Tim here at the PHOF.
We have had a variety of operational and corporate issues since the opening of the new building that have kept us occupied doing things that do not involve improving the quality of our product.
THE BUILDING- The contractor and the Clival Engineer made several large and tragic mistakes that have left us without clear title and a straight property line. We also got sued by a Real Estate Firm that thought they were due a commission on the purchase of the dirt lot. The billboard Company that we inherited when we bought the property sued us for blocking the visibility of his with our large sign on the street. The plumbing sub-contractor used fixtures that were below the quality called for in our contract and refuses to make it right.
We have also been in a legal fight with the State Tax Commission on a Sales Tax rebate due us on construction materials we paid for in the building of our new place.
These are NOT the kind of problems you can put off or in any way delay. They demand your complete attention, including many days of depositions, a 3 day trail and endless meeting. The mistake was in no way our fault, and an insurance has so far paid several million dollars in damages but we have reached an impasse with a small piece of land in the far corner of the lot that the the owner is not willing to settle on. All this time has taken our eyes off the prize, time needed for maintenance and repair of our games.
We also suffered a 12 week complete shutdown due to Covid lock-down and a slow ramp up after it was lifted. Then we had a HUGE rush of business as people who had pockets of Covid relief money all wanted to play all at once.
We have also had problems getting people WHO KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING to fix machines. I hesitate to let a person who can not speak clearly or write legibly and has NO knowledge of basic mechanical skills loose on an expensive and complicated piece of equipment. The skilled helpers we do have all pitched in and worked extra hard, but we still had more machines going into the dead game bank than we had coming out for a long time. I have trained 3 people since we opened to do flipper and bumper repairs and they all three left due to legitimate life changes reasons. The constant noise and interruptions from customers is also physically and mentally DRAINING. Clay now lives part of the year in Vegas, and flatly will NOT help here during the hours we are open. It is also not practical to lift each machine up and move it to an isolated area each time they need repair. The cabinets are old and weak and trying to wheel anything thru a mass of people is difficult and dangerous.
My wife's mother died, and Charlotte has been unable to help at all for almost a year because she was there giving aid and comfort and taking care of the estate. Beth has also had family and minor health issues. Pirate John was out for back surgery for almost 6 months and just returned this week on a part time limited basis. All this along with the usual comings and goings of the non-technical staff add up to a "Chronic shortages and quality issues with staffing at all levels of the retail industry" (The Wall Street Journal)
But through it all, one thing has stayed constant, our level of dedication and commitment to what we are and what we believe in. NEVER was there talk of quitting, cutbacks or surrender. I ask the pinball community for a little understanding during a time in my 53 years in this business that can only be described as a PERFECT STORM of trouble. I would also like you to consider what we call "Embrace the funk!". Many people accuse us of being unprofessional, ass-backwards, or worse. But there is NO WAY any normal business model could have worked in a world WHERE NOTHING MAKES SENSE. Think of all the arcades, funlands, museums that have failed since 2006 when we went full time with this project. We have survived and THRIVED because we do a lot of things differently. At times, it may seem more like a bunch of guys with some pinball machines in an old auto-parts store and not a proper museum, but I would remind you that this industry has only recently obtained status as a legitimate form of entertainment. For most of it's life, coin operated games were a "bandit industry", run by fools and criminals on the fringes of society. "The funk" is baked-in to our past.
What is going to happen next? I look forward to a slow but measurable improvement of our quality as problems described above fall away. Traffic will return to a more predictable and normal level as the effects of Covid and interest hikes smooth out huge swings in demand. Spot shortages of supplies and labor will lessen, the cats will stop fighting each other, and the sun will shine again.
Lake Havasu City, AZ
Regina, SK
