Austin, TX - Never been able to keep 12th Strip Club open for long

Mar 20, 2016, 1:31 PM

Despite lots of population growth - Austin, TX never accepted a 12th strip club despite many attempts. It's stuck with 11 strip clubs for 2 decades now. So I hear.

Ricks tried their hand. Failed. Ended up abandoning the location and simply buying JOY and renaming Ricks. New investor opened "Austin Theatre" in 2014 - lasted few months. Shuttered. Lack of customers. Recently new money was put into a brand new strip club - Down In Texas Saloon (DITS). Closed. Lack of sustained business. Many more gigs started and ended within a year. (Pink Monkey, Midnight Cowboy, Phantasy Place)

I have two theories:

A strip club really takes 5 years to become profitable. It's the time to create a thousand return customers that spend about $10K-$20K on food/drinks each month. That pays for expenses. So this theory is business plan gone wrong.
If the new club is run by Bouncer/Military/Hard-Knuckle guys - customers will keep away. Happened to DITS recently and Pink Monkey previously. Started good. Then some ass tried to improve by bringing in roving bouncers/managers. Customers ditched the place. Landing Strip was about to go down - but changed their manager in nick of time. This is operations gone wrong.

Has any new strip club opened in your area in the last 5 years? Is it still open?

comments (3)

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jackslash9 years ago

Yes and yes. The Detroit area has a lot of clubs, and a new one opens every couple years. Maybe the problem with Austin is the population. Austin has less than 1 million people. The Detroit metro area has more than 4 million.

MrDeuce9 years ago

Interesting observation. Austin's population has almost doubled in the last 25 years, from under 500,000 in 1990 to over 900,000 now, and yet the number of strip clubs has been stuck at less than 12. (Currently TUSCL lists 10.) In ten visits to Austin since 2009, I have hit 8 of its 10 clubs -- all but Babes and Hot Bodies. Meanwhile Rick's, Down in Texas, and Austin Theatre all came and went before I had a chance to check them out. I would guess that Babes will close before another club opens, so Austin will be down to 9 strip clubs. Meanwhile Indianapolis, with only about 800,000 people, somehow supports 16 clubs! And then there's the notorious example of Washington Park, IL, which has fewer than 5000 inhabitants and nine strip clubs!!

How do you account for Austin's relatively stagnant strip club scene? My tongue-in-cheek hypothesis: Austinites who want to see naked women have options other than strip clubs -- Barton Springs Pool for topless chicks and Hippie Hollow for butt-nekkid babes -- that residents of colder northern cities like Indianapolis and Detroit can only dream of. However, I have not yet succeeded in getting a lap dance from any of the bare-bosomed beauties at Barton Springs :)

rogertex9 years ago

^^ I think you nailed it. Plenty of attractive women all around results in less demand for strip clubs. Good luck with Barton Springs !