USIndoor's Official Magazine is a quarterly publication, dedicated to owners, managers, program administrators and other professionals, startups and providers involved with indoor recreational sports facilities.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/204891
INTERNATIONAL INDO ALBUQUERQUE, NM by Sylvie Green I n 2001, Gabe Nosseir, owner and operator of International Indoor Soccer Arena in Albuquerque, New Mexico, was a couple years out of college and, though he was not quite jobless (he was working as a substitute teacher), he had not decided on a career. "My dad was in town, and we were talking, and I said, 'I know I want to run a business, but I'm not sure exactly what I want to do,' and he gave me probably the best advice anyone's ever given me. He said, 'You should combine your hobby–playing and coaching soccer–with your business, and then you'll really enjoy what you do.'" Gabe and a friend of his had seen that a facility where they played in high school had closed down, and they half joked about opening it up again. When his dad gave him that advice, Gabe looked into opening the facility for real. His dad helped him financially. The opening of the facility was slow. Gabe and his friends did all the work themselves. They had minimal business experience. Since the building had been an arena, they figured all it needed was 10 some turf, electrical work, plumbing and painting. They went step by step, asking people who knew more than they did for advice, and learned on the job. League play began that fall. The facility also offered a few clinics. Business has been growing ever since. That is, essentially, the story of International Indoor Soccer Arena. What happened in between, however–how it began and where it is today–is more than your typical story of good business decisions mixed with good luck. This story is a sequence of events combined with something akin to divine intervention. Fortuity Plays Soccer Just as International Indoor opened its doors for business, the only other indoor sports facility in town closed theirs. Gabe did not know this would happen. He had planned to go after a different target audience but, when the facility closed, he didn't have to; International Indoor was a monopoly. No one knew why the old facility closed, but the local players were thrilled to have a new place to play. Because his was the only facility in town, Gabe wasn't terribly concerned that it was not in one of the better neighborhoods or that the building was old or that the turf was low-quality. The soccer community in Albuquerque is close, and Gabe had been playing and coaching soccer for many years, so it was easy to attract players. Business boomed. In fact, business was going so well, that Gabe began to get bored and, after a few years, he considered leaving the indoor sports business. He went back to school to pursue a graduate degree in counseling, one of his other passions. Then, after a meeting with his accountant, who made a point of expressing how well the business was doing, Gabe decided to raise the bar for International Indoor. By then, he had visited top-notch facilities around the country, and he decided that his facility would no longer operate at a mediocre level. Part of Albuquerque's charm comes