First off let me say that I love ProKart. I would go more often if it wasn't so expensive. What's with the price? What are their business expenses that make it so? Besides fuel, rent, and the occasional kart maintenance. Helmets have already paid for themselves. Karts have already paid for themselves, not sure how often they have to replace or get a whole new lineup, but when I was there they seemed decently new. Also when I was there 2 people were on staff, I'm assuming they are not getting paid much more than minimum wage. Those balaclava's are like paper towels so they can't be too expensive. Each person get's a print out of each race so there's that cost. I guess insurance is probably a little bit. What's with the license funny business? What's the point? It just makes things more confusing. Why not just merge those costs into one fee, it would make more sense. I know so many people that don't go because it's just too expensive. It sucks really. $28 (average) for 8 minutes is crazy. Hope business is well for them. I'm curious who's seeing all of that money. If the average person buys 2 races and the $10 7-day license, lets say that's $43 spent at ProKart, on average, per person. Again I'm assuming that this is what the average person would purchase on a trip to ProKart. Let's say that 4 people race at once on average. That's $172 gross in 16 minutes on average. This greatly increases by the number of people racing at once. When I was there, there was like 6-8 people racing at one point. At another point, there was only 5 of us. Let's say that they are open on average 7 days a week, for 8 hours a day. That average is actually low. They are open for 12 hours on Thursday - Saturday. That's $5,160 gross in an 8 hour day (given that they constantly have 4 people racing per 16 minutes) That's $1,883,400 per year gross average. Of course that's just multiplying by 365 days in a year, so take a bit off for days they are closed, etc. Take into mind my number above are very average and rounded. This is for one location. This doesn't take into account leagues, parties, or any sort of specials or big packages. Doesn't this seem like a lot of money to you? I've only been once, and that's because there was a Groupon or some deal. So I'm not sure how busy they normally are. Maybe they have a lot of lulls during the day. I'm just an outsider who's been once. Either way I guess the moral is that I believe they have room to come down on these prices, which would increase their customers, and they'd still be making bank. If they were cheaper, I bet I'd be there on a regular basis handing them my money, along with a lot more of my friends. What do you guys think?
I think it's more than I'm willing to spend. In my eyes few things are capable of providing $50 worth of entertainment inside 10 minutes. Even fewer now that I'm married... That said, I think your estimating model is optimistic. Were I evaluating them professionally I would be extremely cynical if they asserted they can keep at least 4 people on track during all business hours. If they are making that much after all, I'll file that one under "yay capitalism". The licensing thing is an extra ding just because they can. It's designed to make you feel like you'll get more value for your dollar if you come back multiple times within a set time frame. If it doesn't work, they already raked in a couple extra bucks "for free". If it does work then it was a small investment for another crack at a high margin offering. It's good for them all around so long as the customers stand for it. It works for all kinds of retail/service joints so why not?
Wow too much math for me!! But yes I agree 100% I would love to go there a couple times a month and screw around with friends for a while but I have to spend a whole weeks paycheck to even do so! Although really they don't have any competition in that business. So ideally they can charge whatever they want because they know people will pay it as they don't have another choice for a place to go.
What they don't know is for $50 you and all your buddies can buy a rental econobox with full coverage and play big boy karts for the whole day. Just sayin...
Not only is it expensive, its a far drive for me to drive for 8 mins. Not even worth my time. It cost me more gas money to get there and back home.
I know its a hike out of the metro, but I prefer Stockholm Motorsports over ProKart. It is an outdoor track, and the people that work there seem to be pretty chill. I rented it for my birthday last year and I paid $600 for 10 people for 2 hours...unlimited runs. You can also buy by the run, and its $15 per run, 5/&60 or 11/$120.
Wow, you guys really don't know economics, they don't have competition other than yoi not doing it, not like you need to go cart every week. Those expenses add up, they obviously don't have 4 people on the track 8 hours a day 7 days a week, if they could offer a lower rate I'm sure they would, I really don't think those guys' goal is to take your money.
I'm trying to understand how the expenses add up. Like I said I don't know how busy they are, I've only been once, but I was there at like 1pm on a Tuesday and there was consistently over 4 people on the track the whole time I was there. My first race there were 8 people racing. The second race there were 5. I'm sure an average of 4 people on the track balances out times there are 8 people on the track and times there are 0 people on the track. I'm not 100% sure of what the maximum amount of people allowed on the track racing at one time is. I posted this in off topic because it was kind of a rant by me. I was chatting with a buddy earlier about how I wanted to go again, but I can't justify spending the money. I thought it would spark some good debate in economics and help me maybe uncover something that I'm not thinking about, be that an expense or a business tactic on their end. But if they cut the price in half, would they gain money or lose money?
Lol is that a joke? With no competition they will make as much as possible without losing customers. They have prolly played with the rates over the years and found their best profit margins
I have owned a shifter kart, and I'm currently looking for a kart for a project. Karts are NOT cheap. Kart maintenance is not cheap. Karting as a sport can be very prohibitively expensive. And that's when it is just you, and you care about your kart and keeping it running and not planting it into walls or other drivers. Bumper bars save frame damage, but frame damage is rare. Another thing to keep in mind. A normal race prepped kart gets used maybe 50 hours total a race season. That's for the actual races, and for practice lapping. The rental karts get used that much over a 2 week period and then some. And they aren't being driven by someone that owns the kart, they are driven by amateurs and fun seekers and business people doing team building or whatever. You are basicly taking a sport that is already very expensive for someone to do for a 50 or so hour race season, and you are doing it 8 hours a day, 7 days a week. A set of track tires is going to run you in the range of 150-300 a set per kart. It's like having a fleet of race cars that are used every day. And you have to pay people to maintain them properly. I'm sure they are making good money as a business, but I don't think they are making tons of money.
sorry i was trying to be sarcastic but i wasn't in a very good thinking state to get that across. the competition is every other form of entertainment, so lots.
Insurance. Retail stores have to have a pretty hefty insurance policy just to cover the general public being in their building.....not to mention kart racing.
You think they have 4 people on the track every single minute for 8 hours a day, 365 days a year???? Other than the fact that you didn't factor in kart or track maintenance at all, I think that 100% utilization is your biggest mistake. It's probably more like 10-40%. If these places raked in money, there would be a lot more of them. My guess is that most of them barely scrape by.
Yeah, I was just covering the costs of kart ownership. That doesn't even take into consideration how much it costs to own/lease the building, utilities, heating/AC, insurance, salaries and benefits for employees, the costs incurred setting up a building for kart use...the list goes on and on. It isn't just a bunch of doofuses letting you kart in an empty warehouse till the karts are too broken to use then they close up shop. A large portion of that hypothetical 5000/day goes to pay the bills. Even if that 5k per day was straight profit, the owner would bring in 1.8million per year. Not exactly toppling the commercial realm with that. Let's say they employ 10 people at minimum wage and a manager that earns 50k/yr plus 2 kart mechanics at 50k/yr. There goes about 400k in wages. Figure rent on a building like that at around 2500/mo. There's 30k out the door for rent. Figure about 1000 in parts and maintenance costs per kart per year (that's pulled right out of my ass btw, it is likely more since the tires are likely replaced monthly) factor that over a fleet of probably a dozen karts. Heat and electricity (that building needs to remain ventilated, so heating and cooling are a battle that you are constantly losing). Fuel for the karts. Replacement karts every couple years or so, those things are probably hovering around 3000 bucks per kart. Taxes, don't forget those. If the owner is raking in a million a year, he's doing pretty well. This isn't a candy store or a hometown bakery. The service they provide is allowing you the opportunity to enjoy kart racing without having to invest thousands upon thousands of your own dollars to get started. If he's making a million bucks a year on this deal, then I applaud him.
Well, I would say your rent figure is probably on the very very low side. If the space is considered a "prime" space, figure 10-12 per square. The what kinda of space do those places take up, 30-35k square feet, maybe more. 100ft by 100 ft is 10k and most of those places are much larger than that. Russ
I know he pays a lot for insurance and a lot in rent.. Also why he moved locations. Trust me, Brian is not making a million a year.
Oh, I know. I was being highly assuming. I'm guessing he is making enough to live comfortably, but not enough to be rich or anything.
The two are not together. MG/Burnsville are separately owned. (Not sure if you knew that or not) The one in MG got new carts this summer. I believe it was upwards of mid 30k+ for the set bought. Ventilation like stated is also a huge expense, especially during the winter. If i remember right, it was sometimes up to almost a grand a day+ in just heating costs due to having to have the fresh air brought in constantly through the day. (when it's cold obviously) You just need to get in good with the owners. I'm good friends with the MG owners sons. We used to get 10 dollar races, till the new carts. Now we're up to 15 dollar races. But still beats normal price.
Sorry to dig up an old one...but ProKart just got cheaper! (for one day at least.) See here... http://mnsubaru.com/threads/prokart-groupon-for-20-mnsubaru-prokart-event.40791/#post-675235
