{"id":35446,"date":"2025-11-04T23:17:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:17:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/35446\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T23:17:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T23:17:08","slug":"cheer-up-charlies-leaves-deal-with-pride-holdings-group-the-austin-chronicle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/35446\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheer Up Charlies Leaves Deal With Pride Holdings Group \u2022 The Austin Chronicle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hope you\u2019re holding on to your hats! As the Chronicle was preparing a story on homegrown LGBTQIA bar Cheer Up Charlies\u2019 recent acquisition by Florida-based company Pride Holdings Group, co-owners Maggie Lea and Tamara Hoover reached out with the following statement:<\/p>\n

\u201cAs of 2:15pm, November 4th 2025, both parties have amicably agreed to part ways. Both parties have rescinded, and Pride Holdings is no longer involved in Cheer Up Charlies. Our [LLC] membership interests have been returned and we (Tamara Hoover & Maggie Lea) remain owners of Cheer Up Charlies.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is just the latest loop-de-loop in the Cheer Up Charlies rollercoaster. Less than three months ago, unpaid back rent and related financial struggles threatened to close the bar. A late August crowdfunding campaign<\/a> successfully raised over $58,000 to keep the popular Red River Cultural District queer venue open. Then, on Oct. 14, the co-owners announced<\/a> that they were selling the bar to Pride Holdings Group, a Florida-born hospitality group that emerged in July 2025 and quickly bought up LGBTQIA entertainment venues in Georgia, Florida, Chicago, and Sydney, Australia. Lea and Hoover were set to stay on as head management and become shareholders in the publicly traded company.<\/p>\n

At the time, Lea told<\/a> the Chronicle that she was excited about the potential acquisition and the opportunity to expand the community-centered brand she and Hoover have established in the bar\u2019s 16 years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cTamara and I would not have sold if it was somebody that called us and told us that they were gonna buy the space, wipe the name, let everyone go, and change it,\u201d Lea said in October. \u201cThey are not doing any of that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Despite Lea\u2019s reassurances, the announcement was met with mixed responses. Online, some fans of the venue congratulated the local owners on a perceived step toward financial stability and increased accountability. Others had tough questions for the pair, given that many recently donated to Cheer Ups\u2019 August fundraiser, and given fiercely protective locals\u2019 skepticism toward out-of-towners.<\/p>\n

KUT parody Instagram account @kuc_bignews, which became a key voice in the pushback<\/a> following Cheer Up Charlies\u2019 fundraising campaign, published \u2013 and later retracted \u2013 incorrect information stating that members of the Pride Holdings board were registered Republican voters, leading to internet uproar. The account also pointed out that an Instagram page bearing the Pride Holdings name and logo was following Donald Trump Jr. and Morgan Wallen, among other MAGA associates. Pride Holdings did not address a request for comment on this specific issue, but Cheer Up Charlies claimed in a since-deleted post that the accounts were accidentally followed by a junior employee whose social media access has since been revoked. Over the course of the business\u2019 entanglement with Cheer Ups, three representatives from Pride Holdings asserted to the Chronicle that the organization is not MAGA-affiliated.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oilcan Harry\u2019s owner Scott Neal spoke with the Chronicle before the deal was called off about different concerns, conveying anxieties about the potential harm a large holdings group could cause in Austin\u2019s small LGBTQIA nightclub scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the Walmart and McDonald\u2019s of business models, but now they\u2019re bringing it for the LGBTQ entertainment bar,\u201d Neal said, comparing the move to a Walmart closing out a local dry goods store and expressing fear that Cheer Ups\u2019 increased access to resources could put the squeeze on locally owned clubs.<\/p>\n

More than that, Neal worried that verbal assertions that Cheer Ups would retain its local character and community stature were not enough to insulate the bar from the larger pressures at play in an SEC-regulated public entity. Changes in the board makeup or larger governmental influence could impact the holding group\u2019s governance in the future, he pointed out.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Friday, Oct. 31, when asked what written protections would shield the bar and its parent company from future alterations in the case of a shareholder shake-up, Pride Holdings did not address the question.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear why the deal fell apart. Less than 24 hours before the rescission announcement, Pride Holdings PR representative Michael Goodman was adamant about the company\u2019s desire to be involved in Austin\u2019s community and discussed plans to join the city\u2019s LGBT Chamber of Commerce. Pride Holdings Group has not responded to a request for comment on the rescinded deal as of this publication.\u00a0\u201cTamara and I have nothing bad to say about Pride, we just put in a notice and we\u2019re out,\u201d Lea told the Chronicle following the rescission. \u201cI think it\u2019s what is best for both of us and they agree.\u201d Rounding the corner on another curious development, Lea and Hoover did not comment on what lies ahead for the bar.<\/p>\n

A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hope you\u2019re holding on to your hats! As the Chronicle was preparing a story on homegrown LGBTQIA bar…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,5627,3581,22601,22602,4718,22603],"class_list":["post-35446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-cheer-up-charlies","tag-maggie-lea","tag-michael-goodman","tag-oilcan-harrys","tag-pride-holdings-group","tag-scott-neal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}