Quote:
Originally Posted by greatxwhite
Lol harsh on Champions, havent been so cant speak to it... I do know a massive building with hotel rooms, kitchen, poker staff, etc that struggles to get a single table going most days has to be sweating... thats a serious monthly nut to cover and they arent even coming close... ol Hellmuth and company will probably fold it up before the end of the year if things don't pick up.
I think their problem is similar to how the Lodge in Austin is missing out on tons of revenue. They focus too much on the high stakes market. A 100/200 NLH player is paying you the same seat fee as a 1/2 NLH player, but the bigger player wants a host, free food and special treatment. They're an absolute pain in the ass and not worth the effort.
A poker room with a hotel that they pumped $12 million into means they thought they were going to be a "destination" poker room, hosting big series and having people travel to attend.
The problem is that this is difficult to pull off because there's so much competition for series of events all over the country, and they're essentially relying too much on players coming to stay there.
You really need to focus on building a core local group of regulars that will come and fill those seats and pay you time everyday, you can't just rely on traveling players.
So you need to market to locals, and you need to create promotions that will get butts in seats and keep them there (hint: $50 high hands every 15 minutes ain't gonna do it). And you need to setup your games to protect people from going busto, cause broke players ain't paying you time fees. All this unlimited restraddles and uncapped buyins or match the stake just favor the people with the deepest pockets who don't think long-term, they will absolutely slaughter the sheep rather than shear them, and **** up your local poker economy.
You have to not cater to the very vocal professionals and the deep-pocketed players, and instead cater to the recreational lower stakes locals if you want to really make money. You should do everything to structure your room to repulse the grinders. Flatten payouts in tournaments, pay a larger percentage of the field than 10%, get rid of the unlimited rebuys for 9 ****ing levels, etc.