Jeff Salvado

The guy who ran Chuck E. Cheese for six years now runs Topgolf, and he's turning it into Chuck E. Cheese for adults. The $45 dinner-and-golf deal Topgolf just rolled out is step one. Here's how a Topgolf works money-wise. A big one costs $30 to $40 million to build. Rent and staff cost about the same at 5pm on a Tuesday as they do on a Saturday night, so every hour a bay sits empty on a weeknight is money they're never getting back. Think of an airline seat that flies empty, except it happens every hour, all week long. And weeknights have gotten a lot emptier. Sales at existing locations have been dropping since 2024. In one quarter last year they fell about 12%, and corporate events fell 13%. Those after-work company outings used to be a big chunk of the Monday-through-Thursday crowd. Now look at the deal. Two entrees and an hour and a half of play for $45, Monday to Thursday after 4pm. At a lot of venues the bay alone runs $30 to $40 an hour on a weeknight, so that same night usually costs you $80 or more once the food shows up. And they left drinks out of the bundle, which is the whole trick. Two people standing in a bay for 90 minutes are going to order a couple of beers. The food costs the kitchen way less than what's on the menu, and the bar is where places like this make their real money. He ran this same play at Chuck E. Cheese. His name is David McKillips, and he took over Topgolf in February. At Chuck E. Cheese he launched the Fun Pass, unlimited visits starting at $7.99 a month. They sold about 400,000 of them in 2024, up from 79,000 the year before, and the company says someone on a yearly pass is worth six to eight times a one-time visitor. In his own words, "we need to drive multi-visitation." He's already bringing it over. He told D Magazine that traffic is up this year even as the average check drops, and Topgolf is rolling out three-tier memberships. He's fine with you spending less per visit as long as you keep coming back. He needs it to work, too. Callaway paid $2.66 billion in stock for the part of Topgolf it didn't already own back in 2021. Last November it sold control at a $1.1 billion valuation for the whole company. McKillips himself admits only about 35% of golfers even go to Topgolf. Topgolf is still planning three to five new venues a year. He'd rather sell you a $45 Tuesday than watch a $40 million building sit empty.