Thanks for writing this. How do you see the semi-sporty activities, especially Pickle Ball, Dodge Ball and Padel fit into this? Same or different? And how have the companies mentioned performed as public stocks?
Interesting article, but in my opinion it misses much of what's actually happening in the space. Those making money are simply events businesses with somewhere around 75%-90% of revenues coming from F&B. Margins are pumped up by game play revenues and advanced booking, and restaurants at this scale do much better than 15% at the base. The frequency thing is real, but the diagram gets much of it wrong in terms of whom is doing what (Ex. Chicken N Pickle avgs around $15m in top line, but has nearly the same frequency as TopGolf. Key to both of their success is corporate events budgets which account for the large majority of their traffic.
Thanks for writing this. How do you see the semi-sporty activities, especially Pickle Ball, Dodge Ball and Padel fit into this? Same or different? And how have the companies mentioned performed as public stocks?
It's a spectrum. Camp Pickle is geared towards the experience and its F&B offerings. Ace Pickle is purely for the sport. It offers no F&B and is based entirely on utility. (wrote about this more here: https://thephysicality.substack.com/p/on-the-recreational-renaissance)
Interesting article, but in my opinion it misses much of what's actually happening in the space. Those making money are simply events businesses with somewhere around 75%-90% of revenues coming from F&B. Margins are pumped up by game play revenues and advanced booking, and restaurants at this scale do much better than 15% at the base. The frequency thing is real, but the diagram gets much of it wrong in terms of whom is doing what (Ex. Chicken N Pickle avgs around $15m in top line, but has nearly the same frequency as TopGolf. Key to both of their success is corporate events budgets which account for the large majority of their traffic.