The LBX Show #74 - Medieval Mini Golf, Zombie Venues, & More!

Sponsored by Intercard!

On this week's show we run through rapid-fire location-based entertainment headlines, from a medieval-themed mini golf launch in Illinois to Pixel Floor landing inside Slick City’s European expansion. Then we shift into openings, closures, and acquisitions with Kevin Williams, including why attraction mix and concept refresh cycles decide who stays competitive.

• Parcadia’s medieval mini golf concept, immersive theming, costuming and hidden discovery layers 
• Strategic operating hours as a margin lever, including adults-only nights and staffing reality 
• Pixel Games and Slick City partnership, maximizing under-slide space and revenue per square foot 
• Diversifying beyond a single anchor attraction, lessons from early trampoline park models 
• Gamification and “stickiness”, why scoring and repeatable challenges pull guests back 
• Disney Parks Retro Cookbook as nostalgia plus archive storytelling and transmedia brand power 
• New venue openings, soft opening learnings and brand polish improvements 
• Competitive socializing growth, gen one concepts and the risk of getting out-innovated 
• Closures, confusing licensing callouts and the “zombie venue” reality under administration 
• Lane7 acquisition of PAR 59, what consolidation signals for the UK market 

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Trimming 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.

Parkadia’s Medieval Mini Golf Launch

Pixel Floor Expands Into Slick City

Disney Parks Retro Cookbook Buzz

SPEAKER_02 0:22

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for April 26, 2026. I'm your host, Brandon Wiley, and we have a really concise short show lined up for you today. First, we're going to dive into some news you should know, and then we're going to roll right into open and shut with Kevin Williams to review the opening and closing trends from the last week. And that'll be it. There's nothing else. We don't have Adam Pratt. We don't have Chuck DeMonty. We don't have Clint Novak. It is just a really uh short, packed show for you. So with that, without further ado, let's dive into some news you should know. All right. Well, I am absolutely in love with this new mini golf course featuring extensive medieval theming. It is called Parcadia, and they are opening later this month in central Illinois. And they are coming from an established escape room operator, so they have tons of experience in theming, tons of experience in technology and infusing that with their theming and gameplay. And uh it is the newest venture from CU Adventures, and it will be holding its grand opening in just a few days, April 30th. They're doing a ribbon cutting, followed by an open house, and uh guests are ultimately gonna be able to explore a fantasy world and uh take its high-tech mini golf course, which actually spread throughout 16,000 square feet. I mean, that is a massive mini golf course. I'm just gonna scroll through a few pictures here while I'm talking, and I'm absolutely in love with their theming. They've done a phenomenal job. If any of you have ever done medieval times, excuse me, it's medieval times, um, you'll see some reminiscence there. If you've ever done like a Renaissance festival, it's like that mixed with medieval times, mixed with mini golf, mixed with their own take on uh their own take on the medieval times and theming and well, there's like some of them whimsy is uh you know stuff to their their decorations. And uh, you know, over the course of their operation, they plan to double the size of their existing course, and they also are adding a second course. And so uh, you know, just very cool. They do lots of theatricality, and uh this is taking place right in Urbana, Illinois. And so Urbana, if any of you are familiar with the Urbana Champaign area, there is a uh that's a college town. So I imagine they're gonna get plenty of kids, uh college-age students coming in as well and having parties and other things. Um, they are open for uh for for all ages up until 9 p.m. and then adults only after 9 p.m. So definitely looking to drive a heavy cocktail and FB business in addition to their theming. Um, what's cool though is they've also added in some immersive theater, sort of. So they're greeted by the world of Parkadia. There's obviously the picturesque medieval village, which you can see here in some of the pictures, uh, like weird creatures, call castle walls, there's a mysterious forest. And then the staff are also taking on roles of characters within the story in full costume, pointing out secrets and art installations as well. So they're because they're a part of you know a uh escape room operators. There are like little clues and different hidden experiences that you can have while you're there. This isn't just a pure mini golf experience. And uh, you know, you can just see their tavern, it looks pretty cool. There's like suits of armor, and I mean they've done a phenomenal job theming this. You do not see this type of theming typically in your standard mini golf experience, especially when we've really seen in this competitive socializing era this more like high-tech, really uh minimalist mini golf experiences that are high-tech driven. This is much more uh still tech infused, but also heavily uh themed. And so very excited about this. They're also not deciding to open throughout the entire week, which I think is a really important key business differentiator. So they are open Thursday through Sunday. Thursdays is just five to nine, uh, and then on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, it's open a little bit longer. So two to eleven on Fridays, and then 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Saturday, and then 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday. So very strategic opening hours, trying to capture again that probably more likely adult play. They know that they're not going to be busy on a Tuesday, so why staff up, especially when the staff are heavily dressed in theme and thality? And uh, so it's just adding additional cost for what would probably be very limited throughput. So this is a very strategic business decision. Obviously, they are running escape rooms alongside this, so they don't need to have this part of their business open on a regular basis. Um, but it is a strategic decision and actually one that probably is worth taking note for those of you who are either looking at reducing your hours, getting really strategic about that. So this is Parkadia out of Urbana, Illinois. Very excited what they're doing. They've got some good stuff going on. And if I ever get out to that area, which is probably very unlikely, I would absolutely love to go check these guys out and uh and play some uh mini golf and just enjoy the thality that they've done there. So great job, guys. Keep it up. All right. Next thing on the news you should know Pixel Games has partnered with Slick City Action Park to provide its standard light up interactive gaming floor called Pixel Floor to its uh Slick City's European venue. So this is important. This is not coming necessarily immediately to the Slick City locations here in the US. This is starting with their remote operator, uh, their their licensed operator in the UK and European environment. And uh, you know, look, they they say that uh Pixel Floor has become an integral part of the Slide Park operators attractions portfolio. And uh they say that Slicks City is an excellent partner for us. And that's really because if you think about Slick City, if you've ever been to one, and here's a picture of one as well, they have a lot of space underneath their slides for areas where they can deliver additional commercial value. You're beginning to see Slick City adding in arcades as well. They first were reluctant to do that, and then I think they found that on a revenue per square foot basis, you have to be able to maximize the amount of square footage that you are taking down in order to put in a massive slide. So you're looking to maximize that revenue. Arcades are a great opportunity to do that. In fact, there was just a press release out that uh Slick City uh in Texas recently added 67 arcade games to their show to their uh to their floor spread throughout underneath these slides. So definitely makes sense. Pixel Floor being one of those that can go ahead and add on. And I think Slick City is also at least some of their franchisees, anyway, which of which you the the European um you know, the European group is a basically one large franchise. It's Activion, they're one large franchise for the European market. They're realizing that Slick City is a one-trick pony. Uh, they're a great experience. People love going there and going down the slides. The kids absolutely love it. We've got great experience, you know, with IntelliPlay. Their Slick Cities adding uh IntelliPlay into their solution to gamify their existing park. However, at the same time, you have just slides and you have an air cart, and you have that's maybe it, depending on the Slick City. You need to diversify your portfolio beyond just your slides. The attraction mix was we learned this with Gen 1 trampoline parks a decade ago. And so we need to make sure that we're diversifying our attraction mix to make sure we're not just a single attraction model. And so this is what Slick City is now beginning to do retroactively. And it's easy to add in arcade games, it's easy to add in a Pixel floor, it's easy to add in a vallo arena or whatever it might be in and around and under these slides. So it's good to see that Slick City, at least in Europe, is doing this. And it does sound like, anyway, the rumors are that Pixel games will begin rolling out to the US-based venues as well. Obviously, it's on a per franchisee basis because Slick City is a franchise, and so you are going to uh, you know, each franchisee is going to make the decision on what they want to ultimately add into their locations as long as it's within the bounds of what Slick City Corporate allows them to put in. Uh, so there are going to be limitations, probably things that are more active driven, although, you know, you do have an arcade, um, you know, arcade games going in, which are not necessarily active play, but I think that they're probably going to at least try to optimize towards more active play attractions going into these particular spaces. So uh, you know, also we're talked about just recently on open and shut, but also in the upcoming sound off, the fact that Pixel Games has recently launched their classic Atari package. So you can play Pong and Domino's and Missile Command on the Pixel Floor. We'll go into that in a little bit more detail at sound off in just a couple of days. So I'm not going to spend a whole lot of time there on that front sharing my thoughts on that uh you know added component to Pixel Floor. But this is at least the next installation that Pixel Floor and Pixel Games is seeing across the European market. All right. Next and last for news you should know, this was just a little bit of fun. Um, because obviously, for those of you who have uh watched this for some time, you know that I'm a massive Disney fan, not just the Disney parks, but just Disney in general and what they do and how they go about business and them as a transmedia organization is something, you know, obviously the term that Kevin and I have been really pushing uh for the last uh several uh months to a year. And um, so there's this new recipe book coming out. So theme park journalists, and you can see their picture here, Carly Caramana, she's the host of the Attractions Podcast, and then Julie Tremain, she's the author of the Disney Villains Cookbook. Uh, they've officially partnered together and unveiled their unofficial, they have to call it unofficial, Disney Parks Retro Cookbook. Uh, this is published by HarperCollins, and the book is actually slated for release October 13th, 2026. Why am I talking about this now? Well, one, because it's available for pre-order, and I've already pre-ordered mine. So I'm already looking forward to getting this thing. And uh, but the buzz is building, and so it's already claimed the number one spot on several Amazon bestseller lists, including snacks, theme parks, and tourist destinations. So I'd highly recommend getting on this if you want to get a part of the first edition before the second edition is uh, you know, uh print, you know, having to go to print. But what's cool about this, and I'm excited about, is it is not just a collection of recipes. It's actually a deep dive into the archives of Disney history. So there's 60 recipes, and the book spans, and you can just tell by the the imagery on the like the cover, which you can see here, is that the book spans the golden age of Disneyland to the experimental flavors of the modern day Walt Disney World, which also, for those of you who have been watching this for a number of years, know that every time after I app expo, I go to Epcot and I'm there for the food and wine festival. And I'd love to try all the different food and wine they have throughout Epcot and all the different pavilions. And so very excited to try some of these class, uh, some of these uh recipes. So some of them are like, for example, the vintage classics, you could revisit the Red Wagon Inn, which was closed in 1964. They have their uh lamb chops and mint jelly. Sounds amazing. You have the uh taco salad in a ta cup from Casa de Fritos. Uh, this is the spot where Doritos was actually invented. Um, you have the Eisena era gems, so this is the Master of the Handwich, or the carrot cake cookie from the Ryder Stop. This is back when Hollywood Studios was still actually MGM, uh, before that was sold off uh to uh Amazon. And so then you also have some recipes from the Star Wars Galactic Cruiser, which is obviously I've never got a chance to do because they shut down so quickly and I never got a chance to go and stay there. But they have their famous iced Fallution Blue Shrimp cocktail, uh right alongside Steakhouse 55 and restaurant Marrakesh for favorites from there. And then, you know, they've got some uh you got you have some drinks as well. So you could sip on the uh the Kungalouche from Pleasure Islands Adventurers Club or Walt Disney's personal favorite, the Scotch Mist. So uh anyway, this was really cool because this isn't just about food. They're uh each about history, and each dish is actually paired with untold Disney history, trying to provide context and why these flavors mattered and the stories of the restaurants that served them. So um I'm also really looking forward to the monorail club car uh cocktails from uh you know the mid-century charm of the Disneyland Hotel. So, anyway, that is the Disney Parks retro cookbook, and that is Newsy Should Know. Coming up next, we have Open and Shut with Kevin Williams. Cathless system from Intercard increased customer spending, get satisfaction, and boost revenues by up to 30%. Intercard is so proud to be serving the amusement industry. And if you are already part of their global family of customers, they hope you will become one soon.

SPEAKER_03 13:08

Hey, welcome to the latest open and shot. I hope I find you well, Brandon.

SPEAKER_02 13:14

Uh you do, yeah. You know, glad to be glad to be back in the studio.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah. Uh you've been uh released from your prison.

SPEAKER_02 13:23

Indeed. Indeed. All right, well, let's dive in, see what's uh see what's on the docket.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Well, it is a thin docket uh this week. Now, again, I have been in the depths of uh conference presentations and uh various meetings, but my my general robots or bots came back to me with this kind of list, and we'll have to wait and see if this is the beginning of a trend.

SPEAKER_02 13:53

Yeah, wow.

New Openings And The Soft-Opening Effect

SPEAKER_03 13:55

We'll see. We'll see. But jumping straight in at the deep end, and uh Extreme Rush has another venue open. Um now, I am uh as I gave that a caveat many uh sound offs ago, we have the soft opening and the full opening uh and the re-establishment. I am led to believe that this is a uh continuation of the opening after the soft opening that they have been through, but at 60,000 square, indoor karting, laser tag, the general run of the mill, but uh uh under a much more fun sensor approach.

SPEAKER_02 14:36

Okay, yeah, because I'm on their site and and this is the one I remember when we talked about it because they had the sloth uh mascot as well. And I was like, man, you know, with the sloth branding and everything else, I'm really expect these guys to expand into multiple locations, but yeah, this is still the same location that we had touched on previously with their soft opening, and and you know, good to see that they're you know, that they're uh you know ready to go, they're they're they're doing their their main opening.

SPEAKER_03 15:02

The one thing I took away from uh the difference between their soft opening and where they are now is they have picked up some lessons, and if you'll notice their logo is now a lot more punchier, and a lot of their branding and signage is a lot more punchier, but you know, these are the things you learn from a soft opening. Urban Air, um it's hard to keep up with their uh you know, over 450 facilities. This is the latest one, you know. Philadelphia gets it, so they're lucky. Um, but this is one of many within their catchment. The one thing I feel a lot about this is this is kind of a transitional um trampoline and active entertainment that's heading more, as we've said before, in uh to uh you know, towards uh FEC kind of approach.

SPEAKER_02 15:51

Yeah, and really interesting to see that amusement is part of this location. Historically, Urban Air has been very anti uh amusement, anti-arcade. And uh, you know, maybe they're finally beginning to see see the power, the benefit, the revenue, um opportunities from putting some amusement into uh one of these facilities.

SPEAKER_03 16:12

I I would expect them to argue that they're not just run-of-the-mill amusement, but they put in specially handcrafted attractions that surprise, surprise, take uh swipe card. But you're quite right, it is it is that uh that admittance that the tertiary revenue that amusement can generate is worth the the pain and anguish from their point of view. Again, we're seeing a lot of active entertainment in this small snapshot of uh facility openings this week. Um uh, you know, topia, you know, it's it is what it is. It is uh uh you know an active entertainment facility, it's got the climbing, again, it's got the laser tag. Uh here they're part of a three-facility chain, so they're at the uh urgent beginning point of uh the process rather than 400 facilities in.

SPEAKER_02 17:08

Yeah, and you know, they do have some expansion uh um uh plans in mind. Um the only reason I happen to know this is Aertopia happens to be one of IntelliPlay's customers, and they are going to be installing and going live with IntelliPlay at this location as well as their other two locations. And so um, you know, they definitely are looking to provide a more gamified experience across their standard adventure park model.

Active Entertainment Adds Arcades And Gamification

SPEAKER_03 17:34

We will touch upon that aspect uh from a different uh direction, but active entertainment incorporating gamification in a coming sound off. It it is interesting how many uh venues are beginning to understand that they need stickiness, as we like to say, they need the retention of their audience, and nothing draws people back than having your high score on a particular attraction be the VR side. Uh again, the VR uh experience or adventure that I like to touch upon uh here in Poland. They've bit the bullet and they have uh a white space available, so they've gone for multiple layers. They have the free roaming VR component, they have a seated VR component, and they also have uh an immersive projection component to uh to the facility that they have generated. This is your uh art box. I like you know, I like the uh the name. Uh I don't like the use of the metaverse, but I'm sure uh if they expand this concept, that will be earbushed from history.

SPEAKER_02 18:43

Yeah, I mean why why? Why did I love the name Artbox and it goes well with the logo? Like, why did you have to throw the word metaverse onto it? I just don't understand. Like that was not needed at all, but um, you know, like at least they're trying to do something a little bit more unique.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

And you'll notice uh on their website that uh their uh brand and logo is now Artbox Experience. So maybe uh the metaverse has uh migrated into an experience.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 19:14

Level up, an interesting one. Previously, uh here in Washington State, there was a happy little uh golf lounge minding its own business, very small throughput, it was a unique environment, and then Bish Bash Bosch. Uh, in comes a brand new uh operation. Uh they rip out the golf machine, they put in a family-friendly uh entertainment experience, aimed at a much younger audience, uh, very light on the video kind of entertainment, very heavy uh on the mini golf uh and the family watchable kind of a family that plays together, stays together approach.

SPEAKER_02 19:57

Yeah, I mean, very light on the but also very light on their website um efforts. It's pretty terrible. Um, but uh it's um it's yeah, yeah, that's about all it is. Yeah, it's it's pretty rough.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

They broke the cardinal rule of using the term level up, and the rest is just uh, you know, it's gonna be a flexible entertainment space that's going to pivot to social. I don't know the catchment. I didn't go into the details of uh the catchment in that uh voila walla. I love that name um uh area, but uh it is clear that if a golf lounge couldn't survive, then going for a younger audience is uh a needed pivot.

SPEAKER_02 20:41

Yeah, yeah, especially when you're gonna name something level up and you don't have any amusement or arcade whatsoever. It's just such a strange, such a strange name and brand and and you know what they're going for.

SPEAKER_03 20:53

There's a lot of empty space in this uh facility as I was looking at the pictures. I wouldn't be surprised if more is coming soon, but we we can't get too ahead of ourselves here. Um Flight Club, renowned nearly 30 facilities now dotted around internationally, and I really do mean internationally with Flight Club. We've been having a lot of discussion uh about competitive socializing from the conference that I was at uh of time of uh reporting, and now we're kind of seeing some of the chains uh cookie-cuttering it. Uh, they've worked out exactly what their audience uh wants, they've worked out their CapEx and their uh ROIs, uh, and they can just roll them out uh relatively easy. The staffing becomes the hardest part uh of the process rather than the entertainment. And Flight Club is one of those, another facility in the UK, you know, another group of several darts bays supported by shareable menu, touch screen. Again, I would say that this is. On the uh phase one approach of competitive socializing, and the danger is that products like uh our friends at uh 501 Fun are really on the phase two of uh the application of social entertainment dot. So, you know, I would expect within the next couple of months, if not year, that our friends at Flight Club are gonna have to think of a spring clean of their concept to stay competitive.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Yeah, I think that's totally accurate. And you know, while I love their themality and aesthetic and their spaces, I really do love the way that their bays are broken up and spread throughout the facility. I think they do a great job not making you feel like you're in these bunch of donkey stalls sitting next to each other. They really give you your private space, even if they're not even formal VIP rooms. There's so many things that they do well. Their gameplay is actually pretty good, even though, like you said, their projection mapping isn't, you know, the the the actual the actual experience of playing darts is not nearly as dynamic as a 501 funds version. Um, but my concern for them really is the fact that they are a single attraction competitive socializing gen one you know version, and this is going, I think, to ultimately bite them in the ass as they really begin to expand.

Competitive Socializing Hits Gen One Limits

SPEAKER_03 23:25

And it's one of those things that we're going to touch upon uh in sound off uh regarding those gen 1s. Are we at a point where you know maybe if they don't catch up with uh the rest, they'll be left behind. And that I don't want people to get the wrong idea of suddenly waking up and seeing certain of these competitive socialized venues falling by the wayside and thinking that the bubbles burst or it's the end of the world. It's just that if you don't stay competitive in a competitive socialized entertainment environment, you might find that your audience has got other things to do with their time.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

Indeed.

SPEAKER_03 24:01

Jump yards, you know, the tr the theme of uh this particular open and shot has been active entertainment. Maybe uh we're at a lull and the active entertainment venues uh following the Easter route uh and you know, heading towards May and June are in a good position to start uh opening new venues in uh hot locations, jumpiards, you know, it the German chain that uh well this is their first German facility, but you know, they are the European chain, they are expanding, you know. 28, 29 facilities kind of tells you that they're at that sweet spot. You know, we are at that kind of 28, 30 number for quite a few chains. If you look through my database of international entertainment facilities, we have three groupings, and you know, the onesies and the twosies are their own thing, and we have the tens and the twenties and the thirties, and then we have the hundreds uh of facilities, and that argument of franchised against cell phones against winging the prayer really does uh shape out where this market's going.

SPEAKER_02 25:14

Yeah, you know, jumpyard does do some really interesting differentiation, differentiated things in their facility, the way that they've done their lighting and their layouts. And so they are uh you know pretty dynamic uh visually. And so, you know, they make it a little bit more of like a party when you're there, uh, versus uh, you know, it's more like uh you know, when we used to have uh bowling and they would do the the cosmic bowling nights and the black lights would go on and the lights would go dim and you'd go bowl. It's a little bit of that feel to their facilities, uh at least during the evenings. And so they have a differentiation there. And yeah, they're they're very strong in the European market, especially with many locations in Spain. So I would not be surprised to see them continue to expand throughout Europe and you know, maybe cross the Atlantic, but it would be surprising for them to come over here, uh, primarily just because we're so already so heavily saturated with adventure parks and trampoline parks here.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

I'm more interested to see if they can move into a very crowded European market with something that differentiates them from the rest. Uh and I agree about the Dart Light. I also feel that they have a very good package scheme. Uh so they hook people in to uh uh become regular attendees. They haven't added as much gamification as I thought they were gonna do, but I may be speaking ahead of myself. Um our friends at Dave and Busters are still uh rolling out facilities, and Pennsylvania gets another one, 41,000. Uh and sadly, all I have is the rendering from outside and the generic uh rendering or picture of Dave and Buster's eating restaurant area Mark II inside. Um hopefully we'll get someone to go around this and find out if it is new level uh application or just run-of-the-mill application. From what I've seen, it looks like it's a very artistically uh interesting uh venue. It's just how much they have built upon the lessons learned with their social base and all of the other stuff.

SPEAKER_02 27:15

Yeah, I mean, well, it it looks unique. I mean, it does look different. It still looks heavily overbuilt uh on the FB side, on the restaurant side. Um, but uh yeah, I mean I feel like the lessons learned feel like it's just less space in the restaurant area. But uh, you know, they don't can they continue to seem to miss that.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

They seem to miss that purpose, uh, purposefully. And uh we're we're getting some feedback from some of the recent departures uh at Dave and Buster's that there's a little bit of an internal battle going on about where the corporation should be focusing its energies, and those that really want to get away from the bad burger and uh chicken wings mentality are working very hard to say that it is the ambience or the vibe of the area that plays a part in that, which time will tell, time will tell. But we have hit a milestone with them, you know, 180 uh facilities, bottle of champagne opens, but sadly not for the investors.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Yeah, yeah. And it's only a matter of uh you know, give it two years before that uh that store has uh sees same, you know, same store uh sales declines. So you know just the other location.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Unless they pull a magic uh uh move out of their uh derriere, but uh you know again, a conversation for a sound off, I think. Uh in uh India uh is interesting regarding the uh development of new competitive socializing. We've seen it in Indian uh uh in uh Indonesia, we've seen it in Vietnam, and now uh the UAE seems to be the leaders in innovation of uh competitive socializing, unique brands opening. Uh in the the troubles that uh this particular area is under at the moment uh has kind of overshadowed the uh opening of this new operation. But if you take the time and look at their uh web presentation, it looks an interesting uh new interpretation of the competitive socializing model written for a UAE audience.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

Yeah, I mean it's it's uh pretty grunge, you know, it's a little bit uh grungy, not in a bad way. You know, they're going for the grunge garage. Yeah, the garage grunge look and feel. You know, they've got Route 66, which is really interesting. I mean, they're really trying to pull, I think, from some Americana uh feel. Um, you know, there's there's uh you know some planes, but then you know it's a little bit of a mixed bag as far as what they're trying to, I think, message with their theming. But yeah, you know, it's uh they've got some bowling and and arcades. You can see the the stream here a little bit if you're watching versus listening. And some of their arcades are some old school style, like generic, looks like multi-game boxes too, potentially. So, you know, here we have to have that question again about you know who's paying the licensing for what for some of those boxes.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

In the UAE, um, good luck trying to uh sort that one out. It's uh you know more of a an issue in the uh uh European and North American market. But hey, they've gone for, as you say, that uh garage or garage uh uh approach, and we will have to wait and see if this uh is sticky enough with their audience, who is now becoming very sophisticated with competitive socializing venues. And we still don't know how the um disposable income spend is going to be impacted by current conditions. Um Star Park, Pennsylvania, part third of a chain uh that's just opened up, aimed at a very young audience, but it has F and B, it has some amusement, though I get the feeling that amusement may actually just be a foosball tables uh kind of uh application, but it is an active entertainment aimed at a very young audience, and you know, you can tell that I was groping at the bottom of the barrel for new openings when I included this.

SPEAKER_02 31:25

Yeah, yeah, it is, you know, look, it is what it is for its for its location, and I'm sure there'll be some phenomenal under-eight-year-old, under-six-year-old parties going on there.

Dave And Buster’s Growth And Tension

SPEAKER_03 31:36

And that's what they're there for, and that is a very limited audience. Yep. To the shots, and you know, we stagger across yet again. A kind of underpins what we were saying in a previous opening shot, which is if you put nothing in, you get nothing out. And uh Infinity Trampoline Park uh uh has uh you know bit the bullet. They're part uh of a chain of two facilities, so one of the uh facilities in Inverness gone. Um, we will have to wait and see if this is a domino and the other site will go, or whether someone jumps in and uh revitalizes what looks to be from the pictures we have available to us, a very tired trampoline park. It made someone a profit some time ago, but now not so.

SPEAKER_02 32:27

I I'm just yeah, I'm a little bit surprised what what what kind of licensing issues would they have run into as one of their closing, you know, reasons for closing. Obviously, rising operational costure, essential renovations that weren't done, um, but licensing issues is a very strange one to call out as a reason to close for a trampoline park, anyway.

SPEAKER_03 32:47

It may be that they had to have a specific license for a product within their facility, uh card system, or they may have needed a license to still keep on operating as a jump entertainment facility within the Inverness uh area. It was not made clear. We were just given a list of uh excuses uh thrown at us as the individuals jumped in the van and drove away. Uh I I would expect, depending uh if the licenses aren't operational, that someone will jump into there very quickly, though grabbing uh grabbing a tired trampoline facility and upgrading it or putting something totally new uh for the entertainment catch catchment uh uh considerations. I need to clarify something. We'll go into a little bit more about this in sound off, but uh for all of our sound uh open and shut fans, uh if we say somewhere has closed or fallen into liquidation and has closed, it doesn't mean that they stay closed. The zombie situation exists. Once the administrators come in, they can turn around and say, other than a facility that's in dispute with the landlords, if this facility is prepared to still allow us to operate and generate revenue and keep our staff on board and fulfill the back orders we have, then they will keep on going. So I was driving uh along and I drove past Moonshots uh in White City in London, and I said, Oh, they're open. I did the due diligence, and they, along with 14, or should I say 13 uh other sixes venues that went into administration in December, have uh continued operationals under administration advice. So uh I'm led to believe that the administrators are very close to making an announcement of who is going to be the lucky buyer, a recipient of the Sixes chain, and whoever it is, we wish them the best of luck. But this is just another example of the zombie fight where, you know, hey, they fell into administration, you know, the lights are off and everybody goes. Not necessarily.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Yeah. Well, do wish whoever the buyer is lots and lots and lots of luck.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

And two very good ears to listen to serious advice. But we can touch upon that a little later on. Um, and acquisitions are a boot. Uh, again, we'll talk about this uh later on, but uh lane seven, who are in a uh an active uh spree of acquisition, repositioning, uh, and you know, doing what we've said at the beginning of this uh uh episode, which is you know, positioning themselves for the future going forward from their brands. They've acquired a competitive socializing chain in the UK, two venues under the PAR 59 brand. And I would say from the research I PAR 59 had been on our radar, uh uh on our database, but it hadn't been on our radar. And what they've done in their sites is quite an impressive competitive socializing uh approach. It is not cookie cutter, some of their venues have a lot more social entertainment uh elements than uh their other site, which is more focused on a stylized uh mini golf, indoor mini golf experience, as both of them have, but one much more than the other. Anyway, under the acquisition by lane seven, one of the par 59 sites will survive under current branding, and the other one will be turned into a lane seven.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

The PAR 59 uh mix of attractions as well is solid, right? I'm just gonna get the mini golf, but they also have the shuffleboard and and darts. And while they're not as they they are somewhat gamified, not as gamified as you know, something like Game Face, obviously, which is being run by GameVolt and Conductor. Um, but they're they've done a great job. They've done a phenomenal um uh experience and vibe that they have to their place, and so it's a great get for lane seven. Hopefully, it was a good exit for par 59. Um, I'm a little bit confused why Cardiff will be rebranded to lane seven given the fact that they don't have bowling. Um, but uh maybe they're planning to put some bowling in there or something like that.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

Yeah, the uh company behind the uh par 59, you know, was charting, you know, that they've had a a great few years in both Cardiff uh and um sorry, uh their other uh sites.

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Uh Bristol, I believe, is one of their other locations, yes.

Closures, Licensing Mysteries, And Zombie Venues

SPEAKER_03 37:31

Bristol and Cardiff. They only have two sites. Um the the the issue is that they feel that it is you know, it was actually said in the statement, it is a good time now to move on, which is kind of what we were talking about uh during the competitive socializing uh round table that we had recently, is that it's not just about coming up with the great idea, but it's working out how long you want to stay with it before you pull the ripcord on your parachute and jump out of the plane. You know, sometimes it's a good thing to move on to the next shiny object rather than just stay with one particular concept that may need new eyes to look at it. But again, lane seven is really working hard to position themselves uh as a strong player in the uh competitive socializing sector. Uh, 28, 29 facilities in. This will get them up to the magic 30. Anyway, that's uh a short, uh truncated uh rundown of the new openings. And now all eyes will turn to what next week's list of new openings will be, or have we entered a period of pause? If you feel that I need to know about a new opening or need to correct something we've said, LinkedIn's the best way to grab us, uh, though email is also good while we're on the road. We have a number of sound-offs uh coming that go into a little bit more detail on some of the things that we're talking about. Obviously, uh the entertainment social arena and the stinger report are also there to inform.

SPEAKER_02 39:08

Perfect. All right. Well, we will see how many are opening and closing next week. Until then, have a great week. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_01 39:24

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SPEAKER_02 39:56

All right. Well, that was a great open and shut with Kevin Williams. And uh, you know what, this is uh just a couple of updates here. We've got sound off number 119 with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, April 28th, so just in two days. And we are looking for suggestions. We have season five of the LBX show coming up in August of this year. And so we just got a couple of months and we're building out a new show, building in a new model and concept, and we're gonna keep some stuff, we'll change some stuff, and we're gonna figure it out. But I we want your feedback, your suggestions. And so you can scan this QR code season uh for the season five suggestion box, scan that, fill it out, give us suggestions. We've already had a few good ones coming through the door. And so looking forward to really having a great show. And uh look, that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley, signing off and keep kicking at us.