IBI 2019 August Cover Story

COVER STORY

t s a F ’ Rollin y d a e t and S

ness moving si u b p e e k , y Coue Jeff and Ava a k a s, le k r a p marketing.

The S with creative

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COVER STORY Editor’s Note: This issue of International Bowling Industry contains our quarterly Beyond Bowling section, where we focus on the new, expanded parts of the bowling business. We thought a lot about what makes our industry great and how collectively the industry has survived. The editorial team felt that Jeff and Ava Couey capture the very essence of not only surviving but thriving in the modern BEC and FEC era. Their creativity and passion enriches their business, their community, and their family.

We hope that readers come away with inspiration to keep rollin’ forward.

By Robert Sax

I

f you’re not on wheels yourself, you will have a hard time keeping up with Jeff Couey, aka Mr. Sparkles.

A former speed skating champion, a long-time rink operator and the current president of the Roller Skating Association, Couey has spent most of his life in roller skating. He still loves skating and the business, and he and his wife Ava, aka Mrs. Sparkles, are keeping roller skating relevant and fun for a new generation at their Sparkles Family Fun Centers.

Jeff grew up in the roller skating business. His parents, Albert and Leita Couey, bought their first roller rink in 1959, just months after Jeff was born. It was in Mableton, GA, and, by the 1980s, the senior Coueys had 13 locations in Georgia and Tennessee. As with so many family-run amusement businesses, Jeff and his older brother Glenn worked alongside their parents. But not everyone chooses to stay in the family business, as the brothers eventually did.

Jeff stayed in the business because he loved skating and skaters. “It was the people. Just the love of people and what I do,” says Jeff. “It meant a lot to me, what my mother and father worked so hard on, and I just said, ‘This is me.’ ” In 1981, Jeff bought his first skating center from his father and inherited another in 2001. During that period, Albert Couey began to shed some of his locations to reduce the workload. “It was just really hard to oversee that many

Ava and Jeff Couey promote Operation Resolute IBI

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COVER STORY locations,” says Jeff. “I think when my dad passed, we had seven locations, and ended up selling a few [more], and that’s just making life easier.” Couey now has two centers in the Atlanta area, one in Kennesaw and one in Hiram, while brother Glenn and his wife Julie run centers in nearby Smyrna and Gwinnett.

Jeff and Ava became Mr. and Mrs. Sparkles in 1991. Ava had grown up skating at one of the Couey’s rinks but didn’t know Jeff or his family. “I started skating in elementary school and [became] a die-hard skater,” says Ava, meeting Jeff much later at an adult skate night at one of his centers. “We started talking, started dating and then we got married on roller skates.”

Shortly after their wedding in 1999, the Coueys went to the annual roller skating industry convention. There they met operators and industry consultants, Jim and Cindy Anderson, who had just added a playground and laser tag to

their FunQuest rink in Lynchburg, VA. That was the “Aha!” moment for the Coueys, who decided they needed to up their game in a similar way. With the help of the Andersons, they renovated their two centers over a three-year period, turning them into FECs by adding kids’ playgrounds, two-story laser tag, and bigger arcades by 2007.

“Now we encompass all ages versus where it may have just been more teendriven before when it was just skating,” says Jeff. “We have a toddler area in our playground and it goes up to adult skate and games.”

The changes made Sparkles Family Centers more competitive with other local attractions and boosted revenues.

It also distinguished them from other roller skating rinks that didn’t offer as rich a mix of attractions. Even today, most roller rinks are still skating only, says Jeff.

“The small cities are going to stay skating rinks probably, but it’s growing in more 24

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COVER STORY others come to socialize, drink, and watch the skaters.

The Coueys’ success is also due to a knack for local marketing, which has included cable TV ads and screen spots in movie theatres. Jeff’s best-known marketing ploy is undoubtedly the Skate Car, a giant fiberglass roller skate on a Volkswagen bus chassis that his father bought in 1975 from a custom car maker in Daytona, FL. As a teenager Jeff began driving it around town to promote their rinks and he continues to drive it today in local parades and other events.

He recently showed it off to the kids at a Career Day on Wheels at the local primary school, where the skate car stood out among the firetrucks, police vehicles, and cement trucks. When not on the road, the skate car is parked in front of the Sparkles Family Fun Center in Hiram, GA. of the bigger cities,” he says, estimating that about 20% of roller skating rinks have evolved into FECs. Corporate events and other private parties are a significant part of their business, especially since they began serving beer and wine in 2011. Jeff says their Sip and Skate events, which feature lots of high-top tables where skaters can stop for a drink, are very popular. Ava says these events draw a mix of people: some people are there primarily for skating who might have one drink;

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Driving the Industry A dedicated advocate for roller skating, Jeff was re-elected in 2018 as president of the Roller Skating Association, the industry’s trade group. He’s been busy with the industry on an upswing; an estimated 32 million people participate in skating. The RSA membership pulls in estimated annual gross revenues of more continued on page 30...

COVER STORY ...continued from page 26

than $200 million, according to the group.

When he’s not travelling the country to keep in touch with association members, Jeff is occupied with making sure the RSA offers more benefits for them. “Jeff Couey has been one of our most aggressive presidents,” says Jim McMahon, executive director of the RSA. “With his ‘all skate forward’ attitude [Jeff] is always bringing new and innovative ideas forward to help our membership.”

Under Jeff’s presidency, the RSA has developed business relationships with such vendors as ICEE, FetchRev, and ADP. He instituted two useful programs

for proprietors: My Skate Repair and Kids Skate Free. Recently Jeff helped make a long-overdue deal with ASCAP, the music rights organization, of which he is particularly proud.

Anderson also has praise for Jeff and what he has done for roller skating.

“He’s brought a lot to the industry and his passion has been a big plus,” he says. “Jeff is on his game and has been able to bring it to the RSA.” What’s in the future for Mr. and Mrs. Sparkles? They own a third rink that’s currently out of operation and have considered re-opening it; they have run three locations simultaneously before. “[Maybe] after Jeff is not RSA president anymore,” says Ava. “That’s a big commitment.”

Someday they might also write a book of all the great roller skating stories they have heard during their travels. “Jeff is good at conversing with everyone,” says Ava, “and once he talks about owning skating rinks then they go right into, ‘Oh, I’ve got to tell you about this,’ and share a story about a birthday at a rink or getting their first kiss there.”

“You don’t ever meet anyone who doesn’t have a story to tell you about skating,” says Jeff. “We touch the childhood memory.” ❖

In 1975, Jeff and his father, Albert Couey, traveled to Daytona, FL, to purchase their roller skate car. The creator, Mr. Strickland, made just nine cars; they were a way to combine his two passions of roller skating and building cars. The Coueys bought two cars, kept one for themselves and sold the other to a friend in the skating industry.

The car is built on the chassis of a VW bus and runs off of a VW engine – with no lack of power due to the lightweight fiberglass body.

Originally fitted out as a high-top roller skate, Jeff has since removed the detachable high-top to keep up with the low-top style of roller skates today.

Jeff likes to share one skate car story in particular: “I was 17, and me and some friends would meet up in the parking lot of Hawthorn Plaza and hang out in the evenings. One night, we were out there messing around and I decided to show off just what my skate car could do. I was racing the engine and did a little ‘cat walk’ – where you pop the clutch and the front wheels raise off of the ground. Sure enough, a cop pulled me over right then and there. I got four tickets – excessive speed, reckless driving, lifting the wheels off of the ground, and one more. I remember the cop saying, ‘Jeff, your Daddy isn’t going to be pleased with this one.’ He was right.”

Robert Sax is a writer and PR consultant in Los Angeles. He grew up in Toronto, Canada, the home of five-pin bowling.

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