You don’t have to involve the IFPA at all. When your locations open up again make every tournament a fundraising tournament for the location. You don’t even have to limit yourself to a single dollar from each player!
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The “fees” go to the SCS and Nationals participants. I’m not sure who is helped by shrinking those prizepools.
The governor of Cal essentially shut down every location in the state today. That’s over 800 locations with pins that aren’t earning. In one state. IFPA money or fundraising tourneys aren’t going to.be enough. We’re going to need to patronize these locations regularly when they reopen. The money we spend there on games, food and drink will help and will also show others that it’s ok to go back out and have fun.
I had games at home for years. Got bored of every one of them. There’s nothing more fun than playing on location for fun. If there are pins on location anywhere near you, it will be easy (and fun) to help those locations and operators. Think long term.
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Jim,
As usual, the Pinball Co-op takes inspiration from the Sanctum. Here’s (most of) the email I just sent to our members.
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Just added No Quarter in Nashville, TN. They had the additional bad luck of being hit by the Nashville tornado about a week before the shutdown. If you saw the “I Believe in Nashville” mural that was in the news around that time, they’re about 1/2 a block from there.
Great, great people that are a huge part of the massive growth we’ve had in the pinball scene in Tennessee.
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For folks trying to sell merchandise online for their arcades, Spreadshirt just went down due to virus stuff but it looks like Threadless is still shipping.
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I hope this isn’t just for US bars.
Electric Circus in the UK have 51 operating machines and no income at all since 20th March. We are also a new business, not even open a year yet, our rent is £500 a week with no way to pay it. We just hope we can survive and re-open once the lockdown is listed.
Courtney
Should be possible to make rent by loaning out some of those 51 machines…
Heck you could charge 50-100 pounds a month and not even have to rent out that many of em
Can’t transport any due to non essential travel ban
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Not sure about the UK, but in the US Moving companies are considered essential. Charge a bit more for delivery to cover that cost. Machines here are renting at $3-$400 USD a month plus delivery fees. Maybe @neilmcrae could point you to a moving company with pinball experience?
So couriers are consider essential in the UK. But what you can’t do is just start driving your own games around the country sadly.
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A moving company isn’t going to go in to a persons house and set up a pin. You can’t expect the customer you are renting it to to do that, either, and you don’t want to leave them keys to open the machine in the first place.
We looked in to renting out our machines and ultimately decided against it because we don’t want to risk going in to someone’s house during the pandemic.
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the two machines that I’ve been loaned I remotely opened the garage let them drop them in to there and closed it. won’t work for everyone but for some.
Marvin’s Marvellous Mechanical Museum in metro Detroit has posted on Facebook that they are not sure how they will survive if they can’t safely reopen on June 1, which seems unlikely. For those unfamiliar, MMMM is a legend – much more than just a pinball venue. They have mechanical amusements and other artifacts going back to the early 20th century. Buying a gift card from them might be a good way to help them out.
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There’s now a GoFundMe for Cabin Fever in Toronto.
This is a small location that has been hit particularly hard by the capacity and hours restrictions that have been put in place. It’s owned and run by Robyn Harrison, who some of you might have met the NYCPC, which is one of the few events she’s been able to travel to attend because she’s usually busy running the bar!
Cabin Fever gives Torontonians a chance to play new games on location alongside quality classics and where I first played a TWD LE. No one wants to see this gem close! Your support is appreciated, even if it’s just spreading the word or sending positive vibes. 
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After being in business for 2.5 years, Outer Orbit in San Francisco is barely scraping by now. They’re trying to stay open and keep their staff paid. Support them here if you wish: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-us-save-outer-orbit
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