How a thing for Skee-Ball started RM14.4 mln business

ROBERT Kinsler’s business is to create fun for others. That’s kind of ironic, considering that he spent several difficult years in foster care while his parents navigated personal issues.

“I have had an untraditional upbringing,” said Kinsler, an entrepreneur who built a social sports and lifestyle company called DC Fray, a US$ 3.2 million ( RM4.4 million) enterprise based in Washington that just expanded to Phoenix and Jacksonville, Florida.

The 32-year- old developed a resilience and knack for survival that comes in handy dealing with the million headaches and incidents of unsportsman-like conduct that come with running his unconventional sports empire.

Kinsler started DC Fray (originally called United Social Sports) out of his Washington studio in 2009 as a Skee-Ball league. ( Skee-Ball is that arcade game that’s sort of like bowling. You roll softball- size balls up an inclined lane toward holes bounded by raised rings.)

DC Fray has 11 fulltime employees organising adventures for thousands of weekly participants.

The seven-year- old “fun firm” says it produced 27,769 contests of all sorts last year, with 3,267 teams competing. The Super Bowl, this ain’t. DC Fray’s competition includes many of the games we grew up with in the back yard: Kickball, dodgeball, ultimate Frisbee, cornhole, snow tubing and even flag football. There are New Year’s Eve parties, goofy events called Hungry Human Hippo and an outdoor polar bear kickball league for hearty souls during winter. For adventure, there are river tubing excursions to Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, for US$ 75. The idea here is to have a good time.

“It’s recreation,” Kinsler said. “The social connection. It’s the opposite of Facebook. It’s real-life connection with current friends as well as new friends.”

The participants are equally split between men and women - do they ever pair up off the field?

“Yes, 100 per cent,” Kinsler said. The dating prospects are “a huge part of why people join.”

Plus, it’s cheaper than golf. Registration for an eight-week season of softball runs US$ 65. Seven weeks of Monday night Skee-Ball might run US$ 49.

For that you get the bats, the balls, the nets, trophies, T- shirts and the venue.

“We supply everything except for personal equipment like softball gloves,” Kinsler said.

The company spends about US$ 300,000 a year on equipment and another US$ 500,000 on permits. DC Fray leases a 7,500- square-foot warehouse stacked with dozens of wire shelves piled with equipment bags, cones, balls, bases, bats, first- aid kits, volleyball poles and soccer nets. The company owns three vans that move the stuff.

The company drafts rules to keep the competition social and fun, and the playing field level. If you steal second base, you must give it back. ( There’s no stealing bases!) And not everyone plays nice. One sore loser punted the soccer ball over the fence.

A high level of logistics is involved, with elements such as reserving baseball fields, estimating attendance and dealing with procrastinators. Nearly half of the registrations for something like a softball or kickball league arrive the week before it begins, which causes havoc in the scheduling and rosters.

There are corporate events to co- ordinate, facilities to rent. There are T- shirt makers, food vendors and referees to pay, and players to herd to their games. — WP-Bloomberg