For a current six-simulator X-Golf, the strongest defensible estimate is roughly $4,730 to $120,604 in annual pre-tax manager-run owner earnings, with a base scenario near $45,869. An owner who personally performs the general-manager role may receive an estimated $82,750 to $198,624 in owner-operator benefit, but $78,020 of that amount represents the market value of the owner’s labor rather than passive business profit.
This range is an independent analytical scenario, not an Item 19 financial performance representation by X GOLF Franchise Corporation. It combines 2025 per-simulator sales disclosed in the 2026 Franchise Disclosure Document with separately identified margin assumptions and a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics manager-wage benchmark. Actual results can differ materially because of location, simulator count, sales mix, labor, rent, market-cooperative dues, financing, owner involvement, seasonality, and execution.
Legal franchisor: X GOLF Franchise Corporation, a California corporation. FDD issuance date: April 15, 2026. Item 19 status: official historic Gross Store Sales Per Simulator, but no store profit, EBITDA, net income, owner compensation, or cash-flow disclosure. Population: 114 U.S. franchised outlets open for all of 2025, with five to ten simulators; 96 had six, seven, or eight simulators. Model: current six-simulator minimum format. External references: 2023 IRS partnership statistics and May 2023 BLS wage data. Date checked: July 15, 2026.
Estimated pre-tax business income after normal expenses, hired-manager payroll, and modeled recurring franchise fees.
Manager-run residual plus $78,020 of general-manager labor value; not passive profit.
2025 Item 19 median across 114 full-year franchised stores; revenue, not earnings.
7% royalty and 1% marketing-fund contribution on Adjusted Gross Sales.
114 franchised outlets qualified because they operated for the full year; 134 franchised units existed during 2025.
May 2023 mean annual wage for entertainment and recreation managers in NAICS 713900.
What does X-Golf’s Item 19 actually measure?
Item 19 officially measures Gross Store Sales Per Simulator, not annual owner earnings. For 2025, the franchisor reported an average of $112,944 and a median of $94,970 per simulator across 114 franchised stores that had been open at least 12 months. The lowest result was $58,785 and the highest was $247,991 per simulator; 51 stores, or 45%, exceeded the average.
The disclosure defines Sales as revenue from goods and services after sales tax, discounts, allowances, and returns. Store Sales Per Simulator equals each outlet’s total Sales divided by its simulator count. This denominator matters: multiplying a per-simulator figure by six creates a six-simulator analytical equivalent, not an official average store total.
| 2025 Item 19 cohort | Sales per simulator | Six-simulator equivalent | Evidence class |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bottom 25% average | $78,832 | $472,992 | Official per-simulator figure; derived six-simulator total |
| Middle 50% average | $109,211 | $655,266 | Official per-simulator figure; derived six-simulator total |
| Top 25% average | $154,620 | $927,720 | Official per-simulator figure; derived six-simulator total |
| All-store median | $94,970 | $569,820 | Official median; derived six-simulator total |
Source: X GOLF Franchise Corporation, 2026 FDD, Item 19, pp. 41–43. The tier values are averages within performance bands, not quartile cutoffs or probabilities. The FDD says point-of-sale data were rounded and warns that individual results may differ.
A six-simulator revenue equivalent of $655,266 does not mean an owner earns $655,266. Payroll, food and beverage costs, occupancy, insurance, repairs, royalty, marketing, technology, debt costs, depreciation, and other operating expenses must be paid before residual business income exists.
How was the annual owner-earnings range estimated?
The model applies explicit post-fee income margins to the FDD’s three 2025 sales tiers for a six-simulator outlet. The conservative case uses 1%, the base case 7%, and the upside case 13%. These are editorial scenario assumptions—not X-Golf margins—and are used because Item 19 discloses no operating expenses or profit.
- Revenue: six times the official Bottom 25%, Middle 50%, or Top 25% average Sales Per Simulator.
- Margin definition: after ordinary unit-level expenses, hired general-manager compensation, the 7% royalty, 1% marketing fund, and the current technology fee; before personal income taxes and financing principal.
- Interest and depreciation: treated as included in the scenario margin to stay closer to IRS ordinary-business-income definitions; capital expenditures are not modeled as annual operating expenses.
- Market cooperative: excluded from the core scenarios because participation and dues vary by market; the FDD permits a cooperative contribution up to 5% of Adjusted Gross Sales.
- Taxes: no after-tax estimate is presented because entity structure, jurisdiction, deductions, and owner circumstances differ.
| Scenario | Derived revenue | Post-fee margin | Manager-run earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conservative | $472,992 | 1% | $4,730 |
| Base | $655,266 | 7% | $45,869 |
| Upside | $927,720 | 13% | $120,604 |
Annual pre-tax business income for a modeled six-simulator outlet
Interpretation: the range is driven by both sales tier and assumed post-fee margin; it is not a forecast distribution. Source: 2026 FDD Item 19 sales inputs; editorial 1%, 7%, and 13% margin assumptions.
Why is confidence limited?
Confidence is limited because the current FDD supplies revenue but no X-Golf expense or profit data. IRS 2023 partnership statistics show that broad Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation partnerships collectively reported an ordinary business loss of about 0.5% of business receipts, while Accommodation and Food Services partnerships reported ordinary business income of about 1.2%. Among partnerships reporting net income, the corresponding margins were about 19.3% and 12.6%. Those tax populations are materially broader than an X-Golf unit, so the model uses them only as reasonableness boundaries, not as brand facts.
Benchmark source: IRS Statistics of Income, 2023 partnership Tables 1 and 2, Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation and Accommodation and Food Services sectors. Figures are derived as ordinary business income or loss divided by business receipts. The base 7% margin is an explicit analytical stress point, not an IRS average.
How does owner involvement change the result?
An actively involved owner may capture the value of a general-manager position in addition to residual business income. Item 15 requires the Principal Executive to devote at least 20 hours per week to the business, but the owner is not required to provide on-premises general management. A trained hired manager is permitted. The FDD recommends owner supervision, which makes both manager-run and owner-operated structures relevant.
For the owner-operator scenario, the model adds $78,020—the May 2023 BLS mean annual wage for Entertainment and Recreation Managers, Except Gambling, within Other Amusement and Recreation Industries. This produces an estimated owner-operator benefit, not pure profit: the $78,020 component compensates the owner for work that otherwise would be performed by a paid manager. Benefits, payroll taxes, and local wage differences are not added.
Each line adds $78,020 of general-manager labor value to the same business-profit scenario
Interpretation: owner involvement changes the economic benefit by replacing a paid management function; it does not improve the underlying store margin automatically. Sources: 2026 FDD Item 15, pp. 36–37; BLS May 2023 NAICS 713900 wage estimates.
Which obligations can move X-Golf owner earnings most?
Sales utilization, labor, occupancy, and location-specific marketing obligations are the largest unresolved earnings drivers. The 7% royalty and 1% marketing-fund contribution together equal $37,839, $52,421, and $74,218 at the three modeled revenue levels. Those amounts are operating costs, not owner income.
- Royalty
- 7% of Adjusted Gross Sales, paid monthly. The FDD definition includes sales of services and products, including memberships when paid.
- Marketing fund
- 1% of Adjusted Gross Sales, paid monthly.
- Technology fee
- $1,500 payable quarterly—approximately $6,000 a year at the stated amount. The FDD allows increases up to 2% of gross sales with notice.
- Market cooperative
- Market-specific and determined by the cooperative, with a stated maximum of 5% of Adjusted Gross Sales. At base revenue, 5% equals $32,763.
- Startup investment
- $1,153,500 to $1,803,850 under Item 7. It is not an annual expense and is not subtracted from one year of revenue.
- Financing
- Item 10 states that the franchisor offers no direct or indirect financing and does not guarantee notes, leases, or obligations. Debt principal is outside the earnings model.
A location subject to the maximum 5% cooperative contribution would face an additional modeled burden of about $23,650 in the conservative case, $32,763 in the base case, or $46,386 in the upside case. That single variable could eliminate the conservative residual and materially reduce the base case, so buyers should obtain the applicable cooperative budget in writing.
Fee sources: X GOLF Franchise Corporation, 2026 FDD, Item 6, pp. 12–17; financing source: Item 10, p. 23. Item 7 investment figures are shown only to explain why financing structure can affect cash available to the owner.
What does the current FDD still leave unresolved?
The largest missing fact is a same-brand expense statement that converts Sales into store-level profit. Item 19 does not disclose cost of goods, labor, rent, utilities, insurance, repairs, manager compensation, EBITDA, net income, owner distributions, or cash flow. It also reports per-simulator results, so total outlet economics depend on the number of simulators and whether utilization scales with added capacity.
- Cohort selection: only outlets open for all of 2025 entered the Item 19 tables; newly opened outlets and ramp-up economics are absent.
- Store variation: the 114 reporting stores had five to ten simulators, while the current minimum is six; square footage, local rent, climate, and competition can differ materially.
- System movement: Item 20 reports 129 franchised and four company-owned outlets at year-end 2025. During 2025, 14 franchised outlets opened, two were reacquired, and four ceased operations for other reasons.
- Owner workload: the Principal Executive must devote at least 20 hours per week even when a separate general manager runs the premises.
- Financing: the model excludes principal payments; actual loan structure can make owner cash flow far lower than operating earnings.
- Tax treatment: pre-tax business income is not the same as salary, draw, distribution, retained earnings, or after-tax take-home pay.
What should a buyer verify before relying on this range?
A buyer should replace the external margin assumptions with X-Golf-specific operating evidence before making an investment decision. The franchisor states that written substantiation for Item 19 is available on reasonable request, and Item 20 provides current and former franchisee contacts. The following questions target the gap between per-simulator Sales and owner benefit.
- Request Item 19 substantiation and confirm how point-of-sale records, discounts, refunds, memberships, and temporarily closed stores were treated.
- Ask six-simulator franchisees for trailing 12-month revenue, payroll, food and beverage cost, rent, utilities, insurance, repairs, technology expense, and manager compensation.
- Separate owner salary or guaranteed payments from distributions and retained business profit.
- Compare owner-operated and hired-manager units with similar age, simulator count, square footage, climate, and local competition.
- Confirm whether a market cooperative exists, its current percentage, and any local advertising obligations outside the 1% marketing fund.
- Model the buyer’s actual interest, principal payments, lease escalations, and maintenance capital separately from operating earnings.
- Ask about the four 2025 outlets that ceased operations and the two reacquired outlets, without assuming that every exit reflects poor unit economics.
The strongest defensible range is approximately $4,730 to $120,604 in annual pre-tax manager-run owner earnings for a modeled six-simulator X-Golf, with a base case of $45,869. This is a scenario-based estimate, not an official earnings disclosure. The most important driver is the combination of per-simulator sales utilization and post-fee operating margin. The largest unresolved uncertainty is the absence of same-brand expense and profit data. An owner who replaces a hired general manager may realize approximately $82,750 to $198,624 in total owner-operator benefit, but the added $78,020 is compensation for labor. Before relying on any figure, a buyer should verify Item 19 substantiation, obtain comparable franchisee income statements, and reconcile owner pay, store profit, debt service, and market-specific fees separately.