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What do you want from a pinball club?

Matt Vince

Matt Vince

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Joined
Jul 21, 2011
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Location
Sussex
I have long been looking into ways of getting a pinball venue off the ground and there are potential opportunities on the horizon.

In my mind any venue needed the ability to house at least 30-40 machines and ideally more. In an ideal world it would also have clean bathroom facilities, a kitchen and bar as well as rec room and repair workshop. If in my dream I've also won the lottery, then there would be a training centre for repair work too.

Now that there is a potential chance that a premises can be found, I have some questions for you all:

1) would you pay a monthly membership to a pinball club?

2) what would you consider to be most important at a pinball club?

3) would you be interested in being part of a committee helping with the running of the club?

If anyone has any ideas or advice for me in this venture, I would be grateful to hear them.

Thanks

Matt
 
If this was like the Carlsberg of clubs :

My points would be,
have it near a major road with parking, ( if it is inside M25 can be very tricky to get to in certain areas and to park )
have space so people could bring stuff of their own in to work on
have trainning

Great to hear Matt, your ideas are spot on in my opinion
 
Biggest thing is being located on or near a main train line, so that it's easily visited by non-locals. In your locale, that probably means being in or near Reading. Perhaps Guildford.
 
To answer your questions Matt:

1) would you pay a monthly membership to a pinball club?

Yes, depending on price and location. I wouldn't pay £40 a month for a club located in the middle of nowhere, but perhaps something like £20 a month for something central I think would be more than reasonable (and if its central, likely to attract more people with a wider catchment area). Also dependent on the variety of games available. Personally I'd like to see everything from old woodrails to modern Stern machines but that's just me.

2) what would you consider to be most important at a pinball club?

A good selection of games is always a big bonus, but personally I think the social aspect. I'd love a place to meet up with people a few times a month to enjoy a few games, have a few drinks and have a good time.So as you suggested a bar would be good. Also variety, again personally I think while just pinball would be fine for someone like me 3 or 4 arcade cabs would be a good idea as well and perhaps attract more people than just us pinheads. I know my mates wouldn't be interested in it if it was just Pinball, but get a Time Crisis cab or something like that and they would probably be interested. Overall though definitely to social aspect, and anything that can add to that.

3) would you be interested in being part of a committee helping with the running of the club?

Sure, only issue I can think of as with anything like this is time commitments and location and being able to get to and from and meet with other people in the committee on a regular basis.
 
Financially you need the bar and food. Get publicity , TV if possible as did wonders for Arcade Club. Offer to babysit machines especially unusual games in exchange for reduced membership. Many folks have more games than they can set up but don't want to part with them
 
The biggest issues I have found whilst looking into this is the cost of a decent sized venue in the south east. A commercial unit is ideal, but the rents are high, the rates on a large building are ridiculous and that's without insurances and utilities! This also brings other issues, the cheaper units tend not to be near rail links or close to motorways. I have spoken to a couple of councils about discounted rates for non-profit clubs and you are still looking at around 3k a month all in. At these prices, any club would have to be a commercial entity open daily and taking lots of money. I just can't commit to something like this (as much as I would like to) with a full time job, family and mortgage.

The potential site proposed is subsidised by the local council and is close to the M23, but would require a bus from the nearest train station. Also, it may prove difficult to get a licence for a bar (still looking into this).

At the very least, if this comes off we would have a decent sized venue with room for lots of games and clean facilities. Fingers crossed!
 
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Matt, Arcade Club in Bury seems to be doing well for itself up north and consistently getting good numbers through the door each day it's open. Could give you some ideas by looking at how they run things.
 
This sounds very exciting Matt! It would be great to have a safe place to park extra games that everyone can use, and which are looked after (ie not abused, and people on hand who can take the glass of and fix minor glitches to keep the game running). It would also be nice to have a storage area where people could store project pins, and perhaps get help.
 
@Matt Vince

I spoke to Albert Nomden about this when I met him at the UK open in Wales. He told me that in Holland they have a large mutual pinball club. I can't remember all the details but it sounded like 100 games owned by the club. You should ask him how they set it up. My guess would be that real estate in Holland is massively cheaper as idiots in the UK think that expensive houses and rising house prices are cool and worthy of pension investment.

Now I know that this sort of thing would be hard to get off the ground. You need a farmer type with an abandoned barn. Or someone like me that owns a few crappy empty buildings. I actually own a run down building on a dying industrial estate in Nottinghamshire that could be available free of charge, but it is remote and would be vulnerable to crime

there are lots of pinball owners who have a game or two. There are also lots with too many games. Lots of farmers and similar with surplus buildings. Or surplus land where a shed could be erected. Or abandoned mills in run down Northern Towns (Arcade Club)

Might it be possible to:

Get donor machines
Free entry to donors
Rent share agreement with building owner - ie he gets X% of the take. This is how rents work in USA.
Pay as you go
Or annual memberships
Go north of London to maximise the opportunity for attendees
Turn it into the official UK HQ of pinball

Probably better to tack it on to an existing facility (golf club ?) Big pub with unused upstairs room. Old coaching inn with unused stable type buildings that are just used for low value storage. Miners' welfare (yes, we have those around here) Working Mans' club. There are lots of social type clubs with rooms they never use (like 8 bit flip last year ?)

This would save you a tonne of work. As the booze licence is in place. As is insurance. Car park. The club would welcome additional footfall for booze and food sales. It would have natural security (ie not stood empty for several days a week). I actually think that this is the way to go

I know a pub in Newark, Notts that has an outside "room". Brick built, heated, unused bar, toilets. It just stands empty and they have loads of dart boards in it for hosting tournaments

I did some work with the Co-operative Group in Manchester a few years ago. It gives free advice to people looking to set up co-ops

It seems like a tall order. I am under no illusions about how difficult it would be. But remember that this is how co-op shops started. Building societies. Mutual assurers ......
 
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Set up a charity, get a prime location high Street shop with charity rate concessions- eg blockbusters old units tend to be pretty sizeable (the one in hemel Hempstead is very large) and are still empty!
Pick a town with decent train station close by

Sent from my E6653 using Tapatalk
 
Even if not the charity bit, I think Punk Stig is more along the right track. Non-profit or co-operative is fine, but if it's not being run as a business, or is taking over a location that would never work for a commercial entity, something's probably being done wrong.

The further into the sticks, into dodgy areas, up North or working men's type arrangement you get, the fewer people are ever going to make the journey. Those that do so will almost exclusively be old, white and male.

Surely one of the things that has to drive this kind of project is making it accessible and socially acceptable. If young people and females aren't attracted to it, what's the point? Without them pinball will remain a very lonely niche in the UK.

For this reason, playing space and maintenance / workshops / storage should probably be in separate places ... £/m2 is just too high in decent locations. Money raised from a more commercial operation pinball / bar / pool / table football venue could fund separate staging, maintenance and storage.

If someone's going to take the plunge into a major project, it's obviously up to them, but I'd be thinking location, location, location and making the venue as attractive to as broad a range of people as possible (get a decent interior designer to advise, do GOOD food & drinks - not chain pub type stuff).
 
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Possibly consider a joint machine ownership scheme. People could contribute towards the cost of the machine and get their money back (and a percentage of any profit) when it is moved on. Or the money could go towards a better machine. That way you could soon build up to a collection of very desirable machines.
 
1) would you pay a monthly membership to a pinball club?
Yes

2) what would you consider to be most important at a pinball club?
Free beer and hookers. And preferably based in Nantwich

3) would you be interested in being part of a committee helping with the running of the club?
Maybe
 
ducks said:
Even if not the charity bit, I think Punk Stig is more along the right track. Non-profit or co-operative is fine, but if it's not being run as a business, or is taking over a location that would never work for a commercial entity, something's probably being done wrong.

The further into the sticks, into dodgy areas, up North or working men's type arrangement you get, the fewer people are ever going to make the journey. Those that do so will almost exclusively be old, white and male.

Surely one of the things that has to drive this kind of project is making it accessible and socially acceptable. If young people and females aren't attracted to it, what's the point? Without them pinball will remain a very lonely niche in the UK.

For this reason, playing space and maintenance / workshops / storage should probably be in separate places ... £/m2 is just too high in decent locations. Money raised from a more commercial operation pinball / bar / pool / table football venue could fund separate staging, maintenance and storage.

If someone's going to take the plunge into a major project, it's obviously up to them, but I'd be thinking location, location, location and making the venue as attractive to as broad a range of people as possible (get a decent interior designer to advise, do GOOD food & drinks - not chain pub type stuff).
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For the most part I agree with you entirely, but for a project of this nature someone will need to commit all of their time (and not a small amount of money) to get it off the ground.

This would be a dream for me but is unrealistic due to my hand to mouth financial position and my refusal to risk my family's home to do it.

At the end of the day, I will initially be fronting the costs of this clubhouse (should the application be successful, which is not a given) and hoping that through membership and events it can become a sustainable club with all profits (if any) being invested back in to improve the facilities. If after a year I am still having to subsidise the running costs it'll probably be closed, but at least i'd have tried.

P.S. if anyone else has the ability to set up a club In a more central location I will be the first to offer games and support!
 
Mooseman said:
Maybe Peter @Moonraker could explain how the special when lit model works
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I have had some good conversations with Peter about his club and it is fair to say that even with him being in a cheaper part of the country (rent wise) and getting much more help from the council than you will in London, the club would not survive without his generous financial support.
 
Matt Vince said:
I have had some good conversations with Peter about his club and it is fair to say that even with him being in a cheaper part of the country (rent wise) and getting much more help from the council than you will in London, the club would not survive without his generous financial support.
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This is surely the dilemma. If you don't spend money on the venue and location, then you're likely to have to fund it due to under utilisation and not many people will come which somewhat defeats the objective. If you do spend money on venue and location, then firstly you need the cash, and secondly you risk losing a chunk of flesh if you make a mess of it.

Have you considered an indiegogo for a little seed capital?
 
Almost every US city these days seems to have one or more barcades, or retro setups with huge collections for public play. Shame costs over here seem to kill most ideas of doing similar. I still think Brighton would be perfect location for a really cool Barcade setup. A few of us have discussed it before, even looked at suitable town premises, ... But the sums and commitment needed were frightening . :-( Need serious backers or a lottery win.

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Sgt GrizZ said:
Almost every US city these days seems to have one or more barcades, or retro setups with huge collections for public play. Shame costs over here seem to kill most ideas of doing similar. I still think Brighton would be perfect location for a really cool Barcade setup. A few of us have discussed it before, even looked at suitable town premises, ... But the sums and commitment needed were frightening . :-( Need serious backers or a lottery win.

Sent from my C1905 using Tapatalk
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You'd probably be better off doing it in one of the still-to-be-totally-gentrified-but-upcoming-and-popular-with-hipsters East London areas, given the cost of prime sites in Brighton.
 
ducks said:
You'd probably be better off doing it in one of the still-to-be-totally-gentrified-but-upcoming-and-popular-with-hipsters East London areas, given the cost of prime sites in Brighton.
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Maybe , tho those are few and far between these days .... to be cheap enough it barely qualifies as still being London :D

Plus I live on the edge of Brighton , and couldn't be assed doing it anywhere else :D
 
Sgt GrizZ said:
Almost every US city these days seems to have one or more barcades, or retro setups with huge collections for public play. Shame costs over here seem to kill most ideas of doing similar. I still think Brighton would be perfect location for a really cool Barcade setup. A few of us have discussed it before, even looked at suitable town premises, ... But the sums and commitment needed were frightening . :-( Need serious backers or a lottery win.

Sent from my C1905 using Tapatalk
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I did look at options in Brighton as its reasonably close to me and the perfect town to open a barcade as Ive says, the overheads are just as bad as London however.
 
1: Yes for sure (Depending on the price!)
2: Like others have said, close to transport (preferably public transport if you're talking london)
3: Sure depending on what it entailed.

I was talking about this with Justin at the end of last year, and I thought it was a good idea then too :)

I'd agree that having something like this open daily wouldn't be financially viable, what did you have in mind - just open certain days?

I'd say the bar bit would be requirement both for the social aspect and for the running cost (If this was essentially a private members club could you do it on a 'club premises certificate' rather than a full licence?)

I really like the idea of a space to be able to store/work on project games (almost a kind of pinball hackspace) perhaps you could charge a fee to store them, but at a lower cost that actual storage?
 
I can imagine what rent must be like in the south east. I've been locally for premises for a long time but some spanner always gets in the works. Best I can get rent and rate wise west midlands is around 12k a year for 3000sq ft. I'm willing to buy but always get outbid/ outmanoeuvred. I'll be putting a cheeky bid on this but know the guide price is to garner attention. no problem with bar here . even have personal licence

http://www.cpbigwood.com/property/auction/details/id/45054/search/1
 
steve brum said:
I can imagine what rent must be like in the south east. I've been locally for premises for a long time but some spanner always gets in the works. Best I can get rent and rate wise west midlands is around 12k a year for 3000sq ft. I'm willing to buy but always get outbid/ outmanoeuvred. I'll be putting a cheeky bid on this but know the guide price is to garner attention. no problem with bar here . even have personal licence

http://www.cpbigwood.com/property/auction/details/id/45054/search/1
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Good luck with it. 7000ft2? It must be big at the back.
 
I was looking at an empty unit on a fairly empty estate here in Crawley and 1000 sq ft was £25k a year for rent alone!
 
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