For a few years, I have wondered what it would take to create a chess center. A place for players to come and play chess 7 days a week, solely devoted to chess in the late afternoon/evening for scholastic kids to play after school and adults. Several places have something like this I’m sure, but what does it take from an organizational standpoint to create one?
Some questions for any with knowledge or experience out there:
What kind of expenses/money does a facility that could hold 50-100 players?
What legal stuff is involved in creating a place? Need liability insurance for possible accidents? Taxes? Run in commercial only sections of a town, or could it be out of a residence (old house)?
How much manpower would be needed to handle custodial/paperwork/running events and activities?
Any kind of grants anyone has applied to create and run such a facility?
In my area, geographically about 900,000 people, we’ve run scholastic tournaments in the 600-800 range on a regular basis, with a regional event of just over 1000 a couple of years ago. I would think there would be enough interest in having such a facility, but I lack the “business/social” sense and connections to jump into such an endeavour (though I’d definately help with activities and such).
What thoughts and experiences are out there? Thanks