[FSPA] VBH CLOSED

[Joe Kosack]

Let me take a moment and fully set forth the situation to all of you who haven't been following this closely.

Years ago, the owners of VBH were looking to make an arrangement with Howard County in order to make it a Parks and Rec facility.  However, the deal fell through based on some clauses that HC tried to put in the agreement that would have made it easy for them to pull out in a year and take the info on all of the players with them.  After this deal fell through, the owners were approached by a developer to buy the land in order to build apartments.  They agreed to a deal.

Now this deal took a while to close as the developer had a continuous problem of having the cash on hand to close.  Unfortunately, Judy (the operating owner) found out about this after a deal was signed.  Therefore, we had actually been in limbo for a couple of years while waiting for the deal to close.

The deal closed on Tuesday of this week.  Therefore, the current form of VBH will close on June 10.

However, there is a new location in the works that is envisioned to open up in November.  The website for the new location is here:  https://www.vbhouse2.com/  This will be a sports dome with some hard construction areas for bathrooms, snack bar, and potentially a pinball area.

There is unfortunately one giant problem where in concerns us and VBH, the new location is in Severn, MD, which is in Anne Arundel County.  As I'm sure Mike Frasca can tell those of you not familiar with AAC licensing requirements, they are insanely expensive.  To operate pinball machines, it would cost us and VBH $2000 for the right to have them, and a $100 per machine.  These fees are paid every year.  Also, you are limited to 8 coin operated devices this way.  If you want more than 8, then you need to buy an arcade license, which runs $5000 per year.

I am in the process of drafting a letter to my council rep to see if there can be some movement into changing the licensing laws for pinball machines (and all other coin operated machines would be nice too!)  The new owners of the VBH business are already receptive to us joining them at the new location, and Judy (now as an investor and not as an operator) was even talking about how our space could be set up at the new location.

That's all of the information that I have at the moment.  This email is only intended for the email list, and I would appreciate it if it would currently not be forwarded to another forum such as Pinside or Tilt Forums.

Joe K.
Vbh2<https://www.vbhouse2.com/>
The Dome is a 55,000 sq ft climate controlled, air supported fabric dome which will feature 10 fixed volleyball courts with new shock absorbent, joint friendly flooring, elevated mezzanine seating for viewing of the action below, with sport related retail and concessions for year round volleyball fun, training and competition.
www.vbhouse2.com

________________________________
From: FSPA <fspa-bounces at fspazone.org> on behalf of Baconzzz via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org>
Sent: Thursday, May 30, 2019 8:42 AM
To: FSPA main discussion list
Cc: Baconzzz
Subject: Re: [FSPA] VBH CLOSED

Is a new location nearby even in the works?? Baltimore and it’s surrounding area seems to be a hotbed of breweries of late...some with plenty of space. I know Heavy Seas has a huge enclosed side area while Hysteria and Black Flag had space as well.....Jailbreak serves food now so they have used up all their space. It would be sweet to have a set up at Guinness though they close at 9pm:/

Sent from my iPhone

On May 30, 2019, at 8:16 AM, Deb Kapke via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org<mailto:fspa at fspazone.org>> wrote:

RIP VBH.

I hope they’ll open at a new location and that it will be good.




On May 29, 2019, at 9:27 PM, Scott Sidley via FSPA <fspa at fspazone.org<mailto:fspa at fspazone.org>> wrote:


all machines are gone.

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