Dueling Grounds Leaving Toronto

[DavidC]

I learned this weekend that Dueling Grounds will be leaving Toronto and relocating to Peterborough, roughly in May. They will reopen in July there.

Before we panic, I was told a new gaming store was taking over. But we can't rest on our laurels and assume they will be as welcoming as the former owners.

Also, UofT has been very accomodating of us. But we do not get drop ins or attract new players at that location. So moving to a store location would be preferable.

My question to you all is, are there other stores we might consider holding events in? Should we consider libraries? Are there other options that might be more outside the box?

Please weigh in.

[Engineremy]

Sad to hear another store is moving out...

One store in the East end of town is called Face to Face games. I think we tried to have a few games there a couple of years back, although I wasn't able to make those. Did anyone attend or have experiences (positive/negative) with them - Paul?

- Jeremy

[Peter Stodolak]

Face to Face was a nice location, though it was a trek to get to.  Given David's failed attempts to muster support for Hairy T North I'm willing to speculate that a good part of our player base prefers to play close to the downtown area.  That said our base has changed a bit over the past couple years so it could be worth trying again.

[Daryl Mahabir]

Hi i second Face to Face at Woodbine and Danforth as it is home to 5e on Wed/Sat and had a $5/seat fee (not sure if that the case still) and decent locale and tables and game stuff; PS: is RS still on tonight at DG - as am OK to postpone or reschedule? i have heard there are some amenable stores in the Yonge & Eglinton/Lawrence area too?

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 5:38:04 PM UTC-4, DavidC wrote:

[Peter Stodolak]

I assume that Riven Sky is still on as long as we have enough players to make the table.

[Ryan Gadoury]

There is a used video game store called GameSwap [715 Danforth Ave].

The guy that runs it seems pretty friendly and their gaming section in their downstairs is large, well lit.... and mostly empty.

They might be happy of the business and the traffic.

[Spencer Robertson]

Hello Gents,

I know playing on campus is definitely easy, but I do agree that it must be an issue getting drop ins. The real benefit of the campus is the central location. The downside is that you don't have an actual front for the building, so people get turned off from looking for where to properly go (although it obviously isn't a challenge).

I'm posting your events on the Facebook page so that they're visible to people online, so hopefully that gets some people your way.

I know George wants to re-open his store, and he's hoping to do it near campus. That would frankly be great for a number of reasons. I'm not certain if he's aware of Dueling Grounds' departure, but it may be cause for him to consider opening earlier.

Again, I can keep booking you rooms on campus. One option is playing around with location to get drop ins. although I think the biggest thing is just advertising as much as possible your current location.

On Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:38:04 UTC-4, DavidC wrote:

[Stephen Tsuji]

A&C at Spadina and College has recently closed their Video Game area, but their Card section has some nice tables that could be of use. The owners are also pretty chill. I'm unsure if our demographics are compatible, but it might be worth looking into.

On Wednesday, March 29, 2017 at 5:38:04 PM UTC-4, DavidC wrote:

[Zach Budd]

I've been to A&C a number of times for Magic, and they're generally good people there; it's also relatively close to where Wizard's Chache used to be, so the same people who could make it there could also make it to A&C. More importantly, there's a good chance of drop ins there; it's a busy store.