People go to palm springs/desert to play golf, sit by the pool, enjoy the sun and get drunk. Not to spend all day indoors playing pinball. Banning is still almost 30 miles from palm springs intl airport.. 60 mile cab ride to play pinball??

MAYBE if the museum advertises heavily in PS/PD and offers a shuttle... and a well-stocked bar and lounge...

I live about an hour from Banning and we are overrun with tourists on weekends.
This place would be perfect for us, a lot of people up here have second homes in Palm Springs.
Apparently you have never heard of the Inland Empire and have no idea how many people live in So Cal and you think LA and SD are separate cities.
LOL!
So Cal is one giant city from SD to the Grapevine.

I'm curious as to which major city has a space like this available for $150 grand!

If you want to be critical, that's your choice, but no one listens to your concerns if you immediately come off as the exact type of person a business would like to keep as far away as possible!

Oh, I've heard of the IE... acres and acres of suburbs carved from the desert, and I assumed that (and PS/PD) would be the main source of customers for this museum. The problem is that tourists aren't going to socal for pinball, and most pinball fans aren't going to make a special trip to socal just to check out this museum. It's not convenient at all for anyone outside the area, especially considering the local traffic. I'm a big pinball fan, but even if I were to travel to LA to hit Magic Mountain, I doubt I'd bother driving 2 hours inland (4 hours round trip) just to see this museum.

I'm not against this project, but neither do I think it has much chance of success. If it DOES succeed, I'd be pleasantly surprised. It will depend mightily on the locals to get this off the ground. Is the LA pinball community large enough to support a 500-game facility 2 hours from the city? We'll see soon enough... good luck!

San Angeles. At least they found a place. Nobody can seem to figure out where to put a football team.

As a San Diegan I'm fine with the location, especially when they get the RV/Camping area set up. Will be nice to spend a weekend up there with the family and play some pinball. Also a good half way point in the winter for snowboarding up in Big Bear. No way they could ever get that done in LA/OC or SD with that kind of square footage needed.

Nobody would want to see those two (or any other major) attractions in a single day. That's just too much to see. The Museum of Pinball would stand on it's own as a major attraction.

LAX to Magic Mountain is a 40mile cab ride on the 405/5!!! They better have a fully stocked bar up there at Magic Mountain!

Banning is in the middle of nowhere but at least Magic Mountain is in Santa Clarita!

Never understand why people are
Negative about someone's dream
And doing something good for pinball
Community.

Lets support this no matter how crazy
It sounds to people.

The Casino around the Corner is overbooked
Year round , Friday,Saturday ,Sunday!!
Again , Year round !!! And this place is almost next door.

I remember when that was the middle of nowhere.

Plus the outlets, plus Palm Spings' proximity, plus the traffic that travel by on the freeway from neighboring states into various regions of SoCal, plus the 20 million plus residents in SoCal who are VERY used to driving to get anywhere, plus...

Magic Mountain is a destination - most of those coasters were record-holders at one time, and are one of a kind creations. MM, along with Cedar Point, are the best coaster destinations on earth. OTOH, I can play close to 500 different games when I goto PAPA or Pinburgh, and there are hundreds more machines at various shows, collections and tournaments in the area. This museum looks to have an awesome collection, but not worth a specific trip IMHO. You'll have to attract the gamblers and golfers and locals.

Not negative, just realistic. If John can make this happen, more power to him, but I'm skeptical. Maybe you can use this skepticism to drive pledges... prove me wrong? Seems the only folks disagreeing with me are CA residents..

I think some people get jealous of something that is cool that has nothing to do with them. ("Whaa?? They cant do that! That is close to an idea I had once!")

I also find that most pinball people consider themselves experts on ANYTHING that is related to pinball.

There are many ways to open up a pinball palace. PPM, PHoF, PNN all use different models and seem to be going just fine by the people who are operating them - that said...

Ask ANY of them how much unsolicited advice they get on a daily basis from pin peeps on what they are "doing wrong". (They have all told me (privately and publicly) "way too much".)

These guys have a mission and a bunch of support. They are leading this effort with great strides. Time to follow or get out of the way.

I find it interesting how many folks on pinside can't take any commentary they disagree with without getting defensive and combatative. Not surprising.. this site's been this way for a while, but still interesting. To Mr. Bumper, no, I'm not jealous in any way, and saying such just makes you look small and petty. Also didn't offer any 'expert' advice. The existence, or lack thereof, of this museum doesn't affect me at all. I'm just commenting that the proposed location is rather surprising, and offers some .. challenges. Instead of making assumptions and being rude, Mr. Bumper, perhaps you should work on making this museum happen? $136K to go... make a pledge! I'm helping you out by keeping this week-old thread bumped... take advantage of it!

You done talked me into it! I'm yet to ride this creation.

I don't think he was thinking perfect for you, I think he was wondering if it would be perfect for them ?

LTG : )

Uhhhh. I was responding to RVDV's post. Never mentioned your name once or was speaking to you specifically. Don't know who you are, etc. No combat coming from here.

So please don't let my counter arguments "affect you at all".

My only response to you was the earlier post about your bitching about cab rides from airports. Destinations are just that - destinations! No one is going to Santa Clarita to buy shoes and says "Oh look! A record holding roller coaster, lets go!"

Banning is out of the way - duly noted. Now stop posting the same argument over and over, otherwise you might come across as small and petty!

Bumper: artful dodge accepted. Good luck with the museum. If they ever build some coasters in Palm Desert, I'll stop by for a visit

Tourists don't go to SoCal for pinball because there is no place to play a large collection! Molly has 20+ machines at her joint, but compared to these other places around the country, of course we're not a destination. For some reason we can't seem to have a pin expo down here either, while NorCal gets 2 or 3. So maybe, just maybe, a 500 machine location would become a tourist destination? There is a casino right there, smack dab in the middle of nowhere too ya know. Those of us that live here, we are not strangers to driving all over the place for our entertainment. Shoot, how many of us have driven specifically to Vegas just to play at the PHoF and not gamble? *raises hand*

Our famed traffic is also pretty lite in that neck of the woods (desert). I don't know. If you are visiting SoCal, rent a damn car. We are not a taxi kind of place. You wanna experience SoCal, drive it. I live in OC, driving 35-45 miles one way to work or play in LA is completely normal. There are people that come here specifically to surf and ski on the same day, but dem mountains aren't a quick drive from the beach either.

I get your point, it'd be ideal to open something like this in a more metro area. Perhaps you're not familiar with the cost of real estate out here. The fact that someone bought a massive property specifically for pinball, that's awesome. And it's near a freeway, even better. If I were making a trip back east and found myself in the vicinity of PAPA, I'd go out of my way to visit. I imagine there are plenty that would do the same for this place.

Why just all be so negative in the world

Life is like a box of chocolates

........ And that's all I have to say about that.

Hear Hear!!

I'd think nothing of that drive for a day of pinball. Beats hopping on a plane in the morning to Sacramento, renting a car, driving to PAGG, then driving back and taking another plane home that night, and I happily did that.

We've hit the 10% mark, and we have 25 days left! If this DREAM is going to become a REALITY, we need everyone's help. Every dollar makes a difference. Would you consider becoming a backer on Kickstarter?

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/museumofpinball/worlds-largest-museum-of-pinball-help-us-launch

I backed the project and am doing what I can to spread the word. I'm about 20 mins from Banning, so as I've said before let me know when and how I can help out!

I met Dave and John and CAX and they are truly a class act. I encourage everyone to do what they can to help. 500 machines! Come on, its for everyone!

Joe

I do wish this was a little closer to SD, but I certainly have your support!!!!

I'm in on the kickstarter, and wish the museum best of luck.

I think it's an awesome idea. I love it!

I like to save my money for supporting local pinball establishments that I'll actually get to play at... but the t-shirts are pretty cool! Count me in for 1 t-shirt.

pinball_til_i_die.png

GLWD! (Good Luck With Dream)

ps. The pinball party for 1000 people sounds awesome. Makes me wish I had 1,000 friends. Oh and lived closer to California...

C-mon people, let's make this mother happen!

I'll see you in Banning, vid!

Hope they get a liqueur license...

Oh yeah! If not, it's never far away.

Or can you say "flask"?

That's the second time you and alcohol have come up. This is a positive trend!

I am in, c'mon So Cal let's make this happen.

I have a stupid question, I know it's dumb but I guess I just want everyone to tell me how dumb.

If you guys already have the building and the games, how inconceivable is it that you might truck out 250 games or so, pump in some AC, rent a couple of generators, and rig up some kind of pinball show to shore up the gaping hole that is the now-on-hiatus Pacific Pinball Expo? You obviously have a lot of SoCal folks willing to pitch in, and you could use that show to raise funds toward your eventual goal. Obviously it'd be a ton of work, but man not having another California pinball show until PAGG next year kind of sucks! I bet you could draw folks from SF-SD, AZ, NV & even a chunk of longer-flight folks too...get someone tourney-saavy to run you a decent tournament, let some of us local techs come pitch in a couple days of setup, structure your entry fee so that folks who want to throw in a little more for the cause get some cool perks, and -- couldn't you make some good money this way?

As I understand it, the two major challenges for putting on a big show are 1) location and 2) procurement of games. Those you have. So the rest is hard work schlepping games securing your permit for the weekend (which means let banning know they have a few hundred folks needing to eat, drink, and board for the weekend $). Doing it all by late September would be next to impossible, but up at CaEx this weekend EVERYONE was talking about what a drag it is that there won't be a PPE 2013.

People would get to know you and your project a bit, see that Banning isn't just a tumbleweed rolling around but rather a cool area close to palm springs, Joshua tree, and the outlet shopping/casino stuff...there's a lot to do not far away. Sling booze like it's a "gallery opening" or whatever you have to do to get O-Din his draaank, and...I don't know. Wouldn't it be cool? I can do the fifty bucks on kickstarter, sure, but I spend soooooooo much more than fifty bucks when I'm out at shows!

Get some raffles going, some donations, and a good volunteer base together and just do it. Zapcon was a first effort and it kicked ass! You could become the local fall event!

Yes, like I said I know it's stupid but some us just have stupid pinball dreams.

I don't think it's dumb. Trying to help, never could be.

LTG : )

LOL well if I'm known for anything it's for relentlessly trying to force my stupid pinball dreams on all of you, like it or not! Muahahaha.

Part of the problem with the show idea (love it) might be the wiring, I know part of the Kickstarter was getting the outlets squared away to plug in all the machines.

Tell you what, I'm guessing it would be super easy to find volunteers to help set up a show if it came to that, I know I'd be willing.

I've seen trucks drive out for film shoots that have enough juice to power stadium lighting, etc; portable power isn't really too much of an issue this close to Hollywood. If you don't want to pay for it, let someone film it! There's your power.

Touche! This is absolutely true. It would be no thing to get a 4 megawatt genie in the LA area. 4 Megawatts is 4,000,000 watts which is an absurd amount of power. Most pinball machines are operated off of 2.5 amps which on a 110v supply is about 275 watts. So, theoretically, you could power all 500 with one 4 megawatt genie. In fact, you could power about 14,000 pinball machines with one of those -- not for long, but temporarily.

You are looking at 84 20 amp runs to power 500 games, that is a lot of 6 gang boxes and cords.

How many stingers do you need? Well, how many do you have? lol

How many stingers do you need? Well, how many do you have? lol

Not enough.

powering_up_PAGG.jpg

I think that's a great suggestion Molly, and I'm sure the local people would help out however they could. They don't need 500 games, 100 would be a great show.

PinballMolly - I read the idea to John on our drive home from Santa Clara, and we were quite inspired! We talked about the concept for a couple of hours. Thank you for spurring us on. We shall see what happens...

I would also consider going to see the local town council or tourist board .. I presume you have them in California?

If you can pitch them the Museum as a tourist attraction I'm sure they would look at providing some funding or a loan. Again, not sure how it works in the USA.

If you don't ask, you don't get

rd.

Seems worth a try rs...good idea

I'm trying to wrap my head around the finance and logistics of a 500 machine collection in storage units. I can't understand why crowdsourcing is even necessary for a project like this. If you have 500 machines, sell a portion of them to finance the project. I guess I haven't even read the kickstart page so my opinion is just about worthless.

My gut tells me this is a not much more than a tax-free dream to finance a hobby wrapped up in a real estate business. But out in California, you all like living a fantasy so go for it. There is a ton of different ways to go about the project, but jumping into 120,000 s.f. without a business plan or mission statement doesn't seem to provide the greatest chance of success. If you feel comfortable shelling out some cash to some guys who already have 500 machines and real estate, go for it. I just wonder why Weeks (the business guru) needs your $$ to go ahead with his plan.

One more question I have is why are the machines in storage units if they have 40,000 sf of facility sitting empty? Perhaps Weeks owns the storage units, too? And the part I was really trying to avoid bringing up, but decided I'd throw out there is the money laundering opportunity of this whole operation. Think about it.

scams2.jpg

Hi MTPPC. Great questions. John is a rather unorthodox businessman who I have known personally for almost 10 years. He is passionate about pinball and creating a location for others to enjoy the game. To those who know him personally, there is nothing odd about the choice of the location, the way his machines are stored, or what could be perceived as the lack of a plan.

If you love pinball and want to see a venue like this opened, feel free to contribute and receive some great rewards. If not, that's okay. We completely understand. But...there's no scam going on. Feel free to come on down to Banning, and we'll be happy to give you a tour.