Hey there Synners I’m getting a lot of messages asking why we’ve had to move so much and some hate mail calling me names for not doing things the correct way in the first place.  I thought I would go over some of the challenges and what the hang ups are. 

I have run LS clubs now for 20 years. Before that I was in the regular bar\nightclub\events business pretty much since I was 20. I have never dealt with zoning and such as I have this past year.  I have lots of experience in running clubs and very little in dealing with bureaucracy.   So if someone has experience in this and can give me advice I’m all ears.  It’s not that I’m lazy, cheap or just don’t want to.  It’s just not easy to do.  

A decent sized building in even a not great area is going to run you about 3-4K a month in rent.  The landlord will want at least a year lease and deposits so it’s about 10K cash just to get the keys to an empty building.  The proper inspections and such will cost a few grand more.  Even if you make no changes to a building you have to hire an architect to draw it up and sign off on it.  This all takes about 90 days of which you are closed and paying rent still.   If you have any changes you want to make to fit your needs you have to have inspections along the way and they have to be completed before you can even start getting your final inspections.  

If for any reason you get declined you are out all that money you already spent and the landlord will still expect you to pay the rest of your lease out.  Best case scenario you are out the deposit and the rent you already paid.  

That’s assuming you even find a landlord that will let you put a LS club in and match the restrictions that the city imposes on businesses like ours.  Building a place you have the same challenges but the cost is even higher.  

Most small businesses don’t do all this.  They get the keys and open up and for the most part the city leaves them alone.  For 19 years even when I got inspected by the fire marshall there were no major issues.  

What’s changed in the past few years is we have a small group of people in the Tulsa area that failed to run their own place and just don’t want anywhere else to succeed.  They are very adamant about complaining and trying to make as much disruption as they can.  This same group is why none of the clubs are open BYOL anymore.  They managed to get us all in trouble and why we all had to change our protocols.  

Use to we would rent out hotel banquet rooms.  There were several places in the Tulsa area that did that.  They all called in on each other and got shut down by the city and that’s  pretty much what started all this.  So many of the hotels got so screwed over in the process that no one would touch a LS party.  Even if I find one that will host us  do I try to haul everything on Saturday and haul it all out afterwards?  It is still against city guidelines if they find out and could still be shut down.  If we take out the sexual stuff and have just banquet tables we might as well all just meet at a bar.  

How do other clubs do it?  I’m not exactly sure about other cities’ regulations.  Most across the US are considered private clubs that’s why they charge a membership.  Tulsa has no such guidelines and I haven’t found a lawyer willing to go down that road.  I would need a space in the first place and be paying rent while shut down and also paying the lawyer.  

Finally I knew this last place was out of compliance.  Everyone was telling me we would be left alone because basically we were in the ghetto. Most would be.  There are several event centers on that side of town that are way out of compliance and they never get bothered.   I never liked that space and was looking for somewhere to move but everyone else enjoyed it and I didn’t have a lot of options.  

When we are running again we might not be there long again.  There are too many variables.  I’m doing what I can.  It’s why there have been so many changes.  I’ve had to hide the location, charge single ladies and raise costs because of all this.   

We should be good in the long run.  We are building a space that “should” solve all these issues and be a club that rivals any in the US.  The fire marshall told me they are wanting that as well so they can tell the haters we are in compliance and to leave them alone.  Despite shutting us down they have been pretty reasonable and fair.   

In the meantime anything we do is going to be less than ideal.  It’s going to be too small, too far out, bad location, invite only or some combination that I’ll hate but don’t have much of a choice in the matter.  

You all have been through some shit with me.   I remember right after covid when our “social area” was literally a folding table and some folding chairs in the back of an alley.   You all still came out and supported us and made it where we could build something better.  

You all keep doing your part and I promise I will do mine and get us somewhere we can be proud of.  

Eventually.