The HUB Stadium

Reviews 4

RY

Ryan VanDorp

(Dec 2016) Good service. Fun game. Friendly staff. Great seating and lounging areas. Quality bars with Michigan brews. Unfortunately, there’s a big drawback. I’m trying to grasp the full business model and pricing strategies in play here, because long term, something will probably have to change for them to survive. $100 per hour for a lane, $7-8 for a decent draft, and the main entertainment requires whipping a pig skin at bowling pins. So, your target market is probably mid-20’s to 40’s that enjoy an active hobby while having some drinks. Plenty of people out there fitting the mold, but here’s the problem... At “$100 an hour,” many potential customers will pass on giving this place a chance, and existing customers will soon resent them during their first visit. Case in point - my group of 12 that visited the other night. We played for an hour. We were told by a staff member our time was up and each side could have 1 more throw, while all 5 lanes to our right sat empty. Everyone’s reaction was essentially the same: “Wow! That was fast, and we don’t want to pay another $100, that’s too expensive. And why didn’t they just allow us to finish our game? No one is here!” Collectively, we spent at least $100 in drinks while playing and talking. If we had stayed longer, I can easily see the drink total rising to $250-$300. I’d think the Hub would want to maximize the time people spend in the building for this very reason. Instead, practically everyone in my group walked out talking about how it was “fun,” but vowing to give all future business to the Hamtramck location at $10/person - which let’s you play continuously, as long as a lane is open. Hub Stadium - I think you folks are experimenting. Fine, nothing wrong with that at the beginning. I just hope you watch and listen carefully to what customers are telling you, because unless I’m missing a big piece of the puzzle, you’ll need to adjust your pricing to attract substantial long-term business. FWIW I’m rooting for you guys as a hometown Auburn Hills resident, because I’d absolutely hate to see that old Big Buck brewery dark and empty again every time I zip down I-75. EDIT (1/23/17): I see youve listened to the masses and adjusted the pricing model and now offer $15/20 open play. I think thats an excellent decision. Ill revisit again sometime and update this accordingly. GL!

MI

Michael Lucka

This place took over what used to be big buck brewery. Obviously its a big place, you can eat, although its not restaurant food, its bar food. We ate here the first time in January 2017, but the food is average to below average. We went back in February but we went out to eat somewhere first before coming to the hub. In January we went to rent a lane and they told us its $100 an hour for the lane to be all ours for the 1 hour. WOW, thats just way too much money. We asked what other options they had and they told us we can play in the challenge lanes for $40 bucks all night, (luckily the challenge lanes werent full at the time we got there) but if you lose, you have to get back into line to play again. For us, this was a much better deal and made more sense since we were drinking as well. The beer menu is pretty decent, better than expected. If you like micro beers and mixed drinks youll be just fine. Wine Im not sure of. I was really disappointed in the food and the portion size. I ordered a burger and they brought it out and it was the size of a White Castle burger, and Im not kidding. Someone needs to tell the owner, "hey our food is below average here, we HAVE to make our food restaurant quality somehow and make the portion sizes larger. Also they should define a bit more area for food tables up front left of the bar as you walk in, if people are coming in to eat before playing fowling. They dont really have a good enough food menu or food itself to bring in people to come eat here only. Also they have to lower the prices on the 1 hour lane rental. $50-60 dollars at most would be good, $100 is way too much. After 6-12 months and people have came here once or twice, theyll go elsewhere because this place is so expensive. Weve had a good time on the challenge lanes for $40 bucks all night both times, actual fowling is a blast. But the food is sub par, and the exclusive lane rental is way too expensive. I can only give this place 3 stars. Some nights we just have to go to a place thats not as expensive but still fun.

RY

Ryan Talsma

First off, I would give the staff 5 stars, all were fast, nice, and helpful. I didnt eat so I cant say anything about the food. Drink prices were pretty standard but definitely wouldnt call them cheap. I would have given it 2 stars based off of the fowling, or bombowling as they call it, Im assuming/hoping they have to call it something different due to some copyright issue because the name is painful to say. If you are going to go for the fowling like we did and have been to the fowling warehouse you are going to be disappointed. You have multiple less feet behind you, so you feel like you are playing with a backboard, there is barely any space behind the boards for the knocked down pins, I guarantee someone sprains an ankle on one sometime. God forbid you are on a court where people enter because you already dont have enough space. Also, and I cant say for sure, but it feels like the courts are all a foot or 2 closer together as well. Despite all this, its still fun because its still fowling, but compared to the competition the HUB just loses outright. If you care about ambiance, it is actually pretty nice, but for me its not as big of a deal. Seems very much like they are working out the kinks still, but from the sounds of it are learning. Prices seem high, but again I am comparing them to the fowling warehouse. Hoping they have early success and find ways to expand the courts, but that seems like that would be a major undertaking and doesnt seem likely. Best of luck to them.

AN

Andrew Weiss

Visited on 12/30, from 7-10pm. The fowling is pretty cool and this was my first time, but definitely NOT worth $125 an hour for a lane. Thats pretty insane considering the money from the lanes is a very, very high profit margin. Other places just charge you like $10 at the door. When we got there for our reservation of 15, we got kicked from our table by an employee which I actually believe was one of the managers because apparently it was already reserved for another party, so it seems there is a bit of disconnect between employees because it was a bit chaotic, however we eventually got tables for our party and the situation was rectified. The servers were very attentitive at the beginning of the evening and consistently asking how we were doing and so on, even servers that werent ours, but the further the night went on, the worse the service got. Had to ask for our bill twice, and it took about 20 minutes to finally get it. I dont know whether it was the server or not, but the most of me is leaning towards management understaffing for the evening. But the servers all still seemed to have a good attitude. Its a nice place and overall I did have a decent time, but there are still some kinks that need to be worked out. Hopefully management reads the reviews!