Indoor golf simulator - what do you look for?

bogeyme

The Golf GODS hate me
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So I was kicking around the idea of opening an indoor golf location. It's very likely a "pipe dream" if you will. I've never been to a golf simulator outside of Golf Galaxy/Dicks Sporting Goods/Golfsmith.

So I ask those of you that have. What do you look for in a good location?

How many bays do you expect a location to have? Is there a minimum/maximum?

Do you expect food/beverages to be available? Do you expect alcohol be available?

How about a "practice" green?

Do you expect club building/repair to be available? Do you expect new/used clubs to be available for sale? Golf balls?

A few of the other simulator locations I found while doing a google search have "rounds" of $20 for 9 holes and $40 for 18 holes. Are these prices you'd be ok paying?

Do you expect TV's with golf, other sporting events on? What about Wifi?

I guess expect maybe the wrong word to use for these examples but I'm not really sure of what word I'm looking for either.

The location I would be looking at is at the end of a shopping center. It is a 5,000 sq ft store room. There is a range of fast food, pizza shops, sit down restaurants and a bar around the location. There is also a national grocery store in the same shopping center with a grocery store/super center across the street. There is a golf course less than 3 miles from this location. Could that be a hindrance to business? I don't believe they have a simulator.

I'm open to ideas/opinions on this. Like I said it's likely just a dream, but every good business started as a dream right?
 
There are a few new places that have opened up around here, and I know of a few courses building additional bays.

I haven't been to all of them in my area, but here's what I'm generally looking for:

At least 2 bays. Sometimes we'll have 6-8 guys and it takes *way* too long if we're all playing in the same sim.

Yes to food, beverages and beer. I'd be happy to bring my own too if it's allowed (or encouraged).

I've yet to find a sim that handles putting as well as the first one I played (in the mid-90s). Sim putting is horrible, but having a few holes to goof around and putt to while waiting for other players is fun.

I don't expect to find clubs, balls, or club repair around unless I'm at a store or golf course. I wouldn't see it as a requirement to visit a particular location, but repair in particular (loft & lie specifically) would be a nice addition to most of the places around here.

Outside of league play, I've never payed per round. League is $20 for 9 holes. In every other case we pay hourly (between $20-40 / hour). Generally it takes 4 of us about 2-2.5 hours to play 18 comfortably.

TVs aren't a must, but they're really nice. Once the Packers are eliminated we tend to play sim golf during the other playoff games. It's also fun to play the same course the PGA tour is playing while the weekend coverage is on. I don't care too much about wifi, but it would be appreciated too.
 
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