Fanplex: The $2.5 Million Failed Bet On Atlanta Braves Tickets

Imagine now a massive 11,000 square foot entertainment complex

, fully equipped with state of the art arcade games and brand new miniature golf courses, all built at a cost of $2.5 million, and right in the massive shadow of a glistening new Turner Field, home of the famed Atlanta Braves.

Now imagine the impressive expanse of that game facility presided over not by a throng of busy attendees, each pleasing a long line of summer fun seekers, but instead managed by a mere single (and very bored) employee, with nary a customer in sight.

One worker, one enormous and empty fun center: that's what it looked like at the end of FanPlex's days in business.

Originally staffed by 16 people, each waiting for fans with Atlanta Braves tickets to spill over into their business after the game, a lack of revenue eventually scaled the staff down to that single under-worked employee before closing just two years after eagerly opening its doors to holders of Braves tickets. The idea was that if they built it, they would come. That is, all those families, all those fathers and sons, all those birthday parties, and everyone headed to the game with their Braves tickets, was expected to exit Turner Field, see the glistening FanPlex, and then get a sudden and irresistible urge to play mini-golf. Needless to say, that didn't happen. Turns out, Braves tickets are all the fun most fans need.

In fact, more so than post game fun, holders of Braves tickets have since then found it much more convenient to use the vacant FanPlex not as an entertainment center, but as a temporary game day parking lot.

Proposals have been made to use the space as something slightly more purposeful than a parking lot, but unlike the previous plans, the proposed uses would have nothing to do with Braves tickets. Rather, numerous not-for-profits have proclaimed an interest in using the facility as a place to hold educational services for youth. Ranging from vocational instruction to after-school programs, the groups would rent the space from the local government and provide these cultural and educational services, no Braves tickets required.

So, the next time you get some Atlanta Braves tickets, have a look across the street from Turner Field, then imagine what you would do with $2.5 million. If the first idea that you come up with is a stadium-side fun center, it might be time to rethink your knack for business.

by: Mark Etinger

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