The worked example
A bar with 32 throwers per session, 5 sessions a day, 6 days a week has 4160 thrower slots a month. At a 28% average fill that is 1165 visits. Tickets are $27, so tickets bring in $31449.60, and $10 of food and drink per visit adds $11648.00.
24 private events at $520 bring in $12480.00 and 48 league players at $40 add $1920.00.
Five coaches and bar staff on duty cost $20384.00 a month at $16 an hour plus 12% payroll cost. With rent, utilities, insurance and other costs, fixed costs are $37184.00.
| Line | Per month |
|---|---|
| Revenue | $57497.60 |
| Total costs | $47495.30 |
| Profit | $10002.30 |
| Margin | 17.4% |
| Profit per visit | $8.59 |
Lanes, targets, axes and the fit-out cost $280,000, so payback is 28.0 months, 2.3 years. Profit would reach zero at 20.5% fill.
The ticket a 20% margin needs
The bar earns 17.4%, short of 20%. With everything else unchanged, the lowest ticket that reaches 20% is $28.74, $1.74 more than the $27 entered.
Hitting a 24-month payback
At 28.0 months the bar is past a 24-month payback target. The lowest ticket that reaches 24 months is $28.52, $1.52 more than now. Payback is measured before any loan payment, so borrowing does not flatter it; a loan still comes out of monthly profit.
If attendance comes in under plan
Rent, staff and insurance do not shrink when the lanes are quiet. With 10% fewer visits, monthly profit falls from $10,002 to $6,277 and payback stretches to 44.6 months. With 20% fewer, profit is $2,552 a month and payback runs past nine years.
A higher ticket with fewer throwers
Charging $32 and filling 22% of slots makes $6321.54 a month against $10002.30, and pays back in 44.3 months against 28.0. Raising price does not rescue the bar if it costs more visits than the extra dollars bring in; the second scenario in the calculator tests exactly that.
Run your own numbers: open the calculator.
Common questions
What fill rate does an axe throwing bar need to break even?
It depends on rent, staff and ticket price, so the calculator solves it: it scales attendance up or down until monthly profit is exactly zero and reports that as a percentage of all thrower slots. Private events and leagues pay for part of the fixed costs before a single walk-in buys a ticket, so the break-even fill is lower than most owners guess.
How much of an axe throwing bar's income comes from private events?
Often a fifth to a third of revenue, and the most reliable part because corporate and group bookings are made in advance. The calculator counts private events as a flat package price minus the food, host and supplies each one costs, and warns when they are over a third of revenue, because event income is capped by your event lanes and weekend hours.
What ticket price do I need to reach my target margin?
The calculator solves for the ticket that makes margin equal your target and shows it, next to the ticket that reaches your payback target. The test suite checks that charging exactly those prices earns the target for hundreds of random bars.