I am often jealous of larger cities which have a larger group of players and more regular opportuntites to play pinball and meet new people. In short, about 4 years ago there was zero opportunity to play decent pinball in Madison. Myself and a few buddies organized to create Madison Pinball. We started with 1 location and 4 games. We now have 3 locations and over 24 games (4, 9, 12-13 at the 3 locations). Our main goal was to share our personal games on location for people to play and spread the word of the silverball.

We have built up a core group of regular competitors. They come out to the monthly competitions we host. They come out to the launch parties. They come out for the selfie leagues. All the while when maintaining games I see lots of regular location players that never come to any of the monthly gatherings. It seems to me that the competitive side has kept some people from coming out (the same 3-5 people win every month as they are just damn good).

I have racked my brain and tried to figure out new ways to promote and bring these people in as I would love to see the niche continue to grow. I am looking for some new ideas or genuine thoughts on how to bring new people into pinball.

Granted there are only so many hours in the day and we are only a town of 250k so I fully understand there is a ceiling.

What are your ideas? real ideas please...
Are you are regular location player but rarely play in competitions? why?

Are you an operator or run IFPA or other events? What works for you? has anything helped? do you advertsie and how?

I seriously appreciate any insight or input on how to continue to spread the word of the silverball.

*worth note that the main motivator here is to bring more people into pinball

great ideas!

can you explain some of your league structure please? how do they work?

would be nice, but we have not made a penny in 4 years (everything goes back into maintaining games and trying to bring in new stuff).

good tip!

one of our locations is in sight of Madison College. Working on flyers now.

good info.

We have only coin drop as entry fee. Curious if you think the $5 entry helps or hurts. I dont really like the idea of pay extra to play; esp when half the people will continually be paying into a pot that will mostly be the same 5 people that win. thoughts?

We do:
Only coin drop to play
Free pitcher/ drink tickets/ bomber to winner (some months we twist this up and make it for the consilation bracket)
Main incentive seems to be WPPR points, but this is also what seems to keep noobies away since they dont win as often.

We have had real success with a few guys that stunk when they started but stuck with it and win regularly now.

Any thoughts on how to get more noobies to come and stick it out?

Also wondering how many of your noobies come once and then are done? vs come once and get hooked.

-2 on the way to work today. That would be brutal for the girls...

yeah, been trying to hand out prizes more and more to those not in the top bracket. I find it more fun also.

I see, so you are sayingto be careful that you dont run off the casual players due to hosting too many events.

one of our locations just started a weekly high score thing. He would pick a new game each week and highest score won a free beer. The first 3 weeks the same guy came in, put up a monster score the first day, and won the beer. Coin drop appeared to suffer in those games, lol. Exact opposite effect as it seemed people avoided playing those games and nobody new played at all.

good suggestions.

unfortunately we dont make any money on food/beer since we just put the games out.

I totally get this. I started trying to counteract this by giving out prizes to lower brackets. Our typical format is to play through a group of games to qualify and then split into 4 packs for playoffs. Some months the lowest 4 pack gets to win the pitcher of beer. It is not much, but it is something. I completely understand the bordom of getting beat on a game.

I like this idea also. Not sure how to logistically do it since I dont have the time to sit around at a location all night long, but good idea.

Maybe there is a way to use payrange to do this? We have payrange on all the games at out bigger location. Wonder if there is a way to set up unlimited play with a one time fee for a preset time?

very good advice! I need to get better at that.

unfortunately there are numerous other operators willing to dump in gambling machines and broken junk, so asking for more money is a good way to find the door.

Keep in mind we really are doing this for the fun of pinball and to share the silverball. Sure it would be nice to make money, but I am convinced at this point that Madison is not large enough to make actual money on just pinball. We would need a 100% cut or double the playing population and have them play twice as much

We are happy to just be promoting pinball.
I would just like to continue to help build it up from here.

I really like this idea! Not sure if we can justify the cost of a pinball machine to give-a-way? worth looking in to.

maybe even a cheap EM that we fix up and make it play nice.

Part if the problem is so many promotional things cost money.

I do really like this idea! Just gotta figure out how to make it happen.

is it an honor system for scores?

How does it work when nobody is there to watch?

I like the idea of a league.

I like this idea. I tried it twice last year and only 2 people showed up.

maybe I will give it a go again next year.

We need more signage for sure!

All good tips.

got a scan to share or pdf?

another great idea! Would love to see some seniors out playing pinball!

we have the best playing pins in the state and take pride in that.

A suggestion for others with games out... Put your phone number, email, and website on the pay card for every machine and ASK your regulars to let you know when things go down. I get text and QR code scans from players for problems and often stop out to fix them immediately. Same thing for the 2 other guys that are part of Madison Pinball. We strive hard to maintain the best playing, greatest diversity (brand new to EM era), and often rotated games. If pinball is not working then it is not any fun IMO. Less than 24hrs is out greatest downtime for most issues; more often than not simple issues are fixed in a few hours.

My wife wants to start a women's night once a month but is not sure how to get it going. We put a post on our FB page and only 3 women responded. I have encouraged her to just give it a go and see what happens. Maybe over time it will grow and she will meet some more pinball ladies?

anyone have success with TOPS tournaments?

is this even possible?

Is there a setting for TOPS games to prevent free games won for being used?

Just wanted to share experience form last night.

I hosted a r/madison and local pinballer free play night last night as a way to give back to the community at the end of the year (obviously cant afford to do it all the time, but this was an experiment).

I hit up the local reddit a bunch to announce.
I hit up the local forums
I kit up our FB page.

It was billed as a casual and fun night of pinball. We have 9 games at the location. We used 3 of them for an IFPA tourney but kept it casual (or at least more casual; still a few headphone wearing hardcores came which is cool to as my idea is to find a way for more people to get along together and see there are all types into pinball. Worth note that I spent alot of time just watching people and could tell for sure that the casuals are not entralled with with the typical competitive stuff and it was a turn off to them).

All games were on free play. We used Big Indian and ran a blindfolded team competition for fun. (1 person blindfolded and other tells them when to flip; then swap and add the scores together; able to repair with as many people as you wanted) Team thing was a big success and people really seemed to like it.

We had 24 total people out to play. 12 of them were completely new faces from Reddit and FB followers. They seems to have lots of fun and like the less stress of this sort of fun/free play night.

It makes me think that it may be worth while doing the occasional pay $10 get a pint and get to play for free for 3 hours sort of night. Advertise heavily and try to get lots of people in the door to play. It may be a fun experiment. I am realizing that to bring in new people I need to get the more competitive (myself included at times) to switch gears somehow to return to the more open/inviting guys they were when I first met them. Noobs like meeting other pinheads and like learning how to play in these social environments. Everyone wants to feel like they are part of something but also need to find their own niche in pinball if they are going to stick around.

Last night was a fun experiment and I met some new potential pinheads which makes me smile! Just wanted to share.

exactly, but also keep in mind that this is not a 'business' in the traditional sense. This is still just pinball, not my livelyhood, and about spreading the love of the silverball. Sure I cant give it away for free, but I also dont have to pay me bills (it never would) off it. What little money comes in the coin slot helps pay down loans on already purchased games. Those hopefully turn into more and better games over time.

The real 'wins' are new people figuring out pinball is fun.

If someone is doing this for a business then I think the ocassional free play opportunity is good and if anything the hope is that regular players appreciate this and in return they will come to your location to drop in more coins in the future.

I agree, just talking it out. IME from last night, there were 14 completely new people that came in the door, bought beer/food (a great thing for the location that hopefully makes them appreciate us more), and they played pinball. Those new people may never come back, but I have a feeling at least 2 will be back again for sure. 4 more will likely come check it out. Sure, they came because it was free. What brings them back is hopefully the community and the experience. Granted I could tell not all experiences were positive; some people were very turned off by the ultra competitve headphone stuff. I tried to talk to those people and welcome them in. I tried to give them a positive experience.

In the pure question of what will this do for coin drop. I am positive that thsi month the coin drop will be less. Regulars did not come play other days and then came out last night to get their free fix. Casuals may only come this once. I also have a good feeling that the regulars will opt to support us rather than the guy in the next town when thinking about where to drop quarters and get a beer next week. At the same time I have a feeling aome casuals will be back.

I know 100% that 14 new to pinball people would not have gotten the opportunity without last night and that is a win in my book. I also learned alot from just watching and observing last night. That is part of the fun for me. Trying to figure out what makes people tick and how to get them in the door and coming back for the silverball.

I have found r/madison to be great for spreading the word of pinball.

Tends to be like minded and the right age bracket, at least in madison.