A lot of people get excited for and end up attending Brownsburg’s football games. However, after these big football games, there’s bound to be a few individuals roaming the streets waiting for rides during the night hours that follow. And with late-night wandering comes a lot of unpredictability.
Press Play Gaming Lounge (PPGL) is, by management’s definition, a place where people can come and have fun. It’s a place with lounging, food, games and other activities that people may enjoy.
So, to help students who may eventually find themselves roaming the town of Brownsburg late at night, PPGL and their leadership have decided to host an after–party on September 19 after the homecoming football game to create a safe space students can enjoy after the game wraps up.
“We wanted to try and give back [to the community], provide a safe space and give a discount so it’s a little bit more affordable for the students,” said Dante Kynion, a team lead at PPGL.
In the beginning, Kynion and his team primarily promoted their afterparty idea through a flyer and through word-of-mouth, with the additional help of PPGL’s employees’ families. According to one of the owners, Ray Embry, the plan is to begin to broadcast and advertise the afterparty through more online options like social media and email.
“… but I just want to make sure that people are excited about it first before I blast it out there. And if it’s really something that people would want to do, then we want to continue to do that,” Embry said.
Although other means of advertising will be used to promote this event, the flyer is what contains all the information for the homecoming afterparty, along with a few dates for other football afterparties they plan to host in the future.
“The flyer really tells it all honestly. I mean, when people come in and show their school ID, they’re gonna get discounts on food, and they’re gonna be able to get Arcade [cards] for 50% off,” Kynion said.
After football games, students may end up roaming the streets looking for something to do or some place to go. Since a lot of these games end late at night, it could potentially be dangerous for students to be roaming that late.
“The original idea came from one of my bosses, Misty [Embry], and so I was like talking with Brady and Ray about how we can give back to the community. How can we, you know, try and provide a safe space for these students after the game is done,” Kynion said.
Throughout the party, PPGL intends to create a safe space for students to hang out after the game. But if the time comes to it, they have many measures in place to protect both students and staff during the party.
“Press Play is like a big 365, but you can see everywhere. So we have plenty of employees here that can make rounds, you know, walk in different areas, just to make sure that nobody’s doing anything weird,” said Embry.
While crowd size is partly dependent on the outcome of the homecoming game, PPGL leadership has plans to control the crowd size if the time comes to it.
“We’ll handle the crowd like we do any other big party. We have party sizes of over 200 people for private parties, and we handle those with a breeze. So we’ll just make sure we have people on the ground,” Kynion said.
They hope to create an atmosphere of fun and relaxation for the students to attend, allowing them to have a place to spend time with each other safely and supervised.
“My favorite part about working at Press Play is when people get to walk out the building with a smile on their face having a great, great time. That is my sole drive, is bringing the experience to people, being able to watch kids come out with a great experience, seeing parents happy about their kid’s experience. That is what drives me,” Embry said.
