other things that you, you know that you can do this, this. There was a particular hole that actually got damaged already and you know, so they just threw something up here that says sustained damage from an asteroid strike. So just all very creative stuff that they have going on, and so that is the. You know, that is basically the smash, but but let's take a quick look at their website, because I really like their tone. So the design is good as well, but the tone of their website is really well done. So let's see here. All right, you've got.
Speaker 2:You know, first of all, this is not their homepage, so they go back to their homepage. You know, get smashed, smash, but mini golf you can buy tickets right away. So, like, very well done, but again, no pictures, really, for what I can see about everything. It's open Thursday, friday, saturday from 4 PM to midnight and then Sunday from noon to six, and it really is meant to be, uh, you know, an adult focus. So you know, first thing is you come here, it's like what the fuck is? Smash, putt or WTF Actually it says.
Speaker 2:So you go to the about page and you know they what they call. It is like nine mini golf holes built by artists chaotic, absurd, pure hoot, nanny, best experience with friends, old and new, you're sure to make a few putting around. And so they have holes like called Summer Sizzle, year of the Snake Battleship, and then they have a cannon, what they call a driving range. So anyway, lots of really cool things. And then I really loved their FAQs. So if you go here to the FAQs again, just witty, and you know, bitch, I want a VIP room for my crew. Let's see what was another one. I saw it's snowing. Are you open? Well, it's Seattle, I guess they don't snow too often, but oh yeah, here, oh shit, all the tickets are sold out. Can I buy tickets at the door. So anyway, just very clever way to address this stuff. Again, I think the one thing missing on their website is the fact that they don't have photos to really understand and what the experience is going to be like. But that's all right. So that is Smash Putt and carrying on with the mini golf theme.
Speaker 2:We've got a couple of other mini golf locations that are actually up for sale. So Garden City Putt-Putt in Michigan is for sale and we've got here. This is the owners, patricia and, excuse me, bill and Barb Bicknell. They took over the operations in 1999 from what I'm assuming is one of their. What I'm assuming is Bill's parents, james and Patricia Bicknell, who purchased the business in 1967. So it is basically out there in Garden City, michigan. It is up for sale and it's been around. It's kind of beautiful traditional outdoor mini golf greens. It looks like they could buy the total of the one and a half acres for $1.5 million, which also includes a residential property, which is about a 2,000 square foot residential property also there, and there's an 18 hole course and they've added things like their popular haunted golf and so they actually have a haunted golf during the Halloween season and they've recently celebrated their 50th anniversary. So if you're in the Michigan area and you're looking to diversify a little bit and you want to buy a mini golf course and a house for $1.5 million, there you go.
Speaker 2:That is the Garden City Putt-Putt in Michigan, and then 2T's Family Entertainment Center is also for sale. So this is right here. This is a beautiful, beautiful space. So, basically, the owners of a miniature golf it's an ice cream like a creamery, so it's ice cream go-kart racing and then they have some more. They're looking to pass the torch on to somebody new and the family is looking to move on and they really just want somebody to buy it and continue it as it is. They're just ready to retire and move on, and so they've been running it for, you know, for a number of years. And, yeah, the parents are just getting old and the son's ready to move on, and so, yeah, it's a 5.5 acre property. It has two 18 hole mini golf courses. One is inside, another one is outside, and there are, you know, there also is an arcade, there's a place for laser tag, a party room, an outdoor go-kart track and a creamery. So you can see the sign here for the creamery mini golf and ice cream creamery and they also have Italian ice there as well. And then this is an overview here. I'll just expand just a little bit here. So this is an overview of the space. You can see the go-kart track, the building where the creamery is and the two 18 hole mini golf courses. So a cool little property. They don't actually have an asking price yet on the listing but a separate real estate site shows the property's up for sale for about 3.3 million. And yeah, they're just really looking for somebody to take it over. It started as a driving range back in 95, and then they added the mini golf course in 98. And then they eventually took out the driving range and put in the go-kart track and everything else. So they've tried a number of different things and they're excited to see it move on to somebody else. So this is basically in Northampton County in Pennsylvania. So this is in Pennsylvania. This is 2T's Family Attainment Center. So yeah, a little bit of a mini golf theme for us today.
Speaker 2:On news, you should know, the last thing I'm going to just talk about briefly, because it's a little bit of a rant for me, is in in our open and shut. Actually, I think in sound off the upcoming sound off. We Kevin talks a little bit about Visalia Adventure Park that was acquired by recently announced that it was acquired by Lucky Strike, and if you guys know Lucky Strike here, it is something that is owned and operated by. Well, lucky Strike is formerly Bolero and they own all the Bolero locations and they've been acquiring and acquiring and acquiring. We've talked about them a number of times on the show, but my issue is that this is just not the right thing for a bowling-centered company. So they recently acquired this thing.
Speaker 2:It is called Vesalia Adventure Park and there's a wet area, so basically like a splash park, there's go-karts, there's batting cages, it's like everything you can typically find in a standard uh, you know, in a standard outdoor, like you know, classic, classic fec. And they have the other thing they call sequoia springs, they have their arcade, they have a laser maze and, uh, you know just a bunch of other attractions, and it just doesn't. They don't even have bowling and lucky strike is buying a bowling. They have mini golf and bumper boats and you know go-karts and it just it's a cool looking place, um, don't even have bowling and Lucky Strike is buying up bowling. They have mini golf and bumper boats and you know, go-karts and it just it's a cool looking place, don't get me wrong. It's in the middle of rural California, so it's, you know, smaller demographic, but it's an awesome looking place, but it just doesn't.
Speaker 2:I do not understand, I cannot figure out for the life of me why Lucky Strike is trying to diversify themselves so extremely. I get that if they need to buy a bowling center that also has some laser tag and everything else, but like stick with bowling man, don't try to like stay in. It's called like staying in your lane. I really wonder what they're going to do. I will say, though, the one benefit to buying this attraction is that it is the website. The URL is adventureparkcom. They've been around for so long that their URL is actually adventureparkcom, and I think I don't know what they paid for this thing, but just to be able to own that domain is pretty incredible. In fact, this is probably something that five-star attractions should have purchased, or some other large group that operates these types of large facilities. Know these large facilities and just again, get that domain name adventureparkcom. That's a lot of you know a lot of money available to do with that. So, anyway, that is news you should know, and we'll hop into the next thing coming up in just a moment.
Speaker 2:Intercard is the only cashless system designed, developed and manufactured all under one roof. They introduced cashless technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Cashless systems from Intercard increase customer spending. Thank you, all right. Well, I don't know what's going on there with the video today. It's all over the map so I'm having some real trouble here. So, anyway, I don't know what's going on, that's all right. You know it's what happens when you're both the editor and everything all at once. So all right, so we're going to go ahead and dive in. I'm really excited about hearing from Clint Novak with Clint's Corner, so let's jump right in. I say call Clint's Corner. That's his YouTube channel for ANA Global. Definitely recommend you check that out as well. Just you can Google Clint's Corner, ana Global maybe, and that's how you'll get there, but otherwise, this is Road Trip with Clint Novak.
Speaker 3:Hey guys, it's Clint Novak here with AMA Global, and I love that new intro. Thank you so much, brandon. Yeah, it's a road trip. For those of you who don't know, my name is Clint Novak, and I travel all over the US visiting family entertainment centers all over the place, and my most recent trip was to Florida, more specifically, was to Tampa. But this picture is going to show you me having fun at Disney, because if I'm going on the road, I also have to go have some fun. I work hard and I play hard, so I went to Disney for a day, but first we're going to start off by going down to Sarasota, florida Livingston's Entertainment.
Speaker 3:This is one of the many places in the Tampa Bay area that I visited that has a location a location that I visited while I was in Tampa that we're featuring today, and this is a facility that has it started as kind of like a billiards bar a lot of pool tables, but now they have a hundred piece arcade. They also have go-karts and they have the JJ go-karts and they have amusement products spin zone, bumper cars and this is a really unique place, one. I didn't know this, but Sarasota has a rule that you're not allowed to have go-karts outside. So their go-karts are somewhat inside. They're in a covered area but they open up garages so you can see the outside and they run them in that inside area. So they also have their bumper cars in that area as well. So they also have their bumper boat or their bumper cars in that area as well. And then the inside area. They have their large arcade with the bar, food, beverage and the billiard area.
Speaker 3:One other unique thing that Livingston's does is they separate their arcade so that their ticket and merch games are up front and then they have a bar and then on the backside they have all of their video style games. So if you were doing a wristband where you had to sell, you know video games separate from the merchandise games and the ticket games. They just say you just go to this area and you'd be able to enjoy those games. It's interesting. Another unique feature I, like you, know how you throw the basketballs. They go over the basketball and then they get stuck on top of your hot shots or hoop fevers or whatever. They put a net up to stop the basketballs from going up there so they don't have to keep fishing them out. This will also. I don't know if you can see there or not, but there is a sprinkler head up there above your basketball game.
Speaker 3:You want to make sure you have that covered with a cage because, uh, if that gets hit, you can lose millions of dollars in arcade games. Because it will not only will that one go off, but your whole sprinkler system will go off.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I do have a question. In that video, was that a redemption store? It almost looked like it almost looks like a like a showcase of some classic toys and stuff.
Speaker 3:So okay, the Redemption Store they're very, very proud of. They have a lot of neat things that you're not going to find at a normal Redemption Center. As you can see, here you've got figurines geared more towards adults than kids, I would say. With some of these they also have an 18-plus area. So this area of the Redemption store you have to be 18 years or older to get the knives, lighters and all these other unique items that they have in their store. So it's definitely something that you won't see, and it's really kind of a quasi-counter store, because you walk into it and it has a feeling of a store, but you can't touch any of the merchandise.
Speaker 2:so it's still over the counter, um, but it has that store feeling so you know and looking at the, the credit amounts, I mean I don't know what the payouts are on their redemption games, but the credit amounts don't look insane for actually some of these things. Like you go back to the figurines, it's like 125 or125 for some of those. That's not. Do they have actual ticket payouts or is it credits Because they're calling them tickets?
Speaker 3:You're paying out tickets.
Speaker 2:Okay, interesting, it doesn't seem out of a crazy amount.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're also getting ready to go through a big expansion inside their building or renovation. I should say they're already doing that with the arcade games and stuff. They were talking about some really cool effects that they're going to do with their billiards tables, much like spark bowling doing projection mapping on the pool table. So that's something that I would love to see. I haven't seen that yet out and about, so that'll be interesting. Also, just expanding their bar, making it bigger, better, and then possibly go-kart.
Speaker 3:So they got a lot of stuff coming down the pipe.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, this place is cool. I really like what they got going on.
Speaker 3:Also weird because I was in Sarasota Florida, that's a ways outside of Tampa. I got a chance to go enjoy some some, uh, chicago cuisine while I was down there. Uh, this is uh two chicago dogs at joey d's. Uh, I just thought that that was a fun place to stop and get some food in the hot dog. These were the best chicago dogs I've ever had and I've had chicago dogs in chicago and they weren't this good. So definitely, if you go down to livingston, you're in the Sarasota area Joey D's has three locations in that area there, so you've got to go check that out.
Speaker 2:What was it that made them so good? I mean, were there Vienna? I'm sure there were Vienna beef, right, they had signs up like Vienna hot dogs.
Speaker 3:It was 100% real Chicago hot dogs. And I've gone to like, when you go to Midway Airport, they have a vienna stand there and I've had I've had chicago hot dogs from the vienna booth and they're fine. They're not as good as that was. So you know it's. Uh, I was excited. I was excited to find that and especially my midwest in the menu.
Speaker 3:I love this. When you open up the menu, it says these are the flavors of pop we have. So, uh, when you're going through, uh, you know, because midwest they call it pop nuts or coke or whatever.
Speaker 3:So, uh, it was a lot of fun, uh, and then you get a chance to go check out, uh, atomic claw. This is a brand new arcade that just opened up and it's not an arcade, it's a claw claw arcade, um, and so I thought I'd just show this video real quick to show you guys, uh, the atomic claw, what's going on. Everybody, we are in saint peter's, florida, and we're here at atomic claw arcade to check out, uh, how this claw arcade works. You hold this right there. Hold this right there. You hold this right there.
Speaker 1:Hold this right there, and you're gonna get more of these, and you're gonna get more of these, and you're gonna get more of these and you're gonna get more of these and you're gonna get more of these and you're gonna get more of these, and you're gonna get more of these.
Speaker 3:And you're gonna get more of these, I can try to win one of these cats and little animal Hello Kitty outfits. I'm going to see if I can pull this off here, so wish me luck. I got my card. Here we go. That one's so close to the glass, I don't know. Oh, ah, all right, here we go, round two. Come on, come on. No, it's going to happen this time, I can feel it. Come on, come on. No, it's going to happen this time, I can feel it. Come on, come on no oh.
Speaker 3:I feel like it's so close.
Speaker 2:All right, we're going for another one.
Speaker 3:I'm absolutely terrible at this. No, no, no, I won one one one Racking up the points. All right, guys. Well, it was a success. We've got two prizes here from the Claw Arcade. A lot of fun. Not enough to trade up for a big plush, but next time we're going to save up and we're going to get it. Thank you guys so much for watching. My name is Clint Novak. We'll see you guys on the next adventure. Bye. So this is my first claw arcade that I went to, where they have that trade up system where you go around, you win all the plush and then you go up to the what would be kind of a redemption counter and redeem with your plush to get bigger plush. And when I was in there it was like a Wednesday evening, seven o'clock, kind of rainy, and there was a ton of people in there, you know 10, 15 people in there playing the arcade. So I was really surprised.
Speaker 2:So a couple of things. One I love the mid-century modern feel to the, at least to the exterior. The interior like had a little bit of that with some of the furniture, but I definitely love that feeling of it. But it did. Did you see a lot of people walking around with plush? Because that's one of the things like when you, when you have these claw specific places, they typically have their cranes configured in a way that you're really just paying to actually get the plush, you know, and it isn't. It is less of a chance, like it seemed like for you. I mean, you had to spend I don't know how much, but like you know, let's say you had to try 10-15 times before you finally got your one single plush. So I'm just curious how they have their, their cranes configured.
Speaker 3:It seems like it's almost old school crane configuration, but yet in a new school like crane environment so I would say, in this particular uh place they had the plush that was in the games was high end plush, so I was winning Hello Kitty plush. That plush is probably four to $6. And so if they're still doing a 30% payout, it's going to be, you know, 10 plays before you're going to get anything out of it. And so the one, the first one that I did, the animal outfit, I think I played three or four times. The second I walked away. Somebody won the way it works.
Speaker 3:I was like how much am I going to actually put in this one? And then I just, you know, I really wanted that other Hello Kitty one, so I played, but there were people walking around with garbage bags full of it Okay, good. And so they obviously were committed, they were going in there and really it has that. Especially if you're trading up the plush, it really has that addictive feeling to it, like you. Just, okay, you keep trying because you know even me who knows how claws work, how they're programmed and all of that stuff still was like, well, I know, it's gonna, it's gonna hit eventually you know, it's like a smart person would walk around and watch people play, and you know, if they play two or three times and don't win, then you just play that one until it wins.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know, so that that would be the smart move, but, uh, I wasn't very smart that day.
Speaker 2:I didn't want to give out all the secrets you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah awesome.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so that was a good visit. I really enjoyed that. And then the third place that I want to talk about is going to be the Laser Ops, which was a laser tank facility very close, I think it's very close to the airport. Of course they have an arcade. The arcade is a decent size, I would say about 50 games. In their main arcade area they have virtual reality, several different virtual realities, so, of course, hologate. They got the Hyper Deck right at the front door. There. They also have a retro arcade area that's kind of tucked in the back.
Speaker 3:I think this is kind of where the entrance is to their laser tag and there could be some birthday rooms here as well. But then they had some of those classic games tucked away there. And then, of course, they're going for laser tags. So they have their big laser tag arena. I love this vesting area or briefing. Um. Um, uh, briefing room. There you go, briefing room area.
Speaker 3:Uh, they have the big screen. Uh, it's themed to kind of apocalyptic. So they got their ammo boxes and stuff all over and uh, and they project onto the screen there and the arena itself is probably the biggest laser tag arena I've ever seen. Uh, it is massive, most of it's custom. They did get some pieces from, I believe, creative works, but this is just a real Hummer that is put right in there and yeah, so it's a really big arena and they do sessions by the hour. So you're playing several games in that hour but you, your whole everybody in that group is going to be in the arena for an hour and you'll play like three or four games while you're in there.
Speaker 2:Wow, that's a long time in a laser tag arena without cycles, so that's a very interesting model.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and most laser tag arenas now are probably going to be in that five to seven minute range. You know, I know some places, including you know, when I was at Funland we were doing 10 minute games and you're seven minutes into that game and you're going. Is this thing ever going to end?
Speaker 2:That's why I'm surprised to me to go go an hour in there. I mean it's it feels a little bit like a paintball type scenario where you know, for paintball you typically have longer sessions as well.
Speaker 3:I think this would be a great place for the next gen gel blasters to be at. You know, they could still be laser tag, but they could also have the added effect of doing the gel blasters in there, because this was again. It was a massive arena, tons of space to get around and play.
Speaker 2:It's more like a tactical arena versus a classic laser tag arena. Yep definitely.
Speaker 3:They also had a nerf arena as well. Go into their Nerf arsenal, get your Nerf guns and go into a like inflatable. It wasn't an inflatable arena, but they had, like the inflatable, like paintball obstacles that you would hide behind and play some Nerf battle there. So and that was my trip to Florida, so I visited several other locations, but those are the three that I really wanted to highlight.
Speaker 2:Yeah, awesome. Well, clint, thanks so much for joining us for road trip with Clint Novak.
Speaker 3:All right, guys, we'll see you on the next road trip.
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Speaker 2:That was a great road trip with your first road trip with Clint Novak, so first official road trip anyway, our second time having Clint on the show, so that was awesome. Thanks so much, clint, for your time to join the show today, and next up we have Open and Shut with Kevin Williams.
Speaker 4:So let's dive in. A big hello to everyone. And we've got another big one to go through. It's just not ending. But it's good that everything is exciting and moving forwards, but there's a lot to get through, so we'll jump straight in and right off the top. We've gone to Trinidad Nice change of pace, but I received some information from one of our sources about a number of competitive socializing venues that have opened up in the Trinidad market.
Speaker 4:Now, this what I would call as you know, I like to label everything, I would call this kind of vacation attainment. This is dropping in entertainment mix into a strong vacation locality and where some of these things are being dropped into hotels, um, and where some, uh, some of these things being dropped into hotels. In the trinidad one we're actually seeing uh individual sites. Sixes is a brand, of course, we know from the uk, the cricket, uh, sports competitive socializing venue. This is, uh, their normal mix, uh of site. It actually threw its doors open in 2004 at the end of, but we've just got information of it now, so we're adding it to the mix. Next up the alley, which, by its derivation, is a bowling facility with a little bit of amusement added in, not part of a chain but its own uniqueness 16 lanes, interesting mix, and then we have Swing. Of course we would have to have a golf simulation facility and again, this site is unique to the localities where Sixes is part of a chain. These are unique venues and the interesting thing about these is that they're not just doing the golf sims here, they're also using the simulators to do other sports, but heavy on the cocktails and the sports simulation. Interesting that the Trinidad market is now its own hub for competitive socializing.
Speaker 4:Talking about the rest of the market and our friends at Dave Buster's, we mentioned the closing down of their New York City venue, very tired venue, and now they've thrown the doors open on a brand new site in Buffalo. Now the New York site is the top of the rebranded, restyled approach for Dave Buster's and does include the social bays. I'm led to believe from the report from the show floor that there's some tweaks being made to the social bays, the golf sorry my apologies the darts, the shuffleboard and the arena systems, but again, until we get some video from the show floor we won't know exactly how much those changes have been made. Then we have the explosion of the sports franchise IP entering the location-based entertainment market. We go into more detail in our sound off about how all of this IP is entering the market. But suffice to say our friends at F1, who are the brand behind F1 Arcade and F1 Drive the carting. They also have the F1 exhibition operation and they have it in two flavors. They have it as a permanent installation, as we're seeing in London, and we also have it as a temporary or traveling installation, as we're seeing here with Amsterdam, where they're opening up a 100,000 square foot facility dedicated to the exhibition of F1 memorabilia and the history of F1. But it also comprises a sim racing lounge, or hub as they call it F1 hub, and those simulators are connected and they're running competition as well as F&B. In support of that, how the F1 hub sim racing experience compares to the F1 arcade experience, we get into in a little bit more detail, granular detail in the sound off.
Speaker 4:Continuing with F1, and the big announcement is that we will be seeing an F1 drive installation with an exhibition component going into Las Vegas, part of the Grand Prix installation in Las Vegas. This particular site will have their e-karting system set up, part indoors, part outside, actually on the physical track, as it were, so you actually get to drive on the track, so unique interpretation. It also has the F1 hub simulator component, as well as three immersive attractions. One is a 4D theater and the other two are interactive. We'll get a lot more about this once the ink is dry on the contract, as it were, but we're looking at an end of 2025 opening, so it's quite a speedy development. I'm not sure how speedy they're doing that if they're trying to keep in pace with the F1 Grand Prix that takes place in Las Vegas. Eclipse we've talked about them before their audience immersive adventure, virtual reality experience the company's Leon facility is going through a redevelopment. They've actually expanded it to add additional adventures, an increased attendance and they're making hey, well, the sun is shining and they've expanded to offer a wider attractive offering to their audience.
Speaker 4:Slick City, indiana, 42,000 square. It is an active entertainment facility, brand-new concept being dropped in. It's also going to have, um, some amusement added to it and it's also got a junior uh component. So it's the big slide component and then some action slide pits. There is some f and b there, but I think it's more catering for the parents waiting, uh, for their guardianships to return from the activities and again, we're getting the feeling, by going for the Action Park moniker rather than just calling themselves a slide facility, that they will be adding much more entertainment, and as soon as we know the full layout, we'll try and report that back.
Speaker 4:Our friends at Chuck E Cheese have a couple of major developments. Well, number one the Port Orange Florida facility that was destroyed by the hurricane in 2022, has been refinished, redeveloped, rebuilt and, through its doors, open. It is of the new design, so it includes the activities, the active entertainment component, as well as the new menu, as well as the new layout and amusement mix. And then, if we jump across to the Dominican Republic and we get to see the first Chuck E Cheese opening up in this locality, and not the last, there are plans for quite a significant rollout in this untapped market and they had a big launch for the opening of this first site. It incorporates a lot of the new thinking, but not all of the new thinking. It didn't have the same level of active entertainment as we've seen in the newer version. That said, it did have a very nice party room layout from the video we saw of the opening, and it has the new layout of amusement mix. So you know, a bit of mix there.
Speaker 4:Quarter Drop Arcade, continuing the trend we've been following in the barcade beercade kind of approach In Oregon. This retro arcade facility has quite a large selection of classic arcade machines with a little bit of new thrown in for good measure as well as a bar component. Looking forward to seeing how all of these barcades are maintaining their classic machines. I know that can be a nightmare, speaking from experience. Speed Zone it's been announced for Pigeon Falls in Tennessee. This is quite an extensive karting facility but also it has quite a heavy amusement and attractions component to it, so kind of like a fun spot kind of approach. But anyway, this facility is part of the five-star entertainment chain of a number of facilities that they have and it's sort of heavy on the carting with amusement and entertainment attraction.
Speaker 4:Tennessee is going to be popping up a couple of times during this open and shut Florida. Again Florida is also popping up. Our friends at Elevate Fun. They've just announced that they're going to be parachuting in a mall in Miami into the Miami International Mall. There, 110,000 square, 100 arcade pieces, 12, 12 lane bowling, go-kart, mini golf, a fitness center, full service restaurant this is no slouch, it's quite a parachuted in mixed use entertainment facility. Again, we're not sure how heavy they're going to go on competitive socializing, but definitely on the mixed use entertainment approach. It's big and it's large Again, part of an expanding chain Sports and social.
Speaker 4:This was an interesting one to track down. I get the feeling that this has been opened back in 2024, but we're only now getting the information about it. It is 17,000 square foot of live entertainment with some amusement and some competitive socialising all within the facility. The Dolphin Mall is quite a nice mall and it's part of the Vivo chain and they are mainly known for their restaurants. But they've now added to their mix a competitive socialising component to their chain of operations and this is the latest of that offerings. I hope to get a chance to see this one because the whole of the mall area that it's in seems to have been really laid out well to try and address the after dark component of the mall life, and we'll be talking a lot more uh in future sound offs about how much malls are playing a part in the future of this business.
Speaker 4:Our friends at five irons golf uh, parachuting into tennessee uh, a brand new facility. This is is a large one, 14,000 square, but it has a number of bays 11 bays for the golfing experience. It also has hockey. It also has soccer being played on these multi-sports bays. It also has some darts, pool tables as well as the full service bar. So, going on what we were talking about, quite a few sound offs about how we were seeing, you know, five irons trying to incorporate a lot more than just being seen as the golf simulator side. They are adding a secondary entertainment mix to this facility and we expect to see this repeated across all of the 28 venues that they have out there. At the moment.
Speaker 4:Albatross one to watch. The final touches are being put onto this very large mini golf facility, very nice design. From the looks of it, we have the renderings of what the golf bays are very heavily themed. It's also going to have bowling. It's also going to have amusement and some attractions. This is a one to watch. I may swing past and mention this again in another open and shut once we've seen them have their full opening, but it's worth mentioning so people can put a pin in it and keep an eye on this. The Albatross brand is an interesting one. It's a unique name. It's an A name, so it gets you at the front of the yellow pages showing my age. Putt Bowl Party, dine and Drink. I say it wants to be a bit of everything. This is one to watch as an object lesson on the launch of a new kind of social entertainment space.
Speaker 4:Our friends at Level 99 mentioned last Open and Shut their development of their Orlando Disney Springs facility, of their Orlando Disney Springs facility, and now the vigor has increased regarding their next tranche of rollouts and the Virginia Mall, tyson's Corner Center Mall in Virginia. 44,000 square, that's the average size of their facilities, 40 rooms rather than 50. You know that they're relatively flexible about that very, uh, high level, uh, what I call mission room or skill gaming environment. Um, a lot of fun. Not sure about if this facility will have f and b. That wasn't made clear. Anyway, we're up to four in the chain so far and we expect to see announcements of another two this year. But watch this space. Then, if we want to add to the confusion, we have Player 1. Player 1, you type that into a search engine and the search engine automatically tries to turn it into Ready Player One. But anyway, player One.
Speaker 4:Vr this particular facility, very high-quality build-out from the looks of it, arena-scale VR with some mini-bowling there and some other entertainment. I was getting a sandbox VR vibe from the video of this facility. It is using our friends at Phenomena's Arena VR system and it's going into a crowded market. The Saudi Arabian Riyadh VR scene is pretty heavy, especially with the eSports component, but interesting to keep an eye on this one. And then we have another Player One VR world going in, but this time a jump all the way over to Los Angeles. This is the second Player One VR world going into the Los Angeles area, 5,000 square. I'm not sure if this is a brand new opening or if they've taken one of their sites and relocated it. It wasn't made very clear in the information we have but it has VR free roaming arena layout as well as conventional amusement as part of the component. When we're in Los Angeles, we'll try and pop into both of these sites and give a more authoritarian observation. The Fizzies Arcade.
Speaker 4:I like the name, it's okay Retro Arcade comprising some, some classics along with some pool table, small operation mom and pop business unit. We wish them a lot of luck on this one. Our friends at Tempin in the UK 57 facilities in their chain They've just made the announcement that they're going to be throwing open the door of a Warwickshire facility, 28,000 square, 22 bowling lanes. They are more traditional sports bowling with a boutique feel. So they have the lighting and the themality but it is the traditional bowling approach. They have some amusement. They are going to have AR darts, so we are getting that competitive socializing after dark approach here. And it has FM being cocktails and all of that potshack. Their latest facility, louis, louisville, kentucky.
Speaker 2:It's quite a large facility this one, 25,000 square.
Speaker 4:It's's going to include F&B, which these sites have, but we're getting the feeling that there's a much higher quality of F&B that's going to be going into this 36-hole setup there. Obviously, they use a staggered hole approach your nine. I think we're beginning to see them finding their way regarding how their American layout is going to be. So this is 14 facilities now that we're in, and we expect to hear news of some more additions. Another three, I think, are planned for 2025. Three or four, I'm not sure, but again, we'll watch this space. Hey, if you've got a laundrette, why not have an arcade? It used to be the thing back in the day that most laundrettes threw in a couple of arcade machines, but here we're seeing a proper laundrette and arcade lounge being developed by this particular facility in Illinois. Looking forward to having a few more pictures of how big the arcade is. They also have some coin pushers and some redemption in there and some foosball, so it's an arcade where you can also do your dirty laundry at the same time. We look forward to hearing more about how they're doing Mulligans confusing one. There are a couple of entertainment chains dotted around the place, even in Australia, called Mulligans, but this one is part of the Mulligans chain in the UK, 14 in their chain. This new one is opening up in Guildford, or has opened up in Guildford, 17,000 square. It's got two dedicated crazy golf courses. As I have to explain to investors and clients sometimes what's the difference between mini golf and crazy golf Crazy golf is the one that has much more uh theatrical uh courses, a lot more whimsy and design work is applied in in the uh the layout of each one of the courses, of the holds, as it were, compared to mini golf, which is much more of a constraint uh game and has less moving parts, as it were. They have American Pool in here. They have Electric Shuffle Board. I don't think they have any amusement, but they do have pool tables. They do have some redemption and some hoops machines, if I remember correctly. Anyway, the 14th venue in their chain and they're definitely going for a very heavy competitive, socialising vibe from their presentation.
Speaker 4:Talking about Sandbox previously, sandbox has got a facility that's just completing fit-out and will be opening in Dublin in a couple of weeks' time, part of their European rollout, and this is a big push for them to establish around 70 to 80 facilities before the end of 2026, I think, was the date that they set themselves. This is a new one added to the mix, part of their franchise agreement, and this will have the cocktail serving road built. So Tony gets a brother in Dublin. What if they'll do Guinness? Obviously they'll do Guinness. I think I'll be more interested in the Beamish Boom Bar.
Speaker 4:Interesting one here Competitive, socialising, very heavy vibe, nine-hole mini golf layout. They have bowling in this side, but it's boutique bowling. They have amusement, they have escape rooms developed by our friends at KCC Entertainment. Interesting thing about this Egyptian build is it's 2,000 square meters, so not too slobberly, but it is part of a chain. The chain starts with this. This is their flagship and they're hoping, dependent on the reaction to this facility, that we'll be seeing a lot more of boom rooms rolling out across Egypt and hopefully far for a field. Again, we wish them a lot of luck on this first opening.
Speaker 4:From the video of the event, the soft opening, it's got a very eclectic and design mix, as you would expect from our friends at KCC Roxy. We have to be careful here. We have the Roxy Lanes, which is the bowling side, and then we have the Roxy Ballroom, which is the kind of the competitive socialising which has the boutique bowling. You know smaller bowling. In many cases it's either duck pin or stream bowling. This particular site is going into London St Mary Axes. It's a relatively conventional fit out for them. I've been in a couple of Roxy lanes and Roxy ballroom venues while I was last out in London. They have 15 facilities of both combined, of both brands, and this one is going to be very interesting to see how it's taken by the audience because it's a very crowded competitive socialising market in the area or the circumference of where they're going in London.
Speaker 4:Unusual one here the gallery in Los Angeles. This is what I would call immersive dining, what the owners are calling immersive culinary experience or signature dining experience. Anyway, you go in, you book, you sit for a period of time, you have a dining experience where certain meals are brought to you and they interlink with a projection mapped table experience as well as projection mapping on the walls. It is experiential, it is dining dinotainment. I'm not going to go there with that. It is immersive dining and it is not unique. There are quite a few of these experiences dotted around but the gallery I get the feeling this flagship site is going to be part of their particular rollout and we'll keep a close eye to see how well the Los Angeles facility does when we visit there soon.
Speaker 4:Fun Station, really active entertainment 70,000, quite large. It has about 21 attractions in there. It's part of a chain and this Iowa facility is brand new. We're looking forward to seeing how they do with the active entertainment in this particular sector. Our friends Bandai Namco Cross Store Birmingham UK is going to be getting the second UK cross-store, so that's a mixture of Gashapo merchandising. Now with the New York opening recently we saw amusement machines being parachuted into cross-store. We're not sure if this particular facility will have amusement systems. We'll keep a close eye on that.
Speaker 4:Party Shack Good name, I like it 30 arcade machines, miniature golf, indoor activities, a lot of cocktail as well as karting. Second in a chain Really is pushing a real active vibe in Charleston, south Carolina, just finishing its drywall and Fit Out. It's going to be opening very soon. Very fast schedule. These guys have Hoosier Alley in Indiana 20 lanes. It's going to have VIP lanes as well as conventional lanes, 50 arcade machines. It's got bumper cars, two-story laser tag from the fit out. They've taken over an old Lucky's grocery store to create this experience. We'll have more pictures of the completion in a couple of weeks' time.
Speaker 4:Surge Entertainment part of the Surge Entertainment chain, there's Surge Entertainment and then there's the Surge Active Entertainment. This is their entertainment, so mixed use. So it's karting, it's got arcade, it's got mini golf, it's got immersive sports bays. Part of 16 chains, a 16-chain operation, both their active and their entertainment side. 16 chain operation, both their active and their entertainment side. Looking forward again to getting out to Louisiana, just seeing all of the venues that are opening up. Tennessee is cooking Louisiana. Obviously Texas is cooking Real lot going on at the moment in the market. This is a redevelopment.
Speaker 4:Laser Ops Extreme well, laserops is a laser tag and amusement, with some F&B Opened a couple of years ago in Florida and they've just announced that they've opened a Nerf arena within their operation. So they've restructured and they've put in an indoor Nerf arena. It's interesting, going back to what we're talking about in the franchising and the IP and the branding that they would push so heavily to include Nerf as part of their mix to draw in their audience. It's important. And then finally, excuse me, our friends at Taito. They've taken one of their Tokyo entertainment centers, tokyo Station Chain, and they've expanded it and they've added some immersive projection mapped activities in there. The Taito Station Chain is about 160 to 70 facilities all over the islands of Tokyo, of Japan, and this is an interesting one because we're beginning to see now that the traditional Taito station venues are being updated and that they're getting new attractions added where possible. So again, when we're out in Tokyo, this will be one to keep an eye on to see how that transition to adding an attraction to their traditional crane and amusement mix works quickly on the shots.
Speaker 4:Oakwood in the UK, a well-known theme park in Wales one of the largest theme parks in Wales been going 40 years announced a a surprise closing, instantaneous closing. There was no preamble straight away. They blamed unrelenting economic challenge. The conditions in the financial market for them has made this very difficult to continue the business. They had received some bailout money a few years ago, but it seems that a lack of attendance and the high prices that they're paying for their rent, staffing and amenities has just made it impossible to continue. I expect to see this one acquired, so we're going to keep a watch this space on that.
Speaker 4:And the same news, really, for another uk-based facility, this time in northamptonshire. Um, you know, this is a veteran facility, uh, wick seeds park. Uh, which steeds park, sorry, um opened in 1921, so a very long history. Uh, and you and they're saying that they're going to be closing the facility, or intimating that they're closing. It seems to be in limbo at the moment. They're looking for a new owner and they're blaming the budget. They're blaming the last government's budget in the UK has made it difficult for them to continue operating, and so they've placed the operation in a pending closure towards a possible acquisition. Anyway, that's a lot of stuff to get through, 30 minutes worth. Anyway, I'll cut it short here. Hope to speak to you soon with a lot more openings coming. It just doesn't end.
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Speaker 2:All right, well, that was a packed packed packed, open and shut. So thank you, kevin, for walking us through all of that. Well, we will be updating and modifying the format of open and shut going forward, and so I think it'll be a little bit more. It'd be some more commentary and dialogue and interest around just some of the top key openings and some of the closings, and we're going to try to extract out of it. Like what you know, the reason we're going through all of this is that you can see what is happening in the market and what is opening up and some of the new things going on, some of the maybe not new things that are happening in different markets, and so what we want to be able to do is really extract some of those insights from this open and shut thing. So watch for some changes happening with the open and shut segment going forward. But anyway, thank you, kevin, for walking us through all of that.
Speaker 2:All right, a couple of little bits of commentary. First of all, I'll just say on Elevate Fun, they've had a number of locations in Florida and they recently announced that they're doing the food hall in some of their locations, and it just seems to me that they are trying to do too much. They've added a fitness center to their new Miami location inside of a big family entertainment center. I just feel like either they're grasping at straws or they're not trying to. They're not really sure what it is and who they are. So I would just say, like I hope that they figure it out, but a fitness center blended with a FEC, like those two things don't tend to go together, and so, anyway, we'll just see how things play out for them, but that is something to be a little bit of a thing.
Speaker 2:Also, you know, look, if you're opening a new arcade or a new FEC or a golf simulator, try to come up with a new name or unique name. This is what I really liked about one of the places that Clint visited is that it had a really unique name to it and you know it was just a food, drink and amusements and like that was their thing. And you know, when you see things like player one and quarters and mulligans, it's like okay, we've heard all of these names like 17 different times. You're not part of the same chain, so please think of something new. I get it. You're an arcade. Oh, what do we do? Player one because ready player one, and you know it's a player one in the arcade game. What do we do? It's called. It's called quarters because it used to be quarters, you know. So like, get creative with your names. And mulligans, like I mean I don't know how many different golf sim places I've heard, or mini golf places I've heard that have mulligans. Like yes, I get it, I know what a mulligan is, so you're golf, but maybe come up with a new unique name. All right, a little bit of a rant there. And then the last one is just laser ops.
Speaker 2:Interestingly, kevin talked about an open and shut, but then Clint also went and visited it in Florida and they've added the Nerf Arena to it and they're branding it a Nerf Arena. And I have a good friend of mine is he actually has a place in Austin Texas called Dart Em Up and the reason he calls it Dart Em Up he has Nerf guns there. They're actual, real Nerf guns and Nerf bullets. But he calls it Dart Em Up because he could not name his facility a Nerf Arena, especially because Nerf is now opening their own location-based entertainment venue. So I will just be curious to see. It's cool that they want to add Nerf to their mix. They're doing gel blasters and also a laser tag. Obviously in their laser ops facility they're adding Nerf as well, but you're not going to be able to call it Nerf arena. So we'll see how long that lasts and hopefully they don't end up spending too much time in legal defense of that name and they just decide to call it something more creatively, like Dart Arena or something, or Foam Dart Arena or whatever.
Speaker 2:So anyway, that is some of my commentary on Kevin's open and shut and a few things here as we're wrapping up. First of all, we've got the LBX Galaxy. If you scan this QR code to join our community online, it's lbxgalaxycom. Or scan the QR code to join. We have a great SoundOff 64, soundoff number 64 coming up with Kevin Williams on the well. Actually, I'm sorry, it's SoundOff number 65 coming up with Kevin on the 11th this Tuesday. So the 11th of March, we've got SoundOff number 65, again covering all the latest trends that are happening in the industry, and so, yeah, that's a wrap for this week's LBX show number 19 for March 9th 2025. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.
