I work in a technical field of Oracle and software development. Some projects are small and some are large. And the larger the project the more complex as to be expected. And what I have learned over the years is that no matter how many rules there are in place invariably each rule has a valid reason why it does work for every situation.

Bowling is in this same state where when we look at individual aspects of something it is easy to assume it is that way everywhere and we try to lump sum everything into some rule.

For example, Bones post about the manager not knowing his business and suddenly the whole bowling industry is tainted. Or my house is easy so every house is... or my house in decline (attrition) so the industry is. It is so easy for everyone to equate there experience to a holistic view that while it explains your specific situation it does not truely represent the intire truth.

I for one think the industry is in deed in bad shape in general simply by the numbers lost to attrition. It seems every year the number of league bowlers dwindles down. And I think there are many reasons for this. In the past I have not seem where the ABC had ever intended to do something about it. But I do see that USBC is attempting to do things. So I think there is promise and I am sure that it is not going to be an over night miracle. As well, I hear rumblings looking to improve integrity (scoring pace) from many different avenues. And I see that many of the bowling centers (which are left) are the ones that are doing a better job of doing there business. And as much as I dont like today's technology (as many of you know I bash) I do think it can even out the playing field for many styles even if that means everyone scores 20+ pins higher on average (I know here come this debate).

So even though it is not as good as it can or should be I think things are turning around. And if you find some problems with your specific situation you can make the difference by notifying those of it and offering suggestions. Each one of us has a responsibility to improve what we see is wrong. If we dont, we are as much to blame for the problem.
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One small difference I need to interject here, vis-a-vis golf and bowling, is that after golf started to boom in the early 90s, the construction of new courses boomed and we went from having a shortage of public courses to a glut in a lot of places. Bowling's problems are on a different level; golf's problems appear to be the American time-honored tradition of taking a successful idea and running it into the ground.

Jess

No one ever accused me of being an optimist but I like to feel I’m like Sawbones and that I feel am a realist.

You cannot deny that organized bowling is on the decline. The number of sanctioned bowlers on the national level drops 5% to 10% every year.  Our local numbers bare this out as well.

Of course I can only observe what I see here but while my gut likes to say we have to be nearing the bottom but when I look at leagues I see a lot more 50+ year old bowlers than under 30 year old bowlers.

Each sanctioned league bowler that quits probably bowls on average in 1.5 leagues. That is 150 games a year of prime time bowling not counting any practice. You probably need to pick up at least 3 recreational bowlers to make up the difference.

Running a bowling center requires high capital cost and substantial operation cost. Labor, insurance, utilities, taxes, repair parts, all continue to rise but the bowling population all areas resist higher pricing. The only option is volume but with a declining league base it is hard to fill houses. These factors lead to houses closing which helps the remaining houses in that they get SOME of the bowlers from the closing centers.

Open bowling is on the upswing but some of that is purely lane availability. Leagues used to fill houses both shifts, every evening, 7 days a week

There are areas that bowling may be growing but I’m not sure you can count areas like Las Vegas. With their population growing 5000 a month you would hope the new populace would more than offset any downturn.

Bowling will survive and reach equilibrium at some point. It just may not be in the form we see today, just as today is not the form we saw 40 years ago.