Although I didn't spend that long managing a Gold Sector club, I did feel as though I had a pretty good handle on player interests and obstacles and pressures when it came to getting bits into the rooms, especially in hindsight trying to later drag players out to all sorts of other venues not located on Gold. In order of effect they had I felt the biggest factors were:
1) Commute. Few people at the time lived on Gold, and many many fewer still do now. For whatever draw or interest there may be in any roleplaying hotspot, the attendance tends to drop with remoteness from wherever players are starting.
2) Sovereignty. I spent an exhausting amount of time convincing, cajoling, promising and threatening to get characters through a corporate building they could get summarily executed inside and trying to convince content-starved corporate security it was better if they didn't just kidnap everyone that was convenient for them to.
3) Theme. Players will generally go wherever other players are but they will be more interested in going somewhere there is a theme or venue that actually appeals to them or to their character or archetype fantasy. While I loved the job, I hated the theme of the venue and I didn't get the impression anyone ever actually liked it.
So on paper you'd expect somewhere like Horizon's Edge to suffer most from commute accessibility and sovereignty factors because it's even more buried than Korova Milk Bar, but I think those factors are somewhat obscured because the theme and styling of H.E. is so excellent. Ultimately I do think how accessible to the street and how corporate controlled a social venue is does have a major impact on casual attendance, but generally speaking I think all Gold Sector locations suffer from just being typically far from where most players are, most of the time, when it comes to casual roleplay.
If I was still managing, or found myself eventually managing a similar venue I would be campaigning hard for a second elevator or stairwell with external street access that's for sure.
