Funworld September 2008

It’s always satisfying to hear about a new amusement facility that enjoys great success while bringing good times to its customers. But it’s even more gratifying to hear about one that, with an imaginative founder leading the way, overcomes challenge after challenge to make a profound difference in the lives of the people in its community. Madd Fun in Brooklyn, New York, is such a place.

The story of Madd Fun is an inspiring tale—one of vision, frustration, persistence, and, ultimately, of triumph. The central figure in this saga is Harry Haynes, the facility’s president and co-owner. Haynes, 50, was born of Guyanese parents in Brooklyn. His father worked for the United Nations, so while growing up, he lived with his family in various places all over world. He then spent three and a half years in the U.S. Air Force in the late 1970s, where he learned computer programming.

Later, Haynes worked as a fashion designer in New York City, but his clothing line was struggling, so he decided to close it a few years ago before it racked up huge losses. “It was hard,” he reveals. “I was living on credit cards, and that went on for a long time.”

Fulfilling a Need
Soon after leaving the fashion business, Haynes attended his nephew’s birthday party at an FEC. “We had to drive way out [of New York City] to get to this FEC, and the big question was, why didn’t we have something in our own community?” he says. “If I can get biblical, it was like a calling. That night, I jumped on the Internet, started researching game operators and looking at the [local] laws, and, basically, there was a need within our own community.”

Haynes started traveling to industry shows and was surprised by what he found: “There were no inner-city FECs because the old laws were slanted that way. Back in the days of prohibition, gaming places were operating behind store-fronts, and gaming meant [gambling].”

As he began his efforts to create an inner-city FEC, these laws were a huge obstacle. “New York City is the hardest place to build something,” he says. “You have to fight City Hall on everything and you have to do it within the structure of their laws ... you have to have a permit for everything.”

Haynes settled on a 40,000-square-foot former doll factory in East New York, Brooklyn, as the location for his new venture. But he could secure no financing from banks or venture capitalists. Then, he caught a break. “I got an SBA (Small Business Administration) loan to go through— that was a miracle,” he says. “It ended up being about $1 million.” Haynes recalls facing a lot of skepticism from friends and family members until the SBA loan was awarded, quipping, “I believe they then became believers!”

Going Madd
Rich Bartlett owns several FECs called Fun Station and did the design and layout work on Madd Fun, of which he is part owner. He became a mentor to Haynes early on in the process and trained Haynes and his wife in running an FEC. Bartlett remembers how the struggles with city government continued to drag on. “The city was one of the hardest areas to get permits for—it took us almost two years to get the CO (certificate of occupany),” he recalls. “The place sat there completed, but not open, for almost a year—that was a major financial hurdle.”

Finally, on June 8, 2006, Madd Fun opened its doors, boasting some impressive attractions like a mini-roller coaster, the largest indoor laser tag in New York City, and a mini-bowling alley. But the attraction that’s gained Madd Fun the most notice isn’t really an attraction at all—a 30-station computer lab.

“It was part of Harry’s vision for his center before he even opened,” says Dorothy Lewis, who serves as a consultant on hiring, orientation, and training for Madd Fun “It’s an urban center, located right across the street from some projects. He knew what he wanted for his community, and he did-n’t stop until he got it.”

Haynes believes the lab was essential to the neighborhood. “To make [Madd Fun] a unanimous win, it had to be built so that when [guests] aren’t gaming, they’re learning on the computers,” he asserts. Working through a city politician, Haynes was able to get a local PBS station to donate the computers. (Madd Fun still had to invest in things like installing the servers and setting up the Wi-Fi system.) The FEC has partnered with Kumon, an educational organization that teaches children the basic skills to excel in math and reading. “These guys are real educators, and they’re in here teaching after-school programs,” says Haynes. “They tutor on overall academics, PSATs, and SATs.”

Whether its being used for formal training, by kids wanting Internet access, or by parents needing to check their e-mail or online finances while their kids play, the lab gets a lot of use (Haynes does charge for computer access, but there is a wide variety of payment options and levels). Haynes says the community reaction has been overwhelming because people just weren’t accustomed to seeing anything like it. The lab has also helped attract school groups to the facility. “A problem in our industry is that a lot of schools aren’t patronizing our establishments because they see us as just fun and games, with no educational value,” Haynes points out.

Madd Fun also created the “Student Rewards and Incentive Program,” which allows kids to bring in their report cards and receive free game tokens for getting As and Bs. Plus, there’s a 10 percent discount for parents who attend three PTA meetings in a row, and the percentage increases if they continue participating. This has increased local PTA attendance, according to Haynes. The FEC’s success has allowed it to add a 28-seat 4-D motion theater where, in addition to being fun, most of the features are also educational, with subjects like dinosaurs, ancient Egypt, and outer space.

Embracing a Diverse Community
Madd Fun’s informal, indirect community contributions are equally impressive. A remarkable variety of different ethnic and cultural groups come through its doors—African Americans, Hispanics, Russians, Israelis, Asians, Pakistanis, and others—and many different religions, like Christians, Hasidic Jews, and Muslims.

Haynes says all this creates a huge challenge. “Everything in the city is about music,” he says. “If we didn’t have a lot of music and a DJ, people would walk out, and we have to know what music the different ethnic groups want. Also, we knew typical FEC food wouldn’t work, so we have a real walk-in kitchen that makes ethnic dishes— Caribbean dishes, soul food, what ever—and we’re very conscious of the food we make. We even turn the kitchen into a class project and teach how to make something like a pizza, step-by-step.” Madd Fun also has a room where arts and crafts are taught, and even here, the facility has to take care to have crafts that represent these varying ethnicities and religions.

But Haynes and 75 Madd Fun employees have made it all work, and in recognition of this, Haynes received the Entrepreneur of the Year for the state of New York by the NAACP in April.

Lewis says Haynes deserves the credit: “He is definitely a very hands-on person, and his customers know him. Madd Fun is the most unusual FEC I work with, but they do very well in taking care of all of their markets.”

As for the next big step at Madd Fun, Haynes is working on that right now: “We’re introducing something called r-learning, and your child and his/her group can interact with each other and with personalized training instructors via webcam from our computer lab. [Their progress] is tracked and scored for them, with printed results.” Haynes says they’ve pulled together different tools and software and made it all more affordable, interactive, and fun.

“Some of these things are available from others, but it’s extremely expensive,” he adds. “Ours will be only $1 a day per child! This is huge—it takes our computer lab to a whole other dimension of educational excellence. The teams are very competitive, we package it with incentives through Madd Fun, and the rewards are instantaneous.”

Haynes says he’s getting a lot of calls from people wanting to do what he’s done in other inner cities. “We didn’t know how much we were being talked about until we went to the [industry] shows,” he says.