Avoid These 7 Mistakes When Buying Indoor Recreation Equipment for Your Venue

What This Guide Covers

I've been handling B2B orders for indoor recreation equipment since 2018. In that time I've personally made (and documented) 9 significant mistakes that collectively wasted about $14,000 in budget. Below are the questions customers ask most often – and the painful lessons behind the answers.

1. Does ice-games sell ice hockey video games?

Short answer: no. We don't carry video games of any kind – ice hockey video games, Iron Lung video game, or otherwise. That's not our lane.

Here's the thing: I once had a client in late 2022 who assumed 'indoor games' meant everything digital. They ordered a commercial game table setup from us expecting arcade cabinets with built-in emulators. When the shipment arrived – pool table, ping pong table, board games – the disappointment was real. $3,200 order, but the wrong expectation.

Lesson: If you're looking for digital experiences, we're not that company. But if you want physical, social, long-lasting recreation that gets people off their phones – that's what we do. And frankly, for commercial venues, pool tables and foosball tables drive way more repeat traffic than any video game.

2. What about ice breaker card games – do you stock those?

Yes, we carry a curated selection of card games designed for groups, including several ice breaker style games. Our B2B catalog includes decks for bars, corporate events, and family entertainment centers.

I almost made a huge mistake in September 2023. A hotel chain wanted 200 card decks for their lobby. I approved the order without checking the card stock weight. Standard playing card stock? Too flimsy for commercial use. They started bending after two weeks. $890 worth of decks had to be replaced. Now I always ask: 'How many uses per deck do you expect?' For heavy rotation, we recommend 310 gsm coated stock – same as casino-grade cards. Costs more upfront, but lasts 4x longer.

3. Is the Deep Rock Galactic board game available from ice-games?

Yes, we have the official Deep Rock Galactic board game in our lineup – along with many other tabletop titles. But here's a mistake I made in early 2022: I assumed that because a game was popular, it would sell well in a commercial venue.

I ordered 50 copies of a then-hot board game for a chain of arcades. Sold maybe 5 in three months. Turns out, customers in that venue wanted shorter, faster games – 15-20 minutes, not 90+ minutes. Deep Rock Galactic plays 2-4 hours. So while we stock it, I always ask buyers: Who's your audience? How long do they stay? Do they have staff to teach rules? Those questions would have saved me $1,200 in dead inventory.

4. Wait – iron lung video game? That's not on your site.

Right. The Iron Lung video game is a horror title on Steam. Not something we carry. But a customer once asked me in April 2023 if we could source it for their gaming lounge. I spent three days trying to find a commercial license – obviously a dead end.

What I should have done: immediately redirect to what we do well – immersive physical experiences. A dark, themed ping pong room with UV lights can create a vibe just as intense. Plus it gets people moving. That customer ended up buying 4 ping pong tables and 2 board game tables. So don't let the keyword mismatch trip you up.

5. How to create a home theater room – do you help with that?

Strictly speaking, we don't sell projectors, screens, or sound systems. But a home theater room often becomes a multipurpose entertainment space, and that is where we come in.

In November 2021, a client building a luxury home theater came to us. Their plan: a massive screen, recliners, popcorn machine – and nothing else. I suggested adding a pool table for pre-show socializing. 'No thanks, we want clean lines.' Six months later they called back: guests were bored waiting for the movie to start, and the seats were uncomfortable during downtime. We retrofitted a 7-foot pool table. That $1,800 add-on became the most-used piece in the room.

So if you're building a home theater, consider: one pool table or a ping pong table in the same room. A 6-foot table fits most rooms (the industry standard minimum for a multipurpose setup). The sound from the table doesn't interfere with the theater. And the cost per square foot of fun is way lower than anything electronic.

6. What's the biggest mistake you see when buying arcade machines?

Buying the wrong game for the audience. I made this exact error in December 2022: I helped a bowling alley invest $4,500 in a racing arcade cabinet. Sounded perfect. But their crowd was families with young kids – the racing game was too complex and too fast. It sat idle.

The fix: we swapped it for a classic ticket-redemption machine (think Skee-Ball style). Revenue jumped 40% per machine per week.

My rule now: before any arcade purchase, I ask for 3 data points:

• Average age of your visitors
• Peak visit duration (under 30 min = short games only)
• Existing games – avoid duplicates

That checklist alone has prevented at least 5 bad purchases in the last year.

7. Should I go cheap on pool tables to save for other equipment?

Absolutely not. Here's a $2,200 lesson from my second year.

A client wanted the cheapest 8-foot pool table we had. I warned them: the MDF slate, thin felt, and weak frame would sag within 12 months of commercial use. They insisted. Sure enough, after 10 months the playing surface was unlevel, the cloth ripped, and the table looked like it had aged 5 years. They ended up buying a proper one from us – $3,800 – after spending $1,200 on the first one. Plus they lost two months of revenue.

For commercial venues, always go with a ¾-inch slate (minimum), 21-ounce worsted wool felt, and a frame rated for 24/7 use. That's not 'overkill' – that's the baseline for durability. The extra $500-1,000 pays for itself in avoided downtime and better customer experience. And when visitors walk in, the first impression of a cheap table screams 'budget venue.' On the flip side, a quality table says 'we take your fun seriously.'

“I didn't understand the value of a quality pool table until I saw one in a top-tier sports bar. The cloth was pristine, the rails reacted perfectly, and the customers were lined up waiting to play. That's the brand image you're buying.”

So glad I eventually learned that lesson. Almost went the 'save now, pay later' route several times. Now my standard quote for any commercial pool table includes a 5-year realiabilty estimate – and clients appreciate the transparency.

Bottom Line

The best investment you can make in indoor recreation equipment is spending a few hours upfront asking the right questions: Who's your audience? How long do they stay? What will get them coming back? Quality matters. Experience matters. And getting it wrong the first time is way more expensive than doing it right.

If you're planning a venue upgrade or new build, I'd recommend starting with our commercial equipment checklist. It's the exact one I wish I had in 2018.