There's a shop in my town that has a ton of board games and they have a food and drinks counter. You can pay $5 to rent a table and take any board game there and play it. You can hang out as long as you want. You can't bring outside food or drink. I went to check it out and I saw some young people playing games and TTRPGs. Pretty cool. I hope they make enough money to stay in business a long time.
We lost our last local gaming space before covid. It was amazing. Retro video games, gaming tables, card games, RPGs etc. guy got tired of running it, shut down. Now I play games by myself.
I am very close to opening up a 'game library' that would be focused on paying for space to play, rent-armies, terrain, etc... with some supplemental sales for a small selection of miniatures and books. The big mystery to me is what, if anything, people would actually be willing to pay for it.
That is going to be a big challenge for any FLGS or LCS looking to shift to this model. I would suspect that membership is your better vehicle, but as you say, what is that rate? You need to balance your costs with what the market will bear. Any good data to be had from similar ventures?
Nothing remotely like that around here. There was a smallish boardgame library (less extensive than what I'd offer) that ran for a few years in Jim Thorpe. It was mostly done in by the lockdowns and then they started putting in gambling machines.
Without selling alcohol, it is hard to make a third space economically viable without simply selling time. (OK, the malls got money from teenagers by selling junk food, but Americans are consuming too much of that.) The old coin op video games sort of sold time, but they were a bad deal for the novice player and the venue got underpaid by the master players. Bringing back arcade style games where you buy time with tokens might revive the medium. There are things you can do with arcade equipment which aren't matched by home video: real controllers, multiple screens, ability to play against others in person, etc.
And time on ping pong and pool tables also works.
Such a venue could also rent gaming tables, meeting rooms for clubs, etc.
The other possibility would be a membership model -- like a country club but using much less space.
What are the laws for, not selling alcohol, but having alcohol allowed on premise? When I lived in Chicago, there were tons of restaurants that were BYOB and charged a simple bottle fee. That way you could bring what you wanted, they didn't have to have a sales license, they made money on you having the alcohol, probably didn't have to deal with stupid silly drunks as much, but still got the good ambiance of having it on site.
The couple breweries that I've done electrical for have had small amounts of hookups or future plans for electric for easy food items - think stuff that you can get out of a freezer, put in a quick microwave, toaster, electric air fryer, etc - but don't need an on demand cook for.
These kinds of things make it more viable to do things simply with low staffing needs. Paper plates or small washers, lower trash needs, lower licensing hurdles, etc.
I remember lots of that in Dallas back in the day. You had to join a private club associated with the restaurant for a nominal fee.
But this is beside the point I was trying to make. With the drinking age at 21, we need alcohol free third spaces. Or, at least, third spaces that are economically viable even if a large fraction of the clientele don't buy alcohol.
At least in Chicago, they didn't need to be a private club. They were regular restaurants and anyone could bring the alcohol. So, you could have alcohol or not.
Which means you could have an adult section and a youth section. I personally think that having both would be good. Sorry, but I simply don't think that the youth can keep a place afloat simply by renting a 3rd space these days - they'd do it in their own homes. Cost per foot is too high for youth to afford it on their own with the way wages are.
Maybe that's just me though. I see more of them spending money on video games than the things bought and used in 3rd spaces.
The latter two are essentially what the game store offers, though membership is more just giving preference to regulars at this point. Games are arranged, and space can be sold by the seat or by the table for a fixed amount of time by or by availability of open space starting at a minimum time. Essentially, selling time. Players bring their own gaming materials for TTRPGs.
Could you rent or sell these materials? Sure. Could you order them in for bulk purchases? Perhaps. The advantage to wargaming and TTRPGs is it's the space and time that are what you do sell, not so much the experience, as with video games, arcades, or table sports such as ping pong.
Thanks to the communist zoning laws, opening up a private club is almost impossible unless it's in its own separate building far away from residential areas or is zoned highway commercial. For starters, you have to have an available parking space for *each member* of the club. Ask me how I know.
That is sad, for what I describe is the kind of thing that can give an old school residential neighborhood the benefit of a gated community which has a clubhouse -- without all the gated community rules.
There's a shop in my town that has a ton of board games and they have a food and drinks counter. You can pay $5 to rent a table and take any board game there and play it. You can hang out as long as you want. You can't bring outside food or drink. I went to check it out and I saw some young people playing games and TTRPGs. Pretty cool. I hope they make enough money to stay in business a long time.
We lost our last local gaming space before covid. It was amazing. Retro video games, gaming tables, card games, RPGs etc. guy got tired of running it, shut down. Now I play games by myself.
Trash taken out.
I am very close to opening up a 'game library' that would be focused on paying for space to play, rent-armies, terrain, etc... with some supplemental sales for a small selection of miniatures and books. The big mystery to me is what, if anything, people would actually be willing to pay for it.
There's a shop in my town that is exactly this. https://twicethedice.com/
I'm sure food and beverage sales is an important part of the business model.
That is going to be a big challenge for any FLGS or LCS looking to shift to this model. I would suspect that membership is your better vehicle, but as you say, what is that rate? You need to balance your costs with what the market will bear. Any good data to be had from similar ventures?
Nothing remotely like that around here. There was a smallish boardgame library (less extensive than what I'd offer) that ran for a few years in Jim Thorpe. It was mostly done in by the lockdowns and then they started putting in gambling machines.
Without selling alcohol, it is hard to make a third space economically viable without simply selling time. (OK, the malls got money from teenagers by selling junk food, but Americans are consuming too much of that.) The old coin op video games sort of sold time, but they were a bad deal for the novice player and the venue got underpaid by the master players. Bringing back arcade style games where you buy time with tokens might revive the medium. There are things you can do with arcade equipment which aren't matched by home video: real controllers, multiple screens, ability to play against others in person, etc.
And time on ping pong and pool tables also works.
Such a venue could also rent gaming tables, meeting rooms for clubs, etc.
The other possibility would be a membership model -- like a country club but using much less space.
What are the laws for, not selling alcohol, but having alcohol allowed on premise? When I lived in Chicago, there were tons of restaurants that were BYOB and charged a simple bottle fee. That way you could bring what you wanted, they didn't have to have a sales license, they made money on you having the alcohol, probably didn't have to deal with stupid silly drunks as much, but still got the good ambiance of having it on site.
The couple breweries that I've done electrical for have had small amounts of hookups or future plans for electric for easy food items - think stuff that you can get out of a freezer, put in a quick microwave, toaster, electric air fryer, etc - but don't need an on demand cook for.
These kinds of things make it more viable to do things simply with low staffing needs. Paper plates or small washers, lower trash needs, lower licensing hurdles, etc.
I remember lots of that in Dallas back in the day. You had to join a private club associated with the restaurant for a nominal fee.
But this is beside the point I was trying to make. With the drinking age at 21, we need alcohol free third spaces. Or, at least, third spaces that are economically viable even if a large fraction of the clientele don't buy alcohol.
At least in Chicago, they didn't need to be a private club. They were regular restaurants and anyone could bring the alcohol. So, you could have alcohol or not.
Which means you could have an adult section and a youth section. I personally think that having both would be good. Sorry, but I simply don't think that the youth can keep a place afloat simply by renting a 3rd space these days - they'd do it in their own homes. Cost per foot is too high for youth to afford it on their own with the way wages are.
Maybe that's just me though. I see more of them spending money on video games than the things bought and used in 3rd spaces.
The latter two are essentially what the game store offers, though membership is more just giving preference to regulars at this point. Games are arranged, and space can be sold by the seat or by the table for a fixed amount of time by or by availability of open space starting at a minimum time. Essentially, selling time. Players bring their own gaming materials for TTRPGs.
Could you rent or sell these materials? Sure. Could you order them in for bulk purchases? Perhaps. The advantage to wargaming and TTRPGs is it's the space and time that are what you do sell, not so much the experience, as with video games, arcades, or table sports such as ping pong.
Thanks to the communist zoning laws, opening up a private club is almost impossible unless it's in its own separate building far away from residential areas or is zoned highway commercial. For starters, you have to have an available parking space for *each member* of the club. Ask me how I know.
That is sad, for what I describe is the kind of thing that can give an old school residential neighborhood the benefit of a gated community which has a clubhouse -- without all the gated community rules.
I'm sure that's why the UCC was written that way: to deny the possibility.