Author Topic: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class? (Read 7883 times)

Also Sprach Zaruthstra · « **on:** May 11, 2011, 05:39:23 AM »

Much discussion lately has been about the evolution and demise of bowling. There is not much mention of cost. I remember when bowling was $7.50 a week and the one ball you used was $59. So here are some basic numbers based on where I live:

1) Three ball arsenal including spare ball $500 (per year average)

2) League fee for one league $20 @ 35 weeks $700

3) Gasoline for the 45-60 minute drive $300 a year (estimate)

4) Food and Beverage $300 a year (estimate)

5) Practice before league $10 @ 35 weeks $350

6) Sanction fee $14

7) Misc items like tape,rosin, sure slide, ball polish, etc...$50

Total for bowling once a week for $35 weeks $2214 a year!

Additional league double that number excluding equipment! Add a tournament or two and you are looking at $4000 a year to bowl.

Is it worth it?

ASZ

Russell · « **Reply #46 on:** June 02, 2011, 09:51:29 AM »

I'm glad that bowling is thriving there...most houses here in Atlanta don't have much league at 6pm each night...and almost no 9pm leagues. The Senior leagues might be one day a week and 10 lanes or so.

Bowling is dying...balls are the culprit...they are expensive and disposable. The days of someone buying a ball once every 5 years and loving it are done. Now you need 3 balls that have to be replaced every 150 games just to bowl league.

JOE FALCO wrote on 6/1/2011 10:15 AM:
I don't feel that owners of Centers are making PLENTY of money but I think the income talked about is a little short. Most Centers run two sessions of leagues (6:30 and 9:30) and occasionally most have Senior leagues in afternoons. Then there is the bar and food concession that also brings in money. They are not getting rich but I doubt if the most are starving!

Little known fact: In Russian "Hope" and "Change" translate to "Tax" and "Spend"

TheFreeAgent · « **Reply #47 on:** June 02, 2011, 10:28:43 AM »

To answer the question asked. I have two answers

League bowling No

Open bowling Yes

In my area leagues are doing really well. But open play is expensive 4.05-4.15 a game plus 3.00 for rental shoes. You figure the average family of Mom Dad Billy and Susie come in and each bowl 2 games get shoes and food from the snack bar they are looking at 50 dollars if not more (large drink here is 3.11 no free refills and average mean is 7.99 roughly.)

But leagues in the summer for every league game you bowl you receive 1 free game of open bowling and you can use them with any person as long as you are present.

Winter leagues they have VIP cards which gives 60% off and more as you build points.

As far as the "bowling balls being the culprit" comment I respectively disagree. No one forces you to buy new balls. You can get a solid 3 ball arsenal and have it last for years and years. People just choose to buy the latest and greats because they think it makes them a better bowler.

REFS: MrEddie(BBE), notsohotshot(BR), akanayte(UTA), Tywithay(BBE), BKloss(BR), therealdeal24(BR), lsf_21(BR), 308d76d (BR), cjb13(BBE), pbaexp12(BR)x2

Formerly RotoStorm2008

storm making it rain · « **Reply #48 on:** June 02, 2011, 11:10:28 AM »

I'd have to agree that bowling balls aren't the death of bowling for the traditional bowler. I have customers that have been using the same ball forever with no problems. Now they can't take their game to another level, but that has more to do with having time to put into the game than bowling balls.

I also think people are bowling fewer leagues. The guys/gals that used to bowl 3-4 night a week are down to 1-2 nights because they don't have the ancillary income to spend on it with the cost of everything.

As far as open play prices go, I would hope your centers are offering package deals out there. Our most popular package averages out to about $8 per person, which includes bowling, shoes, food, & drink. Compare that to the movies or any other venue and it's pretty well below what you spend there.

Just my 2 cents

JOE FALCO · « **Reply #49 on:** June 02, 2011, 12:28:14 PM »

storm making it rain wrote on 6/2/2011 6:57 AM:
It's always funny how people like JOE FALCO make assumptions on all of these proprietors rolling in the dough from owning the bowling center. All I can say is look at your personal bills and the amount things in general have risen in price. Now think of that from a much larger scale. I don't know about everyone else's centers in this discussion but my family comes to work almost everyday of the week at our center, and we have a full staff around us. Our job is to make sure we're getting people in the door and the staff's job is to ensure our customers are being treated at the highest level to assure retention.

It used to be you could just open the doors and fill the house with leagues (guaranteed money each week) now with leagues declining we have to push for other programs to just pay our bills. People are spending their money very differently now a days, not just here but everywhere. If centers want to stay at the top of their game they have to remodel every few years and add or maintain things every year. Do you have any idea what it cost for new lanes, new scoring, new pins, etc. No JOE FALCO you probably don't.

Please tell me where you read in my comments that bowling center owners are rolling in dough! You are correct I have no idea what it takes to run a bowling center. I WOULD NOT buy a Center and I certainly would NOT consider being a Pro Bowler (I don't have the qualifications to do either). I prefer to be a bowler and have fun .. If you look closely I was commenting on someone else's note of income for a Center ..someone said I was wrong that not all centers have multiple shift leagues .. I'll buy that .. my hopes are that MOST centers are doing enough leagues to keep all the allies active most of the week .. if not they should close and stop losing their money!!

Get Motivated .. get Motiv

J O E - F A L C O

RIP Thong Princess/Sawbones

r534me · « **Reply #50 on:** June 02, 2011, 04:18:16 PM »

There are two centers in S.F. and they are both small and the lanes poorly maintained. They charge a lot, $6.75 a game and cater to the after work or pre club patrons who drink a lot and use house balls and shoes. They may have leagues but I don't actually know anyone who bowls at either location. If they were go out of business, the league bowler would not know or really care. And the center operators feel the same way about league bowlers.

Balls don't seem to be causing bowling to die off. I pulled out an old shift that carries almost as well as the newer balls, and I bought a old blue hammer and plugged it up and redrilled it and if I play the dry boards it still hits well and provides competitive scores.. I should add that I have about 20 others balls and the latest ones are the Eagle and the Track 715T. I usually only take them to tournaments. I will agree that in certain houses certain brands of balls do work better than others because of their rolling characteristics and if one goes to a lot of different houses the person could be forced to build an arsenal to compete at a high level.

Edited by r534me on 6/2/2011 at 4:26 PM

Edited by r534me on 6/2/2011 at 4:38 PM

milorafferty · « **Reply #51 on:** June 02, 2011, 04:24:53 PM »

One of those wouldn't be Brentwood would they? LOL

Brentwood has a few leagues, but with only 16 lanes they can't have many. Besides, who can bowl that close to the wall.

In some places the ball return is in the way if you have to move very much left or right, but I have never seen a lane with the wall as the outside edge of the gutter like Brentwood.

r534me wrote on 6/2/2011 4:18 PM:There are two centers in S.F. and they are both small and the lanes poorly maintained. They charge a lot, $6.75 a game and cater to the after work or pre club patrons who drink a lot and use house balls and shoes. They may have leagues but I don't actually know anyone who bowls at either location. If they were go out of business, the league bowler would not know or really care. And the center operators feel the same way about league bowlers.

r534me · « **Reply #52 on:** June 02, 2011, 04:33:27 PM »

haha, you're close but the centers are in SF not SSF.

Isn't Landpark in SAC like that? You can get pretty close to the edge there. And they have the 80's scorers.

Brentwood charges $6.75 at night but you can bowl a buck a game on Mondays from 9-5PM.

milorafferty wrote on 6/2/2011 4:24 PM:One of those wouldn't be Brentwood would they? LOL

Brentwood has a few leagues, but with only 16 lanes they can't have many. Besides, who can bowl that close to the wall. In some places the ball return is in the way if you have to move very much left or right, but I have never seen a lane with the wall as the outside edge of the gutter like Brentwood.

r534me wrote on 6/2/2011 4:18 PM:There are two centers in S.F. and they are both small and the lanes poorly maintained. They charge a lot, $6.75 a game and cater to the after work or pre club patrons who drink a lot and use house balls and shoes. They may have leagues but I don't actually know anyone who bowls at either location. If they were go out of business, the league bowler would not know or really care. And the center operators feel the same way about league bowlers.

Edited by r534me on 6/2/2011 at 4:39 PM

milorafferty · « **Reply #53 on:** June 02, 2011, 04:40:14 PM »

Yea, Landpark is somewhat that way. The wall is kinda close on the right side, but not like Brentwood.

I guess Yerba Buena doesn't have leagues do they? Isn't that the one with the skating ring in the same building?

BTW, the Sosa tournament is at Boardwalk bowl Santa Cruz this weekend, heading there Saturday for the afternoon squad.

r534me wrote on 6/2/2011 4:33 PM:
haha, you're close but the centers are in SF not SSF. Isn't Lankpark in SAC like that? You can get pretty close to the edge there. And they have the 80's scorers.

Brentwood charges $6.75 at night but you can bowl a buck a game on Mondays from 9-5PM.

milorafferty wrote on 6/2/2011 4:24 PM:
One of those wouldn't be Brentwood would they? LOL

Brentwood has a few leagues, but with only 16 lanes they can't have many. Besides, who can bowl that close to the wall. In some places the ball return is in the way if you have to move very much left or right, but I have never seen a lane with the wall as the outside edge of the gutter like Brentwood.

r534me wrote on 6/2/2011 4:18 PM:There are two centers in S.F. and they are both small and the lanes poorly maintained. They charge a lot, $6.75 a game and cater to the after work or pre club patrons who drink a lot and use house balls and shoes. They may have leagues but I don't actually know anyone who bowls at either location. If they were go out of business, the league bowler would not know or really care. And the center operators feel the same way about league bowlers.

r534me · « **Reply #54 on:** June 02, 2011, 05:21:00 PM »

One of my friends is going there too. I think on Saturday. I should go but I didn't plan on it. YB may have leagues. Its really out of the way.

Classic has the senate doubles next week. Payoff is 1k for $60 entry.

milorafferty wrote on 6/2/2011 4:40 PM:
Yea, Landpark is somewhat that way. The wall is kinda close on the right side, but not like Brentwood.

I guess Yerba Buena doesn't have leagues do they? Isn't that the one with the skating ring in the same building?

BTW, the Sosa tournament is at Boardwalk bowl Santa Cruz this weekend, heading there Saturday for the afternoon squad.

r534me wrote on 6/2/2011 4:33 PM:
haha, you're close but the centers are in SF not SSF. Isn't Lankpark in SAC like that? You can get pretty close to the edge there. And they have the 80's scorers.

Brentwood charges $6.75 at night but you can bowl a buck a game on Mondays from 9-5PM.

milorafferty wrote on 6/2/2011 4:24 PM:
One of those wouldn't be Brentwood would they? LOL

Brentwood has a few leagues, but with only 16 lanes they can't have many. Besides, who can bowl that close to the wall. In some places the ball return is in the way if you have to move very much left or right, but I have never seen a lane with the wall as the outside edge of the gutter like Brentwood.

r534me wrote on 6/2/2011 4:18 PM:There are two centers in S.F. and they are both small and the lanes poorly maintained. They charge a lot, $6.75 a game and cater to the after work or pre club patrons who drink a lot and use house balls and shoes. They may have leagues but I don't actually know anyone who bowls at either location. If they were go out of business, the league bowler would not know or really care. And the center operators feel the same way about league bowlers.

JessN16 · « **Reply #55 on:** June 03, 2011, 07:35:07 PM »

Joe,

I'm not even sure this was a response to my post, and if it was, I must have missed what you were trying to say.

If you're saying that my post was all opinion, it's not opinion that my area is not running double shifts and/or is not consistently full. I can readily prove that with copies of the league sheets.

My second point, though, was opinion about people having the right to make a good living and try to set up future generations, and I stand by it. The great thing about supply and demand is that if you overprice something, eventually it will all work itself out because people will stop buying it.

Jess

JOE FALCO wrote on 6/2/2011 4:51 AM:So deeply do we cherish our own opinions, convictions, prejudices that we tend to identify these with truth. If I really, really believe my opinions is the truth, that makes it so.

DON DRAPER · « **Reply #56 on:** June 03, 2011, 08:18:24 PM »

The cost of bowling and bowling related items have gone up but so has everything else. The economy is still not doing all that well and many people are having to pinch their pennies any way they can. However, for those that have "X" amount of money to spend on recreation/leisure time pursuits it also has to do with priorities sometimes.

Every year I hear people complain at league meetings about the lineage or the weekly fee going up, etc. There was one guy who heard that the weekly fee for his league was going from $12 to $13......he almost had a coronary. Yet, this same guy has a brand new $38,000 pickup in the parking lot, spends $100 every Saturday night at the casino, and spends probably $50 every week on beer and cigarettes. As I said a lot of times it's about priorities.

Edited by LBHS1979 on 6/3/2011 at 8:20 PM

Author Topic: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class? (Read 7883 times)

Also Sprach Zaruthstra

Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

Russell

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

TheFreeAgent

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

storm making it rain

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

JOE FALCO

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

r534me

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

milorafferty

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

r534me

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

milorafferty

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

r534me

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

JessN16

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?

DON DRAPER

Re: Has Bowling Priced Itself Out Of The Middle Class?