Building a business is not an easy task and it becomes even more of a challenge when you start off with a gigantic facility. Arcades and similar ideas need space and generally speaking, the bigger you go, the better. With more space it opens up the opportunity to play more games. This is the same idea with pinball.
A project is in the works in Banning, CA to bring the thrills of pinball to a sizable facility that will be one for the record books. Called the Museum of Pinball, they have 18 acres of area to fill up, including one 40,000 sq.ft facility to hold at least 500 games and other amenities. The property is so large that is also has a second 80,000 sq. ft facility for expansion and space for a future RV hotel. At the moment they are focusing on renovating the 40k facility to get started and will worry about the other parts when they arrive at that point. It’s still quite impressive however – other facilities dedicated to pinball have had impressive collections (such as the Pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas with 253 games; Pinball Wizard Arcade in Pelham, NH with 352 total games; Pinballz Arcade in Austin, TX with 236 games) but none have hit 500. The costs involved with producing such a facility (and maintaining it!) are expected to be high and to get some investment blood into the game, they have launched a Kickstarter campaign today which will run for 30 days with a goal of reaching “at least $150,000… to cover renovations before the Grand Opening.”
Even though it just started, they have already raised over $11,000 with only 24 backers. There are quite a few pledging options to choose from and you can pour over the details here at Kickstarter. You can also visit their website for extra details and pictures @ Museumofpinball.org. if all goes as planned, they hope to open in Jan/Feb 2014. We wish them the best of luck but better than luck, one can help them out!
Just one of the areas that will one day be packed with pinball machines, the “Main Arcade”
