Not Pessimistic; Just Realistic Junction Opening Report

By Not Pessimistic, Just Realistic

After reading Ozboy's last post I had to put my two cents in. My wife and I went down to see The Salomon Center on Saturday Night. I am very familiar with the family entertainment business, as that is the very business that I am in.

Above people are saying that they hope the Boyer Company did their homework. If most of you remember there was a feasibility study done for this center. It was done by a Paul Kreins who was hired by FatCats to do the study. It was the only study done on the center and was done by the very company that stands to gain by this project. I have read the study cover to cover and found his conclusion to be very over stated. I also spoke with a Bill Kratzenburg, who does feasibility studies for bowling centers for Brunswick and he told me that there aren't enough people in the community to support this bowling center in addition to the ones that are already here and there certainly aren't enough league bowlers either.

The bowling center will not attract the serious league bowler. 1. Serious league bowlers own their own equipment and will not want to drag that equipment as far as they will have to to reach the bowling center. 2. The lack of separation from the game room to the bowling center will be a huge distraction. In Fat Cat's Salt Lake center they had to build a wall between the bowling and the arcade because the bowlers were complaining about the noise. 3. Fat Cats will have to charge a premium lineage price for the leagues and they will not pay it when you have established bowling centers like Ben Lomond, Hilltop and Sparetime. 3. The beer is too difficult to get to. You have to enter a different room to get it and if you are bowling on lane 32 it's a long ways to go.

As far as open play goes, the bowling center is just O.K. I have visited numerous bowling centers around the country and the equipment, the "Thunder Alley" bowling, and such are just very average. There are some really cool things that could have been put into the bowling center that weren't that really would have attracted the open play crowd. There is not really anything too exciting for the open play bowler. If you want to see some really cool glow in the dark bowling, go and see Sparetime Family Fun Center in Roy on a Saturday Night. They have put in large screen T.V. projectors over the lanes and play music videos for the crowd. They also have the only lanes in northern Utah that have the full glow capability, meaning that the lanes actually glow as well as the pins, unlike Fat Cats where only the pins glow. Again, like I said, just an average bowling center. Pricing is a little high for this area, but better than I thought it would be.

The arcade games are owned by Best Distributing, which by the way is owned by the Kingston Clan, (yes, the polygamists). It's just a matter of time until most of the games are in disrepair and not working. 60% of the revenue generated by the video games will be taken by Best Distributing too.

I took a look at the glow miniature golf done by a company called Shankz out of Canada. I have seen numerous courses built by Shankz and I found this one to be their worst one. The art work on the walls was not very good and the course was only 9 holes. The props were alright, but their props have a habit of not holding up very well. The black lights are too high up to be effective on the painting on the walls and there were dark corners on the course. The cost of the golf was $4.99 for adults and $3.99 for kids. Sparetime Family Fun Center in Roy also has this glow in the dark mini golf, but it is 18 holes and is $6.50 for adults and $5.50 for kids. Twice the golf for $1.50 more. The art work is 100 times better and looks very 3D. Not to mention that is has three themes to it instead of just one.

The bumper cars were really dumb. I have seen these at the Hollywood Connection, across from the E-Center in West Valley, and they don't have great appeal to alot of people. The area is too small for a really great experience.

Flow rider was alright, but my wife made the comment of, "Just what I would want, a bunch of people watching me in my swimming suit surfing and biffing it." Can't wait until the first person looses their suit and stands up naked in front of the crowd watching through the window.

We went up to iFly and only saw a bunch of people sitting around waiting for someone to get in the thing. $50 for 2 minutes just eliminated the majority of our population and like someone above stated that they could pay $150 and do the real thing.

Who ever designed this facility didn't do a very good job. I don't understand why you would put your restaurants all over the place. Pizza Factory on one side and Costa Vida on the other with Strikers Grill in the middle. I would think that you would want all of your food in one area just like they have them in the malls. There is a reason why they do that. The bar was very uninviting.

As far as the pool tables and stuff are concerned, why would you have people go to the middle of the facility to get their pool balls and cues only to have to walk back through the arcade and down a bunch of halls to get where you are going? When my wife and I first walked into the building there were people all over the place carrying their putters from the glow golf wondering where to go. when you come out of the golf you are in a hallway by the pool tables and have no idea where you are. Not to mention that my wife and I walked right past the entrance to the golf course and didn't even see it. It's just a matter of time until the pool balls and cues end up disappearing. $11 per hour for pool is very steep to when you can go to Clearfield or go up to Weber State in the Union Building too and play for more than 1/2 the price.

Rock climbing wall was no different than the one at Dick's Sporting Goods in Salt Lake in the Gateway. $10 per climb is a bit steep. (Get it "steep?")

As far as Gold's Gym goes, I have spoken to quite a few members who have stated that the locker space is very limited and that they wouldn't go there because they didn't have enough lockers. The owners of the Ogden Athletic Club, from what I have been told by employees who work there, are not even worried about the facility because they had done their own feasibility study in preparation for opening a location in Ogden and found it to be unfeasible.

My wife counted 16 employees in the bowling are only. I spoke with one of the employees and they stated that they make $7.50 per hour. I did a little math and just for the 16 employees to work 8 hours per day 6 days per week for 52 weeks, their payroll came up to just shy of $300,000 per year. Keep in mind that that doesn't include the employees in any other area other than the bowling. Not to mention any management, food service, gym, or anything else. And it also doesn't include the employees that work the other 9 hours per day.

With the large glass windows all over the place can you imagine what it's going to cost to heat and cool this facility? The A/C in the golf course was set at 78 and it was really hot and uncomfortable in there. Just wait until it gets really hot or cold for that matter.

It looks like they ran out of money for the back of the building. No stucco or anything, just painted block. Very ugly. The parking garage was very well lit, but let's see what happens in a year or two. Lots of cops and security. Made us both feel uncomfortable thinking about what the place was going to be like when the cops and security wasn't around. Too many hallways to be accosted in. The doorways already had holes in the sheet rock too.

When we left we drove by a car that had a fence laying on it. One of the construction fences had been blown over by the wind and onto one of the cars. There is lost customer with a bad experience. Also, as we were walking around, it was great to see and hear the car with the booming stereo driving between the Salomon Center and the movie theater. I think that this will be a common sight and sound in the future with all of the gang bangers driving around looking for something to do.

As we drove away from The Junction we took note of the tattoo parlor across the street and all of the unsavory people hanging out around it. Just a little farther north at a convenience store, more gang bangers hanging out in the parking lot with the doors to their cars open blaring their music. Every where you look in every direction, other than the Junction, are run down buildings, vacant lots and intimidating bangers.

Like a lot of you, I hope The Junction is a success, but from what I saw on Saturday, the number crunching that I have done, it won't be. A bowling center, gym, flowrider, air tunnel, restaurants, movie theater will not attract out of town visitors, nor will it draw people from our own community when placed where it is. It certainly can't generate enough revenue to cover $19.5 million in debt.

Mayor Godfrey is right when he says that is the only one like it in the nation and the reason being is that no one will build anything like it because it can't succeed.