Sports Entertainment Center

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SonomaCat
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Sports Entertainment Center

Post by SonomaCat » Mon Nov 30, 2015 12:03 pm

I've been kind of quiet about what my wife and I were planning to do with our lives after leaving our corporate gigs and moving to Sonoma County. Everything was kind of cloak and dagger on the part of the lead guys for the project, so we had to keep everything in the "quiet phase" until all of the PR was lined up correctly and a lot unknowns had become knowns.

But finally, I can share ... we will be focusing on the trampoline park operations in this facility, and I will also be heading up the accounting operations for the facility in the role as Controller:

http://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/ ... x3jGrzj.97

The reason I am posting this here isn't because I think most people really care too much about my accounting career, but rather because there is a Bozeman/Montana-centric element to this that I've been wanting to talk about for quite awhile on this board. After this facility is up and running there will be a wealth of knowledge among the management team regarding the financing, development, and operations of a facility of this kind, and there's a good chance that they would be interested in taking this concept to new markets.

Ever since I started working with these guys, the idea of trying to do something like this in Bozeman (perhaps in a few years, as the market grows) has been on the tip of my brain. Given the long cold-weather months and the relative lack of indoor sports facilities in the area, along with the opportunities driven by a growing and dynamic MSU campus, I could see something similar to this in Bozeman potentially being possible. My really wild idea was to partner with MSU to have them use the indoor turf space as their indoor practice facility for set hours of the day, and then use drop-down netting to split up the turf space for other activities (indoor soccer, youth baseball, flag football, lacrosse, etc.) for the rest of the day and on weekends. A local bar could be partnered with to move into the facility, and other entertainment options could be built in as well (family entertainment center, trampolines, bowling, indoor golf facility, etc.).

It would require some major investors, of course, but it could also potentially provide a very nice ROI for those investors.

Anyway, just something to think about. If anyone is interested in brainstorming about something like this as a potential "down the road" project, my email address is brad.bergum@rockinjump.com. I'd say that in about a year from now, we will have the knowledge and experience (including financial results of the Santa Rosa facility) to really have the ability to pull together very solid business plans for potential facilities elsewhere. Doing something like this in Bozeman could well just be cloud talk, but on the other hand it really could be a very cool reality if the economic growth it the Gallatin Valley continues to tear along and the numbers all fall into place.



gtapp
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Re: Sports Entertainment Center

Post by gtapp » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:10 pm

Hello Brad. The trampoline parks in MN didn't last to long. It was an interesting idea at first but never really caught on. If there was only one in the Minneapolis area maybe but there is not enough demand and the space, utility costs and insurance make to tough to be profitable. People have birthday parties there but for the most part they are under utilized. I mention MN because of the similar weather.


Gary Tapp
Graduated MSU 1981
Hamilton High School
Minneapolis, MN

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LongTimeCatFan
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Re: Sports Entertainment Center

Post by LongTimeCatFan » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:15 pm

There's 2 or was in Kalispell. "The Zone" and "Jumping Jacks"

JJ is gone and I'm not sure about TZ. The biggest complaint after they had been in business a while was cleanliness. They became very dirty and parents with sick kids don't seem to mind spreading the disease so long as their kid's entertainment isn't limited.



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Re: Sports Entertainment Center

Post by SonomaCat » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:39 pm

gtapp wrote:Hello Brad. The trampoline parks in MN didn't last to long. It was an interesting idea at first but never really caught on. If there was only one in the Minneapolis area maybe but there is not enough demand and the space, utility costs and insurance make to tough to be profitable. People have birthday parties there but for the most part they are under utilized. I mention MN because of the similar weather.
It looks like there are 5 trampoline parks in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area today. Generally you can support one park for every 250k in population (assuming solid income levels, etc). They are growing so fast now though that most of that low hanging fruit is gone so we will be seeing consolidation in the industry and likely more of the smaller parks combined with other entertainment opportunities like the Epicenter is doing.

And to ltcf's point, yes there are some bad ones out there, especially in terms of cleanliness. Ours will be mopped down every day with hospital grade disinfectant. A lot of the operators that try to get by on the cheap get run out of the market quickly. Bad PR is deadly.

All that said, the trampoline element is a relatively small part of the total operations of the kind of facility I am kicking around.



gtapp
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Re: Sports Entertainment Center

Post by gtapp » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:51 pm

Good point. After initial growth the entire industry took a dive a few years ago. Those that found other ways to generate revenue are growing again. The problem in MN is that it is such an outdoor state. Everyone does everything outside year round (Snowmobiling, ice fishing, hockey, CC skiing, etc.). Injuries and insurance are a problem but that is true in many companies. MY personal opinion is that it is a fad. Hopefully I am wrong and good luck!!!!!!


Gary Tapp
Graduated MSU 1981
Hamilton High School
Minneapolis, MN

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SonomaCat
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Re: Sports Entertainment Center

Post by SonomaCat » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:55 pm

Like I mentioned, the tramps are a small part of the total operations so we won't be doing a feast or famine based on that business alone fortunately. Diversity is good.



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Re: Sports Entertainment Center

Post by LongTimeCatFan » Mon Nov 30, 2015 11:55 pm

SonomaCat wrote:
gtapp wrote:Hello Brad. The trampoline parks in MN didn't last to long. It was an interesting idea at first but never really caught on. If there was only one in the Minneapolis area maybe but there is not enough demand and the space, utility costs and insurance make to tough to be profitable. People have birthday parties there but for the most part they are under utilized. I mention MN because of the similar weather.
It looks like there are 5 trampoline parks in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area today. Generally you can support one park without much trouble for every 250k in population. They are growing so fast now though that most of that low hanging fruit is gone so we will be seeing consolidation in the industry and likely more of the smaller parks combined with other entertainment opportunities like the Epicenter is doing.

And to ltcf's point, yes there are some bad ones out there, especially in terms of cleanliness. Ours will be mopped down every day with hospital grade disinfectant. A lot of the operators that try to get by on the cheap get run out of the market quickly. Bad PR is deadly.

All that said, the trampoline element is a relatively small part of the total operations of the kind of facility I am kicking around.
If you post your cleanliness daily activities and encourage suggestions for improvement, it can lead to trust from parents. That's got to be number 1 I would guess, because if parents don't trust that their kid won't get sick after visiting your place, you're sunk.

The Zone had laser tag, go carts, mini golf, and a few other activities beyond trampoline. I went back and read why they went defunct. The lease they had for the building expired as the building was sold to the hospital. So it seems like they did ok here until then. JJ was the dirt one.



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