The LBX Show #76 - Herschend’s Heartspitality, Layered Reality collapse, & more! Artwork

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The LBX Show #76 - Herschend’s Heartspitality, Layered Reality collapse, & more!

May 10, 2026 • Brandon Willey • Season 4 • Episode 76

0:00 | 41:27

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_03 0:01

Joining you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wyatt. What do you buy the LBX collective? Your community to connect, engage, and inspire.

Where To Find Intercard In 2026

The Phoenix Wheel’s Wild History

Herschend’s Heart Hospitality At Kennywood

SPEAKER_01 0:22

All right, well, welcome everybody to the LBX Show for May 10th, 2026. I am your host, Brandon Wiley, and we have a light show lined up for you today. First, we're going to dive into some news you should know. I'm going to share some news about the Phoenix wheel. What is the Phoenix wheel? You're going to find out. Uh, and also talk a little bit about Hershen's heart's fatality. Uh, it's a really cool thing. We haven't really talked about it a lot on the show, and there's a there's a reason, so I'm gonna I'm gonna touch on that. And then to wrap up, we have a solid open and shut with Kevin Williams to review all the openings and closing trends from last week. And that is it. That is a wrap for the show. Uh both uh Adam Pratt and Chuck DeMonti will be back for next week. But um, in the meantime, let's dive into some news you should know. All right, well, first and foremost, we have the inner card lineup for 2026. This is where you can meet inner card at different shows around the world. And so we have a number of these coming up. Uh, first of all, you already missed uh the amusement 360, but they will be at the RSA trade show this week. So it starts uh Sunday, is when everything kicks off. And then the the trade show will go, I believe Monday, Tuesday-ish, and um, and then it'll kind of wrap up on Wednesday. So uh anyway, that is the roller skating association trade show. This is going down in Las Vegas, Nevada this year. It does move around every year, uh, although Las Vegas tends to be one of the main uh places where they go. So you can find inner card there. You can also find Intercard at the Bowling Centers Association for Ohio. That is the very following week, May 18th to the 20th. And then in early June, you've got the MoMA, which is the Minnesota Operator Show, and uh that is June 2nd to the 4th. So that is where you're gonna find Inner Card, and that is inner card lineup. And next, I want to talk about the Phoenix wheel. So this is an iconic Ferris wheel that is actually coming back to Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Uh, this is actually the city where it was originally built. So a little bit of background here uh because uh it's kind of cool, and I think it's uh I think it's really um unique history coming back to this part of Pennsylvania, right along the Schuggal River. And so in 1893, the Phoenix Bridge Company, they were subsidiary of Phoenix Iron and Steel Company in Phoenixville, they manufactured four of these Phoenix wheels. They were large, round, and at the time they were like marvels that were sort of emblematic of the industrial era and kind of a testament to the skilled craftsmanship that was existing around that time. I mean, things really complex things were being built for, actually, very uh little sophistication when it comes to like the fact that we use computers and CAD and everything else now, like you can see on this this picture here, this like sketch drawing. Um, but this was back in 1893, they built this Ferris wheel, four of them. And so one of the these the four Ferris wheels was delivered to Asbury Park in New Jersey. This is, if you're not familiar with it, and if you're not a music fan, then maybe you aren't familiar with it, but it's a a popular beach venue where for like decades uh Philadelphia area beachgoers basically went uh during the summers and where young Bruce Sprinstein began his musical career at the fabled uh stone, uh the Stone Pony music spot. And it's also where he's featured in famous photos of uh you know with uh in it. It's so like um I've got one right here. So on one of his albums, uh, you know, you've got the you've actually see the Phoenix wheel in the background if you're watching this. You can see it there, you know, it's down there in the river. He's he's at that um you know, he's at the uh Asbury Park. So anyway, very popular place and it was a definitely an influence and a key part of Bruce Springsteen's uh you know early music career. So anyway, it remained at the it remained as the Asbury Park wheel, um, but it wasn't called the Phoenix wheel when it was at Asbury Park, it was the Asbury Park wheel, uh, but it remained in operation until 1988. So it was actually running at this park for 93 years, uh which is just unbelievable considering these things, this thing was built in 1893. So for 93 years it ran at Asbury Park. Uh, it was a obviously a locally recognized landmark. Um, and in its final years, it was moved briefly to an amusement area in Mississippi, but is ultimately disassembled and all of its components were returned back to Asbury Park in 1998, but just in a pile, basically, or you know, multiple pallets of piles. Um, anyway, so long story short, the this uh Asbury Park wheel became um a labor of love for the members of the Schuggal River Heritage Center in Phoenixville. Uh they recognized obviously its historic and cultural significance as the world's oldest Ferris wheel, and um, and it was the only original Phoenix wheel remaining of the original four. So in 2008, uh they reacquired this, uh the Historical Society required the wheel's original components, and the museum then uh initially you sponsored the restoration of all the 16 baskets. Oh, here's sorry, I just meant to show this. Um, this is pretty cool. This is uh Asbury Park along um and this is Asbury Park here. So you can see the wheel. This is an old postcard. I don't even I don't know the date on this postcard. I wasn't able to get the date on it, but um, it's pretty cool old postcard with the wheel in the background. And um, and so then you know, as now getting back to the current times or at least 2008, uh, these are the 16 baskets. They fully restored those. Uh they're eight foot tall seating baskets, and uh several of them they kind of displayed across Phoenixville. So they're just as like art installations, that kind of thing. And so finally they were figuring out uh several locations in the town for a full installation of the Phoenix wheel, and they found a site adjacent to the borough hall, which is their city's hall, and it was ultimately paid for by uh state and grants, uh state and local grants and local donations. And you know, it's about$2.2 million to get it fully restored. But here's a picture of it uh being reassembled and installed, and then um, you know, you've got it it up, and obviously they have uh, as we saw earlier, they have like some really interesting plans to like make the the ground around it like green and picnic, you know, benches and everything else. But uh, but it is installed and it is restored and it is now operating, which is pretty fucking cool. So what I really thought was uh cool about this is that uh it's a 133-year-old coaster earth coaster Ferris wheel at this point, and it predates it was uh one of the first Ferris wheels ever built, and it predates even the patent for the Ferris wheel. So uh whoever built you know, the Phoenix Bridge Company didn't patent this concept. Um, so they built four of them, and you know, it was before the patents existed, and so I just think it's pretty cool to see this type of history come back to the city that it was originally built in, and um, you know, and it's the original one that was built here. So, anyway, a little bit of uh geekiness on the amusement, uh amusement sector side of the world. And so, anyway, thank you guys for indulging me and hopefully you know you've were able to dig in a little bit uh more into this. It's a really great historical society. I pulled a lot of information off about this as well. All right, so I want to talk about Herschend. Uh, when Herschend closed its acquisition of Palace Entertainment, uh, you know, a lot of people were wondering, okay, how fast, me included, like how fast is Herschand's uh heart's botality culture? Like it's one of the really key aspects of their culture. How fast is that going to get infused into their Palace Entertainment acquisition sites? And um, you know, and it's begun to happen. So, you know, Kennywood is one of the first locations to really get a lot of this type of overhaul, although they are addressing a lot of the other ones. Um, but at an April event, uh they really showed off a lot of the things that uh Hershen has been doing to bring up to the same standards the other Hershen parks. So like Herschan is an amazing organization, one of my like idle organizations as far as like, you know, building something just really truly amazing that's focused on its people, both its host, what they call their hosts as well as their guests and the focus and that they put on that. Um that's part of their heart's fatality, which we'll talk about just a minute. Um, but they did a couple of things. So their focus this year was on you know, on enhancing, they say, overall the overall guest experience. And they want to reflect that, you know, they're obviously not just in the attraction business, but they're really in the people business. And so Kennywood, this uh for the for the Kennywood location, they took advantage of the fact that two of their popular rides have big major anniversaries. The first one is the uh the whip. So the whip is now a hundred years old, and so they did an upgrade on the logo at a little 100 years and repainted and refinished and really renovated their whip uh attraction. And um, and you can see what this, you know, what it does. It actually is really fun. So you sit in this this cart, it goes down straight, and then it's got this like spring whip mechanism, and it like flings you around the corner, and like you know, kids love it and parents live anyway. It's uh it's just a lot of fun. So that is the whip, uh, very unique. It's like their original flat ride as well. So it actually debuted at the park in 1919, and then it was remodeled in 2026, uh going from uh you know from 12 cars to 16 cars. Um, but basically, yeah, it it whips around the band and it's uh the Kennywood's oldest flat ride, and actually probably one of the oldest flat rides that exists out there as well. Uh so uh they also then updated their Phantom's Revenge, like renovated that and then repainted all their cars and added the 25 years of legendary uh thrills to the uh to the to the cars. And so they just really renovated that. Um but I think one of the cooler things that they did is, you know, besides the fact that they uh you know did some other things like take removing some black top and putting in concrete, which is just cooler but also easier to clean, um, they they really renovated their potato patch, and then as part of the potato patch, it's actually where they uh have their newest festival that they're they're bringing out, which is uh celebrate Kennywood. And so celebrate Kennywood weekends, actually, this is like the last weekend that it's it's going on because it was like their grand opening, you know, a couple of the weekends just to you know reinvigorate their opening and everything else. Um, but uh they had uh a lot of cool things about this. So, like if you are a seasonal park, I think there's a lot of things to take away from what Kennywood and others do when they reopen, some of these larger parks. Um, but basically they had uh historic displays, photo opportunities, and then um different food items like loaded cheesesteak fries, Irish nachos, maple cinnamon, sweet potato waffle fries, and then a sweet potato ice cream sundae. I don't know about that one. I don't know. Not my thing, but anyway. Um so I think again, getting now into what the heart of this uh this news you should know is, is really about uh Hershen's heart speciality. And so they also did some major improvements and investments for their hosts. They have 22,000 hosts across the US, across all their parks now, including the Pass Entertainment Acquisition, and they consider them the heartbeat of their company. And some of Kennywood's uh you know, most transformed event uh improvements and investments, you know, actually were done for that. So they uh what's really cool is that the general manager of Kennywood um mentioned that they that Hershen directs each of their locations and attractions to allocate a portion of their annual capital spend to projects that benefit their hosts. So a lot of times we think of, you know, when we're thinking of renovating or or improving or making uh capital spend um expenditures in our parks, we think of the fact that we should just you know we're doing it on attractions. They actually have to allocate a portion of that capital spend every year towards things that are going to benefit their hosts. And so at Kennywood, they did uh they did a bunch of uh upgrades in their maintenance shops, uh, which you know has some safety ripple effects as well. Uh, but they also renovated the clubhouse. This is the longtime employee cafeteria uh that is uh you know there. And you can see a picture of it here. It's located in their 125-year-old casino building and it hasn't seen upgate upgrades in decades. And so this is just a you know a more inviting and comfortable space for the hosts to spend their breaks and you know, got new lighting and charging stations and a water station and more expanded accessible seating and stuff like that, and doing a fresh HVAC. Um, but overall, like they just got a nice fresh touch up. And so this is the kind of cool stuff that person does and you know gets to the heart of what their heart's fatality really is. And so they say that this is from their website, they say that their culture is their superpower. They have love and every uh love in all we do every day, and um, and so that is what they call their heart's fatality, and it's broken down into really simple love plus purpose, and they break down what love means and purpose means specifically as it relates to Herschend on their site. We're not going to go into that now, but love plus purpose equals impact and joy. And so I love the fact that this is something that, you know, if they are if they love their people, love their guests, and they deliver an ex guest experience with purpose, it's going to have profound impact and create joy for their guests and for their hosts. And so that is just I think it it blends beautifully. Again, I have enormous respect for Herschend and what they do and for the culture that they drive. And so I just thought it'd be a cool little showcase here and see some of the things that they've done with Kennywood. All right, that is News You Should Over this week. Coming up after the break, we will have Open and Shut with Kevin Williams. Intercard makes cashless easy with award-winning readers, self-serve kiosks, real-time reporting, and flexible guest payment options. From plate cards and credit cards to mobile payments and QR codes. It's introducing the industry's first part system in 1989. Intercard has helped operators reduce cash handling, increase guest spending, and run smarter venues. Intercard is the world leader in cashless technology. If you're already part of a global family of customers, we hope you'll become one soon. Visit innercardinc.com to learn more.

SPEAKER_00 14:28

And I hope I find you well, Brennan.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Yeah, doing doing well. Shall we dive in?

SPEAKER_00 14:37

I think we're better. As you can see from the uh selection, it's it's bubbling along uh at the uh considerable pace that we've been seeing. Uh the heat map tells us a little bit of where most of this is uh hanging around. But jumping straight into the first, and Cine Taman uh has its part to play in our business as always. Another Canadian site now adding some amusement. Now I will stick my neck out a little bit and say that the amusement that they've added is uh, so we say, just a smattering of machines uh in the lobby configuration rather than a full-blown uh sinnertainment style out, but it still needs to be charted as uh one of those investments.

SPEAKER_01 15:28

Yeah, I mean it is uh yeah, I mean it's a sad little at least the picture anyway. Maybe they have more amusement, but this is just a picture's not doing it uh it's not, yeah. Just this like a little pinball machine and you know, another arcade just sitting right there in the corner. Um that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 15:49

I'm led to believe that there's more than 15 machines in the facility. So uh hopefully those two older, well maybe even maybe an older picture before the refirm, but carrying along carrying along that cinetainment flavoring. And uh we have Synergy. Uh they always had the great name, quite a large uh facility, you know, comprising both the cinema uh as well as goat karts, as well as amusement, as well as F and B. Again, part of a 11 facility chain, and they really have gone for the cinema and entertainment mix uh here. And you know, it it is clear that this is what you know what many people envisage as entertainment.

SPEAKER_01 16:35

Yeah, I mean, they're right up there with the Evos and Santikos of the world, you know, coming out of Texas. Like this is uh they're they're right there. They are they are like the quintessential centertainment model. Um but uh yeah, I mean, adding in the go-karting alongside movies, that's uh that's a heavy lift from an operational standpoint, too.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

I wonder how much you can add a dedicated entertainment space to a cinema operation where it becomes unwieldy, but uh they seem to get away. Well, 11 facilities can't be wrong. Uh, but again, I would like to see their numbers. And they and of course, there's another aspect to consider the staffing for something like this.

SPEAKER_01 17:18

Yeah, and I'm just real quick, I'll just mention that I'm almost positive, and I can go back and confirm this, but almost positive that not all synergies have go-karting. This is a newer thing added to some of their newer locations. And you know, obviously, in order to do that too, you've got to push that hundred thousand square foot size uh facility in order to fit everything in. And yeah, it does add an extra layer of operational burden.

Cinema Meets Arcade And Go-Karts

The New Indoor Golf Arms Race

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Very much so. Uh, running indoor karting, I would argue, is one of the most difficult of the attractions that you're going to put into your current generation entertainment facility. Moving on to one of the other difficult things that you can operate in your facility is uh an 18-hole course, uh mini golf course. 36,000 square for birdie party. Interesting name. Uh, New Jersey has proven to be a crowded market for entertainment facilities, uh, especially uh a bolt hole for competitive socializing entertainment sites. This comes across to me as more of a competitive socializing than a traditional entertainment mix. And as I said, two courses of 18 holes indoor um with some entertainment, with its high level of uh F and B. Um, this will be again another one to mix uh in the what I would call the social golfing scene.

SPEAKER_01 18:43

Yeah, and so not only do they have at least according to a an article um, you know, actually covering New Jersey, um, they they also have pickleball, uh, some pickleball and some golf simulators added into this. And so, god damn it, you know, like why? Why? You know, they've actually done a decent job. It's like a uh a pop stroke style yes, I would say uh indoor, uh indoor mini golf space. And uh then obviously they have the golf stems, which is okay, makes sense, and then to add in the pickleball though, with the full bar, full dining, this is a little bit odd to layer that. That's a strange thing to put in when you already have such a you know, when you have mini golf already, which you know, depending on your volume, is difficult from a revenue per square foot standpoint. And then to go and put in pickleball and and you know, the real estate expenses to put in both of these things are very large square foot uh square footage footprints. And again, you need a lot of throughput in order to generate the type of revenue you want to make off of that entertainment, unless you're really expecting to drive heavy F and B.

SPEAKER_00 19:50

I get the feeling that some of these venues are going to find that uh adding pickleball may have sounded good on paper, but will prove a boat anchor uh as it goes out of favor. But again, we are three years into the vaccination with uh uh pickleball, so we'll have to wait and see a little longer, I think. Uh talking about minigolf and indoor, uh our friends at Pottshack have opened their latest facility, an important milestone. It brings them up to 20 uh facilities or 20 facilities in the US uh sector, 24 if you include their over uh international presence or footprint. Idaho, sorry, uh Columbus and Ohio is uh you know uh one of those markets that is uh definitely on the growth, and so putting in a competitive socializing entertainment venue of this gamified um mini golf seems reasonable. 12,000 square. Um not that large, not that small. Um and again, I would like to see how much uh our friends at Putchak have manipulated and changed and enhanced their offering compared to their European uh offerings. I haven't done a US Puthack yet, and I'm gonna have to do that when we're in Orlando.

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Yeah, you'll definitely have to do that together. Um I've enjoyed my time at Put Shack uh before as when I've when I've gone, I've gone with both my kids and then on my own as well just to go and play through the courses. Um and you know, they they do a great job. Their courses are very interesting and unique. They're obviously the automated scoring is solid. Um they're but but they're definitely leaning in to their F and B. You know, their one is a classic, they they they really lean in heavily to the oh, you're on a wait list when you come in. And even if you've scheduled or booked your specific time for one o'clock and you get there at 12 45, oh well we'll get you in, you know, one o'clock, 1 15 is when you're you know you're set to start. And you're like, yeah, but you could go ahead and grab a drink at the bar, and then you get There, the drinks are between 18 and 24 for a high-end cocktail. So they're definitely rolling, you know, people through the their their drinks and their food. And that's that's the you know, but when we look at the square footage too, just in comparison to the Birdie Partee that we were looking at before, this 12,500 square feet, three courses, full restaurant, full bar, and you can get that all in 12,500 square feet. You don't need 35,000 square feet like Birdie Partee has. It's a lot, and I think they're gonna really struggle to put the throughput in there compared to what a Putschack can do in a much smaller location.

Puttshack’s Playbook And The Bar Funnel

Japan And Vietnam Arcade Expansion

SPEAKER_00 22:34

Well, that pickleball will have uh added some pounds to uh the coverage, but I agree that Putchak has nailed their concept down to a Swiss watch approach, though again, we are still wondering about the one and done scenario that uh a lot of these single entertainment sites are facing. Uh, you know, uh in the attractions business, we kick people through the uh merchandiser at the end. Uh in Pacak's case, we kick them through the bar at the beginning. And again, the food was quite an important part, but as we've discussed before, it's difficult to have a meal while walking around those uh courses, and how many people want to stick around after they finish their games? These are the hooks that need to be sorted out. Zipping through, and uh how many of you knew that there was a Geigo Bowl uh operation? Well, in Japan there is uh the normal Geigo uh facilities that we've talked about, uh uh owned by Genda, and we have Geigo Bowl, which I kind of had on the back burner as far off my radar as possible, but it it's popped up again because they've had a spurt of openings within Japan, and they're up to 10 facilities now. So that's that was a bit of a surprise. I had them down at uh a lower number. They are offering what I would say is a proven formula. Our friends at uh uh round one, Japan would recognize a lot of what their package has, though again, a little less amusement, a lot more bowling, uh supported by F and B. It is a dates facility. But interesting to uh have that on our Asian radar, shall we say?

SPEAKER_01 24:22

Yeah, and look, this isn't obviously this particular location. Um, but one, I was surprised at actually how many Gaigo bowls do exist. Um, but uh it's a really, you know, really interesting, unique um, I would say theme almost that they've layered on the top of this. Like I really expected this to be very simple and bland, like a lot of the Gaigo stores are themselves. But no, they've really leaned heavily into this like almost um I want to say almost like quirky 1970s you know, yeah, 50s, 70s retro, like kind of feel technical. You know, but then yeah, you've got uh yeah, some really interesting theming that they've done to their their facility. So yeah, it would be fun, you know, the next time I'm in Japan, which you know may or may not be soon. Uh it'd be fun to go check out one of these Gaggo Bowls. Definitely was not on my radar at all.

SPEAKER_00 25:16

We we have to be careful here that some venues uh will have heavier levels of theming than others because of the age uh disparity between uh the 10 facilities that they have in their chain. But again, it is uh an example of the all-encompassing nature of our friends at Gaigo and Genda. Uh, and we celebrate the opening of Gaigo's first facility in Vietnam. Uh so you know their world domination tour continues at a pace. Uh traditional Gaigo facility, I would say from the pictures that I've seen, good mix of amusement, about 40 amusement pieces, uh, about 20 uh price and crane machines, uh, with uh a lot of merchandises there. I think the game playing on the Asian spin. Uh this is a Geigo Japan facility in Vietnam, kind of uh harping onto the uh the Asian popularity of it.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

Yeah, and you know, look, I've got some pictures here and you got obviously some there. It's uh your standard Gaigo. Um looks uh it doesn't look like they've done anything other than the language, obviously, done anything to uh apply it, uh you know anything unique to the Vietnam market.

Soccer Venues And Big Box Hybrids

SPEAKER_00 26:29

Again, uh we will have to wait and see what the audience feels about this, the same way as we've been looking at how the Gaigo uh China facilities have been uh received. Moving along, and we have Toca Social Breaking Ground in Mexico, their first facility there, up to five facilities now internationally for the Gaigo chain. Um, again, it was quite a stylish exterior building, I feel. Uh their partnership uh with uh Ventura Entertainment seems to have found a partnership that can make a striking facility. I look at the pictures of inside and I can't really see any major changes compared to the other Toca social sites that we've seen open. This is an important milestone, obviously, because uh they uh Toco have been working very hard to ensure that their facilities in Mexico and the facility that they opened in uh Austin were uh opened in time before the World uh FIFA World Cup uh touched down. So they now will hopefully benefit from the watch party business as well as the popularity of soccer uh feeding off of that. Five facilities open, uh Mexico City. Again, we are really fascinated to see how competitive socializing at this level is taken. We already have uh a Mexico sports brand that works on a kind of a competitive socializing chain that we've talked about before uh through the Batfast Partnership, and this will be uh another example of a training tool turned into an entertainment component.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Yeah, first of all, an amazing building. It's beautiful, it looks like a beautiful facility. You know, obviously, nothing uh super different inside than when we went and visited in London. Um, but uh I'll say, I mean, they did an entirely separate Mexican website and you know, full translation and everything else. It's actually on a.mx uh URL. And the only reason I call this out is this is something when you think about expanding internationally, sometimes it sounds really great to have something in in another country, and then you realize, oh, we have to change everything in uh both uh marketing, but obviously even operations, because the people like all their operations manuals and F and B manuals and everything else like have to be translated into Mech uh, you know, into in this case, in this particular case, Mexican Spanish.

SPEAKER_00 29:06

And if you've gone for that type of relationship with a franchise, uh some sometimes you do a deal with a franchisee and you force them to uh deal with the parents' language, but I agree with you. Um Ventura has gone that extra mile uh with their marketing and branding, and I think that's part of the reason why they were selected. Yeah. Jumping on and Big Spee uh Entertainment. We've touched upon Big Spee in uh previous opens and shuts as they were going through their soft opening. They've thrown fully open their doors now. Everything is firing on multiple cylinders, uh, 40,000 square, uh a lot of attractions here along with the mini golf uh and the bowling. Um, I'm interested that it is more focused, I think, on the F and the attractions than just the bowling. But that said, they've dropped in there a uh uh hurricane uh VR inverted uh attraction in there. Uh they also have axe throwing in there. This is quite a large entertainment placement for Kentucky.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

Yeah, it really is at 40,000 square feet. And yeah, they added the the Valorina as well. And uh yeah, you you know, when you've got they have both bowling and duck pin bowling. So I thought that was interesting. Typically, you choose one versus the other. Um, and and there's a I mean there's a few instances where I've seen uh both, uh, but this is uh yeah, an interesting choice to go with uh both duck pin and regular bowling, along with, you know, again, mini golf axe throwing and and the doff hurricane.

Mega Venues And Indoor Theme Parks

SPEAKER_00 30:47

I have a problem with having both side by side because then you have to define the value of one over the other because there will have to be a price difference. Uh, and also you've got the argument about if you have the bigger bowling or gravity bowling next door to the string bowling, do you force them to wear shoes because of uh the match floors and stuff like that? There's a lot of issues. Uh, it may sound a good idea to have them side by side, but there can be uh ramifications. But we will wait and see. I I getting the feeling we're getting closer, and again, this is something that uh our audience can tell us with uh the imminent update after they have stormed the Citadel and demanded for the Brits to be taken off of this channel. The other thing that uh maybe our audience needs to consider is do we go into a little bit more detail on the pricing of what people are charging for these facilities? Yeah, to draw up a comparison. There is a version of the Taurus of Pain, the uh heat map that actually does include pricing, but I won't bore our audience with that at the moment. Uh Mega City, this was an interesting one, didn't appear on any of our radar, really on the low queue. This company who's behind this has previous in the bowling uh entertainment scene. They have one facility already operational, and then Bishbash Bosch, bang, we have uh opened in Slough, just outside of London. A 55,000 square facility pop up, fully decked out, fully uh embracing all levels of competitive socializing and a new social uh entertainment mix. 10-lane bowling, attractions, laser tag, batting cage, uh AR darts, uh AR clay shooting. Not AR, it uh I think uh they should have just said uh uh digital shooting. But anyway, 130 amusement pieces, as well as karaoke, as well as FB. This is no slouch of an entertainment facility, and how this managed to sneak in uh and then just throw their doors open and you know plant their flag in the ground. Uh, I take my hat off to the team behind this, but I also get the feeling that this is part of a master plan of uh world domination that they have been working on for some time.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

It's got to be. I mean, this is not a mix that you just throw together in a very short period of time. I mean, you have to be very strategic about how you're laying everything out, where you're you know, where you're putting everything, which attractions, which vendors you're going with. When you have so many different attractions from digital to physical, it's uh it's pretty impressive actually that they were also able to squeeze in quite as much as they did in 50,000 55,000 square feet. I mean, it has to be uh very well utilized to to fill that amount of space with all of the things that they truly have. Now, I will say, if they are indeed open, then they have a real problem with their website because their website shows coming spring 2026, uh, but there's really just a landing page with an opportunity to sign up for news or click if you uh if you want to sign up uh for um an interview to get hired. So if they are open, then they really need to make sure that they're completing their opening and not just focusing on your facility, but also focusing on the marketing side.

SPEAKER_00 34:07

They've stayed very mum, and I wouldn't be surprised if while we know that they're open, they would define themselves as in soft opening mode and getting to grips and maybe learning that having uh 130 amusement pieces in that kind of space, they may have to cut back on some of those. That's so many. That's so many. Uh, you know, it it's again, uh, I've got to take some time uh to uh jump on the train uh and visit Slough and just get a taste of this. But I would like to actually do that after some trips coming up uh in May and June. Uh and again, maybe it'll give us a better time to see how how they've got their feet under the table. Again, another facility that we've touched upon as in soft opening mode, but now has fully thrown its uh doors open and uh got all of its carting going. And this is more of a traditional number for a carting facility: 145,000 square. Uh Maui's is an indoor theme park, as they like to call themselves. We've discussed this before about whether they're an indoor attraction or an indoor theme park. Uh, Kentucky uh is going to be uh inundated, I feel, in the next couple of months with new entertainment facility openings, uh big state, so they should be able to consume them. But here we have go-karting, lace tag, mini golf, an indoor coaster, which is uh strategically parked at the entrance. It works very well, uh, as well as the amusement machines, and all of this supported by F. This group come from a background, again, in uh operating facilities, and I get the feeling that this is a very important re-establishment of their uh operation under this particular chain that I think they're going to roll out. And I've also noticed some tinkering with uh their themality. Now we have the palm tree on some of their marketing, we don't have the palm trees on others. But again, this is the uh the flagship of what I feel will be part of a chain that could give our friends at Andretis a run for their market.

Closures And What They Signal

SPEAKER_01 36:22

Yeah, well, and I think they're actually probably a lot more aligned. I was actually went to Five Star Attractions website just to see if Maui's was one of their sub-brands because it looks very much like Malibu Jack's. Uh Malibu Jack's is uh you know one of their like quote unquote indoor theme parks, which I really struggle with just because you can call it an indoor amusement park, but when your theming is basically just a couple of fake palm trees and some signage on a wall, that's not theming. Um that's uh that that's part of your decorations, and it doesn't make it a theme park. But uh anyway, I thought maybe they were uh rebranding or shifting their look and feel from Malibu Jacks, but it turns out they're not part of the five star attractions, uh parked attractions group. And so uh yeah, this is uh I would say they're they're they're coming after five stars, at least the Malibu Jacks uh brand for sure. I think so.

SPEAKER_00 37:14

To the uh shuts and sales and uh the inevitable axe fell upon the Elvis evolution. Many of you that heard my commentary from the launch and following the constant uh uh throes of uh this uh problematic uh immersive entertainment experience knew that it you know it was going to have to make some hard decisions. They had been closed more than they'd been opened, they claimed to be redeveloping their experience but played aloof. And then suddenly we had a cascade situation. We're gonna go into this in a lot more detail uh in uh sound off in a couple of days' time. But suffice to say that lead reality, the company behind uh both Elvis and the War of the Worlds experience, their parent company fell into administration. Uh, and rather than being able to keep the operations going, uh Elvis closed first, uh, and that kind of gave us the warning symbols, and then surprisingly, War of the Worlds closed. And now War of the Worlds had just uh parked itself for a period of weeks to go through some uh what they called redressing and redevelopment of the experience for a brand new launch. Uh, and as we will go off into more detail in sound off, there was a lot of trials and tribulations over the collapse of the uh uh parent operation and the shuttering of War of the World, which is, to be honest, a viable entertainment offering, even though it is problematic.

SPEAKER_01 38:53

Yeah, I was really surprised to learn that War of the World was shutting down. I mean, it makes sense if the parent company is an administration, but this is one that has been viable for you know almost seven years now, and you know, and and been uh was a popular destination. So uh disappointing to see this. Um hopefully somebody comes in and will maybe take over the operations, but we'll see.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

We'll go into a little bit more detail of the possible candidates that will uh jump into the fray. As you say, this is a going concern. Unlike Elvis, where I don't think there's that many people running to uh uh try and take that out. Anyway, that's it uh for this particular open and shot. LinkedIn, as always, to uh shout at me uh over my mistakes and to point us in the directions of some new openings. Thank you to those that recently pointed me to one particular company uh that is we will be covering in the next opening and shots. Uh and we have uh some stinger reports, some entertainment social arenas out there for you to catch up on. Anyway, that's it from me.

SPEAKER_01 39:56

Perfect. All right. Well, another great opening shot, Kevin. We'll see you on the next one. Have a good one.

SPEAKER_02 40:10

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SPEAKER_01 40:42

All right, well, coming up this week, we have sound off number 121 uh with Kevin Williams on Tuesday, May 12th. And uh we go into some really great in-depth stuff as you heard on Open and Chut. We carry over a lot of those things as well as just follow and track all the latest trends happening across the economy, from the business to the technology, et cetera. So really definitely um you should tune in to sound off with Kevin Williams number 121 this Tuesday, May 12th. And that is a wrap for this week's LBX show. This is Brandon Wiley. Signing off, stay tuned and keep kicking ass.

Brandon Willey

Host