City of Cape Girardeau gets its own board game

Cape Girardeans can now play a game modeled after Hasbro Inc.'s classic Monopoly based in their own city.

Late for the Sky Production Co., a Cincinnati-based developer, released Cape Girardeau-opoly on Sept. 20. Copies arrived at the city's Walmart Supercenter in late September.

"We started out doing big cities — New York, Chicago, San Francisco — and we started doing those in the early 1990s," said Michael Schulte, Late for the Sky's marketing manager. "... Over time, we realized there is demand for the smaller cities as well."

Late for the Sky's designers look at city and chamber of commerce websites to find festivals, events and landmarks to include. Schulte said this makes the games as authentic to a certain location as possible.

The Rhodes World's Largest Fountain Cup is the cheapest property in Cape Girardeau-opoly at $70, while downtown Cape Girardeau is the most expensive at $425.

Other notable properties include the Missouri Wall of Fame, the SEMO District Fair, Glenn House, Arena Park, the Show Me Center, Central High School, Southeast Missouri State University and Historic Fort D.

"We try not to have businesses on the game only because we don't want to include favoritism, but to fill a gap sometimes we do have to include restaurants or that sort of thing," Schulte said.

Indeed, the yellow properties on the game board are all restaurants.

The company partners with Walmart and Walgreens stores to provide regionally-themed "-opoly" games to various markets. Schulte said the distributors provide information on which markets have the appeal for such games.

"From that and our own research, we find opportunities where people are proud of where they come from," he added.

So far, Late for the Sky has produced "-opoly" games for nearly 2,600 cities.

In many new cities, Schulte said games often sell quickly. In Long Beach, California, he said customers formed lines wrapping around stores and special checkout lines had to be opened just for people buying the game.

In February 2022, Late for the Sky released its Jackson-themed Jacksonopoly, featuring properties such as Jackson High School, Jackson Civic Center and Cruisin' Uptown Jackson. The Jackson Walmart sold out its initial supply of more than 300 copies in two days.

Late for the Sky started making custom games in 1984, initially focusing on universities. They have also released games based on dog breeds, animal types, holidays and hobbies.