If I want a couch and a coffee table, I'll just stay home.  At least I know what's gone down on my couch.

I don't like the coffee club approach these newer centers are going to, they don't leave enough room for serious bowlers to keep their equipment and very often, the flooring is not kept very clean, leading to picking up foreign materials on my shoes that tend to cause problems when trying to slide.
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I bowl at a Brunswick zone in Texas, and well I cant stand it.  Not alot of room for equipment.  The tables are bolted to the floor with 4 swivel chairs attached to each small oval table. (I bowl on a league with 5 man teams, so someone didn't think that one through)  All and all its just gone down hill for the real bowlers.  First there was the bowling ally, then there was the bowling center, now all we have is a recreation center, notice they don't even mention bowling anymore.  Its sad that they make most of the money off the league bowlers coming every week, yet when it comes time to make it better all they care about is the drunk cosmic idiots.

I don't know what center ibowled286 bowls at but I am in full agreement. My local alley at former Brunswick Watauga Lanes in Watauga, TX had the original Brunswick 2000 layout with a real pit area, basic but easy to use and read scoring systems and a seating area that was logical. They attempted to put barstools, wipe out the pit area and put tables in what I call a "bowlers" area and have a horrible Windows based scoring system. The worse part is the tables. On every even number lane, the table is literally 2-3 feet from the back of the approach. In warm ups back in the old days everything was centered with the scoring monitor in the middle so it was no big deal. The tables makes it difficult to form a straight line if you want to take a shot on the right lane. There is "are you over hear or over there" every league night. When league starts, sometimes people sit at the front of these tables and if you want to stand in front of the lane to think about your shot, you really cant unless you use poor lane courtesy because there is no where to stand. The practice in the old days was nice because the front counter was responsible for starting and stopping practice. Most of the time, the time limit would go a little over so you got a good amount of balls in. According to the manager at my house which I tried in a motion in the league meeting to change the time limit of practice from 10 minutes to 15 minutes he said it is against Brunswick policy. Only 5 man league teams can have 15 minutes. Pretty lame considering if you have a double leagues they get 10 minutes but you can't give a 4 man league 15 minutes? The practice is exactly 10 minutes for 4 man leagues. Most of the time, when the scoring system says "stop" people say "screw it" and bowl anyway and then have to fix the score.

The layout of the bowling alley is very "childish". It was tailored made for birthday parties and group gatherings for glow bowl. If Brunswick tells you otherwise, they are liars. They have stooped to the same level as AMF. What kind of moron puts tables in front of the approaches where there is liquids and food allowed? Course no league will say anything against it because that is where the tables are. Hell, we were lucky to get a majority vote to put smoking in the back! In the old days with a pit area it was no problem. Then there is the very annoying house bowlers trying to get a house ball in the bowlers area where the league is. Nice thinking placing the balls there.

They took out the meeting room which used to be a babysitters area (no alleys use those anymore) and put a stupid teenage poolhall there. So now we have to have league meetings in the bar which is noisy. The biggest problem on this whole remodeling is there is not enough space from front to the back for all the things they placed in. On Friday nights, it's like a Greyhound Bus Station. Enough of my rants. I still like Brunswick, I just think they don't care about league bowlers as much as they used to. Perhaps someday these bowling alleys will wake the hell up and realize league bowlers will generate the revenue and cosmic bowling and birthday parties will not last. I think most of the bowlers that are ages 25-35 are in the peak of talent in bowling. Most of the kids growing up will be poor bowlers due what surrounds them thanks to AMF and Brunswick.