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MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENTwww.mainevent.com Annual revenue: $89 million Headquarters: Dallas Employees: 3,050 Specialty: High-volume family entertainment centers

Main Event Entertainment is a growing Dallas-based company that is adding to its footprint of high-volume entertainment centers, all of which are currently located in five states.

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A Dallas-based organization, Main Event Entertainment strives to be the ultimate fun destination for people of all ages. The company is an operator of high-volume family entertainment centers that are located throughout the U.S. and range in size from 45,000 to 75,000 square feet. “When the company started out about 15 years ago, its founder rec-ognized that the business of bowling had largely been built between the 1950s and 1970s on a model of league bowling along with some casual business,” President and CEO Charlie Keegan says. “That has been on a consistent decline, and our approach was to create a big-box entertain-ment facility with bowling as an an-chor along with other entertainment as well as food and beverage.”

SOMETHING FOR ALLMain Event Entertainment is now a subsidiary of Australia’s Ardent Leisure Group, acquired in 2006. One of Australia’s most successful owners and operators of premium leisure as-sets, Ardent’s portfolio includes more than 100 assets across Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. In addition to Main Event Entertainment, Ardent’s assets include the Dreamworld, WhiteWater World and SkyPoint

theme parks and attractions, AMF and Kingpin Bowling, d’Albora Mari-nas and Goodlife Health Clubs. Main Event Entertainment offers what it calls the “Eat.Bowl.Play.” experience. All of Main Event Enter-tainment’s locations feature state-of-the-art bowling, billiards, laser tag, more than 100 virtual and interactive games, chef-inspired dining options and full-service bars. Select locations also offer an indoor gravity ropes course, rock climbing and mini golf. Main Event Entertainment facilities offer free Wi-Fi, too. “We have developed a diverse port-folio through thoughtful, measured incubation,” Keegan says. “The first 10 centers were built over a period of 15 years, and we’ve upgraded the look and feel of our facilities to make them more aspirational since Ardent acquired the company. Our work to combine leisure and entertainment with contemporary food and bever-age offerings in an upgraded environ-ment is on trend.”

Fun and GamesBy offering a diverse array of amenities, Main Event Entertainment has grown beyond its Texas roots and begun to grow around the country. BY ERIC SLACK

MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENT

Charlie Keeganpresident and CEO“We have developed a diverse port-folio through thoughtful, measured incubation.”

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This diversity of offerings allows Main Event Entertainment to appeal to all demographic groups while also bringing in walk-in and group busi-ness. In fact, the company’s facilities have private rooms, complete with full-service catering and the latest A/V technology, that make Main Event an ideal venue for special events such as birthday parties, social gatherings and corporate meetings. “About one-quarter of our business is groups, including corporate, schools, churches and parties,” Keegan says. “We have a sales office in front of all of our facilities, and group sales are a core competency of ours. Our top user groups are medium- to high-income families with kids, as well as 20- to 30-year-old singles who like to work hard and play hard.”

One of the company’s target user groups is young adults who like to work hard and play hard.

SAVE ELECTRONICS As a preferred vendor for Main Event Entertainment for 16 years, SAVE Electronics custom designs, fully integrated and automated, Sound, Video and Lighting Systems for their entertainment centers. From a simple board room with video conferencing to a multi-screen sports arena presenting every second of action, SAVE Electronics takes pride in providing solutions for businesses large and small. President Tim Boyd proclaims, “Our company culture dictates that customer support and reliability is an essential part of finishing the job with efficiency. We haven’t missed a deadline in 57 years”.

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LEADING THE WAYThe last few years have seen Main Event Entertainment continue to innovate and push the boundaries of the high-volume

family entertainment center market-place. After opening a new prototype facility in San Antonio in April 2012, Main Event Entertainment followed that up in early 2013 by announcing plans to double its operations by the middle of the decade. “The development of our new centers started with the interiors,” Keegan says. “The layout is such that when you walk in to one of our centers, you see bowling as one of five elements. We have created an energetic look that is full of lights and sound as well as modern décor and finishes. On the outside, we have created a modern look that is dynamic, and it looks great day and night thanks to some LED treatment.” Main Event Entertainment opened locations in Katy, Texas, in December 2012. That was soon followed by the

opening of a center in Stafford, Texas, in the spring of 2013. The Stafford location is a large-scale facility with entertainment options for all ages, including laser tag located between state-of-the-art bowling lanes, billiards, an indoor gravity ropes course and more than 100 virtual and inter-active games. It also includes dining options and full-service bars. Main Event Entertainment’s expansion efforts have included venturing beyond Texas. The company’s first steps beyond

MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENT

BMI MERCHANDISE (BONITA MARIE INTERNATIONAL) is proud to be the exclusive merchandise supplier for Main Event Entertainment. BMI, recently awarded SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR by the A.A.M.A., American Amusement Machine Association, provides design, merchandise plan-o-grams, on-site set up installations, and complete inventory management. BMI’s proprietary Automated Reorder System (ARS) uses state-of-the-art software to design and maintain redemption merchandise with just in time product fulfillment, instant plan-o-grams, custom website, and management tools. 800-272-6375 www.bonitamarie-intl.com

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the Lone Star State were into Arizona in late 2013. The Main Event Entertainment location in Tempe stands at 55,000 square feet, and the facility features bowling laser tag, video games, dining and a ropes course.

In early 2014, the company announced that it had begun a national expansion effort in the wake of the opening of its latest prototype and first location outside of Texas. With a number of new locations in its sights, Main Event Entertain-ment was aiming to expand its number of U.S. locations to 20 by 2015.

To reach that goal, Main Event Entertainment’s growth plans included additional expansion in Texas. It has since opened its second location in West San Antonio after the prototype facility in North San Antonio exceeded perfor-mance expectations, and it also opened in Pharr in the Texas Valley. The 58,000-square-foot Pharr location includes state-of-the-art bowling; multi-level laser tag; a gravity ropes ad-venture course; and more than 100 interactive, virtual and video games. It also includes regulation-size billiard tables, full-service bars, chef-inspired dining experiences and free Wi-Fi access. The second location in San Antonio also is a 58,000-square-foot entertainment center, providing a cutting-edge bowling experience, multi-level laser tag and a gravity ropes course. Other attractions found at the facility include billiards, more than 100 interactive video games,

MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENT MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENT

“ “We’ve invested in technology because our guests expect us

to have connected, tech-enabled facilities.

CHARLIE KEEGAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO

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dining, a full bar and private rooms for birthday parties and corporate events.

NEW REGIONS Outside of Texas and Arizona, the com-pany initially set its sights on expan-sion in Georgia, Illinois and Oklahoma. Main Event Entertainment first opened a new center in the Atlanta-area suburb of Alpharetta in June 2014. The Alpharetta facility was a 65,000-square-foot facility that fea-tured bowling, laser tag, a gravity ropes course, more than 100 games, billiards, full-service bars, dining experiences and free Wi-Fi. Around the same time,

Main Event Entertainment also opened a new center in Atlanta, near Cum-berland Mall, as part of its ongoing national expansion in 2014. In Illinois, Main Event Entertainment opened in Warrenville in September 2014. The company’s 48,000-square-foot entertainment center includes bowling, multi-level laser tag, a grav-ity ropes course, billiards, more than 100 arcade games, dining, a full bar and private rooms for birthday parties and corporate events. The company then opened its Okla-homa City location on Black Friday 2014. The 57,000-square-foot enter-

MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENT

All of Main Event Entertainment’s locations include a state-of-the-art bowling element.

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tainment center has more than 20 cutting-edge bowling lanes, multi-level laser tag, a gravity ropes course, more than 125 interactive video games, dining, a full bar, bil-liards, and private rooms with Wi-Fi and A/V capabilities for birthday parties and corporate events. Main Event Entertainment will soon open its second facil-ity in Oklahoma, this time in Tulsa. Once open, the compa-ny’s footprint will consist of 20 centers in five states.

FOCUS ON EXECUTIONWith food and beverage as its top revenue stream (followed by games and bowling), Main Event Entertainment un-derstands that it is in the hospitality business. Many of its employees have worked in other sectors of hospitality and understand the principle of guest service and operating with a sense of urgency. “We’ve invested in technology because our guests expect us to have connected, tech-enabled facilities,” Keegan says. “We’ve also created an aspirational environment, having designed some of our own furniture and constantly work-

Interactive games are among the various amenities that Main Event Entertainment features at its facilities.

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ing very hard to find innovative ways to create an upgraded environment.” Main Event Entertainment will con-tinue to evolve in the coming years. One

of the company’s efforts is focused on working to enhance its food and bever-age offerings. In addition, Main Event Entertain-

ment is exploring technology initiatives and finding ways to make it easier for people to move around the building and spend money digitally. Beyond that, the company is looking to find ways of value engineering its facilities so it can operate in smaller locations. “Everything is about execution,” Keegan says. “We have to maintain our high level of quality as we work to grow around the country. We must also be able to find great sites and great people so we can cost effectively create these complex buildings, which take money and time to build.”

MAIN EVENT ENTERTAINMENT

A significant portion of Main Event Entertainment’s business comes from birthday parties and other group outings.INTERCARD INC. Since 1979, Intercard Inc. (http://www.intercardinc.com), based in St. Louis, MO, has provided market-leading, stored value card systems for the casino and amusement industry, and other applications in North Amer-ica, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Australia. Millions of cards, and thousands of readers and hundreds of systems later, Intercard Inc., continues to provide the best systems available to clients all over the world.