@CornbreadFed
I've spoken about this on here quite a few times and with
@Solomon and
@SW15 in particular.
COVID definitely did a lot of these clubs in for sure and I don't think the nightlife scene ever really recovered from it. I've seen tons of posts/reviews about places in my area complaining about this very thing about things have declined and were "not the same" compared to Pre COVID. From what I've seen, a lot of it seems to relate to the atmosphere and that it's much trashier overall. Fights are far more common from what I've heard, which has lead to a higher police presence.
I think the costs of going to these venues is a huge part of this as well. When your budget starts getting tight, the very first thing that people eliminate is luxury type expenses. As was discussed in the video, drinks are incredibly expensive at clubs and bars and can easily add up. Then you have to factor in things like cover charges, parking or paying for a taxi or uber. I'd wager that the average person in a average city is spending close to $100 for all of this, maybe even well past this.
I think the OLD and overall decline in the dating market is a huge part of it as well. At this point, a lot of young men really aren't doing that well with the opposite sex and kind of checked out, though maybe not realizing it. Instead of chasing women at the club, where they will just get rejected, they'd rather stay home and play video games with their friends and smoke weed or have a couple drinks together, which ties in with costs lol. The club environment is honestly not a great place to meet women, despite what many probably believe, and tons of girls just go there to have fun with their friends and have 0 intention of meeting men. They may even have a mindset where they may feel embarrassed to have met their bf at a bar lol.
I also don't really think Gen Z is really all that into the club or nightlife culture like you would have seen with previous generations. A huge part of this is because they grew up with the internet, social media and other forms of communication. Older generations basically had to go out to interact or meet people, so naturally if you are looking for the opposite sex a club or bar is a way to go about it. I actually could see nightlife really struggling because of these cultural changes and because of the other factors I've mentioned above.
I think the club/party scene that will continue to do well though will be vacation areas. For instance, you could go to Vegas where they have night time pool parties with bars, servers, music, etc. You are not going to find something like this in any other place in the country, maybe Miami is an exception.