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I recently found myself staring into the hourglass, watching the sand fall one by one. After filling the bottom with sand, I flipped it over. As I did so, it occurred to me: The hourglass is the perfect metaphor for what’s happening in the Dallas-Fort Worth experience economy — the local pioneering of sports-focused “diner entertainment” (entertainment venues that serve food and drink) Those are flipping things around for the first time around.
The experience economy emerged in the 1990s when companies noticed that consumers were spending more money on experiences than on things. Over the past 30 years, the company has built a multi-billion dollar business by combining sports and technology with entertainment and dining. Throughout DFW, there are many of these concepts; but without the underlying sport itself, these venues would not exist.Without golf, there would be no Topgolf, no cab。 Without pickleball, there would be no Chicken N Pickle.no baseball bat box. without football there would be no touch social. Sports is, and always has been, the upper vessel that funnels sand (purpose, goals, principles, and innovation) into the lower vessel of the hourglass—the experience economy.
Meet the players:
In 2022, Dallas-based Topgolf reports revenue of $1.5 billion. Topgolf, acquired by Callaway for $2.6 billion in stock in 2021, already accounts for 39% of the company’s total revenue — something that Topgolf CEO Artie Starrs expects to account for the bulk of the portfolio’s revenue in the next few years. But the Topgolf’s trickle-down effect on traditional golf was a groundbreaking flip of the hourglass.
Callaway said that by 2022, 10% of golfers in the United States will start playing golf because of Topgolf. According to the National Golf Foundation, 25.6 million Americans will play traditional golf at least once in 2022. That means over 2.5 million of those golfers started at Topgolf.
And the Topgolf just scratches the surface. It currently operates 78 venues across the US and aims to open at least 11 venues a year for the foreseeable future. Each venue opened its doors to 300,000 unique Topgolfers, Starrs said. According to NGF, 75% of non-golfers who visit Topgolf say they are interested in golf on the course. “The economic impact we bring to local communities keeps golf courses alive and thriving,” Stahls said.
In 2020, Drive Shack Inc. (about $325 million in revenue in 2022) moved its headquarters from New York to Dallas and opened its flagship 21-and-over mini-golf concept, Puttery, in The Colony. “DFW is full of people spending more money on experiences rather than things,” says Earlier CEO Hana Khouri – She stepped down as CEO of the company in early May. At Drive Shack, less than 10 percent of customers are avid golfers, Khouri said. But with 54 owned, managed, or leased golf courses under DSI’s American Golf brand — representing 84% of the company’s 2021 revenue — the hourglass flip has hit organic growth. “[Drive Shack Inc.] We’re in a period where there are more recreational golfers than traditional golfers — and the gap is widening — but [Drive Shack] It’s trying to get those recreational golfers on its courses,” she said.
According to Larry Leon, a partner at RetailUnion and an expert in experiential retail, Dallas is a hotbed of dining venues, and the technology that powers them will only improve. “If Concepts wants to be in markets like Houston, San Antonio, Austin and El Paso, then Dallas is the obvious choice,” he said. “The computing power behind these concepts is only going to get better — it leads to very new, interesting, fresh concepts.”
Add “Topgolf of soccer” Toca Social (raised $100M by 2022) to the list of companies using Dallas as their US launch pad. The European concept, which uses immersive gamified screens for games like goal practice and penalty shootouts, will open in the Dallas Design District in 2023 and create as many as 175 local jobs. Mexico-based BatBox, an entertainment concept built around a baseball simulator, will also open its first U.S. location in North Texas in early 2024.
“We need a state with cheap land, without even having a long discussion about where we should go first,” said BatBox founder Jose Vargas. “Dallas was a no-brainer.”
Chicken N Pickle, a pickleball court and restaurant venue capitalizing on the American pickleball craze, found success in DFW, with its top performing venue being the Grapevine. “When we launched in 2016, I spent most of my time explaining to people what pickleball was,” said Kelli Alldredge, managing partner in charge of DFW locations and openings. But now, there are an estimated 36.5 million pickleball players in the U.S. — up from 2.8 million when Chicken N Pickle opened its first location. “We are trailblazers,” she said.
Historically, most people have been drawn in by watching sports on television. For today’s consumer, the entry point—or even the reentry point—is no longer through observation. This is through immersion and gamification.
“Our venue makes the game more accessible, and it gives people who thought they’d never swing a bat the opportunity to do so,” BatBox’s Vargas said. Starrs doubles down, “If venues can provide their patrons with excitement — as Topgolf does when they hit the perfect ball — it greatly increases the chances of them falling in love with whatever sport they’re playing.”
author
Ben Swanger is CEOwith the trade name of D Magazine. Ben manages Dallas 500, per month…
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