An online auction is planned to sell contents of the troubled Bankroll sports bar after four months

Contents of Bankroll — the $25 million, 350-seat sports bar that opened only four months ago in part of Center City’s long-shuttered Boyd Theater — will be offered for sale in an online auction next month.

But Bankroll’s owners, who scaled back operations last month, say they are “exploring multiple options” for its future, including a search for a new operator. In a statement to The Inquirer, they said they were in conversation with “four very credible bidders with the goal of bringing in a new operating partner by the fall. As we pursue that goal, we also need to prepare for other scenarios.”

Quaker City Auctioneers has been signed to sell the bar’s liquor license, liquor inventory, and furnishings in an online auction next month. The 8-foot-by-9-foot TV screen hanging above the main bar was listed among the lots, which also include sofas and such equipment from its $2 million kitchen as ovens, broilers, steamers, and a dishwasher. The liquor license could be worth about $180,000, based on current prices.

Five weeks ago, Bankroll scaled back operations and furloughed most of its staff of 50.

Bankroll, which operators call a “first-of-its-kind sports and entertainment concept,” had troubles even before opening.

Restaurateur Stephen Starr, who had signed on to operate the restaurant, left the project last winter over unspecified issues with the ownership team led by Padma Rao, whose background is in marketing and technology and not hospitality.

Former employees told the Billy Penn website that while Starr had planned a more modest sports-bar menu, Rao sought a big-ticket experience and did not heed advice of her managers. Starr declined comment to The Inquirer.

Rao is a longtime associate of Paul Martino, the Bucks County venture capitalist and conservative PAC supporter who is the project’s primary backer.

Martino was an early investor in FanDuel, the gaming app. Bankroll and its video screens were intended to work in conjunction with gaming apps but not actually handle bets — meaning that Bankroll did not require a gaming license.

But it did need community approval.

A month after opening at 1910 Chestnut St., a Common Pleas Court judge overturned the city Zoning Board of Adjustment’s decision to grant approval to Bankroll, contending that during testimony in October 2022, the board ignored evidence that it would worsen traffic congestion and impede emergency vehicles on Chestnut Street. Although local community organizations backed the plan, residents of the William Penn House, a co-operative across the street, strongly opposed it.

Bankroll operated while the case was pending in Commonwealth Court.

In June, as revenues sagged and the prospect of soft summertime business approached, Rao decided to open only for private events until football season. Employees were brought in as needed.

When announced in 2021, Bankroll was touted as a good use for the Boyd, the 1928 art deco movie house, which had become a symbol of benign neglect as it sat empty after closing in 2002.

Bankroll’s cavernous two-level Big Game Room sat behind the marquee while the restaurant occupied the former Gap Outlet store next door.

Preservationists and nostalgists had lobbied for years to save the Boyd, the last of Center City’s grand movie houses. Plan after plan went nowhere. Demolition began in 2014 for a new movie house that never happened. Then came a new developer, Pearl Properties, creating an apartment building called the Harper behind it. When it razed the Boyd’s ornate auditorium in 2015, Pearl agreed to maintain the facade, foyer, lobby, and some fixtures.