Most winter leagues are too TOO LONG !!!! 32/34/36 weeks -- ITS INSANE.
Once it's sunny outside, the last place I am is inside a bowling alley.
Bowlmor has 8 week non sanctioned leagues that just renew several times a year. Big props to them for that. Not everyone's cup of tea but works well for me.
Funny thing about those 8 week programs (at least at my center) is the vast majority of people will bowl 8 weeks, 8 weeks, 8 weeks, & another 8 weeks for the same 32 LOL. I started a program in October (10 weeks) took a couple weeks off for the holidays and re-started them for 8 weeks. And next week they'll start another 10 week program. I average about 75% retention on these types of groups which is pretty decent I think.
We are still a league orientated center Sun-Fri and try to give plenty of options for those that don't want the 35 week commitment, even though a lot of these types of groups end up being right around 32 weeks at the end of the day. It's constant work but the rewards are well worth it. I'd also venture to say that 25% of these newer people will get hooked on the game and end up joining another "full time" program, if only we could figure out how to make that number increase to the original retention. Work in progress I suppose
