The LBX Show #84 - Blue Man Group, Globalls expands, DeMonte returns, & more!

Sponsored by Intercard!
Sponsored by PartyPing!

On this week's show we run through the biggest quick hits in location-based entertainment, from cashless payment tech and mini golf growth to Orlando’s returning live entertainment. We also track the week’s openings and closures with Kevin Williams, then wrap with Chuck DeMonte’s blunt reminder that seasonality is solved months in advance, not at the last minute. 

• Intercard’s event schedule and a look at the Impulse Plus reader at Bowl Expo for flexible cashless payments 
• Glowballs’ 15-year UK city-center lease, strong branding, and website wins plus key misses around food and beverage and location discovery 
• Milwaukee Brewers plaza mini golf and why stadium entertainment districts can become real competition 
• Blue Man Group returning to Orlando near ICON Park and why iDrive keeps getting stronger 
• Openings and concept spotting: Toca Social expansion, Sandbox VR growth, automated game show experiences, competitive socializing brands, The CUBE heading to Chicago 
• Closures and deals to watch: waterpark acquisition and rebrand, sudden venue shutdowns, beercade relocation risks, what closures signal for late summer and fall 
• Promo Pro Tips: build a yearly marketing calendar, market for the coming season, focus on one initiative per quarter, use consultants and tools to execute

Subscribe and visit LBX Collective for more!

Transcript

Welcome And What’s Ahead

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Bringing you in now to the LBX Show. With your host, Brandon Wild. Welcome to you by the LBX Collective.

SPEAKER_05 0:21

All right. Well, welcome everybody to the LBX show for July 5th, 2026. I hope everybody had a phenomenal 4th of July weekend. And uh, you know, you just had uh if you were operating, uh, hopefully you had a great uh great weekend, and then you know the weather performed and you know for whatever you needed to be, whether it was good weather and you have an outdoor attraction or it's bad weather and it shoved people indoors. Hopefully everything went well for you. And if you uh don't uh operate a venue, uh hopefully just have some great time with your friends and family and uh you know, got some barbecue, maybe eat some corn in the cob, some watermelon, or something like that. So anyway, um this is uh we've got a pretty straightforward show lined up for you today. Uh first we're gonna dive into some news you should know, a couple of things I'm going to cover, and then we'll have a robust opening and uh open and shut with Kevin Williams, uh, obviously to review all the latest opening and closing trends from the week. And then Chuck Tabonte is back with Promo Pro Tips. And this week he's going to discuss the importance of planning your marketing and your promotions throughout the entire year. So not just uh waiting uh and then doing it last minute. So you're definitely gonna want to catch this one. And then coming up after this quick break, we'll dive right into some news you should know. Intercard makes cashless easy with award-winning readers, self-serve kiosks, real-time reporting, and flexible guest payment options. From play cards and credit cards to mobile payments and QR code. Intercard is the world leader in cashless technology. If you are already part of a global family customer, it helps you become one good. Visit innercardfake.com.

Intercard Updates From Bull Expo

SPEAKER_05 2:13

All right, well, this is uh ready for some news you should know. Um, first of all, the inner card lineup, and we'll talk about this here. Um we have uh we just at Bull Expo this last week. So we were at Bull Expo, and uh actually had a chance to sit down with JR, uh, their head of sales for uh of North America for uh inner card, and uh we'll play the video just in a little bit. But coming up, we've got um inner card is going to be at IAPA's Latin American Summit in August of the 18th to the 19th. And then also uh the 18th to the 20th, they're gonna be in uh Duluth, Georgia for the Southern Amusement and Entertainment Expo. So that is where you can find InnerCard the next few months. We were just at Bull Expo and they had a great show. And let's take a quick listen to uh JR talk a little bit about their M Plus Pulse uh Plus reader.

SPEAKER_02 3:01

So Bull Expo 2026. We're so excited to be here with all the products that have made it famous here at InnerCard. We're the first to market with a lot of things, and uh that's not gonna stump. Um we have the impulse plus reader right here that can accept all your payments. So this is a great reader for your games that are away from the arcade, not the redemption games, but all of the games you want to accept other payments for. Um Apple Penny, Google Pay, um, all your major payments like all of it can work right here. And within the key month, so you're able to actually think about the bonus plays that you usually put in the key month. It's all built in. So you can build your own pricing as far as playing one game, two games, three games, or whatever. So just makes it much more sensible. It'll also be connect to your Wi-Fi for your system, or if it's too far away from your Wi-Fi, it'll just be your cell phone counter. And it's you know, it can be completely remote in that fact. So really fun product to be able to sell and offer it because there's so much flexibility.

SPEAKER_05 4:06

All right. Well, so that was uh that was a little bit about InterCard and uh you know, they hope they did a great show at Bull Expo. And um, all right, I want to talk about a couple of

Glowballs Wins Big UK Lease

SPEAKER_05 4:16

other things here. So, first of all, like UK uh mini golf operator uh called Globalls uh was just recently awarded a 15-year lease for uh on a city center property by uh you know local council. Anyway, um in uh they they like we're talking about a couple of things. So, like, first of all, I was like I was a little bit shocked. So it's like, okay, wow, mini golf operator, they're like indoor glow golf, operate uh basically awarded a 15-year lease. And it means awarded, they were more than given that lease. It was a competitive bidding process and they paid for the lease, but like basically the it was a uh a property that was you know highly coveted, and so they had the opportunity to go and take that uh lease. Uh but 15 years, I was like, God damn, that's a long lease to you know potentially go into as just like a glow mini golf operator. And they have two locations already. They have one in Weymouth and uh one in Brighton. Uh the Brighton location does very well, and so I was just kind of curious. So you know, and it's actually in a former cinema uh location, and this is in Sutton, uh so in Sutton in the UK, and it's former cinema, so but not a small space either that they're going into, but they you know have really interesting courses, and so I thought you know it would be really interesting to take a look at their site because I was like, oh wow, okay. So they're a glow golf, like, all right, everybody's seen Glow Golf. It's like it can be okay. Um, but they do a really phenomenal job with it. Um, you know, it reminds me a little bit of Monster Minigolf. Uh, Monster is a brand, um, a franchise brand that is exists in the United States, and currently, I'm sure they'll expand outside of the US at some point. But there's uh multiple locations. I think they're up to 30 plus now at this point in the US. And so they do a great job with that indoor glow golf feel and create uh five. And so they've done a really cool thing that they've got a couple of different courses. Uh, each each location has some different courses, they're going to bring all those courses together to this location here because of the size, but it's Zuzilla, Carnival, Dinotopia, and Aquatica. So four different courses. Each one tended to have like 12 plus holes for each course. And then they have this really cool thing, like they have these carnival games. They like home built or hand built and created these different carnival games too. So it's not just the mini golf, it is also the carnival games. So I wanted to take a look, a little bit of a look at each of these and their website. Because I went to their website, and you know me. I'm historically, those of you who listen to the show will rip uh certain websites to uh to shreds, and if I don't like tend to like what I'm seeing, and so you know, I was like actually really thoroughly impressed with their website. So I thought I'd just share my screen here and uh walk you through what they're doing on their site here. So uh, first of all, you know, phenomenal branding, you know, glowballs, like everything is every letter is unique. Like they definitely did a really great job. This is not an easy website to go and build, and especially from a branding standpoint, they've really worked hard to brand glow in the dark, mini golf, glowballs, like their their booking is really simple to do on their site to check availability. And what's cool is they actually with their game bookings, they have uh you get one game to play, and then it also includes one slush. So they have slushies, they have uh alcohol slushies and then regular non-alcoholic slushies. So it includes slushies as well as glow heart glasses, and it's $16. And you can see picture here, this uh this woman wearing these heart glasses, like just to add some extra character and fun to the experience. So again, they're starting you off right away in some really interesting vibe. And I just thought that was so well done, and their availability checking is so good, like everything just is the care taken for their site for one location, even or even two locations, just because they might have even not that they have to have two locations or whatever, uh, but it's just done so well uh from a standpoint, and like the reviews are excellent. So they have about 4.3 stars over the course of like 1,500 reviews. So they definitely do a great job there. And they just kind of a little bit of whimsy to everything. Now, the one thing I will say is like what I think could be done a lot better here that they definitely miss out on, and this is the fact that they don't talk at all actually about their food uh or their drinks. So you don't even see like what their slushies look like. I think they're missing a lot out a lot there on being able to like showcase their F and B component because like obviously if you're giving a slushie away as with as part of your drink or as part of your package, then you want to be able to promote that as part of the overall experience. So I think that that's definitely missing and they could be doing better there. And then the other is that um that they don't showcase the fact that they have other locations. So like there's no, you know, I'm here obviously like I'm on this thing here, but if I go to the you know, click there, like it doesn't take me to like a home place where I can actually go and see the other locations that are available there. So um and and and then also I don't get a chance to see anything about the carnival games. So obviously the carnival games are a big component, and yet I don't actually get to see the carnival games. Now, if I go to the main site, like uh obviously then it'll have the two different locations and has some you know a little bit more details, but really again, it doesn't touch on at all the F and B component, and that's I think a bit of a miss. So uh their Brighton location is uh also one of the ones that has a lot of the carnival components to it and also has the other two locate uh the other two types of um uh what am I supposed to say? The other two uh courses. That's what I was looking to say. So anyway, but looking at the carnival games, so this is a um, you know, the carnival games here, so they have incredible flying pigs. This was a review written by a travel blogger, and uh and I thought they like did a pretty good review, but it's pretty cool. Like they have all of these different carnival games that that again they just created themselves. So I thought it was very well done and um super unique. And we don't like see too many of these types of things that are like custom, more hand-painted, just the amount of care taken to create these attractions is pretty impressive. And uh, I just thought it was worth talking about here, and just something to think that you can think creatively, take space, do other things. Like there's this is uh, you know, the the build is not inexpensive, um, but it is also super creative. And so that's one of the reasons why I wanted to talk about this. So that is Glowballs in the UK. Congratulations to them for getting that third location uh signed and looking forward to hearing about it when it ultimately uh opens up. So that is uh that is Globalls. All

Stadium Mini Golf As Competition

SPEAKER_05 10:48

right. Next we want to talk about is the another mini golf, of course. Uh so here we're talking about mini golf today. That's the I guess the little bit of the theme. Uh, but the brewers just opened up a new uh just this last Friday, so just this 4th of July weekend. Um, they opened up their what they're calling the UW Credit Union Plaza. Okay, if somebody had to pay for the name, I guess, and pay for the brand, but um it's outside of obviously the American family field, which is where the brewers play. But uh the reason I wanted to call it out is like they just did they built a really beautiful mini golf area. So they have a playground, a performance stage, a beer garden, because it's the brewers, of course, and then a bunch of other food trucks that can come in. And yeah, they just did a really great job. They have the you know, of course, it has a bunch of Michigan, like Michigan-inspired water features. Um, they have a famous racing sausages that are part of the uh, let's see if I can get that picture here. Oh, I thought this uh the this this cow was a pretty cool slide as part of the playground area, like you know, very impressive. Um, and then here's their you know running sausages that are you know an homage to what goes on in the brewer's field. So anyway, um the again just brought this up because I thought they've done a great job, but also like this is one of the things that you sometimes have to worry about. Now, it is only open and available during game when the games are playing. So fortunately, it's not like you know, if they're running, if somebody's got a mini golf location nearby, like they're not all of a sudden out of business or have immediate competition. But this is anything we have to start thinking about. We're seeing more and more stadiums adding entertainment districts, adding entertainment components to their stadium mix. Uh, you know, obviously like you're coming there for sports, but they're adding more and more entertainment now. And it is happening, and a lot of times it's either free or at lower cost because they already have a captive audience and they don't have to try to attract people and drive people into trying to increase the per cap. And this will create potential competition for you depending on where you're at. So just think about that when you're getting lease space to maybe nearby a stadium or um and so some sort of like entertainment district, and just know that there might end up being something that could end up competing with you and your mix. So be careful about where you get your lease and what you put into your location um to you know see if there's a potential that there could be some future competition there. So, anyway, that is the Milwaukee Brewers and the UW Credit Union Plaza that just opened this last weekend. All right, last thing we're gonna talk about on news

Blue Man Group Returns To Orlando

SPEAKER_05 13:10

you should know. All right, so after a 14-year run of more than 6,000 shows, the Blue Man Group uh finished its last show with Universal City Walk in 2020 in Orlando. And following the pandemic, they didn't come back. So they did 6,000 shows, 14 years. But six years later, they are now back in Orlando. And this is crazy because I didn't even know this was happening, and uh, so it totally slipped under my radar. But the Blue Man Group is coming back to a new 600-seat theater that is right there by the Orlando eye at icon at icon park. Um, it is a theater built from the ground up, it uses LED screens and lights to just bring a whole fresh energy to the show. And I also didn't realize the Blue Man Group has been running uh since it premiered in New York City since 1987. So that's like a crazy long run. But I'm excited. I think next time I'm in Orlando, I'm definitely gonna go. I don't know if that'll be IAPA week uh or if that'll be sometime sooner, hopefully, but I want to definitely go to see the Blue Man Group at the icon park. But uh pretty cool location. And iDrive has a bunch of other stuff. So actually, Build a Bear Workshop is gonna be opening a flagship, a three-story flagship location on iDrive as well. And then, you know, for those of you who are familiar with the iDrive section of Orlando, a big, big entertainment and hospitality district, like tons of hotels. I think there's something like 40, 54,000 hotel rooms along iDrive. And uh iDrive is finally going to also connect soon to the sunlight rail, uh sun rail light rail system in the Orlando area, and that will be a huge benefit to the iDrive area as well, because right now your only way they really get down there is through bus or car or car. So, anyway, that's the Blue Man Group premiering and at the icon park in near the Orlando Eye in Orlando. And that is news you should know. Coming up after the quick break, we will dive into open and shut with Kevin Williams. Every birthday you miss is a party book somewhere else. If you run a trampoline park, family entertainment center, plate cafe, or party venue. Party ping connects to your booking system and automatically sends a text to parents with a personalized birthday message along with a custom gift for their kid at just the right time when they're deciding where to celebrate. Many of these new party pings need 20% more party bookings. More parties, zero extra work. Check them out at partyping.ai. That's partyping.ai.

New Openings Across The Market

SPEAKER_06 15:49

Well, welcome to the latest open and shut. How do I find you, Brandon?

SPEAKER_05 15:55

Oh, doing well, just hanging out in a Nashville hotel. So that's uh yeah, we've got uh pretty, I don't know, I don't I don't want to call it a light, a light open and shut today, but it's uh it's not as heavy as usual.

SPEAKER_06 16:06

So it's it's down two, but there's also a sting in the tail at the end. But we'll get to that in a minute.

SPEAKER_05 16:13

Perfect. All right, well, let's dive in.

SPEAKER_06 16:15

So jumping straight in at the deep end, there is the selection of venues. Uh, as I said, you know, we normally are touching upon 20. We've got uh 18 there this time, kind of beginning to see hopefully the summer slow down. Uh but you know, again, I don't want to tempt fate. Am I going to be uh really busy in the next couple of weeks? We don't know. There's the tourist of Pain for those of you that are following, and jumping straight in, and an unusual one. I hadn't actually got this on my radar, uh, but Guatemala got their Toca Social, bringing the Toca Social chain up to seven facilities, which uh I I am interested to know uh how Guatemala got onto the list of early uh installations, but there must have been a reason for that.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

I I mean I guess I mean I'm I'm a little bit surprised by this, actually. Uh you know, I'm also mostly because of the really broad distribution at such an early period of time across multiple countries, multiple regions, multiple languages, etc. Um, and it is uh yeah, it's just a bit complex. When I'm multiple languages, okay, look, it's English and Spanish, right? But I mean, when you're talking about seven locations, and that's it, and you're already distributed across three countries at this point, or five, maybe even, um, I feel like that's getting a little bit uh spread out, and maybe their uh franchise sales are having a harder time selling into the US market than they expected, or or what that might be. So very interested to understand what's going on here in their franchise strategy.

SPEAKER_06 17:57

Maybe their franchiser that speaks Spanish is doing better than uh their English one. Uh I I am interested. The Mexican move seemed to be a logical one based upon uh Toca football's contacts in the region, and maybe uh Toca football also has good Guatemalan uh contacts. But this is an interesting one. We will now have to stand back and watch the spread of uh their facilities going forwards because they're now in that important stage of getting 10 and beyond, as it were, in establishment. Moving on, and Fidi in Japan. Uh we've talked about these uh for a couple of occasions. They offer uh that 50s retro to the uh entertainment mix, continuing the same food and fun model. Uh this one kind of uh tickles me. I just wonder if this would work in the West as well as it's working, it seems, from its rollout in Japan.

SPEAKER_05 18:57

Yeah, I don't I don't know. My my gut tells me, look, first of all, these types of little quirky 50s throw back diners do exist in uh parts of the you know parts of the US, especially along Route 66 and other areas, like where you know the old period of time like driving across from coast to coast on Route 66 was a big thing, and you stopped at these different diners. And so like there's a lot of this sort of Americana that exists in those particular areas. So maybe it could work. I mean, I think it could do well in the Western market potentially, depending on where it is. Uh yeah, I don't know that it would just do phenomenally well, like sitting in the middle of Phoenix or the middle of Dallas or something like that. But if there's places where there's nostalgia and if there's you don't already have one of these types of 50 signers and fitting with the overall arcade experience is, it's possible.

SPEAKER_06 19:45

We're gonna touch upon this in a future sound uh uh sound off about really what kinds of food franchises would work in other facilities or properties. So maybe this is something to uh cogitate at a later moment. Continuing on, and we jump straight into two sandbox openings. The first one in Nevada, their third facility. Um same form factor, no surprises from what I can see. And then we jump off to Michigan and we get some a little bit more detail. We we find out that this is a 5,000 square uh facility. It does have a VIP room. Now, I was speaking to Sandbox about this, and they were telling us that this was their 88th facility. My database is shouting back at me and saying that it's 90. So obviously I've double counted somewhere, or I uh have may have uh not included a closure that has happened. So I'm gonna try and get to the bottom of this. But, you know, I was hoping that we would be talking about the 90th uh facility and an important milestone for them.

SPEAKER_05 20:57

It certainly would be an important milestone. Uh, you know, I think well, you know, for this one anyway, it still looks like it's one of their standard or freestanding locations. Does it look like, at least as far as I can tell, on the website for this location, any FB. I mean, obviously, we know there's no food typically, but no, no bar uh here, so not one of the cocktail robots. Um, and then the location in Vegas is interesting because they're clearly at this point looking, based on its location, looking to serve more of the local market here. This is less of the tourist market. This is in uh what would I consider like downtown Vegas, which is not a strip. Uh so downtown is like what businesses are, offices. Uh, this is where yeah, business happens and people go to work kind of, this is where they live their daily lives. So the ones that live in Vegas and don't go to the strip every night, um, you know, or don't work in hospitality. So this is definitely servicing serving that local market. And it will be interesting to see how well it does versus really trying to draw off of the tourist market that happens to. Be coming to visit.

SPEAKER_06 22:02

I hope to really nail down the team at Sandbox VR when they get to the hundredth facility and just really go back and look at their operation and what they're seeing their facilities offering because I'm still a little bit confused about their entertainment offering to their uh customers. They have content that we know, uh, they have licensed content that we know, but also they're having a VR system that now is going to have to look towards keeping up with all of the competition in the free roaming market. And I'm interested about how they're going to uh try and stay relevant in uh changing times. Moving on, and we have our friends at Fever throwing a hat into the ring. Uh BuzzAttack is what I would call a game show mission experience or uh a game show experience just to be simple. Um group of individuals, compare, button hitting, a couple of trivias based upon uh TV game show format. We have a number of these uh kinds of properties in the market, uh, and we have a new one. Uh Buzz Attack is uh opening up its second facility. Its first facility uh was in Spain, this second facility is in London. Um Boom Tastic is the uh company behind this. They also are behind a kind of uh defuse the bomb uh mission room kind of experience. But the big thing here is this has also got Fever directly involved as a producer.

SPEAKER_05 23:44

Well, you know, Fever's gonna get their hands in a lot of these different types of experiences, and you know, they're they've been doing a lot more on the immersive side, obviously. This gives them a little bit more of the social competitive side. That's not the classic social competition. This is a little bit like more like a game show battle room experience, uh, you know, which is like those game shows. Well, what's interesting here is I don't know that there's necessarily a an MC or a host. I think one of the things that makes the game show experiences, you know, the game show battle rooms team versus team, you know, whatever it is, PvP PvP, uh there's usually a host there and they're hyping everybody up and they're it's about giving you this idea of like a game show host. Uh, this seems, at least from what I can tell, on all the pictures and all the descriptions and everything else, that this is more like you come in and you facilitate and manage this yourself, and there's not necessarily somebody there. So it could be interesting in that it's a maybe a lower uh uh capital, a lower opex costs because you don't have some of the staff there. And so um, you know, you don't have some of that operational burden. Um but at the same time, maybe the guest experience is less limited. So it'd be it'd be really interesting. I'd love to go and try this, or at least go in and pop in while other people are playing to see what that experience is like. And it does look like something that could be dropped into other types of locations, unless there's something else that I'm missing here. This looks like this could be a drop-in type of attraction and not just a pure standalone.

SPEAKER_06 25:12

This was what I would call an automated uh game show uh experience, very similar to the one that is at Area 15, I think, though uh the one at Area 15, I think, actually did have a comp air or game host. This one is all automated, so screens, uh the uh instructions come from the screens, turnkey, 45-minute experience. Where it is located in London is interesting. Uh, it is a space that I think our friends at Fever have been using as a test uh site for uh for new concepts and entertainment. And again, I'm not sure how permanent this installation is going to be, or if this is the beginning of a rollout as a secondary attraction for their business, uh, as we were touching upon. One to watch. And if you come over for uh IALPA Europe, then we should uh uh at least test our general knowledge skills.

SPEAKER_05 26:13

I will say one quick thing to just add to these types of experiences, and and there are some other social competitive experiences too, um, is that uh this is a minimum, you have a minimum requirement of four players. You could have up to 12 players uh happening here based on this, up to 12 people, but a minimum of four, which is what's interesting. There are other types of game show battle rooms, another example of one of those. But if you are going on a date night, for example, just you and somebody else, this is the type of experience you can't go and do. You have to have a larger group, a friend group or family group to go and do this. And so it does raise questions for me when, again, this is the only attraction, this is the only thing that this particular thing is heavily reliant on larger groups. I know four isn't super large, but does require four people organizing their schedules and getting together to come and do this particular thing. This is not something you would do necessarily on a whim because you also have to book it, right? It's a larger group. Um, you have to plan it. And so this wouldn't be something like, hey, we're all going to get together for Friday night. What do you want to do? You're you know hanging out, trying to decide, and you're like, oh, let's go to Buzz Attack. Well, now the things are sold out and you know, we didn't really know. And so it does become a level of complexity, it does add a layer of complexity when this is your only option versus hey, you know, this is an attraction inside of a larger FEC in maybe a party room or in some other space where you could add this in and have somebody come and go bowling, a group go bowling, but like, oh, hey, look, what's this buzz attack thing? And then also go and try that as an extra add-on.

SPEAKER_06 27:43

I I treat these as the metrics of the escape room or the command uh center business. Uh everybody in that sector knows that uh the you know the sweet spot is four players minimum, and you don't have two uh date nights in an escape room. Uh not that I'm aware of. Uh so this is this is kind of a rollout of the four and upwards private hire entertainment group uh uh visitation. It is a model that has proven itself, and now that it's being automated, we have some automated escape room systems that we're going to be seeing deployed into the market soon. This is kind of uh really nailing down the business of this kind of approach. But we will see. It will be interesting to see how it does in the market.

SPEAKER_05 28:33

Yeah, and it's it's hard just to add on to this, uh add on to that though, that to your point, the difference between an escape room location and this potentially. And now, granted, I don't know how many different game modes there are, what experiences, how many different experiences I can come back and have, you know, different 45-minute experiences. But with an escape room, from a repeat visitation standpoint, yes, it is a group, uh group experience. Four is the preferred minimum. Although you can sometimes do escape rooms at two, you can't do mission rooms typically because uh you know, depending on the types of challenges, but you can get away with an escape room if you're really good with two, three people, but four being that preferred. But from a repeat visitation standpoint, I can now come back and do the next room and then the next room and the next room. And now granted, maybe there are three rooms, five rooms, seven max, like in a lot of places. Maybe you know, if it's escapology is up to nine uh rooms in a particular location if it's large. But I get that repeat visitation opportunity with bus attack. I'm not sure that I do. Uh, and again, maybe they will change things up, but from my understanding and from my experience going to game show battle rooms with friends and family, the experience, while it is different and the questions are different, the experience is generally the same every time I go back. And so I have uh you know only gone two times to a game show battle room because it was you know one group of family, one group of friends, and it was pretty much the same experience. Again, just slightly different because different people, different questions, but that's really it.

SPEAKER_06 29:59

Anyway, moving on and to Roxy, just about to open. It's currently in soft opening at the moment. Their latest addition to the London scene, a 13,000 square Roxy ballroom compared to uh the Roxy Lane and their other uh operations. Um, you know, it is a competitive socializing uh environment, it is aiming at the afterwork crowd as well as the social entertainment mix. Um, you know, they have 13 uh facilities of this particular franchise from the Roxy Lane's uh operation. Uh again, um I I treat this as kind of like a boom battle bar, but without the mini golf. Um but it does have bowling. Um and really at the end of the day, I see this as the replacement to the bar and pub kind of crowd in the London sector, which is gaining quite a lot of momentum from uh operators uh and landlords.

SPEAKER_05 31:08

I think that uh of a lot of the groups experimenting here with competitive socializing, Roxy is doing one of the best as far as the level of experimentation that they're that they're throwing out there. Uh I think they have some branding issues because you know each one of those Roxy locations has you know different branding, and they all have these weird mixes of things. Like this one is Roxy ballroom, you know, they call it booze and ball games, but yet they have darts and shuffleboard and karaoke. So, you know, I think they still struggle with some of their branding, but at least they're experimenting with their attraction mix, and and that's one thing I think that Roxy is getting right.

SPEAKER_06 31:44

We're about to see a phase two pivot by all of these companies as they work out what we've been saying now for quite a few open and shuts and sound offs, that they need to brand themselves appropriately to avoid customer confusion. But hey, what do we know? TheCUBE haven't talked about this for a long time, had some uh peripheral involvement with the team behind the original concept of the Cube. For those of you that aren't aware, there was a very popular TV game show. The game show theme seems to be popping up a lot today, uh, that uh was franchised by a or licensed by a particular company, and then they took the premise of that game and turned it into the cube. Multiple plexiglass or glass in uh uh cube in uh environments with physical um puzzles uh and skill games to solve. There's about 21 of these uh glass cubes within each facility. You go through a set number dependent on uh the number of people in your group and uh what uh what type of package you've purchased, and then at the end you get a score and a pat on the back if you've done it well while you know enjoying yourselves with uh cocktails and finger food. We had the first one open in Manchester as part of a uh mixed entertainment offering. We then had the second one open in London, and I've been back to the one in London a number of times and seen as incredibly popular because it it hits that sweet spot of a place to go after work, but also quite a high energy entertainment, well-themed environment with uh a strong F component. And now, surprise, surprise, we hear Chicago will be getting one. So this is quite a jump. Start at Manchester, go to London, then straight into what I would call the fire of uh Chicago. But I assume by the team behind this that they're proving a point that if they can uh establish a UK TV program IP, so they're really not going to be leaning on the television IP, they're just going to be leaning on the game experience. If they can get that to work in Chicago, then they can get that to work anywhere. And uh it will be fascinating to see what the time level is between them establishing their first facility in the US and in Chicago before they open the next one or re-evaluate their position.

SPEAKER_05 34:23

Yeah, and you know, I think what's interesting about this as well is that it while it's an adventure room, mission room type experience, uh it is limited to there's different models for these types of mission room experiences. This particular model is you come in, you play seven games with uh for you know for for a you know group of minimum four people, but you play seven of the games. So that means that again, you could come back in here three times and play you know all 21 games potentially. What I don't what I don't quite know is is it randomized? So is a potential that like you know, I come in and I play seven, and the next time I come in, I play two of the same games and then five new ones. Uh that I don't understand or you know quite know. Uh, but at least there is some repeat uh repeat play opportunity versus some other mission rooms where you have the full room experience available to you and you're you know running around and you know you're you're going from one room to the next, and your goal is to try to optimize from each of the different rooms. This feels a little bit more like High Chinx hotel as far as like being limited to a particular subset of rooms, and then the next time you visit, you have access to another set of rooms. And uh so that that way at least can drive some variability when you come back in again.

SPEAKER_06 35:35

Similar to the Pot Shack model, which is you don't have a free-for-all, you're given a selection of holes to play. And in the Cube's point of view, they do manage, you know, they do have a dedicated member of staff with the group that is going around doing the seven uh units. Uh when when we did it the last time, it was very regimented, but worked, the flow worked very well. And I was led to believe that uh their uh uh guest uh data capturing information was good enough that if we had gone back there a second time, we wouldn't have done the same holes. I can't vouch for that. I I've never gone back and played it a second time. Now I think I'd better. So uh and again, uh I'm wondering if I still have my uh card. I was surprised how well this was received in Canary Wharf in London uh when they opened up the London facility. I was surprised it's taken them this long to open up their next facility, and I'm surprised that they've jumped straight into North America with their third facility. So we'll be keeping an eye on this one very closely. Enter. Um, for me, you know, when someone pushes across my table that we've just opened a virtual reality museum, you know, one of my eyebrows will raise a little bit. What is that? You know, can a number of these VR Arena facilities call themselves museums because they offer a uh you know edutainment style experience? Anyway, uh you know, we have quite a large space here. Um I I would like to get a little bit more feedback on how much they are a museum experience compared to all of the other virtual experiences that have some kind of edutainment component to them. But again, this is one to keep your eyes open uh with especially Amsterdam, which has quite a thriving VR scene already. And so they are entering uh you know a crowded market, as it were, with something that I'm wondering is it aiming at tourists more than it is aiming uh at the VR enthusiast? We will wait to see.

SPEAKER_05 38:04

Probably, or at least, I mean I'm not sure I would say VR enthusiasts, but it does seem to me like they're really trying to promote themselves as a full-on museum. Uh, but you know, you says we know their tagline is to walk together through stories in VR.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_05 38:20

So, you know, that tells me like it's really more about re-immersing yourself in these historical stories, but uh I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 38:31

I I mean it's not cheap to create a VR experience based on uh that particular neck of the woods. It is a dedicated investment, and you'd better believe that you're going to get the throughput.

SPEAKER_05 38:44

Yeah, and and that it is actually a unique or good or educational experience. Uh well, we'll see how it does.

SPEAKER_06 38:54

The the spin on this is of course, yeah. The spin on this is of course going for the STEM business, uh open to the public uh most times, but also aiming for school uh field trip business. But again, I raise an eyebrow. Moving on, and we will be touching upon the next three stories a little bit more in sound off.

Closures And Acquisitions To Watch

SPEAKER_06 39:18

Uh, but the big news of the time of recording is the opening of Universal Kids Resort and um one of those openings where the press hasn't been kind to say to this.

SPEAKER_05 39:35

Oof, yeah, the press and just the guests and everything else. So we'll leave a little teaser here for sound off. Um, but if you just look at the sparseness of those little tiny plants around that water, that will give you a hint around some of the discussion we will end up having on sound off.

SPEAKER_06 39:57

Ouch. To the shuts and the sales, and uh again, we will go into more detail, but uh Raging Waters Sydney, its acquisition is an important one. Um, we're seeing a lot of development going on in the Australian business. I haven't stopped at all of uh the new openings. If you freeze frame going through the presentation over the last couple of weeks, you'll notice that we've had a number of Australian facility openings in the background. Um, but this is one of the major park operations. This is the Parquet Radon uh fallout uh again, and we're led to believe, well, we know that this is now going to be rebranded Sydney Action Park, and we're expecting a lot more investment going on by the new invet uh the new owners uh as they look to expand upon their uh facility business in the region.

SPEAKER_05 40:58

Very interesting to see the you know Parque Rioninos uh continuing to divest themselves of some of these things, uh large parks like like Raging Waters, for example.

SPEAKER_06 41:12

Parquet has been going through, you know, we've talked about uh some of their other sales in the States. We knew that there were going to be uh far uh impact. This is really a divesting uh operation. It'll be fascinating to see what they feel their new empire is going to be like now that they've cut so much dead wood, as uh as their accountant would be saying. Another one we'll touch upon, but uh our friends at Funspot America uh have um closed down. And you know, for me, it is uh uh an interesting one. Um, you know, we have to understand that uh the you know the facility has been going since the 1990s. It then went through the re you know the rebranding in 2018, it then had to suffer the privations of COVID and then it bounced back. And I was led to believe that it had bounced back and was generating revenue. But for some reason, this is closing. We're not sure if this will have impact across the other uh Funspot operations.

SPEAKER_05 42:20

Well, this seems to me like it was a bit of an overreach by Funspot. They had two really close, uh close uh operations. I mean that you know, Kissimmee and in Orlando, the two locations are not far apart from each other, and uh, you know, relatively speaking. And so to go then all the way up to Atlanta seemed like a bit of a reach operationally, you know, from a supply standpoint, from a management standpoint, uh, for what was you know really a regional theme park, uh, you know, an amusement park operation. So um you know it's disappointing, uh, you know, but it's uh probably a good move for Funspot to consolidate uh, you know, there was some new coasters put in in some of the other locations. And so, you know, there's some quite a bit of discussion or excuse me, um uh capital that needs to be uh cleared, you know, cleared up basically, or repaid.

SPEAKER_06 43:12

My surprise is that they they haven't found someone that's prepared to take it off of their hands. So they rather than having to close uh on the 2nd of August, that they would just say it is now handed over to XYZ. They're kind of telling why they haven't found someone straight away. Were they asking too much for this? Has their dirty laundry already been revealed regarding uh the debts or uh the impact of this particular facility? I don't think that this will stay empty long. Uh and you know, I hope to say that uh uh this time in August we'll be talking about the new owners uh parachuting it. Acquisition are very, you know. If you're not familiar with the Blackpool area of the UK, that is our Vegas-esque kind of Vegas by the sea uh place. Uh everything that goes on in Blackpool. Atlantic City. Yeah, well, yeah, no, much better analogy. Um, Atlantic City or the Strip and Vegas. Pick one of those, but it is a little bit lower market, but still uh a place for uh uh the hen knights uh and the bachelor parties. It has a very long history, Victorian history of being the place to go by the seaside, to take waters and such like. And one of the oldest of the piers there has been acquired. We're not sure how much they've been acquired for, but they the new owners have confirmed that they're going to be putting about 10 million pounds worth of uh investment into refurbishment uh of this grade uh listed building. Uh it it is a popular uh tourist point, it has a lot of amusement on it, it has some attractions on it. Um, this is a transitional move, uh, and we hope that with that new investment uh they will be able to uh keep the momentum going.

SPEAKER_05 45:18

Yeah, um, we'll see.

SPEAKER_06 45:24

We will see moving on and a real surprise this one. Um, not really when a facility closes, it's always a surprise. What the surprise is is how the management team handles that closing and when they do the closing. Is it a couple of weeks or months between the announcement? Or in this case, we get the announcement, uh, which is a matter of days away, July, uh July the 5th, they're closing. So at least they get their July the 4th business uh in and then they uh pull the plug on the facility. Again, no information about what's going on here. Um, you know, the site has been open since the 1980s uh as an entertainment facility. We don't know if it's a family issue uh or a real estate issue. Again, it's one that I hope that I'll be saying in a couple of weeks has been taken over by a new head uh and that they're going to uh keep the momentum going. But to close the day after July the 4th is very telling.

SPEAKER_05 46:31

Yeah, wow. Um well, a little bit uh disappointing here that this is uh happening for them. Um, you know, I'm sure there's you know when they've been open since 1981, this is not the ideal end to their run. Um, but uh you know, it it is always odd when something just closes with uh so suddenly with no notice whatsoever.

SPEAKER_06 46:54

We'll be hearing more about this. I'm sure our sources will uh uh elucidate a little bit off the record what's going on there. Joystick, one of those uh beer arcades, brew arcade kind of approach. Been going since uh 2012, so at the beginning of the beer cade uh infatuation. Um, no sawdust on the floor here, but a range of classic machines and uh brew pub kind of mentality. We then get the news that they're going to be closing down their operation, but with the olive branch in the background that they are thinking of going to a new location in the area.

SPEAKER_05 47:38

This is another one. So I always I like I like to look at dates sometimes when you hear about these that have been running for you know relatively successfully, one would assume, since 2012, right? You don't you're not open for 14 years typically, unless you've had some successful on the way. It doesn't mean that you don't have your hiccups and ups and downs and fluctuations, especially during COVID, you know, or consistently declining and you just can't sustain the operation anymore. That's certainly an option. In this regard, I do wonder if if they first opened in 2012, that means they signed their lease probably beginning of 2012, and it's a if it was a 10-year lease with like a five-year renewal option, now you're looking at uh 15 years at the end of 2026 coming into 2027, right? So like their release renewal, and maybe those negotiations were going south. Maybe there were some other issues, and they decided that, hey, better off to just move to try to find some other new location. Um, the problem is uh if you were to do that, unless you really handle that move well, yeah, it is very difficult to recapture your uh audience that you had built up over those last 15 years.

SPEAKER_06 48:43

How much of your audience is recurring? How much of your audience is family, i.e., you have direct contact with them, and if you do something like this, you know, like cheers norm is going to be following you wherever uh wherever you go. It is a very difficult business of transition, even if you are successful, and as you say, this is a landlord problem that you don't need. And also, there is another facility down the road that is bigger, allowing you to expand and grow. Whatever the benefits are, will Joystick be able to travel? And at the moment, we have a large number of beercade, retro arcade uh chains out there. Georgia, well, especially in the Atlanta region, I know of at least two others that are in that area or in that catchment, which uh will be interesting to see if Joystic reappears in a new location or if one of their competitors parachutes into that neck of the woods. Moving on, and if you have more information uh regarding uh those certain operations that we've been talking about, please hit me up on LinkedIn. We'll keep the information confidential if it needs to be. That's the same for my email address. We have some stingers out, some new stingers, and we'll have some uh entertainment social arenas out soon. How was that for you, Brandon?

SPEAKER_05 50:13

Uh surprising number of shuts. We haven't had very many shuts uh recently. And you know, we were talking about the fact that we would expect to see some of this ticking up because maybe people were holding their news in for beginning of the summer, trying to stay open as long as they could during the summer vis-a-vis the ones that we just talked about. They're shutting down mid-summer, they couldn't quite sustain, et cetera. Um, and so we're now beginning to see some of those. And I expect that trend to continue for the next few weeks or few months at least as we come into the fall, and we'll probably hear a lot about a lot more openings once the slowness of the summer doldrums hits.

SPEAKER_06 50:45

I'm also expecting to hear some transparencies about closures and mergers and acquisitions. So at some point, uh the pendulum may swing the other way. But let's wait and see.

SPEAKER_05 51:00

Okay, perfect. All right. Well, another great open and chat, and we will see you on the next one.

SPEAKER_03 51:05

Have a good one.

SPEAKER_01 51:15

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SPEAKER_05 51:49

All right, well, that was great open and shut with Kevin Williams. And coming up next, we've got Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DeMonte. So let's roll right into it.

Plan Next Season’s Marketing Now

SPEAKER_01 52:04

Hello, and welcome to Promo Pro Tips with Chuck DiMonty. That is me. And today I want to talk about something um that I've talked about before many times. Uh, but if I'm not saying these things many times as the marketing uh you know guru and as as you know, with the experience that I have and uh that I'm not doing my job, right? Because you guys really need to hear these things one, you know, more than than once, right? It can't be in one ear and out the other, right? So you need to be planning out your marketing promotions and channels throughout the year, right? So a lot of people, it's it's the summer season now, whether you are in the, you know, maybe in the south, it's it's maybe it's your busy season or maybe you're an outdoor place. But for most places, right, throughout the United States, during the summer, if you're in traditional indoor sort of FEC, right, uh, you're gonna be slower during the summer. Okay. Um, and sometimes those months can hurt, right? But you need to be thinking about what you could have done, right, uh, for this summer to be busier because your your your slow week that you just had is not a function or or um uh byproduct of your marketing this week, right? It's a byproduct of your marketing, your initiatives, and your your campaigns from six months ago, okay? Because here's why. What are typically, you know, summers people build field trips, summer camps need somewhere to take their kids, right? So you need to be having those conversations and doing those promotions to those people in January, six months ago, right? Started those conversations, figuring out how do I get in front of them, what's the offer, what's the pitch, all that other stuff, right? So that's the biggest mistake most operators make. They market for the season they are in. You should be marketing for the season that is coming, right? Or the seasons that are coming, right? It's not a light switch, it's a seed that you plant for marketing, right? And then you harvest that seed, okay? Nothing gets um, you know, there's no sort of lightning in a bottle, right? You do one promo, it just takes off. Yeah, that happens on occasion, potentially, right? Um, but for the most part, you need pro promotion. I would say, you know, lightning in the bottle doesn't happen if you didn't plan it properly, okay? So, you know, really, really important that you sit down and you figure out how to plan this, okay? So, how do you do that? First and foremost, you need to create a calendar, right? It's a summer season, perfect. If it's slow, even better. You have you have more time. Now, I know for owners and operators, GMs, right? You're doing a lot of things, wearing a lot of hats. It's hard to think through this and the marketing, right? So I'm gonna give you some guidelines, but at the end of the day, if you have to hire a professional, that's what you have to do. And there's the old adage, you know, which sometimes I hate because it's so true, it makes it frustrating. You got to spend money to make money, right? It is true, right? And you go, okay, but it's not in my budget. Then you need to figure out how do you get it in your budget, right? Taking off my promo cap for a second and putting my operator cap on, make sure your labor rates are in check. Make sure your you know, cost of of goods is is is in check, right? So you need to find the money, right? Plan for the promotions again, months before. So you can start putting a little bit of money away for the certain promotions, right? So that's all part of planning for it, right? Operations also goes into this, okay? And then you can get low-cost assets, right? So if you're not sure how to do this, find a marketing consultant, right? Hire them on a website called Upwork, pay them $100, $200 for assessment. Say, hey, can you help me plan this out, right? Reach out to people like us, okay? Uh we, you know, there's a ton of people that can help you do these things and promote it, right? You need to be, as an owner operator, resourceful, right? Resourcefulness is one of the best traits owner operator GM can have, right? What can I do with what I have? Okay, so with that being said, now let's sit down and let's plan, right? Let's look at the calendar, right? It's it's it's it's July. So we need to be planning for back to school, right? What are people doing for back to school? My hours are changing. What can I, what events can I do? Maybe I could do a school fundraiser, or I could do a, you know, uh uh that type of stuff, right? So what's going on there for the holidays? What's going on? People are gonna start booking their holiday events in in September, October. I need to start thinking about that now. How am I gonna reach out to those people? Do I have a list for those people? Can I start collecting those people's information now, right? Here's a good example. We have a client that is very proactive with creating uh promotions and uh we like to collaborate and discuss and help her get those, you know, basically take those promotions from A to Z, right? Uh we were speaking yesterday and she had a great idea about doing a giveaway where she would uh do a free plush party for a certain class, right? The parents would nominate a teacher, okay? And the way, you know, uh they enter is by filling in information, you know, certain ways to enter. But now you're you're creating a a list of parents, a list of teachers that you can then market to and say, hey, look, we do these cool uh STEM events, we do these other learning event opportunities that we have, right? So first and foremost is a giveaway. We got to plan that out. What channels, what are the assets, how are we getting people to sign up? What are the mechanisms, right? All of that just to be able to market the events, right? So again, it it it's it's it's a few-step process to even have the ability to market to these events and get better. Now, again, it's not a snap of finger, it's things something has to be thought out, but anything worth doing is worth doing well and giving your time and effort to, okay? So super, super important, right? You need to plan ahead, right? Now, the other thing that most people get wrong is you do too many things at once. So I'm gonna simplify it for you. Pick one initiative per core and try and activate that, right? Don't do a birthday promo and uh, you know, a membership discount and a this and a that, right? It's like you're gonna, especially if you have limited time, budget, and resources, you're going to dilute all of those promotions and all of those messages, right? You want to make them as potent as possible. And again, they take a lot of time and effort getting the contacts, reaching out to those contacts, what are the assets, what are the channels, right? All that other stuff. Okay. So again, you need to a sit down, plan out the the the one initiative per quarter to really make this simple for you, right? If you have the budget, time, resources, two, okay. But what are the promos? What are the things we're doing, right? How am I accomplishing those things? How do I have to calculate out? Okay, what is the promo? How am I accomplishing those things? Again, if you need to talk to a marketing consultant, right? Use AI. AI will tell you, like, hey, here's what I'm thinking of. How can I do this? How do I execute it? And then do it, right? AI is your friend, okay? Um, for now. Uh, so you know, figure out how to execute it. What are the channels? What are the mechanisms? What are the tools? What are the CRMs? What are the online booking forms? You know, how do I connect all the dots? Okay. So I promise you, start doing that so you could, you know, make the seasonality, seasonality, right? But let's raise the baseline. Make the slower season a little bit busier, make the busier season busier, right? By planning ahead. Okay. So I hope that helps. Get out, start planning for the year, especially if you're slow now. Take use of this time.

Next Week Tease And Sign Off

SPEAKER_05 58:26

All right. Well, coming up this week, we have start off with Kevin Williams. This is episode number 128. And he obviously is going to dive into all the latest trends. Um, but also we're going to talk a little bit more as we as we alluded to during Open Chut about the Universal Kids Resort opening and a number of the other closures that we did we were discussing on Open and Chut, and then much more. But that's coming up on Tuesday, July 7th. And that is a wrap for this week's LVX show. I'm Brandon Wiley signing off. Stay tuned and keep kicking out.