Does anyone have any long-term experience with bowling leagues in Bowlero owned centers?  Our local center was acquired by Bowlero and there has been a noticeable change in the house shot.  Less backend, less "forgiving".  Averages are down noticeably across most leagues the past few weeks.  Is this a hallmark of Bowlero centers in general?  Just wondering if this is what I will be dealing with now moving forward.

Does anyone have any long-term experience with bowling leagues in Bowlero owned centers?  Our local center was acquired by Bowlero and there has been a noticeable change in the house shot.  Less backend, less "forgiving".  Averages are down noticeably across most leagues the past few weeks.  Is this a hallmark of Bowlero centers in general?  Just wondering if this is what I will be dealing with now moving forward.

It's hard for me to tell now. The Bowlero I bowled league at changed a lot so I can't safely say. When AMF was bought out, our league moved alleys, so we didn't have any reference post-buyout. But even with that, they replaced their lanes from the Brunswick Pro-Anvilane to AMF HPLs, so they are higher friction. Don't know if they've changed the volume of oil, but I do know that if the lanes are getting old, they may start to look at changing them out to keep them something in the brand..

So while I'm not a good judge of this, hopefully others can chime in.

BL.

Quote from: Bowler19525 on August 27, 2021, 11:00:20 AM

Does anyone have any long-term experience with bowling leagues in Bowlero owned centers?  Our local center was acquired by Bowlero and there has been a noticeable change in the house shot.  Less backend, less "forgiving".  Averages are down noticeably across most leagues the past few weeks.  Is this a hallmark of Bowlero centers in general?  Just wondering if this is what I will be dealing with now moving forward.

It's hard for me to tell now. The Bowlero I bowled league at changed a lot so I can't safely say. When AMF was bought out, our league moved alleys, so we didn't have any reference post-buyout. But even with that, they replaced their lanes from the Brunswick Pro-Anvilane to AMF HPLs, so they are higher friction. Don't know if they've changed the volume of oil, but I do know that if the lanes are getting old, they may start to look at changing them out to keep them something in the brand..

So while I'm not a good judge of this, hopefully others can chime in.

BL.

Thanks.  The current lanes at our center are AMF HPLs already, so maybe they will leave those alone for awhile.  They are going to be bringing in a new lane machine.  Currently they are using a Kegel Flex machine, but Bowlero is going to be upgrading to the Flex Walker to "automate" some of the lane maintenance tasks at the center.  The center was treating the lanes once in the morning and then again before evening leagues.  It wouldn't be surprising if they are now oiling once a day.

I could be wrong but here is my theory on what I witness when they oil the lanes before league starts and the machine only runs the "front pass" to put down the house shot pattern but doesn't continue down all the way to the pins to clean the backends. This happens at our Bowlero and another non Bowlero center.   

This problem gets exaggerated during the summer months when there are more recreational bowlers and house balls going down the lanes all day and creating more carry down and sloppy backends which makes scoring difficult.  Especially on the lanes in front of the counter where most recreational bowlers get assigned.  Just a theory of mine from what I've witnessed.  Let me know if I'm wrong.

I'll add that his DOES NOT happen when this same Bowlero hosts a tournament with any type of pattern and the machine runs all the way to the pin deck and cleans the back ends.

At another house KNOWN for flying backends is another incident that lasted about two weeks.  The mechanic told me their Kegel machine was broke.  He said the brush was getting stuck and not raising up all the way and essentially dragging oil all the way to the pins.  Scoring was down.  When the part arrived and he fixed the machine, the crisp backends returned and scoring returned as well.

I stopped bowling at the local Bowlero facility because of the state of the equipment. The lane conditions did not bother me, but the ball return system did. I have seen several bowling balls come back gashed including one of mine. When I showed the damage to the front desk, the manager offered to send out my ball for repairs (this Bowlero did not have a pro shop on premises). I said "no thanks" to that suggestion and brought the ball to my personal driller.

I cannot speak to other Bowlero facilities, but it is beyond my understanding why any league bowler would compete at this one.

From my experience, this must be specific to the local manager or district manger.

Milo, I agree with you. Our local Bowlero has the same outdated scoring monitors and related equipment that the facility has had for as long as I can remember. Local management has spent lots of $$$ on arcades and glitzy stuff but not much on bowling equipment. The manager obviously made a business decision. I understand that, so I simply voted with my feet.

Quote from: Bowler19525 on August 27, 2021, 03:35:48 PM

Thanks.  The current lanes at our center are AMF HPLs already, so maybe they will leave those alone for awhile.  They are going to be bringing in a new lane machine.  Currently they are using a Kegel Flex machine, but Bowlero is going to be upgrading to the Flex Walker to "automate" some of the lane maintenance tasks at the center.  The center was treating the lanes once in the morning and then again before evening leagues.  It wouldn't be surprising if they are now oiling once a day.

Ouch. I just saw that ours isn't opening until 3pm on weekdays and 1pm on weekends, so if yours is doing similar, I could see them going to oiling once a day. They'll open, let leagues bowl, some open play after leagues, then oil, call it a day, then let the oil sit and set overnight. Wash/rinse/repeat.

Do they have senior leagues during the week?

BL.

Yes, they do have senior leagues.  I know several bowlers on senior leagues and they are frustrated as well.  Not only do they not feel the conditions are very good, the center does not open the snack bar/restaurant for the seniors even for the early afternoon leagues.  So they are provided a "perk" of free coffee, yet the snack bar is never open to make the coffee available for them.  The seniors were told that if they felt they wanted to have food available, to let the center know and they would "try" to arrange for someone to be there.  Interesting that Bowlero claims the food and drink sales are a profit center for them, yet they would leave the snack bar and restaurant closed during afternoon leagues.

The new lane machine is due in the next 2-3 weeks.  The center manager was asked if the shot would be changing with the new machine, and the reply was no.  The manager then said that a rep from Kegel is coming in to set up the new machine for them so the shot would depend on what the Kegel rep loads in to it.  So, at the end of the day there is still some uncertainty about what the conditions will be moving forward.

New furniture is coming as well, but that is 3-4 months out.

Our Bowlero is also playing the "get the league bowlers out as quickly as possible" game.  Even the junior leagues on Saturday mornings have basically been told to get in, bowl, and get out so the lanes can be freed up for open play.