The Wheels Are In Motion! Indoor Golf/Sports Facility

Scrap the indoor putting green and add more simulators. Same with the hunting thing. Scrap it.
With the batting cages outside, add a putt putt course of 2 and a ice cream snack bar. That's your money maker in the summer especially weekend nights.

The place in my area is simulators only. They have about 18 I believe. Charge $43 per hour m-f and $47 per hour weekends. They let you bring your own beer.
They also have a little conference area for corporate things.
Pick a good location also.

Thanks for the tip, I thought about adding a mini-golf course. I just don't know how to go about it in an affordable manner. Does anyone know the best route to go about doing this cost-effectively?
 
I'm in Eastern PA and during the winter there are not many choices for practicing. Even now last night I went to the local driving range and luckily they turned the lights on as it is basically dark by 6:30PM. There is a local indoor simulated course/range 2 minutes from my office and 10 minutes from my house. http://www.baylinksgolf.com/

They have been there for 4 or 5 years that I know of. Info on pricing and options is listed on the web page. I plan to try it out soon.

I thought this info may be of help to you so I thought I would pass it along.
 
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I'm in Eastern PA and during the winter there are not many choices for practicing. Even now last night I went to the local driving range and luckily they turned the lights on as it is basically dark by 6:30PM. There is a local indoor simulated range 2 minutes from my office and 10 minutes from my house. http://www.baylinksgolf.com/

They have been there for 4 or 5 years that I know of. Info on pricing and options is listed on the web page. I plan to try it out soon.

I thought this info may be of help top you so I thought I would pass it along.

Thanks for the info, if you go let me know how it is if you don't mind. Maybe things you liked or didn't like!
 
Thanks for the info, if you go let me know how it is if you don't mind. Maybe things you liked or didn't like!

I'm planning to try it out, so I would be happy to let you know what I think. I tend to be business curios generally anyway, so if the opportunity presents itself I will be asking some questions about how they are doing and what is working for them.
 
So this is coming from a St. Louis guy. I have access to a full simulator bay that has about 20 courses on it - all the big ones that you can think of such as Pebble Beach, Harbor Town, TPC Sawgrass, Firestone, etc. No one uses it despite over 2,000 people having carte blanche access to it whenever they want. Outside of a few long weeks, the weather is never so bad over on this side of the state that one cannot get out and play golf or hit the driving range over the winter.
 
Just pitched the idea to my best friend who is a Loan Officer and he gave me some numbers and also praised the idea saying he could see it working. He also mentioned about looking into moving the location to a town North of here that is a big college town. I would have to look into the costs, marketability, etc.
 
Just pitched the idea to my best friend who is a Loan Officer and he gave me some numbers and also praised the idea saying he could see it working. He also mentioned about looking into moving the location to a town North of here that is a big college town. I would have to look into the costs, marketability, etc.

As a loan officer I would assume he would praise the idea :)

Did he show you anything in that area that would lead you to believe the business would be profitable (case studies, other examples, etc).

Sounds like your mind is made up despite the red flags everyone is mentioning (as they did with the driving range idea), best of luck in the venture and keep us updated
 
As a loan officer I would assume he would praise the idea :)

Did he show you anything in that area that would lead you to believe the business would be profitable (case studies, other examples, etc).

Sounds like your mind is made up despite the red flags everyone is mentioning (as they did with the driving range idea), best of luck in the venture and keep us updated

Yes and No. There are red flags when it comes to any business I'm just trying to weigh the good and bad and see what could and couldn't work. Will keep you updated though!
 
Did you find any more information out about your simulators? I made a couple of calls today trying to grab some information on an office project, but the costs for anything decent, especially that could be used for commercial use were about 8 times the cost posted above.
 
I am having a hard time to getting this to add up.
You saay your start up cost is $85k, how much do you estimate your monthly expenses at?
Even if your monthly expenses are low, I just do not see a good ROI with 2 bays.
 
Lets run some numbers here (I dont agree with your numbers but thats cool, like JB said you are not getting good sims for $6k each)
Lets say you charge $20 per round. Lets also say you do more rounds than expected. Lets say you get 30 rounds a week in the winter (3 months here in MO) 15 rounds a week in the summer.
That approx $20k in Revenue a year. That would take you 5 years to pay off the initial investment if you had zero operations expenses. In all reality you are going to have more in operational expenses than your revenue.
I wish you luck but you would be better off putting that $81k in the stock marker or a CD
 
Did you find any more information out about your simulators? I made a couple of calls today trying to grab some information on an office project, but the costs for anything decent, especially that could be used for commercial use were about 8 times the cost posted above.

yikes!
 
to op- i hope you don't feel like everyone here is crapping all over your idea just to crap all over the idea. these are genuine concerns. orlando is probably unique because we have great weather most of the year, and we have so many golf courses around. but i know of one - ONE - place in town that does this and they have multiple revenue streams http://www.deweysgolf.com/. they haven't been around all that long, so the jury is out on whether they will survive. i also only know of one stand-alone driving range; the others have either folded or sold for a better and higher use.
 
to op- i hope you don't feel like everyone here is crapping all over your idea just to crap all over the idea. these are genuine concerns. orlando is probably unique because we have great weather most of the year, and we have so many golf courses around. but i know of one - ONE - place in town that does this and they have multiple revenue streams http://www.deweysgolf.com/. they haven't been around all that long, so the jury is out on whether they will survive. i also only know of one stand-alone driving range; the others have either folded or sold for a better and higher use.

I agree. I dont want the OP to feel like he is being attacked or crapped on. Definitely not the intent of this community I don't believe. I just think that many of the members here have some experience with these places and wanted to help.

I have priced this out a half dozen times for numerous reasons and it doesn't work for my numbers, without major outside revenue streams. Geography plays a large role of course, but I still believe the revenue streams have to be in place.
 
I just think that many of the members here have some experience with these places and wanted to help.

i don't have any experience with a place like this; but i do have experience with golf courses (even those subsidized by a municipality) as well as hundreds of small businesses. it's an uphill battle for sure.
 
OP - Good luck with your business idea. I guess it all depends on the area, weather, and competitors. We had a place similar to what you describe open in Northern VA and it closed in about 2 years. The cost per hour was like $25 to use a simulator. Why do that when I can go to a driving range....except for the 3 cold months. Plus even in the cold months I could go to a TopGolf with heated bays. It sounds like a good ideal...but I think it is tough to make it without additional income resources. For example, I bet TopGolf make more than 50% of their $$$ off food and drink.

Again, good luck & let us know how it goes.
 
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If you want to talk to a guy who did what you are considering, PM me and I will see if he'd be willing to talk with you. He started a four bay unit in the Albany-Saratoga region in upstate NY and was there all day every day. He moved out of the area because his wife got an unbeatable offer, so it's difficult to say whether he would be in it long term.

I'm going to a new place tonight for an indoor league. That place charges $30/hr per bay, and $25 for a 2.5 hour league. If they can get four in a bay, that's $40/hr per bay.
 
Another thing to look in to is if you have enough space maybe rent it out for events like wedding receptions. Our local indoor sim will rent out their space and people can have food catered in. This sim business does sell liquor so I'm sure that's where they make their money during these types of events.

My co-worker rented their sleeve for their reception and it was pretty cool. They played a wedding slideshow on the screens during the meal and then afterward they had hunting on a couple of screens and golf on the others for everyone to play.
 
Here are the key factors, IMO:


Other revenue streams. You mention additional revenue streams in your OP. It's good that you've ID'd options and are incorporating them.

The number of people - and by extrapolation the number of golfers - in your region. You mention population of 10k, 8k cities 20 minutes away, the 500 person tourney and KC traffic 45 miles away. Personally I couldn't imagine driving 45 minutes to play sim golf. I also couldn't imagine coming into town for a tourney then choosing to stay inside and play sim golf (maybe if you had a great sports bar...but if you have a great sports bar the sim business becomes somewhat irrelevant). That leaves the 10k town and two 8k cities 20 minutes away. This is a major red flag to me. Just not enough golfers to make it viable.

What is the weather like in your area? How often are the golf course unplayable? I dont know enough about your area to say. But I live in a large city (500k???) that has definite seasons. I'm not aware of a single facility like the one you are talking about. I remember one facility downtown about 15 years ago with a hitting bay/simulator that did lessons,nets. It went out of business quickly.

So to recap, you are going to need BAD weather for a good portion of the year and a large base of die hard golfers. That sounds more like Buffalo than MO to me.

Finally, consider your audience here. This is a group of golf nuts. If anyone was going to cheer on a golf venture it would be this group. Most are taking a pretty cautious view of things. Something to consider...
 
I think the 45minute commute thing is only relative. What I mean is that I suppose it depends what one is use to in where they live their daily lives. For people who live and work and play in areas where doing so requires a lot of travel time, 45minutes may be considered nothing. Whether that's the two extremes of a big city area where it may take a lot of time to cover short distances or a very spread and sparse country area where it covers long distances but still the same time. In both those places travel time of 45minutes may not only be a norm but may even be considered easy and no big deal. So that one is only relative.

You simply need enough people who live and play where 45min commute is no big deal. Is that the case in the area mentioned? But still even if it is you need enough who play golf and also like to, have need to, desire to use sims and indoor practice facility. And that in itself is the biggest unknown here isn't it? Imo it would be wise to have plans for revenue sources from things other than golf. Or at least a back up plan anyway. Perhaps if its in a good spot even simply being able to know you can rent/lease the land and/or structure if the golf idea itself doesn't work out.
 
I think the 45minute commute thing is only relative. What I mean is that I suppose it depends what one is use to in where they live their daily lives. For people who live and work and play in areas where doing so requires a lot of travel time, 45minutes may be considered nothing. Whether that's the two extremes of a big city area where it may take a lot of time to cover short distances or a very spread and sparse country area where it covers long distances but still the same time. In both those places travel time of 45minutes may not only be a norm but may even be considered easy and no big deal. So that one is only relative.

You simply need enough people who live and play where 45min commute is no big deal. Is that the case in the area mentioned? But still even if it is you need enough who play golf and also like to, have need to, desire to use sims and indoor practice facility. And that in itself is the biggest unknown here isn't it? Imo it would be wise to have plans for revenue sources from things other than golf. Or at least a back up plan anyway. Perhaps if its in a good spot even simply being able to know you can rent/lease the land and/or structure if the golf idea itself doesn't work out.

As I mentioned previously.. KC metro already has a bar with golf simulators in it.
 
I'd love to know more about the simulator setup you're working with, as 6K is low enough that a few local friends might be interested in pursuing.

That said, it must be extremely accurate and better than anything I've seen at that number -- But it will certainly make my winters more entertaining.
 
Something that could help this, what if you set up smaller fitness area in your building. Could help keep people flowing in/out throughout the day. You could even make it golf specific excercise. Definetly rooting for you to succeed with this thing.
 
Something that could help this, what if you set up smaller fitness area in your building. Could help keep people flowing in/out throughout the day. You could even make it golf specific excercise. Definetly rooting for you to succeed with this thing.

Hire a trainer that focuses on golf specific regimens? That'd be really cool.

What seems to be the common trend here is supplemental revenue streams which I agree with. Bars make big money (ever considered their cost to a keg of beer vs what we pay?), food makes decent money, etc etc.
 
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