They just posted a PR saying the building is up for sale... no they don't plan on shutting down. Sounds like it's a shopping for a better home!
(Topic ID: 185583)
http://replayfoundation.org/press3.html
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Mark Steinman
mhs [at] papa.org
REPLAY FOUNDATION OUTGROWS WORLD HEADQUARTERS
World's Largest Pinball Tournaments to Continue
Scott Township, Penn. -- April 3, 2017 -- Replay Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which operates the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) brand of tournaments, has placed the PAPA World Headquarters, a facility in Scott Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on the market. This facility currently houses the more than 700 rare and valuable pinball and arcade games in the Replay collection.
Since its founding in 2011, Replay Foundation has operated two of the largest pinball tournaments in the world, the PAPA World Pinball Championships and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship. In 2013, the PAPA World Headquarters, which opened for the first public PAPA event in the Pittsburgh area in 2004, was donated to Replay Foundation and used to operate these events. The Pinburgh championship quickly outgrew the PAPA World Headquarters facility and was moved to the David L. Lawrence Convention Center, as part of the annual ReplayFX event, starting in 2015.
This reduced the headquarters to hosting only one public event each year, and that event, the PAPA World Pinball Championships, has exceeded the facility's capacity for the past several years. Consequently, the headquarters is being put up for sale on the commercial real estate market, effective immediately, with a transaction expected to close sometime after the PAPA 20 event this month. Replay Foundation will not be reducing the size of its collection, nor are there plans to discontinue the PAPA World Pinball Championships.
"We recognize that our followers have thirteen years of nostalgia and great memories of the headquarters, but the facility has hit its limits in terms of attendance and logistics, and of course parking was always a nightmare," said Kevin Martin, chairman of Replay Foundation. "We are very optimistic about the continued growth of our events and the PAPA brand, and we look forward to making further announcements regarding PAPA 21 and next year's Circuit Final."
About Replay Foundation
Replay Foundation promotes the preservation, restoration and enjoyment of pinball technology, with an emphasis on the player experience. Pinball machines were designed to be played, especially in competition. Operating as a private operating foundation (charitable), Replay Foundation raises funds towards its own stated goals, with excess funds being devoted to charities in the Western Pennsylvania region.
Replay Foundation operates the annual ReplayFX event at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Under the PAPA brand name, which is the oldest continually operating brand for pinball players, dating back to its first tournament in New York City in 1991, Replay operates the two largest pinball tournaments in the world, the PAPA World Pinball Championships and the Pinburgh Match-Play Championship. Replay also organizes the PAPA Tournament Circuit, a yearly series of pinball tournaments across the nation, which culminates in a Circuit Final event operated under the PAPA brand.
Pittsburgh, PA
Quoted from lordloss:Maybe that extra dollar is going is going somewhere!
PAPA =/= IFPA
Going to miss the facility and have been spoiled only being 4 miles away. I won't miss the bathroom however.
I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
Quoted from lordloss:Thats part of the joke.
It wasn't particularly funny, sorry. 
<---use that next time?
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
If they go outside of Pittsburgh will ReplayFX site follow since all the games/equipment would have to be moved and stored somewhere.
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
No plans to leave Pittsburgh at this time. But we will see how things develop.
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
H
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
Biggest hurdle for a move outside Pittsburgh area would be possible loss of support / tech staff members. Take into account what loss of staff occurred at Stern when they moved the factory 10-20 miles.
Quoted from Spyderturbo007:I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
They can move farther east as far as I'm concerned.
Quoted from o-din:Quoted from Spyderturbo007:
I'm wondering if they are going to stay in Pittsburg or move to a different city or even a different state?
Quoted from o-din:They can move farther east as far as I'm concerned.
Who said that PAPA has to stay in the USA?
Quoted from LEE:Who said that PAPA has to stay in the USA?
They move far enough east and they are in China.
Quoted from o-din:They move far enough east and they are in China.
They move far enough East and they'll be right back in Pittsburgh 
.
This city is OK at best. However, there are far, far better places for something like PAPA.
Pittsburgh is not growing. It's pretty much a dead end town. Something like PAPA would thrive in a growing area.
I tell kids considering staying in the area to RUN once they graduate college ... They can make a hell of a lot more money and find far more interesting work elsewhere. You can always fly home to visit . I'd advise PAPA to do the same.
I'd be looking at Texas personally ... It's pretty easy to get there from anywhere in the world
I know whatever they are getting for that building wouldn't be enough to set up shop around here, that's for sure. Heck, the entire southwest doesn't even have a real pinball show.
Have to thank PAPA/Replay for rekindling my love of Pinball! ReplayFX is an absolute blast of a show. Wife, kids and I showed up at 10am on Saturday and I had to drag them out kicking and screaming at 1am.. lol. Will probably go all 4 days this year.
I've been attending PAPA for a few years and have to wonder what the big issues are with the building. It has never seemed overly crowded during the tournament.
Biggest issues have been parking (although not that big, I was always able to find spots arriving on Saturday along the side road) and internet access being spotty on the scoring tablets. Maybe they want to have even more machines on the floor? Maybe there are structural problems with the building that would be expensive to fix? In any case, I'll miss it after this year.
Quoted from pinwiztom:Why not an entire dead mall
there are plenty of those out there.
then parking should not be a problem.
Parking wouldn't really be a problem even with an emtpy wal-mart would it? They tend to have pretty big lots. And seems like it'd be enough square footage for ReplayFX.
Toronto, ON
Man, what's the monthly upkeep on a Wal*Mart building? Must be tens of thousands of dollars. You'd need to run a show a month.
Quoted from jwilson:Man, what's the monthly upkeep on a Wal*Mart building? Must be tens of thousands of dollars. You'd need to run a show a month.
Yeah - but if it was a permanent location they COULD run events more often. heh.
1 month later
Quoted from epthegeek:Yeah - but if it was a permanent location they COULD run events more often. heh.
To me this is the bigger question..
Are they interested in running more events (which takes more upkeep and tech labor) and that is part of the push..
or
Is it more about streamlining and moving to something cheaper is a bigger part of the push..
Remember the # of events per year was part of the compromise of how to work around the licensing/gaming constraints. That extra variable isn't likely to go away, just be in some new form.
They are still going to have to service the games and stage them before running an event.. and they aren't going to want to break the games down, so the amount of floor space you need is still quite high.
I am trying to stay optimistic and think that this is about moving beyond the CONSTRAINTS of the current building and less about streamlining... but the logical side of me finds it hard to DQ the later as a high probability.
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