Knight’s Den axe throwing to build on Lansing’s Eastlake Recreation Center’s family fun

The Knight’s Den, the first axe-throwing arena in Tompkins County, promises to be the next step in David Johnson’s plan to continue to turn the Eastlake Recreation Center into a family fun hub.

The center’s latest attraction has been open for a month, combining axe throwing and a medieval theme to create an immersive and fun experience. The Knight’s Den is open for people over the age of 12, with no prior experience required. Reservations include a short training from staff certified by the World Axe Throwing League (WATL).

The axe-throwing space started out as an idea in the mind of Johnson, who has owned the Eastlake Recreation Center since 2020, when his son told him about his experience at a similar arena in New Jersey. 

“We were trying to decide what to do with the space. He suggested axe throwing,” Johnsonsaid. “I told him it was a terrible idea. But here I am a year later, and we have an axe-throwing space.”

Initially, that area of the center was occupied by vacant office space.

“But these days, nobody’s renting office space,” Johnson said. “So after having that space vacant for three years, we thought we should just go back to turning that into a recreational space.”

Johnson said he was initially hesitant. He was worried about the potential liability of owning a business that, on paper, could seem dangerous. 

“I’d also never done it before,” he said, noting that he visited local axe-throwing spaces in upstate New York to get a feel for the experience. “It was a lot of fun, and I talked to a number of other venues about my safety concerns. They all agreed that none of them had ever had an issue. They said the worst injury that they’d ever had was somebody got a splinter from a piece of wood.”

For Johnson, the last month has been fun. He said he gets a lot of satisfaction from seeing how patrons end up with a smile on their face coming out of The Knight’s Den.

“The people that come there really enjoy it,” he said. “Once you get the axe to stick in there once or twice, it is a little bit addictive.”

Johnson also said that he wants to see larger parties, and he encourages groups to book the facility for team-building and other company events.

“We have focused on making it a very inviting facility,” he said. “We are getting companies that are scheduling their Christmas parties and booking the entire facility. We can handle up to 50 people. I think it is going to help us a lot locally.”

Starting in January, The Knight’s Den will also offer organized play in the form of leagues. They will offer blacklight axe throwing, which typically equips each lane with its own blacklight to illuminate the target board.

Ultimately, Johnson said the plan is for The Knight’s Den to continue his vision for the center, which is located at 18 Eastlake Rd. He said he hopes the complex will offer attractions for families and children of all ages.

The center is slightly bigger than 13,000 square feet and offers tennis courts, a playground and ball pit, The Knight’s Den, a golf simulator and a game simulator and party space.

“[F]amilies start having birthday parties with our playground and ball pit when their kids are like one year old,” he said. “The ball pit and playground are booked out all weekend long, year-round, with birthday parties. From there, our simulator room is the kind of thing that would appeal to adolescents, and that really starts at about eight years old. So you can kind of graduate from the ball pit to the game simulator and then the axe throwing.”

Johnson also said he hopes that the center can become an alternative to other sports and outdoor activities during inclement weather. 

“One of the things that we plan to introduce in January is date nights, where parents with young kids can bring them, drop them downstairs at the ball pit and playground, and we’ll have childcare staff there to watch their kids,” he added. “And then the parents can go upstairs and throw axes for an hour.”

Lansing at Large appears every week in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@vizellamedia.com. Contact Eddie Velazquez at edvel37@gmail.com or on X (formerly Twitter) @ezvelazquez.

In brief:

The town of Lansing’s Conservation Advisory Council is set to host its last meeting of 2023 on Dec. 7 in the town hall board room at 6:30 p.m.