BallReviews
General Category => Miscellaneous => Topic started by: SrKegler on September 27, 2013, 05:06:37 AM
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3 weeks into the league and the house closed it doors. Owner just couldn't fill enough lanes to make expenses. (Phoenix Lanes here in Jax). So much for putting out the easiest scoring environment available. Even with handicap the 150 avg bowlers just cant compete against the combination of wide open lane conditions and 400 rev bowlers. At least we found lanes at another alley.
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Was it a privately owned house? How long was it in existence? Was it successful last winter? How big a house was it? Was there a bar food available? Strange that he opened for the Winter season THEN realized he wasn't going to make it? Just curious!!
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Private house. Not sure how long he had been open.. One of teammates has bowled this league at that house for 40 years. 16 lanes, Snack bar, booze, game room, proshop. Lineage had been declining for years. The easier he made the shot, it seems like the more he lost the lower averages. Scuttlebutt has it that the bank foreclosed after he got behind on payments.
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Hate to see house close, but lane conditions and high scoring are so far down the list of reasons for the decline in bowling that it is not measurable.
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Too bad .. first thought would be LIFE STYLE of owner .. probable out in left field with that thought .. but it enters into my mind! Thanks!
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Got a house that closed years ago has the lanes for sell. Curious what they are worth, or where you'd find a buyer. I think they are rather cheap since it is being sold by a new property owner renovating the building.
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I'm sad to see Phoenix Lanes go also, been there about 10 years.. 50+ years in existence....
Cav
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Where in Jax is this? I live in Palm Coast, bowl in St Augustine (only since I work close by), Palm Coast, but love Ormond Lanes
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It located on Blanding Blvd near Casset in Jacksonville. Don't know the exact address. House is pretty much turnkey. Well maintained lanes, don't know about the machinery though.
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Sorry to here this, Darold. I hate hearing about centers closing, but it's a sad reality all over the country. I lost my true home bowling center all the way back in 1999 because of a similar situation, and now the town I'm in lost one of its centers. The one that I'm currently bowling in could be in jeopardy before too long as well. It's really unfortunate, but I'm not sure what can be done to stop this trend. I can tell you that we spent tons of time trying to hash such things out when I worked for USBC, but there are no easy answers. It's a war with too many fronts, and it's being lost day by day and year by year.
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I know of 4 centers I used to bowl in that have closed. One is now a church, one a restaurant, one was bulldozed for a parking lot, and the 4th was bulldozed for a Dollar General.
Lot of good memories in 3 of those...
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1 recently closed here in Bowling Green KY
I know of 4 centers I used to bowl in that have closed. One is now a church, one a restaurant, one was bulldozed for a parking lot, and the 4th was bulldozed for a Dollar General.
Lot of good memories in 3 of those...
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Just goes to show that no matter how high the scoring that a lot of bowling alleys don't make it anyway. I hate to see it but it happens.
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It located on Blanding Blvd near Casset in Jacksonville. Don't know the exact address. House is pretty much turnkey. Well maintained lanes, don't know about the machinery though.
I know someone who somehow managed to keep the machinery for the final 4+ years it was open and he indicated that the machinery, at the time the center closed (Oct 1, 2013), was hanging by the threads, almost literally! If anyone were to try to reopen that business, just about ALL the machinery would have to be replaced. I don't know how he managed to keep those pinspotters running at all but he pulled it off ... he also indicated that on the last day of business, lane #1 broke down during the final game of league play and he decided to just sit on the machine (rather than try to repair the problem) and run it manually until the league was done. Someone else mentioned about lane #11, which apparently had a cracked moving deck so the pinspotting was sometimes shaky at best. I believe that mechanic got picked up by Potter's House King Pins Lanes a couple weeks after Phoenix Lanes closing.
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1 recently closed here in Bowling Green KY
I know of 4 centers I used to bowl in that have closed. One is now a church, one a restaurant, one was bulldozed for a parking lot, and the 4th was bulldozed for a Dollar General.
Lot of good memories in 3 of those...
I knew of two bowling centers in Bowling Green KY while I was in that area in 2007! Which one closed up?
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I know of 4 centers I used to bowl in that have closed. One is now a church, one a restaurant, one was bulldozed for a parking lot, and the 4th was bulldozed for a Dollar General.
Similarly, there have been six area centers that I've bowled at least one league in that became (1) a newspaper branch office, (2) a Burdine's department store, (3) a Wal-Mart, (4) Classic Motor Cars, (5) a pet resort & spa and (6) phased out in a shopping mall.
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I know of 4 centers I used to bowl in that have closed. One is now a church, one a restaurant, one was bulldozed for a parking lot, and the 4th was bulldozed for a Dollar General.
Lot of good memories in 3 of those...
Isn't amazing when a parking lot brings in more money than a business like a bowling center/alley?
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Robert closed his bowling center in Bowling Green, KY and several years ago his center in Madison, TN! Don Litton still has Southern Lanes open in Bowling Green! We picked up some of their bowlers and I got laid off last month, cause our owner announced he's selling and the new owners are tearing it down for a Speedway Station here in Springfield.