Should I open or buy a BigShots Golf franchise in 2027?

What it is and why it matters

BigShots Golf is a tech-enabled driving-range entertainment concept operating within the Invited/ClubCorp golf ecosystem, built around the same basic idea as Topgolf: climate-controlled or covered hitting bays wired with ball-tracking technology, target-based games playable by groups of all skill levels, plus a full-service restaurant and bar and dedicated event space for corporate outings, birthdays, and league play. The format matters because it converts a traditionally slow-margin activity — hitting golf balls — into a high-frequency, high-check hospitality occasion. A single bay can be rented by four to six people for an hour or more, and the group typically orders food and drinks throughout the visit, which is why F&B and events, not bay time alone, end up driving the profit.

For a would-be franchisee, understanding what BigShots actually *is* prevents the single most common and expensive mistake in this category: treating it like a neighborhood driving range with some extra tech bolted on. It is closer to a mid-size entertainment real estate development than a retail storefront. The land footprint, the construction complexity of a multi-bay hitting structure, the commercial kitchen, and the liquor program all stack costs the way a restaurant-plus-arena hybrid would, not the way a simple retail franchise would. That distinction is why BigShots explicitly screens for experienced multi-unit operators, developers, or investor groups rather than first-time owner-operators — the operational and financial demands compound quickly if the team hasn't run large hospitality venues before.

The category itself is riding real tailwinds heading into 2027. Golf participation has grown steadily post-2020, and "golf-entertainment" or "golftainment" concepts have proven they can pull a broader audience than traditional golf ever did — families, corporate groups, and non-golfers looking for a shared activity with food and drink attached. That demand pull is exactly why competitors like Topgolf, Drive Shack, Puttshack, and PopStroke have expanded aggressively, and why BigShots positions itself as the more land-efficient, lower-build-cost alternative inside the same demand curve. Anyone evaluating whether to open a location needs to weigh that tailwind against a market that, in many metro areas, is quickly approaching saturation.

The step-by-step process

Opening a BigShots location runs through a sequence that looks more like a real estate development timeline than a franchise onboarding process. The sequence below reflects how a typical development-stage franchisee moves from first contact to grand opening, and where the major decision gates sit.

Each stage carries its own risk of slippage, and the gaps between stages are where most timelines blow out. Site selection alone can take three to six months when a developer is comparing multiple parcels for traffic count, visibility, and zoning compatibility with outdoor entertainment use. Permitting is frequently the longest and least predictable stage — special use permits, liquor licensing, traffic impact studies, and noise or lighting variances can add six to eighteen months in municipalities that are unfamiliar with the format or facing resident pushback. Construction itself, once financing closes and permits are in hand, typically runs eight to fourteen months for a full-scale complex, shorter for a smaller format. Altogether, most franchisees should plan on 18 to 30 months from signed agreement to grand opening, with 12 months being an aggressive best case reserved for smaller formats on pre-entitled sites.

The financing step deserves its own attention inside this sequence because it is rarely a single event. Most development-scale deals close financing in stages — a construction loan secured against the completed entitlement package, sometimes paired with equity or mezzanine partners who fund the gap between what a bank will lend and total project cost. Franchisees who treat financing as a single checkbox rather than a multi-month negotiation are the ones most likely to see their site option expire before they can break ground.

Costs, timelines, and typical ranges

The capital table for a BigShots franchise sits well above what most people associate with "buying a franchise." Total investment for a full-scale, destination-class venue runs roughly $5,000,000 to $15,000,000 or more, with the spread driven almost entirely by format size, land cost in the chosen market, and how extensive the restaurant and bar buildout is. A smaller, more contained format brings the entry point down, but it still requires real institutional-grade capital, not a home equity line.

Breaking that total down: the franchise or development fee itself is a relatively small piece, generally in the $50,000 to $250,000 range depending on the agreement and whether the franchisee is committing to a single unit or a multi-unit development schedule (multi-unit commitments of three to five locations typically earn a reduced per-unit fee). Site and land costs — whether purchased outright or ground-leased — commonly run $2,000,000 to $7,000,000 depending on market. Bay construction, ball-tracking technology, and target systems add another $1,000,000 to $3,500,000. A full-service restaurant and bar buildout runs $1,000,000 to $2,500,000, and FF&E plus point-of-sale and audiovisual technology adds $300,000 to $1,200,000. Layer in initial marketing ($100,000-$400,000) and opening-period working capital ($400,000-$1,200,000), and the total investment stacks up quickly toward that $5,000,000-$15,000,000+ range.

Beyond the headline construction number, franchisees should budget for costs that are easy to underestimate: architectural and engineering fees of $150,000 to $400,000, permitting and impact fees of $100,000 to $300,000, and pre-opening staffing and marketing of $200,000 to $500,000 — meaning the cash needed before opening day, separate from construction draws, can exceed $1,500,000 on its own. Ongoing fees layer a royalty of roughly 5% to 7% of gross revenue plus a marketing fund contribution of 2% to 3%, both fairly standard for the entertainment-franchise category.

On the capital-requirements side specifically, expect BigShots to screen for minimum liquid capital in the $2,000,000 to $4,000,000 range and a net worth requirement of $8,000,000 to $12,000,000 or more — figures that reflect the reality of a 15,000 to 30,000 square foot building on 3 to 7 acres of land. Financing is rarely a single conventional loan; SBA 7(a) programs generally cap out well below what a full build requires, so most deals blend conventional commercial real estate debt (roughly 50-60% of the capital stack), equity from the sponsor group or investors (30-40%), and sometimes mezzanine or seller financing (10-20%), with lenders typically requiring a debt service coverage ratio of 1.25x to 1.50x before closing.

Revenue and margin expectations follow the scale of the investment. Mature, stabilized venues gross roughly $4,000,000 to $10,000,000 or more annually, blended across bay rentals, food and beverage, and private or corporate events — and F&B/events consistently outperform bay time as the margin driver once a venue is running at capacity. Net operating margins in well-run golf-entertainment venues land in the 12% to 22% range, but because the capital base is so large, breakeven on a cash-on-cash basis typically takes two to four years, and full payback on the initial investment stretches longer. Anyone modeling this as "a franchise" using small-business rules of thumb — quick payback, thin capital stack — will misprice the deal badly; it needs to be modeled the way a developer models a hotel or a mixed-use retail center.

Where teams get it wrong

The single most common failure mode is capital mismatch: a group raises enough to get the venue open but not enough to survive the ramp. Because ramp-to-stabilization runs two to four years, an undercapitalized sponsor group can find itself servicing debt on a venue that hasn't yet reached the revenue level the pro forma assumed, and without a working capital reserve sized for that runway, even a fundamentally sound site can end up in distress. Teams that succeed size their capital stack for month 36, not for grand opening.

A second recurring error is underestimating permitting and entitlement risk. Because BigShots venues combine outdoor recreation, a full liquor program, and late-hour operation, many municipalities classify them as a commercial entertainment use requiring special permits, traffic studies, and public hearings. Nearby residents frequently organize opposition around noise, exterior lighting from the range, and added traffic, and that opposition can add six to eighteen months to a timeline that looked straightforward on paper. Some franchisees have walked away from sites after already spending $200,000 or more on due diligence and permitting work — money that's gone regardless of whether the deal closes. Teams that get this right run a zoning and community-sentiment check before they option land, not after.

Third, weak food and beverage execution quietly erodes returns that construction budgets looked fine on. Because F&B and events — not bay rentals — are the primary margin engine, an operator who treats the kitchen as an afterthought to the golf technology will underperform even with a great location and full bays. Rising food costs and hospitality labor shortages compress F&B margins further, so venues need genuine restaurant-caliber operations leadership, not a golf-ops team running a kitchen as a side function.

Fourth, market saturation gets underweighted. Several metro markets already carry two or three Topgolf locations within a 30-minute drive, alongside independent ranges and other golf-entertainment concepts, and a new BigShots entering that same radius needs a clearly differentiated value proposition — pricing, food program, event capacity, or a market gap the incumbents haven't filled — rather than assuming category demand alone will fill bays. Pricing power is genuinely limited in a crowded market: bay rentals commonly run $35 to $55 per hour, below Topgolf's $40-$70 range, which caps how much a crowded-market operator can raise prices to offset thin margins.

Finally, construction and cost overruns on a project this size are common, and teams that don't build 10% to 15% contingency into both budget and timeline routinely get caught by change orders on the specialty bay structure, HVAC for a large open-air or semi-covered space, and kitchen buildout. Insurance is a related, easy-to-underbudget line — general liability, liquor liability, and property coverage on a $10,000,000 venue commonly runs $80,000 to $150,000 annually with deductibles of $25,000 to $50,000 per claim, and a single serious incident can wipe out months of operating profit if that line wasn't sized correctly from the start.

Framed the way a RevOps team would model a large capital decision — mapping the full funnel from qualification through ramp to steady-state, rather than just the entry cost — the venues that struggle are almost always the ones that only modeled the "close" (grand opening) and never modeled the multi-year pipeline to stabilized revenue.

Decision framework: when to choose what

Not every buyer who's attracted to the BigShots brand belongs in a full-scale development deal, and the smartest move for many prospective owners is recognizing that early rather than after signing a development agreement. The framework below walks through how to route the decision based on capital, experience, and market.

Reading this in order: capital is the first gate, because there's no version of a full BigShots build that works below roughly $5,000,000 in total investment, and any group without that deployable is better served looking at X-Golf or Five Iron Golf, which deliver comparable golf-entertainment category exposure at $1,200,000 to $4,000,000 with a far simpler indoor buildout. Passing the capital gate doesn't clear a group for a solo development — operational experience matters just as much, and a group with capital but no track record running large hospitality or entertainment venues should strongly consider bringing in an experienced operating partner rather than learning multi-unit hospitality management on a $10,000,000 asset. Market fit is the third gate: even well-capitalized, experienced groups will underperform in a market that's already saturated with Topgolf, Drive Shack, or independent ranges, or one too small to support the population density BigShots' model assumes. Only after clearing capital, experience, and market should the format decision — smaller venue versus full complex — come into play, and that choice should be driven by how much local demand the site study actually supports, not by brand ambition.

Related questions

Should I open or buy a Five Iron Golf franchise in 2027?

Five Iron Golf is an indoor simulator-and-bar concept requiring roughly $1,200,000 to $4,000,000, a far more accessible entry than BigShots' full development-scale build, and a better fit for a single owner-operator rather than a large investor group.

Should I open or buy an X-Golf indoor golf franchise in 2027?

X-Golf follows a similar indoor simulator model to Five Iron, typically $1,200,000 to $4,000,000 to open, and offers comparable golf-entertainment category exposure without the land, construction, and liquor-license complexity of a BigShots venue.

How do you start an indoor golf simulator studio business in 2027?

An indoor golf simulator studio is the lowest-capital entry into the same category, often opening for a few hundred thousand to low seven figures in a leased retail or industrial space, without the acreage, outdoor range, or full restaurant buildout a BigShots venue requires.

How Do I Budget an Indoor Golf or Golf-Simulator Buildout?

Budgeting a simulator buildout centers on leasehold improvements, simulator hardware and bay construction, and a scaled-down bar/lounge program — a fraction of BigShots' land acquisition, outdoor range construction, and full commercial kitchen costs.

How does the PGA Tour business and the LIV Golf situation work in 2027?

Professional golf's tour landscape doesn't directly determine BigShots' unit economics, but the broader visibility and participation growth around golf as a sport feeds the same demand curve that golf-entertainment concepts like BigShots and Topgolf are built to capture.

FAQ

How much does it cost to open a BigShots Golf franchise? Total investment typically ranges from $5,000,000 to over $15,000,000, depending on venue size and format. This includes the franchise fee, land and site development, construction of bays and technology systems, the restaurant and bar buildout, and initial working capital.

What is the average revenue of a BigShots Golf location?

Mature, stabilized venues generally generate between $4,000,000 and $10,000,000 annually. Revenue comes primarily from bay rentals, food and beverage sales, and corporate or private event bookings, with F&B and events typically outperforming bay time as the margin driver.

Is BigShots Golf similar to Topgolf? Yes — it offers a comparable tech-enabled driving range experience with target games and scoring, but at a somewhat more land- and capital-efficient scale. BigShots operates within the Invited/ClubCorp network and pairs outdoor or covered hitting bays with a full restaurant and bar.

Who is the ideal franchisee to open a BigShots Golf venue? This opportunity suits well-capitalized developers, hospitality enterprises, or investor groups with multi-unit operating experience — not first-time owner-operators. It requires real estate development expertise, a large capital stack, and the operational depth to run a large-scale hospitality venue.

How long does it take to open a BigShots Golf venue? From signing the development agreement to grand opening typically takes 18 to 30 months for a full-scale complex, including site selection, permitting and entitlement, financing, and construction. Smaller formats can move faster, sometimes closer to 12 months on a pre-entitled site.

What ongoing fees does the BigShots franchise require? Franchisees pay a royalty of roughly 5% to 7% of gross revenue and a marketing fund contribution of about 2% to 3%. Exact percentages are disclosed in the franchise agreement's FDD, but they align with norms for the broader entertainment-franchise category.

Sources

• https://www.bigshotsgolf.com
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/franchises
• https://www.franchisedirect.com
• https://www.ngf.org
• https://www.ibisworld.com
• https://www.statista.com
• https://www.technomic.com
• https://www.iaapa.org
• https://www.franchise.org
• https://www.sba.gov/funding-programs/loans/7a-loans

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