Author Topic: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley? (Read 3387 times)

David Lee Yskes · « **on:** November 11, 2003, 02:01:51 PM »

OK, i am sure everyone has thought about this atleast once in thier lifetime, about owning a bowling alley and stuff to try to change the BOWLING WORLD! LOL

Well i know i myself, i would bring skill back to the sport of bowling by putting down a tougher but scoreable shot for all leagues. Now i know everyone says well you wont get anyone to bowl in those leagues.

You can if you put up a monster of a prize fund for the league, like say a $5,000 first place prize for the league Champs. And money awards for any honor scores that are shot.

I mean its not that tough of a thing to do, but the Owner of the bowling alley hasta grow some balls and put up the money for this, and few might be willing to do this.

I would do this if i owned a bowling alley. And if you had 20-30 or more lanes and all of them was full for that league you would make the money back, from the season, and the food/Liquor sales too.

And if you have a second shift league that doesnt have the same prize fund, or maybe it does, that is just extra $$$ the alley is making too.

So doing this isnt tough its just a matter of someone taking to the time to do advertising for the league in a wide area, atleast 50-100mile circle of your area.

Because i know guys who travel sometimes 75 to 100miles to a league because its a monster league and they have 50 brackets a nite or more and they can make thier money back that way, or because it might be the nearest good scratch league around lol.

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" Lift Your Skirt Grab Your Balls and Learn How to Bowl "

charlest · « **Reply #1 on:** November 12, 2003, 08:24:35 AM »

Sorry, David.
But unless you're a multi-millionaire with money to burn, when you run a bowling center you are in it for the money, not to make bowling a better sport. Owners do whatever the think is necessary to, first, make their center profitable by earning back their intial seed money, and then to make ongoing money. 99% of those centers do it by catering to the whims of the majority of "bowlers", by selling beer, and by having as many "Cosmic Bowling" nights as possible for kids and teenagers.

While there is the EXTREMELY rare owner who cares about the sport, the odds of one of us running across the same are low, indeed. They have been mentioned here once in a blue moon, but it is NOT a matter of "growing balls".

Have you heard of the guy who has been running/owning the PWBA fr the past 10 years or so? He owned several bowling centers. He had to start selling them off because no one cares about watching or supporting women professional bolwers. He has now had to stop supporting them because he was giving away his children's and grandchildren's inheritance.

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"Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it."

charlest · « **Reply #2 on:** November 12, 2003, 09:00:50 AM »

quote:
charlest, 100% correct.

That is why my post was about making $$, NOT for bettering the game. They will NOT work together in this day and age. Period. Otherwise, ABC would have changed conditions and/or Sport Bowling would have taken off like crazy. The majority of bowlers and people don't care...they just want to be entertained and have fun. Maybe .5% of all people who bowl care about scoring...the other 99.5% want to bowl as high as possible and/or be entertained by bowling.
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Just a lefty trying to knock down pins...

Stormy,

I don't want to be 100% correct.
There are too few of us and too many of those who wish to score like PBA bowlers. I think that is the source of the problem. Way back when people loved the scoring ability of the people on TV shows. Urethane and then resin and then bowlign alley owners gave them the ability to score 200 averages on 170 abilities. You cannot take that away or they'll take their money away and not bowl any more. I'm afraid that's the bottom line.

if it were up to me, and there was a snowball's cahnce in hell of succeeding, I would make every lane oil pattern the equivalent of a hard to score sport condition that would reward shot making. If you're inconsistent and can't make spare, you'd average what you earn. A 200 avg would be earned.

An alternative method would be to transition slowly to an environment, where pins cannot come flying off the side walls or bounce back out of the pit - deadening side boards, making the gutters "true gutters" once again, not just another high bounce board, and using pins with bottoms that stay flat. If you didn't transition slowly, people would see suddens drops in their average which would discourage them.

Yes, you have to play to the lowest common denominator.
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"Just because you can do something does not mean you should do it."

janderson · « **Reply #3 on:** November 12, 2003, 09:49:15 AM »

"Pave the parking lot" heh. Good one.

Give 5-person teams enough room to sit/breathe behind the lanes

Provide an in-house child care service to give parents time to bowl
Lower drink prices ($3.50 for a domestic bottle of beer is crap) if
only for good performances. A house here lowers drink prices by
$1.00 (for 15 minutes) every time someone on a league reaches a
certain goal, like six strikes in a row or making the 6-7 split.

Get the ball returns **off** the approaches. Why this hasn't been
done already is beyond me (personal b tch)

"Best ball", "9-pin no tap", and doubles leagues (four teams to
a pair, best score of the four gets the points)

Provide web site for scoring/management of all leagues. The scores
are already put into a computer, why not let the bowlers see them
from home or anywhere else?

TV screens between all scoring screens capable of showing different
channels. Allow the teams to put on what they want. (Feeble
attempt to get the couch potatoes to bowl)

Charity bowling leagues. Portion of all prize funds goes to charity.

On the lighter side...

--Play subliminal "you love bowling" music all the time
--Naked co-rec leagues
--Free "Flintstoned" chewable valium for kids under 5.
--Bumper bowling leagues for adults
--Mulligans Leagues
--The cross-dresser classic

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Questions? Drop me a line: haestas-(at)-yahoo.com

Edited on 11/12/2003 10:46 AM

Edited on 11/12/2003 10:47 AM

dicnic · « **Reply #4 on:** November 12, 2003, 11:31:08 AM »

The center could hire a teaching pro who would give "free" lessons as requested. Why bowling centers do not offer this is simply beyond me. The teaching pro would only have to be available part time and could set their schedule as needed. This was mentioned some time ago when we discussed this subject. The center could also establish a good relationship with the local papers to be sure the high scores etc. get published each week. If a picture and a short article of honor scores were submitted to local papers as they occur, you would be surprised at how many would be published.
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What's with the Braille on a drive-up-ATM?
Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

Jerry Weller · « **Reply #5 on:** November 12, 2003, 12:21:23 PM »

Bowling centers are full of guys who average 180 who "want to win so bad" they kick the ball returns when they leave a well deserved 10 pin, but God forbid they actually put their immense "will to win" into the form of practice.

Make the shot harder and what do you suppose they will do? Do you think those guys find the current shot easy?

That's your average league bowler in America today.

LuvThatWhiteDot · « **Reply #6 on:** November 12, 2003, 12:31:18 PM »

quote:
On the lighter side...

--Play subliminal "you love bowling" music all the time
--Naked co-rec leagues
--Free "Flintstoned" chewable valium for kids under 5.
--Bumper bowling leagues for adults
--Mulligans Leagues
--The cross-dresser classic

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I like the idea of bumper bowling for adults. Wait, that's what a house shot is now, isn't it?

This made me laugh, because a group of us always bowl the ABC together from different parts of the country, and one tradition we have is to find a house for some open bowling. We get bumpers set up, and the two rules are a) you have to bowl with your opposite hand and b) you have to touch both bumpers.

The winner with the highest score gets a McDonald's Happy Meal of his/her choice (and NO, I haven't won yet)

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White Dot

Not another 10 pin!

Doggie the Dog · « **Reply #7 on:** November 12, 2003, 10:44:39 PM »

StormLefty, not to steal Greg's thunder but I will tell you that KC doesn't have a center anything like you described, even though we have a center with an ice rink , a new one with volleyball courts, etc, and some newer ones with good restaurants(one that comes to mind is Lunar Bowl, where the PBA was recently).
That particular center is in Illinois just outside of St.Louis- read about it on another site- and I think they will host a PBA stop this year.
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Over 40 Years And STILL ROLLIN'...

David Lee Yskes · « **Reply #8 on:** November 13, 2003, 02:30:30 AM »

To: Plus40

as far as i know there is only one house in my city that does contracts, and it is a double decker, 8lanes down stairs and 10 up. And only a few people like to actually bowl there cuz the lanes are so tough to bowl on.

And people cant SCORE AT WILL, or GRIP N RIP, or go COAST TO COAST on the lanes. And the other houses in the association only have 8lanes and 14lanes, and 30lanes. And the 30lane center probably wouldnt do a league like this, For reasons i cant say because of possible reprecussions lol.

And the 30lane center doesnt do contracts, i dont know why.

But i know if i was to own a bowling alley i would hope to have a couple million dollars to be able to do this stuff. And to answer someone question about the other nites of the week, i would do the same for those leagues, put up a good size prize fun for them too.

I mean you could have a nite for womens leagues only, and same for mens, and a mixed league nite, classic nite, a even a SCRATCH LEAGUE lol.

Oh i also forgot to say i would also make this alley like the Kegel place, and have CATS systems on all lanes, and allow guys to get print outs of thier games, and stuff, have a top of the line PRO SHOP, and Enough SEATS And space for the whole team too.

A nice Restaurant that serves good food, at a resonable rate, and has games n pool and NTN Trivia too lol.

And YES I wouldnt have the Ball returns on the lanes either! I dont know if i would go with Wood or Synthetic lanes, but i remember seeing, a few yrs ago the new AMF lanes and Machines that basically ran without problems and was fast too.

I would do wood approaches though. But i guess you could go on endlessly on what you would want in a bowling alley, and untill u get the $$$ to do it, all you can do is dream about it.

But oh as someone else said, having some pro's come in and do sessions would be kewl for the kids and some ADULTS LOL.

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" Lift Your Skirt Grab Your Balls and Learn How to Bowl "

Tex · « **Reply #9 on:** November 13, 2003, 10:36:01 PM »

What would I do.....

I like some of the ideas and agree with many of the thoughts about conditions and the old days. Funny when we talk about this. My Classic league is bowled on a tougher condition than the regular leagues. Not necessarily intentionally, but to get enough conditioner on the lanes to hold up for the 3 games and protect the lanes. That is what has happened. We recently had a bowler join the league who in one of the major centers averaged over 230, in our league he was averaging in the high 180's. So, he quit before he got 21 games. No way I guess he wanted this low average tarnishing his record. Sad, but true. I think this is all but too common. I would like to have a Sport league in our center, but to be honest if I could fill a 3 person league and 16 lanes it would be a miracle. So, what is my league wish list.

1) Promote the leagues and let them know they are welcome.
2) Establish a condition, be open about its length and general information and be open if I needed to make changes. (Post the information)
3) Give my league bowlers $1 a game anytime lanes are available. Encourage practice, including having some tougher condition lanes available on the weekends. Promote this practice.
4) Have a deal set up for reasonable coaching to help the bowlers improve and promote learn to bowl classes to bring in future bowlers.
5) Have leagues targeting these new bowlers and try to keep them out of the high end leagues until they are ready. This would help keep these bowlers from becoming discouraged and quiting.
6) Target having one Men only, one Women only to give these groups a chance to have their night out, then fill the slots with mixed, abc and hopefully one sport league.
7) Try to put a strong youth league together with enough coaches to give them the attention they need. They are the league bowlers of the future and should be treated that way. Keep them interested for life.

I could probably come up with more. I would like to have at least a PBA regional to hopefully inspire the bowlers. Major Pro/AM promotion to make this fun and not a major financial loss. At least a once a year major tournament for the bowlers to compete and a series of smaller tourneys to expose the center to other bowlers to increase participation in the big tournament(s). etc. etc.

Jerry Weller · « **Reply #10 on:** November 14, 2003, 07:56:12 AM »

I got to tell a story here...

There's a place called Crest Bowl up in Florissant, Missouri. This is the house Pete Weber grew up bowling in.

An older house, but well kept up. Nice people working there. Well maintained pin setters. Clean tables, restrooms, etc. Good food. All the amenities bowlers like. Wood lanes. Insides dripping wet. Outsides DRY as a bone. Not even a pretense of 3 units of oil. Unbelievable pin action.

This house went years and years without being ABC sanctioned and didn't give a flip. Why? They had waiting lists to join their leagues.

And why did so many bowlers want to bowl there? Because Crest gave away their own solid gold 300 ring which was much nicer than what the ABC gave AND because more 300s were being shot at Crest than any other place in town.

And don't deceive yourself into thinking that Crest just attracted the lower average players. Regional pros and local hotshots came from all over the city to bowl in their tourneys and pot games.

Crest finally sanctioned the house about 4 years ago. But I'm honestly not sure why they bothered. Pete Weber came home while he was on suspension and bowled a league there just to hang out with his old buddies. You may have heard about him shooting 879? Guess where?

Anyway, my points from this story...

1) Bowlers bowl to knock down pins.
2) Bowlers like to have something to brag about
(even a tainted achievement worked fine when you had a nice gold ring to wave in other bowlers faces)
3) Bowlers like to have a pleasant place to knock those pins down

Lose sight of those facts and your dream will be for sale on the courthouse steps.

pchee2 · « **Reply #11 on:** November 14, 2003, 10:16:11 AM »

I'd hire all hot chicks for waitresses. Dress them up in thongs. Put poles in the bowling alley so they have something to around on. Make a hot oil wresting pit where oil used is lane oil. Hold multiple contests and make winners of the contest get to wrestle with the waitresses in the oil pit. Great incentive for winning! May even hold a lease a chick program. Put viagra in the condom dispensers in the bathroon.

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pchee2<~~~stroking the ball with MANLY revs and spraying the lanes for an average of a buck 62. This guy is full of STUFF!

Strider · « **Reply #12 on:** November 14, 2003, 08:00:18 PM »

Actually, at Ron's place, you could have a row of poles going down the lanes every 2 pairs. Sure would make it hard to keep your eyes on your target.

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Penn State Proud

Jerry Weller · « **Reply #13 on:** November 15, 2003, 03:00:12 PM »

Depends on what you are targeting :-)

Author Topic: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley? (Read 3387 times)

David Lee Yskes

what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

charlest

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

charlest

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

janderson

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

dicnic

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

Jerry Weller

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

LuvThatWhiteDot

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

Doggie the Dog

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

David Lee Yskes

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

Tex

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

Jerry Weller

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

pchee2

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

Strider

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?

Jerry Weller

Re: what would u do to leagues if you owned a bowling alley?