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LBX Collective
The LBX Collective aims to inform and educate, create opportunities to connect with industry peers, and to spur collaboration, discourse, and cross-pollination of ideas in the location-based entertainment and experience industry.
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LBX Collective
The LBX Show #20 - Congrats to Beth Standlee & the Trainertainment Team!
Sponsored by Intercard!
On today's LBX Show, we explore the latest developments in the location-based entertainment industry, covering upcoming events and innovative new attractions from around the globe. This packed episode features insights on arcade innovations, digital marketing essentials, and a comprehensive overview of recent venue openings and closures.
• Amusement Expo 2025 preview with details on days, events, and exhibit floor schedule
• LBX Academy announcement for April 14-16 focusing on growing revenue from group events
• Beth Stanley's Trainertainment expanding to become The Growth Pro Group with Candice Kelly as CEO
• Creative Works' nostalgic Route 66-themed blacklight mini-golf at Conroe's Incredible Pizza
• Meow Wolf's plans for a new "interdimensional arcade" in New York featuring Plotzo
• Adam Pratt's breakdown of new arcade games debuting at Amusement Expo
• Chuck DeMonte's website design tips for LBE businesses using Wix and Upwork
• Kevin Williams' comprehensive review of global venue openings including F1 Arcade, Five Iron Golf, and Battle Karts
• Discussion of Joey the Cat's unique skee-ball focused venue in San Francisco
Join us at Amusement Expo in Las Vegas next week where we'll be doing live vodcasts from the show floor!
All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for March 16th 2025. This is episode number 20. So I'm super excited about that. So we have a great show today. We have News you Should Know, of course, we've always got News you Should Know. And then we've got Arcade Corner with Adam Pratt, where he's going to actually do a bit of a he's been doing a bit of an Amusement Expo preview, but he's going to really get into it today. And then promo pro tips with Chuck DeMonte, and he's going to be talking about the importance and the value of having a really strong website, as well as in giving some tips and tricks around some tools. And then we're going to wrap it up with a new format of open and shut with Kevin Williams, and I'm excited because I'm going to be joining him and we're going to be discussing. We're going to have a little bit more discussion, a little more commentary, and so just really excited about that, all right. That being said, that's the agenda, that's what we got going on today. Let's dive into some news you should know, all right. Well, of course I already said I already talked a little bit about Amusement Expo, but sure enough, we have Amusement Expo going on next week. So I will be flying out on Tuesday morning, even though technically it starts Monday, march 17th, for some of the education, and then Tuesday is some additional education, and then the trade show floor opens up the 19th and the 20th, and I'm excited about it. So I know that some of our you know, adam Pratt will be there, kevin Williams, a bunch of the other guests that we have here on the show often will be there and very, very excited about checking out what's new. It seems like there's going to be some quite a few new things there. So, anyway, if you haven't already made your plans to go there, like it's coming up, so like literally, if you're listening to this on Sunday, it's tomorrow, so like get going. So, anyway, we'll see you in Las Vegas. For those of you who are excited, like we don't have a booth, but we're gonna be hanging out in the press, the press area, and we're gonna be doing some live vodcasting from there as well, so excited about all of that.
Speaker 2:All right, so that's amusement Expo. And then we have, of course, the LBX Academy coming up, and this one is focused on growing your revenue from group events. So this is birthdays, this is group sales. This is corporate events. This is how to grow your group event business and grow the revenue from your group event business. So you might already have some group events, but how do you improve and increase the revenue you're generating from those events? And so that is going to take place April 14th to the 16th at the Andretti Carding at the Colony in Dallas, texas, and if you want to register for that, you can scan the QR code here in the video or you can scan this QR code in the video or just go visit lbxacademycom, if you are listening. So that is the LBX Academy and hope to see you guys there. We've got a great talk a little bit more as we get a little bit closer but we've got some good faculty there and we're even lining up potentially a couple of surprises. So, anyway, we're really excited about what's coming up there.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I want to talk a little bit about. Well, actually, before I dive into that, I want to say something. I want to say congratulations to Beth Stanley and her train-attainment team. Not only is it their 20th birthday anniversary year this year, but they're also announcing their expansion of their brand to the Growth Pro Group and then also the promotion of Candy Kelly to CEO, so Beth is taking a chairperson role in her business that she started 20 years ago and I couldn't be happier and absolutely love Beth, stanley and, honestly, a lot of what I've been able to do in this industry and how I ramped up and got into the industry so quickly, I owe to her so definitely. Thank you so much, beth, for that, and you know what. She put out a video that I thought was so well done. I want to play that for everybody here right now. It's a short little video. This talks about some of the changes happening to her business, and so let's take a listen.
Speaker 3:Maybe, To announce that I will be moving to chairman of the board and promoting Candy Kelly to CEO of.
Speaker 4:The Growth Pro Group is the parent company that is going to provide collaboration and unity between three divisions. First you'll have Train Entertainment, which is a fan favorite.
Speaker 3:We've been here for 20 years and we are not going anywhere. We're going to do all the things that we have always done with train entertainment, but we're going to do that within the growth pro group.
Speaker 4:Then there will also be sales pro services. We'll really be focusing on helping sales teams grow and then there will be exec pro services, and that's where our leadership and strategic planning and our business pro model will fit in as well.
Speaker 3:It's at the heart and the core value of what we believe is that we're in service to others, and so we believe that this expansion gives us the ability to serve even more people in the world than we're serving today.
Speaker 4:Honestly, you're asking me, why now? But it doesn't feel like now. It feels like something that we've already been talking about for a couple of years. It just didn't have its own identity yet.
Speaker 3:We have taken the best of what we've done with trainertainment and we figured out how to serve markets that may not be just in the entertainment niche that we serve today.
Speaker 4:You're ready to be better than you were yesterday and dig into what is it that you want for success, then we're ready to work with you in collaboration for a partnership that helps you get there.
Speaker 3:Everything we do, everything we learn, is built on that foundation of how can we make whatever we did today just a little bit better tomorrow, and I'm committed to helping the world do that.
Speaker 2:Yay, that's awesome. That is so exciting and so happy, happy. Happy for Beth, stanley. So, anyway, so many congratulations go out to you and also happy for Candy for the new opportunity and the new role and stepping into that CEO role. She has big shoes to fill with Beth, but I know she will do well. So, anyway, that is, I think. Again, congratulations to Beth and the Train Entertainment team. All right, so let's continue on with the latest news.
Speaker 2:So CreativeWorks recently designed and installed a new nine-hole blacklight mini golf course at Conroe's Incredible Pizza in Texas and, um, you know, basically it, it it like, takes you along historic route 66. It's obviously glow in the dark, um, but each hole teaches you a little bit about the historic landmark that you, um, you know that you'll compete for the winning score. So they already had an existing mini golf course at uh at Conroe's and but, but you know the many years like, it just needed to overhaul it to try to boost revenue. So mario valadez, who's, um, you know, the managing partner over at conrose, he started to do some research and figuring out what he wanted to do. He knew he wanted a nostalgic theme. Uh, it was inspired by uh, the 80s, and so, anyway, uh, great works collaborated with them. They created this like blast for the past design and, uh, I just thought I don't normally talk about this, like you know, blacklight mini golf, like frankly, um, but I just thought that the the design was really creative. Like a lot of the blacklight mini golf you see is just like okay, it's dinosaurs or it's like an underwater theme or something like that. It's like pretty standard, uh and you know, or space theme, but this was. I think it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2:So each one like there's a you know, historic landmark along route 66. But then there's also like interspersed with all the different little things and memories from the 80s and the early 90s. So you've got the Game Boy, you've got the Rubik's Cubes and you've got Mario Brothers and different stuff going on there. I love the walls like has a very like an 80s feel to the painting and the murals on the walls. So anyway, I just thought it was really cool and they've received a lot of really good guest feedback, like a lot of the some of the older generation, which is like my generation, I guess now, and they're telling their kids when they're going there they're seeing the view master and the game boy and they're seeing things about mtv and they're like telling their kids about all these things that they're missing out on, of course, and so, and so, anyway, you've got, obviously like Simon there that I used to play. I used to love that game, and so, anyway, I thought they did a phenomenal job with this theme. And this is what happens when you do some research, get a little bit creative, you can have something come out with. As long as you're working with a good partner like CreativeWorks, you have something that comes out really well done. So, anyway, I just thought that I wanted to share a little bit about that.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, one of the things too we've got is, you know, we talk about Meow Wolf fairly frequently on this show, and they've got they just announced a new location that they're going to be opening up. It's in New York and they're calling it the interdimensional arcade, and so there's not a whole lot yet about it, but you can see here we'll go. Where is it? Well, I thought it was there, all right. So there's not a whole lot about it yet, but this is the little like promo image that they're throwing out there.
Speaker 2:But what we do know is that the focus of the New York location is going to be focused on video gaming and arcades, and it's going to involve the storyline of Platso. So Platso is this interdimensional rat king and he's shown up a few times in other Meowth locations and it's typically involved with some of the strange arcade spaces. So if you go to the location in Grapevine which I've been to recently, they have one weird little arcade room and it's got a bunch of playable art games, and so this is actually one of you know, one of them there. These are the custom games that they designed, and so I think it'll be pretty cool to see what they do with, like taking an arcade at a grander scale in New York. It's going to be pretty large. I think they're going to be about as large as their conversion station. It was about 90,000 square feet and, and so you know it'd be basically about the same size as their Omega Mart. Yeah, and again, convergent Station, but we'll see it's not going to be open for a couple of years still. They don't have a set date yet but Plazzo will be a key component of that, and he was created as a mascot for their early arcade experiments. So we'll see Plazzo, I'm sure, and learn more about what Meow Wolf has got going on there.
Speaker 2:All right, that wraps up our News. You Should Know Coming up next. We've got. What do we have next? Oh gosh, arcade Corner with Adam Pratt. Let's do that.
Speaker 5:All right, let's watch, let Adam for the Arcade Corner here on the LBX Collective. And this Wednesday we're going to. Well, technically, it's tomorrow that Amusement Expo 2025 starts in Las Vegas, nevada, where you'll have the educational seminars and such, but then on Wednesday will be the trade show portion, which will be that day as well as Thursday, where we get to see some new products in action. Now, what's interesting to me, for somebody who's attended almost every amusement expo since 2007, is that usually, if you go to IAAPA and then you go to amusement expo, there's not a whole lot of new new stuff to see, as everything gets to debut at IAAPA and then the more polished versions show up later at amusement expo, but there's not always something that we've never seen before at that show. But this year is shaping up to be a little bit different. So that's what I'm going to try and cover as far as what has already been announced and confirmed there that will make their grand debuts at this particular show. There's always, of course, some surprises that could pop up, but this should cover most of the stuff that we're looking at.
Speaker 5:But, as you can see on my screen here, the PC game by CD Projekt Red called Cyberpunk 2077 is coming to arcades through LAI Games, and this is the press release that they have posted on their website. The machine itself let's find a slightly bigger photo here and so what this is showing us here is that it's a giant game. From what I can tell on the dimensions, it's almost like having two ice NBA hoops next to each other in terms of size. And the reason why is because this is using mixed reality and, if you recall, a few years back, taito and Eunice had released this game called On Point, where it used airsoft pistols and you could fire real airsoft pellets or BBs at the screen. But I know a lot of operators weren't happy with that, because you could point the pistols pretty much anywhere and even though it had sensors, there was always that worry of you know it firing off even though it wasn't supposed to. But in the case of this game, they have these large assault rifle style guns mounted to the cabinet there and they're also airsoft power, but they are mounted like, say, jurassic Park or Walking Dead or something along those lines, so there's no physical way to make the gun point away from the screen due to that. Now they also have, as you can sort of see there with that gray shade, is a plexiglass barrier and then so if there's any ricochets, um it just um, doesn't, you don't have to worry about that hitting customers or, um, hitting the uh, actual players and such, and so we can play really quick some trailers here. I'll have to mute them because that usually hits something on copyright, because most of the time these trailers use copyrighted music and such. But with this so it's like a shooting gallery where you have I counted 48 targets, so 12 on each row, and the airsoft pellets are actually hitting those. But there can be special effects that happen, like if you hit, so like right there you can see where it hit a special target and it knocked out all the targets within a plus pattern. And so, along with these different game modes, it's going to be very, very interesting to see how this one shapes up, and again we get to see it first at Amusement Expo there. But an interesting way to bring a game that sold millions of copies and won awards I think it might have gotten a Game of the Year award or something along those lines not long ago and so it's very well known amongst the gaming community out there. But that's not the only name that's grabbing a lot of attention.
Speaker 5:Next up one thing that has been getting a lot of hype. Now, this may not be well known in all circles, but this game here by Sega Amusements called my my DX. This is a game that's been out in Asia since, I think, 2011, 2012, around there, and it's popularly known as the game that looks like a washing machine, or the arcade washing machine game, but it has nothing to do with washing clothes machine, or the arcade washing machine game, but it has nothing to do with washing clothes. This is a music game, a rhythm game. If you remember, re-rave arcade from several years ago also came out I think 2012 ish, or so it's along those lines and it has a touch screen on it, but it also has those yellow squares. You see there, those are buttons that you push in conjunction with the touch screen and everything, and I've been hearing a lot of hype on this one, and so this has.
Speaker 5:Even though this game has never been released in the United States up to this point and it's never had any console port whatsoever, it's become one of those things that's just ingrained in popular gaming culture, particularly when it comes to japan, and I I've heard of one instance of an american girl who moved to hong kong just to play this game. Um, and so it has an extremely dedicated fan base, and I've talked to one distributor where they said that the first week they listed it they got over 50 inquiries on that game, which they had never seen with a rhythm game before, and so this will debut at this show, and again, that's got a lot of hype behind it. It comes with over 1100 songs, a lot of songs from the sonic, the hedgeedgehog series, a lot of Sega, arcade and other gaming songs too, where they have a long history with the Genesis and the Saturn and the Dreamcast and all that, and they just have a lot of songs to choose from, plus things such as anime and J-pop and whatnot. And so this is going head-to-head with Bandai Namco's Taika no Tatsujin, which appeared and was released around the time of IAPA, which also was brought to the States for the same kind of reasons, where they figured you know where Japanese pop culture is becoming so popular in the United States. Let's give it a try.
Speaker 5:But now the next one I'm going to mention is a name that you definitely would recognize and isn't limited to Asian culture, and that is, top Gun Maverick, has been officially announced by Raw Thrills and so, as you can see here, it uses a cabinet that looks just like the Fast and Furious Arcade cabinet. However, the seat portion is different. It still has a motion seat, but it also comes with a let's see if we can zoom in here comes in with a joystick and throttle control mechanism. The game itself if we were to watch the video and this is something I'll also have to pause, because earlier I did a I did another video on this elsewhere and it got hit for copyright because of the music. But Top Gun Maverick, which came out in 2022, was, I think, the top earning movie of that year.
Speaker 5:It's now going to be an arcade game exclusive to arcades. To be an arcade game exclusive to arcades, um, it does feel like fast and furious with planes, just because a lot of the environments and everything from what we've seen here, but I will wait to have a final judgment to actually play it, uh. But it has things like that like first place where, uh, you have to. It's almost like a racing game too, and you can link up to four of them and have a squadron and play against each other, compete against each other and stuff like that. So it's interesting that they have put those sort of racing elements into a jet combat game, but it's been a while since we've had anything quite like this in the industry. I think the last time might have been well, it was airstrike with by lai games. But one thing that bugged me about that particular game is that it had no throttle, no way to increase or decrease your speed. But I've heard that game has done extremely well on the market and so something like this, which comes with a big name attached to it is is probably going to manage that just well.
Speaker 5:Now, of course, this does not have anything like Tom Cruise or Val Kilmer or any of the other actors in it for us to, for players to recognize. So unfortunately, I don't. Probably. I assume it'll have voiceovers and all that just from different actors. But if it did have something like tom cruise in it, then the game would probably cost an extra five thousand dollars or something crazy like that.
Speaker 5:Um, but that's not all. There's another game that is going to debut at the expo, and this is from alan one. Uh, they had won the iapa brass ring Award in Games and Devices, the first place for Asteroids Recharged at IAAPA. And they have joined up with an indie arcade game developer called DSM Arcade who had created a game called Perfect Pore, and Perfect Pore while it was on test it must have been seen by somebody at Baytek Pour. While it was on test it must have been seen by somebody at Baytech, and Baytech took that same idea and applied it to their Icy Slush Rush game. But DSM Arcade and Alan1 have teamed up to essentially upgrade Perfect Pour into an FEC model and that is now called Soda Slam, and it's actually being built here in Utah, where I'm located.
Speaker 5:I wasn't able to get over to the factory to check it out. It sounded like they didn't really want me to stop by and see it until it was finished. Finished, which is all right. But it has these huge fiberglass soda cans on the side and then these tap joystick controllers. These tubes here actually have LEDs in them and from what I hear hear, they have this effect that looks like it's filling up liquid or liquid is flowing through it when you're pulling down on the joystick, and also has rumble motors. But I should back up really quick. Is that the way this plays? It's kind of sort of like the old tapper by midway where.
Speaker 5:But what you have here is you have customers coming up to the tap or the to the bar and a glass appears or a cup, and then you pull down on the tap, the corresponding tap, and then liquid starts to pour. You want to get it to a perfect pour where it's absolutely to the top of the glass, don't spill it and also don't underfill it for the most amount of points. If you spill then that'll actually pause that character for a little bit before it resets. But then you just have all these characters coming at you and you have to go through it. And so very fun game.
Speaker 5:I've played it, or at least not on the cabinet yet I've just played a software build, but very fun, very intense game, one of those classic style games that's easy to learn, difficult to master. But this will make its grand debut as well at the expo, along with a two-player upright version of missile command recharged. From what I understand, it won't have been significantly changed from the console version yet, because but they'll be getting to that point, kind of like when they debuted Asteroids Recharge at Amusement Expo last year, that it was very early software. But the software that came along much later was very different and played very differently from that. But that wraps up pretty much all the major announcements that I've heard of.
Speaker 5:From what I know, most others are also going to have something to debut. There was going to be one company, ex Arcadia, who's been at IAPA and Amusement Expo before, that was going to announce a new game that's attached to a really big anime IP, but they ended up pulling out of the show and so we'll see about what they have. But they have a lot of games that are coming later this year. But we'll be there to check out these games in person and talk more about them, which we probably will be for the next little while. But thanks for watching and we'll see you next week.
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, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon. All right, Well, thank you, Adam, for walking us through some of those I'm super excited to try. Actually, I'm excited to try all of them. But the Soda Slam seems pretty cool. I just like the group play aspect of it. So you can put that in a social arcade or have a whole group of friends going and doing it all at the same time. So I do think that that's a great design and, again, it really fits, depending on what the mix is and your demographics and who you're targeting. So anyway, be fun to try that out and check that out at Amusement Expo this next week. So yeah, cool, cool. Great job, Alan1. All right, no-transcript.
Speaker 1:Hello and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. That is me, and today I want to discuss something that is really that I'm seeing a lot lately it's being neglected and it's a shame because it is a very, very big part of location-based entertainment brands. It is your calling card, it means a lot in your business and that is your website and really a lot lately I'm seeing it often neglected. And the reason why that is really important is your website communicates to people who you are, what you offer, what times you're open, what your attractions are, right. All that is so, so, so important. It cannot be understated. If somebody were to meet you for the first time and they were all disheveled and had bad breath and you would form certain opinions about that person, right, so you might have this great location, but people don't see that first. They see your website first. So if they land on your website and it's really just not up to par and it's kind of, you know, looks old and outdated or it's just I don't know, it's hard to navigate, it's like they're going to get that same idea about your location, right, they're not going to get excited to go there. They're going to say, oh it's, you know it looks okay, right. So I cannot tell you and stress to you enough how important your website is, right.
Speaker 1:However, I know websites can be expensive, but with these days, you can get an extremely sharp website that is very inexpensive to you. Okay, how do you do that? So, in my opinion, wix is one of the best uh sites and sort of website builders it's what you call a drag and drop website builder. It is one of the best in my opinion, um, and you don't even necessarily need to do it yourself. While you can, if you learn it, you probably would still not make the site. If you have no experience, the site probably still wouldn't look that great, right, because you still need to know how to do it. Even though it's drag and drop, you can get very creative there. What I would do is go on Upwork, okay, and if you ever heard of Upwork, it is a website that you can go and hire freelancers from all over the world right, you could spend anywhere from probably from $500 to $2,000 on a really, really, really nice Wix website. Okay. So, pros and cons to using Wix Wix, they do say sometimes it's not the best with SEO. They haven't proved a lot on that over the years and, to be honest, the jury's still out on that for me, right, I do think WordPress sometimes lends itself to getting better SEO, but you could absolutely get some great SEO with Wix, undoubtedly, and you know so. So you know if it, if it comes down to sort of SEO cause, you know not many of you are investing in SEO and you, which is a great strategy, but, or having a good looking website, choose for now, invest in the good looking website, okay, so that's important, right? So, and you know how do you get an expensive? Find somebody on on Upwork, okay, hire them, for you know when you're from500 to $2,000 to build your website.
Speaker 1:Again, con to that, potentially, is the SEO. Here's the pros. If you are basically going to have an informational website Now, I know a lot of you could purchase tickets or book birthdays right, we're going to get to that in a second but for the most part, your website is going to be informational. What do you offer? Where are you located, what times you're open, what are the events happening, all that type of stuff. That's all information-based. That's really easy. You don't have some sort of you know technology. You need to build where you need a custom design or something like that, right? So again, that's a huge pro. So biggest con I would say potentially, potentially, maybe not even the SEO thing. Biggest pro it is inexpensive and it'll be a sharp, sharp looking site because it's drag and drop and it's very easy. So those are some pros and cons.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I think is important that I want to discuss is the technology piece, right? So a lot of you say you know, I'm going to book birthdays, I'm going to purchase tickets. A lot of you, a lot of you know brands are going to be using third-party services, crms. You're not building that technology right Now. What's great with that is typically you're going to send them off to another website right Off, to like the link that you get from your CRM that's been branded with your company it's sort of like it's a site within a site or send them to another site to purchase that tickets. So you don't necessarily have to build that technology yourself. You just integrate it with the site and again, somebody you hire can help you do that really easy and cost effectively, right? So again, I cannot stress to you enough how important it is to have a really good looking site.
Speaker 1:It is your. It's your first impression, right? And first impressions, no matter what anybody would say, mean a lot, right? So make sure your site looks good. It attracts people into your location. If you visit your website, try and be objective. Would you want to go to your location, right? If not, time to update it. And again, I suggest you potentially using Wix and going to Upwork to find somebody. We could also look us up. We could do it for you as well. So I hope you're going to update your website. If it's not up to date and if you have any questions, feel free to reach out and ask me. If you run a location-based entertainment brand and want to attract more visitors, check out Radius. They use real-time location data and customized marketing strategies to help brands like yours stand out. Radius can boost your foot traffic and build a loyal customer base. Plus, they're offering a complimentary local market analysis to show you exactly how they can help you grow Curious. Visit Radiusco and ask about your free market analysis. That's R-A-Y-D-I-U-Sco.
Speaker 2:All right, well, thanks, chuck, and I could not agree more about the importance and value of having a really strong website. Back when we were doing daily shows with Christine Beer, I would often go off on rants. I'd come across a new location that was already open, or a new location that was going to be opening in just two weeks, and they didn't have a fucking website. And it would drive me insane and I would get super frustrated. And I'll talk about all the things that they need to be doing on the website and the one thing I'll add to that is like, yes, the website needs to look good, but but you know, more importantly, you need to have really, really strong visuals on your website.
Speaker 2:I cannot say enough how frustrating it is to go to a website of a new location that's just opened, or even one that's been open for a year or two, and see one image and that's it. Like one image. Okay, well, what is that going to tell me? And you list out your attractions and have a generic image about that attraction there, like a little golf ball. If you get a mini golf, a golf ball and a putter, okay, well, what the fuck does that mean? I want to know actually what that attraction is going to look like and what to experience, especially when you have great photos, like what we were looking at earlier with Conroe's incredible pizza. Put some of those photos there so that I know what to experience and I can get really excited about it.
Speaker 2:Okay, rant's over. That's enough. Thank you, chuck, for walking us through that and giving some great uh, some great tips as far as how to actually go and implement a good website. It isn't as hard as you possibly, you know, as you might think, and, yes, there are great experts out there who can do it All right. I am excited, though, about this new segment, where I actually joined Kevin Williams for his open and shut, and we talk a little bit about some of the different things, and you know some of the different things that are opening and what's coming down the line, and so, anyway, I'm going to go change my clothes. No, actually I'm not. This is recorded yesterday, so we're going to go ahead and roll the tape and see what we have coming down the line today. Big hello to everyone.
Speaker 6:Welcome to the latest Open and Shut. Not as many to cover this time, so we're going through the reformatting of Open and Shut so it doesn't take two hours, although saying that it may take two hours, no no, no.
Speaker 6:Only joking, but we're going to go through and we're going to keep the style that we have with sound off, where, uh, you know we're going to share comments where applicable, but anyway, let's jump straight in. So, with the openings, here is the list. So for all of you, uh guys that want to pick out which one I haven't put a time code near each, each one, but you get to see which we are we have 15 facility openings compared to the 40, the 50s and even the 60s that we've been seeing recently, march Blues, and we're not seeing as many openings and we're going to see another band of or, if this is now the calming of the storm. But anyway, let's jump in Smiles.
Speaker 6:You know, from my point of view it's an interesting bowling environment. It's a French chain, they have seven sites out there. It's a French chain, they have seven sites out there. It is boutique bowling, writ large, again, another of the Paris facilities, 4,000 square meters. So you know relatively good-sized location, amusement and a bit of everything there. I'm not too sure about how much F&B, but they do have the go-karting to go along with the laser tech. So attractions with your boutique entertainment. Fec meets boutique, I think, is the best way to put it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think one of the things I really like about these guys is if you spent much time on their site but their private rooms are really nicely done. So the decor is it kind of has a little bit of a electric shuffle meets flight club feel to the private rooms. Not the entire facility, but the private rooms are very nice.
Speaker 6:I didn't see karaoke there, but those private rooms look like they could handle karaoke.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a microphone stand and like a screen, so it seems to be that that's the case, but yeah.
Speaker 6:They didn't push it in their marketing and maybe I didn't speak my French correctly when I was reading it. Our friends at Agenda, the latest, get into the game. Oasis facility opens. This is quite a large one for them. It's a refurbishment for them. It's a refurbishment. So this is a Sega site that was then turned over to a Geico and then the Geico has now been given an update, redeveloped. It is the largest of their facilities. So I'm interested. I'd love to get a chance to visit this particular one to see what their next level is. And, of course, gender recently reported some very healthy revenue from their same site sales. So I think the company is really getting into its stride regarding its expansion. It'll be interesting to see what their next phase is regarding its expansion. It'd be interesting to see what their next phase is Moving over to North Dakota, not to be mixed up with South Dakota and Thrills and Chill Zone.
Speaker 6:Well, yeah, the logo says Thrill and Chill Zone. The information I had said Thrill and Chill, so you can fight over the difference 27,000 square, relatively large. It's got retail units in it. Now I couldn't work out if these retail units are for merchandising or for product or whatever, but it's a bit of everything. So 11 different attractions in there aimed at a family entertainment market. It has a restaurant dining capability in there. Aimed at a family entertainment market. It has a restaurant dining capability in there. It looks quite an impressive location, but I get the feeling that they're focusing more on their sports entertainment side rather than on the amusement and the attraction side. But again, we'll have to wait until the doors are thrown open on this one to get a detailed look at it.
Speaker 2:So this is. Anytime I see something going to North Dakota, I just my eyebrows always raise One, because the population of North Dakota as an entire state is very, very small, and I just looked it up the population in Newtown is less than 3000 people. So here's what and I'm looking around at surrounding areas because it could be a surrounding area Is it a tourist driven? And even in the surrounding area there is no other large city anywhere near it. It is right along the Missouri River and so it might be a little bit of a destination area, but even still there's just a few hotels in the area as well, which tells me that there's probably not a whole lot going on there. Anyway, I do struggle every time I see something of this magnitude going into a place that somebody would have to. Every single person in that city would have to come in every single week to make this viable, and maybe potentially multiple times a week to make this thing viable, I'm know, maybe potentially multiple times a week to make this thing viable.
Speaker 6:I'm going to do what I did with a client many years ago. Did you check how many army bases there are around that?
Speaker 2:That's fair. I mean, I will do that now and I'll come back to you when one of the other, one of the other locations.
Speaker 6:Come back to me on that one. It is a destination. Well from from the projects I've done within this circumference, more in South Dakota than in North Dakota, to be honest, they do go by hubs. People are prepared to drive a lot further to go to specific entertainment locations.
Speaker 2:Don't go ahead. I was just going to confirm.
Speaker 6:From my point of view, I would feel that Thrills and Chill Zone has done its homework about its catchment, and I wouldn't be surprised if there is a reason why they've gone for this kind of size and this kind of displacement facility.
Speaker 2:So I did confirm there is an Air Force base that is 13 miles north of Newtown, in the city of Minot, and yeah, so there is a, and the population of the city of Minot, 13 miles away, is 47,000 people, and I'm sure that includes the military base. So it's probably mostly the military base. So that could be what they're hoping to draw upon.
Speaker 6:I think they're going to go for a good spread. I'm sure they've got a special VIP room for Trident 2 missiles Pitch. For those of you that haven't been following what's been going on in the golf simulation scene, where have you been? No, so it's one of the many. In London we had two golf simulator bays. One was a traditional one which was purely a training golf simulator center. The other one was new and Pitch is one of those that has thrown its hat in the ring. This is its fourth venue in the London area. I think they also have one outside of London. I need to go back. Eleven Simulator Bays using the Trackman technology system. Most of them do that. This one also has shuffleboard normal shuffleboard and F&B heavy on the B, and this has already thrown its doors open. It had a soft opening a couple of weeks ago. This is a flagship site for them. I wouldn't be surprised if they're throwing their hat heavily into the ring and looking at investment, because there is rumor that our friends at Five Iron Golf will be looking at a European rollout soon.
Speaker 6:Pin stacks I always get these guys mixed up with pinstripes, but anyway, pinstax, sorry, did you have anything about pitch? No, okay, pinstax is their latest site going into Texas, texas, texas, texas, dallas-f, fort Worth the 53,000 square traditional bowling layout, but with a boutique spin on it. It has laser tag, it has bumper car, so it is much more than just a bowling facility. It has a strong mixed use entertainment. This was an $11 million bill, so it's construction and population of entertainment, so it's no slouch here. As I said, pinstax has about seven facilities out there dotted around North America. For me it doesn't have a dedicated something that jumps out at you as being uniquely pin-stacked, but it does offer a very reliable and repeatable entertainment offering and it will be interesting to see how this facility does, as well as all the other facilities, as they try and raise their game against the competition that they're experiencing.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, we'll see experience yeah Well, we'll, we'll see. I mean, ideally they they serve better than pinstripes, given some of the troubles that were just even announced this week with with the pinstripes. So you know, we'll see how I want to see how pinstripes turns around. I was wildly shocked at the Orlando location when it opened just this last year. I visited them and, man, it's a beautiful facility but way too big for what it is and for the amount of visits that they were getting when I was there it was like a ghost town. So anyway, hopefully Pinstack does a better job.
Speaker 6:And Pinstack's different to Pinstripes. Pinstack has really gone for a mixed use leisure entertainment mix. They have the laser tags, they have the bowling uh, they have the bumper cars. They have a rope course, you know rock climbing, so they have active entertainment. They're looking at a family audience where pinstripes is really trying to go for adult entertainment. They have their karaoke, they have their bowling and they have their amusement and the small bocce that they provide as well small bocce, as well as the last one I was in.
Speaker 6:They had uh dance. They were trying desperately to you know, be all things to all men, and I feel that, well, we will find out how the lay of the land goes with pinstripes. Uh, if they survive, or the current financial problems that they're going through, I hope I don't have to add them to the shut uh side of our presentation flash. Uh, uh, there we go, the the Italian facility. Really, this is a K1 go-karting facility that has been added to a hub, an entertainment hub that is being developed in Turin. I'm not sure how close to the old Fiat factory this flash facility is, but from the pictures you know 18,000 square metres, that's a big site. It's got a multi-level go-karting, it's got bowling, it's got amusement, it's got restaurant f and b quality. This is a very impressive facility from just looking at it and it is a part of that european resurgence that we're seeing Italy, following France, following UK, really dropping in some coinage regarding development of new destination entertainment sites.
Speaker 6:F1 Arcade have been in the news a lot regarding the acceleration of their rollout. They're really pushing their North American investment 15,000 square, 68 simulators in this facility, their F&B, their signature food offering, as well as the dedicated bar and the screens for the race watching or watch parties, as I like to call them. This Atlanta site is the sixth of their US sites and I think it's an important one. It's a line in the sand. From this point on, I think we will be seeing F1RK going through a re-evaluation of the facilities that they've opened and then applying those lessons learned to the next rollout of sites. I'm expecting that they will have in North America this time next year about 10 to 15 facilities open. So this is a very aggressive rollout program, but also be prepared to see some changes in the offering now that they're getting the revenue numbers back and they're seeing what is popular and what isn't.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I've yet to still attend, you know, visit one of these F1 arcades, that's.
Speaker 6:Vegas.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping to do it next week when we're there together at Amusement Expo. But I'm just really concerned about the speed in which they're opening these facilities without yet having a proven us based concept that they, you know, in mix like this is what I would call a. In software and technology we talk about product market fit. Does the product that you have and your pricing and packaging and everything else fit the particular market? And I don't know that they have that product market fit yet I don't know that they don't either. So I I'm not saying, but I'm just concerned when I see this type of aggressive rollout and they've not yet fully proven the model.
Speaker 6:But I've had to do extremely detailed evaluation of F1 Arcade since its conception all the way now to its full rollout, and I have seen some interesting aspects of the design of the concept which begs further evaluation. We will see. It will go one of two ways. Either we will see a change in management and a reaffirming of the direction in which they go, or everything will just carry on as it is and they will be given the rope to continue to hang themselves down the path. Two of the things that I can point individuals that are, like myself, inquisitive and like to keep tabs on these see how well their currency is doing, because, for those of you who haven't been watching very closely, f1 Arcade actually has its own currency. Regarding the payment to play and also keep an eye on their secondary and tertiary entertainment offerings, they offer more than just race simulators regarding interactive entertainment at their stores. How many people who have wandered into an F1 Arcade and spent time there noticed that there were other entertainments there? These are the questions that will be asked when we get to see their revenue numbers, because, no matter what they think, we will be getting to see their information on their revenue numbers. Their same-site sales Altitude continues its active rollout of facilities. We now have Palm Beach or West Palm Beach, florida, 35,000 square indoor active entertainment facility. It includes event space as well. I was interested to see that it has 25 amusement machines, though from my research I couldn't tell you what those amusement machines were. Were they redemption, were they videos, whatever. But this is an interesting move that we're seeing them add more amusement machines to their mix compared to no amusement machines. I remember when altitude facilities didn't have any entertainment aspect. The F&B isn't that big a component but it is trying to keep the dwell time up. So this is a retention number. You know, 90 facilities, very impressive chain. Now it's the question of how they keep that momentum going and are they positioning themselves against the competition from the other active entertainment sites that are opening, as well as some of the trampoline zones that are now pivoting away from trampoline and adding light themselves, climbing walls.
Speaker 6:Joey the Cat interesting name San Francisco facility, 27th house. So this was quite a large site for a mom and pops kind of arrangement. It popped up on my radar. It has a limited bar, it has private hire space, so the whole space is really looking at itself as a kind of party private hire venue itself as a kind of party private hire venue, and we will be talking about the private hire scene in our sector in one of our coming sound-offs. But this is an interesting site. It's aimed much more at a family entertainment gathering and it's very unique in its approach yeah.
Speaker 2:So I was looking at it and it was where it was in san francisco, and I was like, okay, well, is it one of the piers? Is it going to be something that's going to be driven? You know some driven by, you know tourism, but but it's actually it's not. It's right in the mission. So you know it's going to have to be fed by companies and you know people that live and work in the area and, as we've heard in the news, you know, the last couple of years, you know post-pandemic San Francisco has been completely hollowed out, with a lot of the workers there. So they must see something. I haven't visited this part of San Francisco in probably about two years, so they're probably seeing something. I'm not, but that does seem like an interesting large venue for the area of San Francisco proper that it's in.
Speaker 6:Post-COVID, I walked around this area doing some research on another project and you could see then hollowed out. This was 2019 that I got a chance to see this. But looking at the website and doing a little bit of research into this, they're clearly targeting a social entertainment component for private hire. So they must feel very strongly that this kind of social entertainment experience isn't available and hopefully their research proves them correct and if they found a model that works, then this could be a model that could be rolled out into other locations, other venues, Detroit, such like Denver, Colorado, for this kind of application, but we need to see it work first in a baptism of fire in San Francisco.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I will say one last thing. Apparently, joey the Cat is an actual person and he is the number one ski baller in the world. Right now he holds that championship title, which I didn't even realize was a thing, but he is a three-time national skee-ball champion, and now so he's the number one roller in the world, three-time national skee-ball champ. So there you go. That's Joey the Cat.
Speaker 6:When you do your research on the site and when you look at the about, they tell you know the beginning coverage talks about Joey the Cat, the individual more than it talks about the facility, so let's hope this isn't just a labor of love where joey's created a personal space for himself to practice the looks of it, but I'm not gonna go there, not gonna go, not gonna touch that one.
Speaker 6:So, up and down, another retro barcade or beercade, as I have to say, for legal reasons, birmingham, alabama gets, uh, this one. This is part of a chain of eight facilities dotted around the area, very heavy on the pizza side and the beer side, as well as the retro arcade machines and the watch party capability. A proven formula. They're rolling it out. We will have to wait and see how many more up and downs they're going to be compared to all of the other venues. I think we're going to get to a critical mass this year of how many retro arcades you uh can open. And it goes back to my uh, constant commentary about where the hell are these guys getting all of their machines from. We're going to, you know, at some point in time it's only cost effective to start making copies of classic arcade machines to populate these facilities with. That's my retirement fund sorted out anyway. Over to Five Irons. We were talking about Five Irons Golf, and Five Irons Golf announces Tennessee, tennessee again. If it isn't Texas, it's Tennessee.
Speaker 6:Added to the list of new venues 11 Simulator Bays. They always seem to go for 11. I seem to spot out of this 15,000, 14,000 square foot. But again they are adding secondary entertainment. We have now AR darts added to the component, so it isn't just a dart board stuck in the corner. They have added some AR darts. They have their pool table, which they've always seemed to have added, and they have their full-service bar, and the last one I was in was in Area 15.
Speaker 6:I'm looking forward to sticking my head in again just to see how it's going, if they've added any more secondary entertainment to this. But it seems to be a formula that they're happy with. You know, 34 facilities dotted across North America and, of course, the rumors now that they're looking at an international rollout. I think I was talking about one in Dubai recently I can't remember if it was Dubai or somewhere in the UAE. Had it a five irons or a golf sim, but anyway, one of those chains that we're going to keep an eye on, especially now with the Callaway Golf separation from Topgolf. We also have X-Golf, which is the Topgolf version of Five Irons with their simulation bay, and again the jury is out whether this is going to still be part of it.
Speaker 2:Real quick. Was that Updown? Was that location in Nashville? Did I miss that?
Speaker 6:That was Alabama.
Speaker 2:Because they actually have one in Nashville. Did I miss that?
Speaker 6:That was.
Speaker 2:Alabama.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:Because they actually have one in Nashville as well, not downtown, so it is a little bit out of the main downtown area, but they have an Updown in Nashville and so, yeah, it was interesting to see Nashville getting some more entertainment when the FEC Summit for IAAPA was in Nashville a few years ago. There was actually very little, so it's good to see that that's becoming, that's coming through, and I also would say that what we're seeing is the competitive, socializing side of of entertainment versus the more traditional family entertainment in the Nashville area, which makes sense given the demographics of the tourists that come through.
Speaker 6:There was a lot more entertainment available during that summit meeting, but the association decided not to visit anything beyond their esteemed membership.
Speaker 2:So that's fair. I will say, as one of the ones who went and visited some of those because I was on the committee and I think I might have been the chair at the time Some of those facilities should not have been visited anyway. They were pretty rough around the edges.
Speaker 6:There's entertainment there. I'm not going to stick my head on the chopping block and say it's good entertainment.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Our friends at Battlekarts. Well, their 11th Belgium facility of the 31 facilities that they have out there. I didn't know they had 11 in Belgium. You know there's a trip to do Try and visit every one around there. They're keeping their powder dry, these guys. They are rolling them out at a lickety split. It's taken them some time to get past the original six venues that we always talked about to now talking about 31 facilities. The franchise is gaining momentum.
Speaker 6:The interesting one about this facility and Malady is that it hasn't got any F&B to it, so it is just the warehouse and the space. But they are next door to some other, um, uh, so we say hospitality components. So this is being used as an anchor to feed off of the other facilities. But I'm just amazed that they, you know, can get away with 11 within belgium. Uh, it is a belgian company, but, uh, I wonder what the retention of player base is like. You know, I always get the feeling that battle carts and chaos carts could turn into a one and done unless you build a real strong player championship and tournament component to it yeah, I mean the only thing I'll add to this, and then I'll you, or you having been stuck out inside one for our last yeah.
Speaker 2:I was not in Battle Card, I was in Chaos Card, but same product, right, effectively the same product.
Speaker 2:I'm sure they would hate me saying that, but Similar, but I would say I certainly would do it again. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I think the biggest issue is that, at least in Dubai which it's Dubai, so I understand it was expensive given the 20 minute time limit. It was about $40 US roughly to play for 20 minutes, which is expensive in my view. Where I'm looking here, at least at this location that's opening for 15 minutes. It's about the equivalent to about $20 US right now and that I think is a lot more palatable and more in line with what I would expect to pay and I would do. You can buy packages 3x15, 4x15 minutes and I would do it. I mean, it was really enjoyable and I would go back again. I would go back with my kids and even friends.
Speaker 6:I wonder how long it's going to be before they work out that they've got. They're missing where they could actually do a paused moment. So you? So we say you do two, uh, 15 minute sessions and then in the middle you actually do a light show or you do some kind of thing using the projectors, and then you have the next race, so you can make an experience out of it. There you go, guys. You can have that idea for free. Send me a drinks token. The John Wick's experience has finally been completed.
Speaker 6:Well not finally. We haven't been waiting for it. Well, we have been waiting for it to open, but it hasn't taken that long to develop. But we now get to see behind the scenes. We now get to see what is going to be in here. This is fitting. This is the first of the area 15 extensions. The next phase of development at that site. Next will be the universal horror unleashed don't bring your dog. And really what we have with the john wicks experience is it is a kind of vac tour, uh, escape room, mission room kind of experience, with some f and b uh thrown in uh. At the end we're gonna stick our heads in uh when we're wandering around in vegas and see how much this brings something new to the game. Uh, I've raised an eyebrow a little bit about what this is compared to what I was led to believe they were going to be achieving with this. But again, this is lions gate really moving forward with their IP to get some bricks and mortar out of their licenses, Play, playground.
Speaker 6:I know Brandon is eager to get to see the Las Vegas facility. You know I've been. I was lucky enough to get my head into the site a couple of years ago, two years ago now when they first opened their site. It looks this is their second facility, so it's taken them some time to get the momentum to open the second site. I'm sure that's based on learning the lessons from the Las Vegas site, which must have been a baptism of fire for them, and you know this entertainment space which comprises skill games, both active and brain teasers. And from the pictures of this Tennessee site Tennessee again I'm seeing I think they may have borrowed a lot of ideas from fair games from the layout I'm seeing I think they may have borrowed a lot of ideas from fair games from the layout that I'm seeing. That's just my observation.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm excited about this, but again, nashville, again. This falls right in line, though, with the adult active competitive play. I'm so excited to go the adult active competitive play and, uh, you know, so excited to, uh, excited, super excited to go visit this. Uh, you know, and I'm definitely I'll be talking about it on the LBX show following the amusement expo.
Speaker 6:I I get the feeling that, um, some of these companies think that Tennessee needs to have a high-quality entertainment offering compared to the other entertainment offering. But I won't go into too much detail. Juma we've talked about this one before, but it was just being proposed to open. Now they have actually gone through their soft opening here in Cannes, south of France. Here in Cannes, south of France, it's got a VR arena, esports entertainment component on top of an amusement and restaurant facility here aiming at the tourists, aiming at the nouveau riche, very high-level build-out. From the video I was looking at over the walk around the site, they fully open their doors summer, but to go through a soft opening here in March tells us that they're really, you know, working very hard to get the mix right of what they're trying to achieve here. And we're led to believe that this is the beginning of a chain of Juma entertainment venues in the competitive socializing genre, Depending on VR is. You know, it's a big thing for competitive socializing, but we will see. And then on the shots to wind up, luckily only one.
Speaker 6:A lot of news has been talking about the Playland facility in Frisco. You know it's one of those veteran sites First threw its doors open in 1955. It has had ups and downs, reinvestments. It had a bad period during lockdown, it's bounced back and then, you know, the grind of the current conditions has really hit it hard and it's lost its key vendors, who have decided that they won't be renewing their contracts and leaving. And so the operation now has sort of thrown its hands up in the air and is looking at finding either a new group of vendors quickly or closing down because it won't be able to make this season Not the best way to find out that your facility is closing and I feel for those members of staff that are in limbo at the moment, not knowing what the duration of their job is. But hopefully this situation will sort it out.
Speaker 6:Personally speaking, it's been a while since I've wandered around the fun land and sound land, social land. I can't remember what their partner park is that's Florida, yeah, thank you, and it felt more like a museum than a theme park. But let's hope that with the right support from a new group, that they can make this sing to their audience. Anyway, that's the opening shots. Half an hour, whoops. Oh well, anyway, we got the point across. But that's it for this one, and uh look forward to uh coming back with the next load, though there will be a slight delay because I'll have to compile this while I'm uh on the show floor. So, uh, we will see when the next open and shut will be, but anyway, from brandon and myself.
Speaker 2:Thank you for watching technology to the amusement industry and have been leading the way for over 30 years. Catch the system from Intercard, increase customer spending, guest satisfaction and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry and if you aren't already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon. All right, well, thank you. Thank you to Kevin for walking us through all of that stuff. So it was some good discussion and I don't have anything else to say because I already said it. All right, we're going to wrap up here with a quick little note about LBX Galaxy. So if you haven't already signed on or joined the LBX Galaxy, that is our online community, you can scan this QR code here go to lbxgalaxycom and get connected and engaged with other people from the LBE and FEC industry in space. So it's a great place to go get more news and information and share that stuff as well.
Speaker 2:All right, and then this next week there will be no sound off, so we did not record one because we're going to be at AEI. We figured nobody else is going to be listening to a sound off on Tuesday while we're all at Amusement Expo anyway, and that's probably not true. I'm sure somebody would be listening to sound off. But anyway, we decided not to record one because we're going to have lots of stuff to cover and Kevin's going to have a lot of trends to cover after that, and then stay tuned as well for some live vodcasts from the show floor, and then we're going to have a rap show as we do, as we did with the EAG and as we did with IAPA Expo, we're going to bring some of our other friends on and we're going to record a amusement expo review show and get that all out there.
Speaker 2:In the meantime, I am excited to travel out to Las Vegas next week and check out Swingers Play Playground, john Wick's experience over at Area 15, f1 Arcade, and if there's anything else that I'm missing, please shoot me a message and let me know on LBX Galaxy, on LinkedIn, on my email, wherever you want to send it to me. So, all right. Well, that's a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking ass.
