private franchise industry food service founded 1994 in largo fl headquarters florida locations 25 key people crawford ker products wings burgers sandwiches alcohol revenue 60 million 2008 number of employees 1 700 parent soaring wings llc slogan need we say more website http www.winghouse.com ker s winghouse is a restaurant franchise based primarily in the southeastern united states founded by former national football league player crawford ker . contents 1 investment 2 opening 3 lawsuit 4 expansion 5 franchising 6 charity 7 references 8 external links investment edit when ker was playing for the denver broncos he purchased part interest in the frat house a restaurant in gainesville florida . the eatery failed due to numerous underage drinking busts and ker lost his entire investment . it was an expensive lesson about absentee ownership . 1 opening edit in 1992 ker retired from the nfl and took a job selling cars at a local dealer . in 1994 he invested half interest in a largo florida wing restaurant called wing house that imitated hooters . this time he was again absentee owner but ker s business partner handled the management . after losing 1 000 a month for the first quarter crawford was certain he could do a better job . the restaurant was always the wing house and the atmosphere was always toned down to make it more family friendly . 1 the restaurant did well and two additional locations were opened in the tampa bay area in the following three years . lawsuit edit ker won a 1.2 million jury award from hooters in late 2004 which had sued him for trademark violations for allegedly using their uniforms and decor . after a three week trial in which lawyers discussed hula hoops surfboards scrunchy socks pantyhose and something called vicarious sexual recreation the jury ruled that no trademark infringement existed and hooters was penalized for their frivilous lawsuit . 2 hooters appealed the decision but in june 2006 the 11th u.s. circuit court of appeals in atlanta upheld the verdict . 3 expansion edit as of 2007 the company had 1 700 employees at 22 locations with revenue of nearly 60 million . ker attended and the company participated in the 2007 national buffalo wing festival and placed first in the traditional x hot sauce category and gained some national recognition . 4 franchising edit on june 4 2008 the company announced the launch of its national franchise program . in mid 2008 the chain operated 19 locations in florida and texas and expected to add six franchises by the end of 2008 and 48 by 2011 . the initial focus was for franchises in the southeastern us . 5 6 winghouses feature several amenities that differ from other wing restaurants including hooters . there is a full liquor bar in every store sports memorabilia line the walls instead of nascar and most locations include a game room . 7 charity edit super bowl xliii in tampa florida attracted the rich and famous ; ker s winghouse hosted three events to raise money for charity 8 references edit a b benham kelley a wing and a player st. petersburg times july 15 2005 raoux john hooters loses copycat court battle against fledgling chain ker s winghouse orlando sentinel december 3 2004 salinero mike hooters loses suit to rival on appeal tampa tribune june 17 2006 wlbt channel 3 september 6 2007 ker s winghouse bar and grill voted 1 at national buffalo wing festival smart business tampa bay april 2007 fast lane clearing the way ker s winghouse makes texas debut eyes 10 more nation s restaurant news november 28 2005 bond sharon newest venue s sporting wings st. petersburg times march 22 2000 crawford ker s winghouse to host doug williams celebrity experience and max starks celebrity vip party pr newswire january 15 2009 http www.accessmylibrary.com coms2 summary 0286 18257851 itm external links edit winghouse official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title ker % 27s winghouse & oldid 735728671 categories restaurants in floridacompanies based in floridaregional restaurant chains in the united statesrestaurants in texasrestaurants established in 19941994 establishments in florida navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 22 august 2016 at 18 37 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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