For the past 15 years (or longer) people have been complaining about the way Tim runs his business. Yet somehow he has managed to give hundreds of thousands of dollars to charity and has now built a multi million dollar building with a half million dollar sign out front and has little to no debt.

As I have said before - if you don't like the place just go somewhere else!

PHoF is not going to change as long as Tim is in charge. And once Tim is no longer doing it I doubt PHoF will exist long term.

So in the end you have one of two choices: either go and enjoy the machines that are working or just don't go at all. I am sure Tim would be just as glad if you didn't show up if all you can do is post negative stuff about the place.

OK - Here is my issue with all of this. I'll try to keep it as short as possible and break in down into 5 main points.

First off Tim is by far the most successful arcade operator in the world so why would he change the way he does things?

Second - yes Tim did start a go-fund-me to raise a little extra money because of unforeseen issues Covid caused. But that $200,000 from the go-fund-me amounted to less than 1/2 of what the sign alone cost so it isn't like everyone "stepped up" and funded 1/2 the cost of the new building or anything like that.

Third - Tim devotes nearly 100 hours a week (for free & not even taking lunch money out of the PHoF budget) according to what the volunteers told me when I was talking to them on one of my visits. Any rational person would have retired at his age instead of taking on something like that new building but Tim loves to work and to give back to society so that is what he does.

Fourth - If you don't like what is going on at PHoF why not volunteer and help Tim get machines fixed instead of bitching about the place.

And lastly is the "definition of insanity" -- definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Basically everyone knows Tim isn't going to change so why keep beating a dead horse.

Now for why I always jump in and defend Tim. It isn't because I know him well in fact the two times I talked to him in person he was as abrasive as everyone says he is & maybe even a little worse. But he is human and I know I wouldn't like to keep reading negatives about what I was doing if I was working my ass off FOR FREE and I was doing all I could to keep improving things.

Again it is really pretty simple - either just accept PHoF for what it is / volunteer to help make it better / or just don't go at all. But bottom line is expecting things to change as long as Tim is running the place is a perfect example of insanity.

Have fun debating how things should be / what Tim should be doing / etc. Bottom line is it is what it is and it isn't going to change just because a few Pinsiders think it should.

Well that doesn't seem to hurt the number of people going to PHoF from the pictures of the parking lot I have seen posted.

Tim keeps trying to get people to understand he is doing the best he can. MAYBE part of the answer would be to close off 1/3 of the place - put working machines in the area customers see & create a shop area in the closed off part?

In the end it is what it is and I doubt it is going to change. Maybe it is time for Tim to just close it down and retire. Then PHof can be like so many other places that are now long gone? The National Pinball Museum (Washington DC) closed like 5 years ago and Banning closed last year & both auctioned their machines maybe PHoF is next? I would rather see it there and less than perfect than to see it closed and gone!

Negative post on Pinside are not going to fix the PHof and every time Tim tries to explain his side of things that is more time something else isn't getting fixed.

Anyway for those of you who live in a "perfect world" and do everything 100% right my hat is off to you. But in the "real world" sometimes life tosses people curve balls that take time to recover from. And as far as I can tell from what Tim has posted he is working through those curve balls as best as he can.

I think we can all agree that things a PHoF are far from perfect but bottom line is it is Tim's Baby and Tim will continue to do things Tim's way.

I agree 100% that hiring some full time help makes a ton of sense and I think it is long overdue but Tim has to realize that is the only way to make an operation the size of PHoF work.

Ideally he should hire 5 full time people for the next couple years. Two or three on a short term bases and than once most everything is fixed up and running keeping at least two paid full time repair techs long term. In the end a business model like that would likely yield more donations to charity sooner than continuing down the current path.

HOWEVER - I do see a huge issue with that. Where the heck do you find 4 or 5 qualified techs in this day and age? But without trying you never know what might happen! Tim took a HUGE risk expanding why not take a much smaller risk paying some help for a couple years to make the place great?

Hiring a "general manager" to run the day to day operations and freeing Tim up to do more repairs makes a ton of sense if Tim would go for that but I think that is highly unlikely.

The issue with trying to hire the volunteers to work full time is you are then losing the repairs they were doing as volunteers. So for example is someone is volunteering say 10 hours a week. Now you hire them "full time" instead of getting 40 hours extra work done your net gain is only 30 hours of work getting done. Plus I would assume most of the volunteers don't really want a full time job - they are likely just looking to fill in a bit during there free time each week.

Bottom line is it is going to take a good size team of people to get all of the folded up machines up and running. And it is also going to take a full time tech for each 100 to 150 machines on the floor just to keep up with repairs once machines are up and running. So one or two additional full time people would help keeping more machines running but it really isn't going to get Tim's "stash" of project machines fixed up.

In any event at least there are a couple hundred machines available to play at this point so that is better than most arcades in the country have.