By Dan Fisher
As an industry, we stand at a crossroads. It is well known that there has been a reduction in the number of venues. As an owner of four, I can attest that we have seen a declining number of customers or corporate events the past 18-months – call it a 10% decline, this year appears to be continuing that trend. I recently attended a leadership conference and this phrase stuck with me: “entertainment’s biggest competition right now is Netflix.” That made so much sense to me – in a struggling economy, a great way to save money is to entertain yourself with subscriptions that do not require you to leave your home.
I have always believed that urban axe throwing as an activity will find its place in the entertainment field, but the build it and they will come model is no longer effective. When I think about what a consumer looks for in anything they seek or enjoy, it boils down to consistency, quality and how they feel as a result of the activity. As a sport, I believe that we have issues with these key tenants.
Consistency
This one is probably the hardest issue to solve. Just thinking about other venues near my store, we have a few different variations of old/new WATL targets, IATF, digital targets, a rogue target that is unique to that particular location and my personal favorite is the venue that takes a can of black spray paint and free-hand draws black rings and then sprays the center red. I know there are others out there in some manner as well that are not represented near my community such as MLAT or BATL.
Ultimately, I think all of this clutter in the target design is doing our businesses a disservice. People most think of axe throwing as the activity and not a brand. They think, “hey, I want to go axe throwing” and decide based on what is closest to them, has the best reviews or most cost effective and then makes a purchase decision based on what is important to them. The target itself is not considered most of the time, but the disservice is that customers returning to axe throwing for a second time come in expecting one rule set and get another based on their previous experiences. This happens all the time.
Our game should be simple. Think of darts or bowling – in both cases, you pick up a dart or a bowling ball, you know what the objective is without requiring a coach to provide an explanation of the rules of the game and how to score. In Atlanta, I can think of 6 different targets being used right now and honestly, there are probably more when considering mobile units or even the plastic arcade axe throwing variations.
We were at one point a rogue venue that drew a target to our own specifications but eventually chose to affiliate with WATL in January 2023 during our 3rd year of business because we felt that it was the most well developed rule set with an organization that was trying to grow the sport through national TV broadcasts and social media efforts – goals that we remain aligned with. I was disappointed to learn that their largest event will no longer be broadcast on ESPN this year, but as a former sports and entertainment marketer, I understand why that happened. I just hope that there will be other ways to amplify our sport that will drive interest from people who have not been introduced to axe throwing yet.
Whether it’s WATL, IATF, MLAT or something else – I know that I would make my venue targets to specification of whatever the majority uses in effort to find consistency in the activity. I took my 6yr old daughter bowling recently and she immediately understood how that worked and I hope that axe throwing can one day become as easily understood as that is and it starts with us (as operators) and how we paint our targets and coach our experiences. At this time, that is WATL for American Axes and we believe in their long-term sustainability.
Experience
This one is difficult to talk about. Why? There are many opinions of what the axe throwing experience should be and you can see it with how every venue is built differently and many are right. I’ve learned a lot over the years following along and listening to others. Our way has been successful, but there are other methods that bring success and hopefully new ways waiting to be discovered that can unlock future success.
What I see as a common threat to the venues that are struggling or closing is that they did not offer much by way of amenities. There are a lot of good business owners that have closed or are in the process of winding down, but as an owner of multiple varieties of stores with locations in warehouses off the beaten path and also very urban shopping centers, the successful model is to be able to offer food and drink. If you aren’t comfortable to put in a bar or a kitchen, then allow access to food and drink by where you position your venue. We do not sell food, but we do provide easy access to food with our new locations where in our most recent one, food is delivered to your table by a server from a partnering restaurant. It’s so easy that it can sometimes be surprising to our customers to realize that axe throwing is operated by a different owner than the restaurant.
Amenities are important, but just as important is the quality of coaching that a customer receives. I have heard many stories of venues that give customers an axe and then walk away only to come back at the end of their time looking for gratuity. It has happened to me a few times when I have tried other venues in my travels across the country. When we started, I didn’t know how to coach – it took my customers some time to get sticking on the board. Now that I know what to look for, I can get 90% of people to stick to the board in less than 5-throws and it’s very uncommon that it goes beyond 10 throws. That comes with experience and even if you’re new to the business – it’s easy for me and I’m sure many others to teach what to look for with coaching. Just ask or go to other venues to learn. We also try to make special moments for our customers by celebrating their first bullseyes or victories between groups. Having a coaching staff that cares about the customer is an underestimated key ingredient to our success.
Being able to stick to the board is the basic objective for anyone that pays to come into our venues and good coaching can absolutely impact if someone wants to make a repeat attempt at axe throwing. We create a significant amount of repeat customers as a result of our coaching and the relationships that we build with our throwers in a short amount of time. At one point, I ran the numbers and 17% of our customers were repeated. I would tend to think that number has increased as our business has matured.
I see many venues that operate axe throwing as a spin off to their main business. This does work, but you must be invested in the experience to be successful or have a manager that knows their stuff. The biggest threat to consistency to me are the venues that have a main line of business and then they throw axe throwing in as a side show and don’t take the time to understand how to manage it. Those venues near us are dropping quickly, but the damage has been done. The customer that went there, experienced no coaching and threw at a target that should have been replaced two groups before them probably won’t try axe throwing a second time – anywhere.
Memberships
Final point on the experience is that we have a membership platform that has been incredibly successful for us. Our stated goal of the membership program is to become the most thrower-friendly venue in the world. Our members are people who have really fallen in love with the sport and want to be around it more often. A few have aspirations to compete at a high level in WATL championships, but the majority just enjoy blade sports and the comfortable and inviting setting we offer. We made it affordable for our members to come throw with us – $35/mo gets you unlimited access to our venues and one discipline admission per season into league. We want to see our members and are very appreciative to have 50+ active league throwers and over 100 members across Atlanta & Denver.
Many venue owners scoff at the $35 price point being low, but I view it as I have grown my sales team from 1 person (me) to over 100 people because our members become our brand advocates. They tell their friends about us. They bring them with them to experience it. They host their company team building events with us. When they are practicing, they talk about the membership program with general customers beside them and even help with coaching. We have developed a mutually beneficial relationship where we provide a venue to throw axes as much as they want and they want to see us succeed. This theory is no different than a workout class where we are giving the benefit of having a place to blow off steam and spend time with friends. The membership fees are purposefully affordable and with over 100 members, monthly dues more than pay for our monthly cost of wood.
Summary
I’ve written something like this a few times over the years, but never brought myself to publish these thoughts out of fear that nobody would care. Now with the industry rapidly changing and many owners going through hardship, I’d love to see owners work together to summit and talk about our issues and figure out a growth plan. There are so many smart business people that own axe throwing venues and there’s still a great opportunity to build a sustainable long-term business in this field. Consider this my challenge to us to get together and talk.