Pinball players hate the Pinball Hall of Fame

I'm a pinball player, and when I visit Las Vegas, there's one place I make it a priority to visit every single trip, the Pinball Hall of Fame. 

I've written about the Hall of Fame in the past, and I have recommended it countless times.   

I know its story and history, more or less, but let me recount it, as best as I can recall. Don't hold me to having every last detail perfectly accurate. It's late, and I don't feel like trying to research every last tidbit. This is a blog, not the newspaper of record for Clark County.

The Hall of Fame evolved from the massive personal pinball collection of Tim Arnold. Arnold grew up in Minnesota and started making money in the pinball business before he was an adult. He made a lot of money courtesy of the video game industry during the 1980s in Michigan, and purchased a lot of old pinball machines that were gathering dust and taking up space. He was able to retire at a young age and moved to Las Vegas, trucking his massive collection of machines to the desert. 

He started the Hall of Fame by hosting game nights in a pole shed, with local players gathering occasionally. From those game nights came the Hall of Fame, and a dedicated space in a strip mall for more than 100 machines from his massive collection. The first Hall of Fame was a few miles east of the Las Vegas strip on Tropicana Avenue. 

More than 10 years ago the Hall of Fame moved to a standalone building on Tropicana, closer to the strip, but still a couple of miles away. 

The Hall of Fame operates as a nonprofit business, staffed by volunteers. The quarters spent to play pinball pay the bills, and additional revenue is donated to charity. This has been going on for years. 

A few years ago the Hall of Fame announced its most ambitious plan, to set up shop on the Las Vegas strip. Incredibly, profits from the Hall of Fame's operation were set aside for the project, and used to buy a large piece of land on the far south end of the strip, near the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. It's not the heart of the strip, but it's a far more accessible site for tourists on the strip. And the new home of the Hall of Fame is going to blow away its current home, which hosts more than 200 pinball machines. 

The Hall of Fame stopped donating its profits to charity so that it could bankroll the project, both the land acquisition and the construction of a building. Unlike its first two locations, the Hall of Fame will have a brand new building to call home, designed for hosting hundreds of pinball machines and other coin-operated machines of years past. It's going to be an amazing display of American history, ingenuity and creativity. 

The Hall of Fame owns its building on Tropicana Avenue, and an adjacent empty lot. The sale of those will help offset costs for the new project on the strip. But the new project is far more expensive than the value of those parcels, without a doubt. It seemed to me, a guy who doesn't know much about financing a commercial construction project or anything about Las Vegas strip real estate, that the Hall of Fame was rather proactive in financing the project. 

I don't recall the details of the plan when it was first announced, but I thought there was some level of debt that would befinanced in conjunction with this project. The organization is a proven success, however, and I suspect that any debt load wouldn't take decades to pay off. Arnold has stressed that his goal is to resume donating profits to charity.

So, all that said, the project commenced last spring, after the pandemic shuttered Vegas. The project had been in the planning for many months, and the financial pieces were in place, so construction proceeded as planned. 

Here's the well-known wrinkle in all the planning: It was anticipated that the Tropicana Avenue Hall of Fame would continue producing revenue during construction. The pandemic put a big dent in that projected revenue, and recently Arnold initiated a fundraising campaign to make up a deficit of $200,000.  

According to his campaign, the new Hall of Fame is a $10 million project, and will be paid off upon completion. If that's correct, meaning there's no debt to pay off after the fact, my mind is blown. Without a final $200,000, the project won't be completed, he claims. 

The campaign has circulated among pinball players and Vegas nerds for a few weeks now, and as of tonight a little more than $100,000 has been donated. 

I saw yet another mention of the campaign earlier today, with the suggestion the new Hall of Fame might not see completion. I was among the doubters. There's too much invested in the project, and too little to finance, for it to suddenly go belly up.

Some pinball players are happy to donate to the project. Others think the late fundraising campaign is despicable. More than a few. I was a bit surprised. 

I get the vitriol, sort of, regarding Arnold and the Hall of Fame. Folks claim he's a curmudgeon and that he or the volunteers are rude toward visitors who don't follow a very strict, unwritten protocol. This is not new, I've heard this before. Is it a fair representation of the Hall of Fame? Hard for me to say yes, I've been there at least 25 times during the past 13-14 years, and I've never seen it. 

A few people bemoaned the fact that of the Hall of Fame's 200+ machines, there are always machines that are in need of a tune up, if not outright repair. I guess it's easier than I would imagine to maintain dozens of machines that are 40-60 years old, as well as dozens more that are only 20-30 years old, all of which are played 365 days a year. Regardless, the machines do not play as if they're showroom new, so the venue isn't worth supporting, evidently. 

More fascinating than the hatred for a guy whose personal collection is available to play 365 days a year is the financial wizardry and knowledge of many pinball players. Several have concluded that Arnold is a clueless dolt who has mismanaged this project spectacularly. He is $200,000 short, after all, so he must he be an idiot. 

Here I thought a guy who has shepherded the Hall of Fame for more than a decade, banking cash and donating to charity, must be doing something right. If it's a $10 million project, he came up $200,000 short due to the financial hardships of a pandemic that nobody projected, or planned for, two years ago. Foolish me, I'm impressed by what has been accomplished so far. The new building on the strip is nearly complete. 

Other financial geniuses suggested that Arnold foolishly started the project last spring after the pandemic shut down Vegas casinos for more than two months. I don't have a clue what the financial ramifications would have been to suspending the project indefinitely and sitting on the vacant land instead of keeping construction workers employed during the pandemic, but pinball's Mensa members know that Arnold is a financial fool. 

Point of reference: I have seen plenty of construction projects continue, or commence, since the pandemic graced Minnesota with its presence last spring. Why didn't all of those grind to a halt? 

A few financial gurus noted that they have or do run a pinball business, and they don't ask pinball players to donate to their business. Fair enough, although none of them mentioned running their business as a nonprofit or noted how many thousands of dollars they have donated to charity.

If there's anything I question, it's the need to raise $200,000 from the pinball community. Some pinheads wondered why there isn't some sort of corporate sponsorship or other fundraising mechanism to help build an oversized arcade dedicated to preserving the history of pinball. Fair question. 

Arnold isn't interested in amassing debt in order to build a Las Vegas strip Hall of Fame, although it can't be that hard to finance the final $200,000 of construction costs for the project. But it appears he just doesn't want to do it. Building a big new Vegas attraction without a huge debt to pay off? How un-American! 

One way or another, we'll have a new Hall of Fame in Vegas, on the strip, and likely before my next visit to Vegas.

It will attract thousands of tourists per week, if we ever get past the pandemic. Most of those tourists will go home with a smile on their face, having relived their youth or experienced something new, something they never imagined. 

And yet half the pinball community, if Facebook discussions are to be believed, absolutely despise the place.

So what does it really mean for pinheads? Is the Pinball Hall of Fame temporarily closing?

PINHEAD: A pinball enthusiast. Not to be confused with a certain, hell-raising pinhead.

Thanks, Mental Floss, for your clarity on the matter.

An otherwise slow news day in Vegas started with news that the Pinball Hall of Fame, a Vegas attraction that has been going strong for more than a decade, is moving to the Vegas Strip.

I'm a pinhead. I played such games occasionally throughout my life, but it was the Pinball Hall of Fame that light my fire in January 2007. More about that another day.

I've said it many, many times. There's only one thing on my must-do list whenever I'm in Vegas, and that's visit the Pinball Hall of Fame. I may make it to Ellis Island every trip, but if I had to choose only one of the two, pinball wins. Every time.

The HOF is the brainchild of Tim Arnold, a Minnesota native (if I have his story straight) who got into the amusement device business as a teenager, made a pretty penny during the video game revolution of the 1980s, amassed a huge collection of unwanted pinball machines and retired at a relatively young age to Vegas, shipping hundreds of machines from Michigan to Nevada.

He started an informal version of the HOF in a pole shed, or something of that nature, and eventually opened an arcade, composed of primarily pinball, but a smattering of video games, as well. That first HOF location was further east of the building where his arcade resides today.

With plenty of machines still in a warehouse, he moved closer to the Vegas strip circa 2009. His new home was perhaps twice the size. It wasn't fancy, it wasn't luxurious, but it has done the job.

Today's news came via a posting at a pinball fan website, Pinside. It looked to have been posted late Sunday night, and told a long, sometimes confusing story of how the HOF is slated to move to the Vegas strip, across the street from Mandalay Bay. The site, purchased for more than $4 million, was once home to a modest hotel which has been gone for about 18 years, by all indications. The lot has been undeveloped ever since.

As I did my part to help spread the news to the masses, there was confusion about the immediate future of the HOF.

My theory is that in his announcement, Tim attempted a little misdirection. This is how he started a discussion thread on the Pinside forums: " I am saddened today to announce that our current location on Tropicana will be closing as soon as we can wind up our affairs.....AND MOVE TO OUR NEW LOCATION ON THE STRIP!"

He titled the thread "Pinball Hall of Fame to close." So everyone reading the post was expecting the worst.

And if Tim was closing the HOF, it wouldn't be a total surprise.

The HOF operates as a nonprofit, and runs on volunteer labor. Volunteers watch over the arcade while it is in operation while Tim works to repair machines. There are always machines in need of a repair. With approximately 200 machines on the floor, there's no way to keep them all operational. And from what I understand, other volunteers visit the HOF occasionally to assist with maintenance. I was once told a guy from Canada was visiting for two weeks and volunteering to assist with maintenance.

The place thrives thanks to the volunteers, with Tim steering the ship. He's gotta be in his 60s by this point, and while there's no reason to suspect he's going to give it up any time soon, people have wondered what would happen should be no longer be willing or able to oversee the maintenance and operation of the arcade.

So yeah, it was entirely possible Tim was announcing he was going to shut it down.

Instead the plan is to build a new arcade on the south end of the strip, an arcade that should at least double the capacity of the current location, and provide better space and amenities for visitors. There are financial pieces that need to be in place before all is said and done, but the wheels are in motion. You can read the details, all of them, for yourself here: http://bit.ly/pinballHOF

Because of Tim's announcement that the current location will close as soon as the HOF winds up its affairs, and the title of his post, there's a belief by some that the current facility will close in the near future and the machines will sit idle until the day comes, if it comes, that an elaborate new building is built upon the strip.

I doubt that, given what Tim wrote in his explanation.

The HOF is a nonprofit entity, and there are pictures and newspaper articles taped up around the arcade noting significant contributions to charity over the years. We're talking six-figure contributions. That's a lot of quarters.

I have no idea where the cash came from, but the HOF had about $3.6 million in reserves, according to Tim. In order to buy a strip parcel for $4.6 million, the HOF has taken on $1 million in debt. For that reason, "We will stop almost all our charitable giving for the near future. This hurts me personally a LOT as that is why we started this project."

Why would he have to announce that charitable giving is going to temporarily cease if the current location is going to close in the near future, and income will drop to nothing? Without saying so, Tim seems to be implying that the HOF will become the benefiting charity. Instead of turning over $100,000 to the Salvation Army or Red Cross, the HOF will keep the cash to help pay off its loan.

It would make no sense for the HOF to take on $1 million in debt for a land purchase and then cut off its income source on Tropicana Avenue for an indefinite period of time.

More indication that the HOF isn't closing its Tropicana doors: The organization owns that property, and isn't planning to sell it until the new arcade is open on the strip. Tim explains that the HOF owns its current site, and an adjacent, empty parcel where some sort of building once sat. (You can see faint traces of it.) Building a larger facility three miles from the strip doesn't appeal to Tim, so building anew at the current site is not desirable.

The current properties are valued at about $2.7 million, and Tim explained that the sale of the properties would reduce the construction costs of the new arcade, which he projects will cost between $3 and $4 million. But the properties won't be sold until the new arcade is open on the strip.

And why is that? Because the Tropicana arcade will continue to generate revenue until it's time to move the machines to Las Vegas Boulevard. If the Tropicana arcade is closing soon, there would be no reason to hold onto the properties until the day the new arcade is up and running. It would be far less expensive to warehouse the silent machines and sell the property prior to the bill comping due for the new arcade's construction.

That's reason enough for me to conclude the Tropicana arcade is not closing. Tim's posting concludes with one final statement that supports my conclusion.

To ramp up funding for the new arcade, the HOF will be selling memberships that will provide benefits, now and when the new building is complete. Basically, the organization is looking for support beyond the quarters that are dropped in its machines, something it hasn't ever done before. Tim outlines membership levels and benefits and notes that, "We will also be selling memberships live in the museum via a special vending machine."

Now why would you sell memberships via a vending machine at your arcade if you're planning to close the arcade in the near future? You wouldn't.

I wouldn't be shocked if the HOF temporarily closes for a week or two if and when the time comes for moving the machines to the strip. Although it's possible they'll keep one of the locations open during the transition. Either way, I don't expect the machines on Tropicana Avenue to go silent any time soon, if at all.

There's no timetable for the project, although Tim suggests that a new arcade is more than a year away. My educated guess: We won't see a new arcade open for business for two full years, at the earliest. And if I'm correct, you'll continue to have daily access to pinball at the Tropicana arcade well into 2020.

There's no need to go on tilt if your next Vegas trip isn't until 2019.