Quote from: txbowler on June 27, 2022, 08:05:48 PM

I happen to be friends with the head mechanic at a local bowlero as well as an independent owner of a bowling center in the area.

I bowl and support both centers.  Both places have "lane" issues.  I have spoken to both of my friends about the issues.  Here's their answers.  We can't get parts.

The head mechanic showed me their order of $10,000 in parts from the distributors.  They are back ordered for 2 months. Their hopes are to get the parts in so that the lanes will all be in good condition when the fall leagues start.  This bowlero house supports leagues and has grown their leagues.  They have leagues every night of the week except Friday and Saturday which are the open play money makers.

The independently owned house owner told me the same thing.  Lane parts backordered from China.

So it's not always the house isn't spending the money to maintain the lanes and pinsetters.  There are outside issues this pandemic caused that are still being felt as far as parts availability.

I am sure there are centers that are worse than others.  But in this area, both Bowlero and of course the independent house both support league bowlers. 

That's happening in an independent house we bowl in here. A casino owns it, 16 Brunswick GSX pinsetters over Anvilane. Two of the lanes keep dropping the 2 or the 3 pin if they're still standing when the machine cycles to the second ball. Mechanic diagnoses the problem as the pincher system that grabs standing pins and orders the parts. After 2-3 months, they finally get parts -- and they're the wrong ones. Back to square one.

The oil machine was on the fritz for the better part of 3-4 months back in the winter season, same deal. Distributor couldn't get parts. I just happened to be at Kegel for a lesson and mentioned it to Del Warren and he told me to tell the center to pick up the phone and call Kegel directly, that they would help. I passed the info along to the center. Oiling issues have quieted down substantially so I guess they took Del up on his offer.

I don't know what else houses are running out of but anything that comes from China right now is a crapshoot. I'm not sure where all companies get their accessories from, but I've heard Storm is either out of its branded plugging material altogether, or supplies at least are tight. A couple of companies that sell the smooth vinyl thumb tapes are out of 1-inch width. It's a disease.

The lack of proper center maintenance training has been an industry issue since the beginning of automatic machines. Its not a short term pandemic sourcing issue.

For decades the industry full of mechanics that put out fires instead of following well laid out preventive maintence programs designed by the manufactures engineers. I've seen the repairs made by using duct tape, bailing wire, plastic wire ties, hose clamps, bad welding, fiberglass patches and none are OEM parts. I've seen the poor choices to use non OEM parts that performed poorly, did not last under the guise of saving a buck. My Center Certifications and trainning are second to none. Be it a 12 lane house or 48, be it a 24 hour Center, I've designed the lane, machines, automatic scorers, and full facility maintenance programs. I've had to tell owners these are the issues with their machines, they have been bandaged and run into the ground, that to bring back to OEM spec, exceed industry standards of acceptable trouble calls a full rebuild of every machine is needed. That every shaft, bearing, deck bucket will need to be replaced, that every gearbox will need to be rebuilt.

Centers like these machines break down fast, mechanics cant stock enough parts because they don't know what is going to break forever in the next 15 minutes. Belts and bearings across the house worn. Bad bearing seizing and taking out expensive shafts then and costing an owner more money and bad reputation. Centers like these likely operate with no spare parts for their Lane Machine or Auto Scoring Systems.

In fairness to Bowlero head mechanics, the shortened center hours DO NOT provide the man hours to perform proper preventive maintenance JUST on the machines of a 48 lane center, let alone the Automatic Scorers, proper Lane Maintenance and the entire house. On top of that, center owners expect an expertise not only in the specialized equipment of a center but Low Voltage, Electrical, Plumbing, HVAC, Small Appliance Repairs (the french fryer) yet if you are employed with a company that does just any of these things, trust me when I say any of them will pay better.

And all that said... as centers continue decline in count at what point is it no longer profitable for companies to make the parts? Develope new lane beds and sell? or Automatic scorers?

Its complicated and if I was Bowlero would be doing everything in my power to promote the overall health of what once was an industry. I would be sitting done with the BPAA and questing the direction they are going as the indudstry's trade organization and working together. 1 or 300 centers is not enough to campaign, pool 4000 centers working together then increasing USBC membership may be possible.

This is what the old shcool BPAA did, what old school sole proprietors understood. As a single center, 10 centers you can only do so much and it in no shape or form is up to the USBC to bring buisness into your center.

Just my 2 cents...

Quote from: txbowler on June 27, 2022, 06:21:30 PM

Please, please, please explain something to me.

You decide to open a bowling center or own one.  You have 32 lanes.  In order to open you must turn on lights and air conditioning for the entire place.   You must pay employees to be there. You complain that bowler pushed out seniors and youth. 

How many lanes were your seniors and youth using?

During the work week, at the Bowlero house I used to bowl at, they had 40 out of the 50 lanes being used for senior leagues during the week, and every lane used for youth bowling on Saturdays. At the independent house I bowl at, the house is packed throughout the week as well as on the weekends until the mid afternoon. Both alleys opened at 9am or earlier.

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Most of the time I visited centers early Saturday morning or during the week when seniors bowled a league, less than 50% of the lanes were in use.  How do you expect a business to make money. 

Again, the stats are situational, because what may not work for you at one particular location is/was working for others in other locations; Bowlero or otherwise.

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Yes Bowlero has made some poor decisions.  But I cannot fault them for adjusting their hours so that they can make a profit.  Even centers owed by individuals are trying to make a profit.

Yes, all bowling centers are trying to make a profit; however, I don't see individual bowling centers in the areas I frequent adjusting their hours and cutting out leagues to do as such. One such alley in Sacramento is still making a killing of it with opening at 9am every day. Another stays open 24 hours, and again, not a single problem. The ones that we've seen struggling at any point, are the ones owned by Bowlero.

There are no Bowlero locations within a 200 mile radius of Las Vegas, or Omaha, so we also don't have that issue there, as most alleys in Vegas are open 24 hours, and every alley in Omaha opens at 10am, with the exception of Saturday mornings, when they are open at 8am, as leagues start at 9am.

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If I owned a center and saw thru metrics that opening early for youth and seniors was not a profitable thing to do, I too would adjust my hours.  I wouldn't lose money because that's just the way it was done in the past.

Again, everything there is situational. In the 3 cities I frequent, I am not seeing that issue for it to be blamed, except only at Bowlero locations. This doesn't make it a profitability issue; instead, this seems to be isolated only to Bowlero.

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It's quite selfish in my opinion that bowlers think they are special and places of business should lose money because well they used to be open.  It's not a business' job to be a place for seniors to meet.

It isn't. What is happening is the very thing you're complaining about; the owner is removing the very thing they need: patrons so they can earn a profit. You don't spend $1000 to earn $1050; that extra $50 doesn't get you anything. In fact, in doing what they have done, they have further shot themselves in the foot to where they have had to rethink their business practice and pivot BACK to what they were doing before: hosting leagues and attracting the league bowler, because they lost the biggest revenue stream they had: REPEAT CUSTOMERS.

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And yes bowling is not growing as a sport.  And if you think that is because Bowlero isn't open Saturday mornings, I disagree.  Kids these days care about video games, Netflix, etc.  All youth participation sports are down across the country.  You shouldn't blame that on Bowlero.

No-one is solely blaming Bowlero on that; however, they are contributing to the problem by not having a place for those kids to go so they get out from in front of the TV or their screens. Besides, like with seniors, they shot themselves in the proverbial foot by taking away yet another revenue stream, that further pulls from their profits. They can't have it both ways, in complaining about not making money, while not doing anything to help generate that money.

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Yes USBC needs to improve.  I agree 100% on that. 

That's a given. We all know that; hopefully the USBC does improve.

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But USBC membership is $22 (maybe going up) a year.  That's 1/6 of the new bowling ball you just bought from Storm.  That's the cost of the package of finger tape you bought from the pro shop.

I don't understand what you are expecting for $22 for an entire year.  Bowlers bitch that they don't get multiple rings.  Each ring at a minimum cost USBC $50.  So your bitching that "you" didn't make a profit on your $22 investment.

You have to have a place to put that $22 membership to use. It doesn't help, let alone do a bloody thing if Bowlero limits the time to put that membership to work. That isn't the USBC's fault; again, that lies squarely on Bowlero.

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USBC servers all levels of bowlers.  Yes most of the complaining I see on here comes from the 190+ averages. (not always) Go survey your 150-170 average league bowlers who buy $50 worth of beer each week.  You know what, they don't care what USBC does or doesn't do.  They pay their $22 a year and order their 3 pitchers of beer a night.  It's a select group of bowlers that want/expect USBC to meet their needs.  The rest don't care.

 

Again, they will care when their options are limited for where they can go bowl that 150-170 average and drink those beers. What they will then tend to do is not bowl at all, which takes money away from the USBC as well as Bowlero, leaving both in the lurch and complaining about the very thing they are complaining about now. They don't have the right to complain when they do this to and kneecap themselves.

BL.

All valid points.  I would think that a lot of chain business have the same issues.  I have been in Home Depot's that are immaculately clean.  I have been in Home Depot's that you can clearly see do not keep up on cleanliness or are plain dirty. There are a few Bowlero houses in the DFW area and I can say some are very nice, some aren't.  But I can say that about independent houses too.  We bowl a travel league that goes all through east Texas and there are no Bowlero houses involved.  All independently owned.  Some houses are pristine.  Others not so much.   What's that mean, my pure guess is some managers require their employees to clean more than others.  It's probably not at the owner level.  Most businesses have cleaning/maintenance requirements.  But I'd bet my hard earned money that not all of those business, chain or otherwise, follow those cleaning requirements.

And these days, at least here in DFW, everyone is hiring.  So most bowling centers are short-staffed as most businesses probably are. 

Not an excuse for not cleaning as well, just reality.

Bowlero is a publicly held company.  Their primary obligation is to act in the best interest of their shareholders and show a profit.  Many times this means cutting corners as it pertains to the customer experience.  It also means keeping overhead expenses to a minimum to keep that profit number where it is expected. 

Bowlero is certainly not a perfect organization.  They are primarily in the entertainment business.  We as regular league bowlers are repeat customers for them.  League bowlers, however, are not a huge source of revenue for them compared to what the open play bowlers spend.  Bowlero is looking at that and views us as lost opportunity to rent the lane at full price.  League bowlers are paying $16 lineage.  Ten league bowlers on a pair is $160 for Bowlero.  If open bowlers come in and bowl three games, each bowler would be in for at least $27 ($7 per game plus $6:shoe rental.). Ten open bowlers gets them $270 for the pair.  They are giving up the opportunity to make an extra $110 for the pair by hosting leagues.  Not to mention food sales, drinks, arcade play, etc.  League bowlers don't buy as much food as open bowlers and do not play in the arcade unless they also bring their children with them.

Bowlero tolerates leagues because there is no guarantee they would fill all of their lanes with open bowlers at the higher rates.  It is a balancing act where they want to have enough lanes for league bowlers but also full the remaining open lanes with open bowlers.  Too many league bowlers and the higher profit margin open bowlers are locked out.  Too few league bowlers, and there is a risk that open lanes will go unused.  So the league bowlers are viewed as a necessary evil by Bowlero.

This new PBA league certification plan is more a brainchild of the PBA marketing team than it is a Bowlero Corporate thing.  Bowlero owns the PBA, and the PBA views this as an opportunity to grow brand awareness for the PBA.  It is being presented under the guise of a benefit for league bowlers.  Bowlero most likely went along with it to appease the PBA and at the same time make it seem like they are investing in their league bowlers.  It is all smoke and mirrors.  They are rolling out an incomplete program this fall.  Neil Stremmel doesn't even start until July 6th.  There are no rules or equipment specifications created at this point.  The awards program they are talking about is embarrassing (printable certificates, NFTs, congratulatory messages from PBA pros??) Waste of time.  They have not even started any discussions with other industry partners.  This new program is purely marketing.  That's it.  It doesn't make the league experience any better or grow league participation.

One of the first questions asked of Tom Clark by a viewer was basically if non-Bowlero bowlers would be allowed to bowl in the PBA League Certification national tournament.  Basically, the bowlers that either wouldn't set foot in a Bowlero or don't have access to a Bowlero want to bowl in the national tournament.  Clark waffled at first, but then basically said they hadn't really thought about it but it would make sense to permit it as long as the bowler joined their association.  That doesn't grow leagues, but it does add more money to this marketing program.

Clark also claims that each Bowlero will be holding a local King of the Center type of tournament.  If they are going to permit non-Bowlero bowlers to enter that as well, the concept of it gets diluted.  Again, much ado about nothing.

Tom Clark thinks that the PBA holds some sort of cachet with league bowlers, and they will be mutually elevated by associating with each other.  News flash.  98% of league bowlers couldn't care less about the PBA.

Example.  We had a Pro-am here recently.  Bill O'Neill, Jason Sterner, PBIII, Doug Kent were the headliners.  Fellow league bowler asked me if PDW was coming.  I said no.  He asked who the big names were and I told him.  He shrugged, said he wasn't familiar with them, and said he didn't want to waste the time and money.  He also said his current average was too high and he wouldn't be getting the amount of handicap he wanted.  The guy cared more about his handicap than he did bowling with some of the best bowlers in the PBA (who he didn't even really know anyway.)

Bowlero and the PBA are wasting everybody's time with this.

Bowlero announced that they are rejoining the BPAA.  Their statement says they see this as a way to elevate the PBA Tour.  It's all about marketing and branding and money.  Sounds like maybe the PBA is costing them money and this whole thing is an attempt to bail it out. 

I could be wrong with the following statement.

If Bowlero has competition in a region (city), when they changed hours and quote "kicked out leagues", I would guess the competition should have added those leagues and revenue.  Did they?

If Bowlero owns all the center(s) in a region (city), there was no place for those kicked out bowlers to go.

But centers are closing nationwide.  Some cases, their leases expired and the land owner raised the price so much that the center would not have been profitable so they closed.  Other centers closed due to the pandemic when business dropped to nothing and even today, the business didn't return to pre-covid levels.

And even cities with competition for Bowlero, those houses are usually at least 10 to 20 miles apart and the casual bowler simply "won't drive across town".

I firmly believe the pandemic forced people to learn how to live in their homes.  Get groceries delivered.  Restaurants delivered.

Most of bowlers I know that came back after covid are the die hards that have bowled most of their lives.  90% of the casual bowler who maybe just started a league or started bowling in the last couple of years, didn't come back and they won't ever.  When I asked why thru facebook or seeing them at a local place, their answer was always the same.  I found other ways to fill the time and spend my money.

Again, every participation sport is shrinking.  Covid forced people to find ways to enjoy themselves without getting out of the house and now all these businesses are suffering because a lot of people rather just stay home.

As someone posted somewhere, USBC membership is under 1 million nationwide and going down.  This isn't going to change.  Getting rid of USBC will not change that.  Bowlero offering an alternative will not change that.  Cleaning a restroom better is not going to change that.

It's never going to be 8 million again.  The bowling of the 80's and 90's is long gone.  People have so many more choices in what to do with their entertainment dollars and bowling will not rank anywhere near the top of those choices.

That's not why Cloverleaf bowl closed.

Quote from: txbowler on June 29, 2022, 05:12:29 PM

I could be wrong with the following statement.

If Bowlero has competition in a region (city), when they changed hours and quote "kicked out leagues", I would guess the competition should have added those leagues and revenue.  Did they?

If Bowlero owns all the center(s) in a region (city), there was no place for those kicked out bowlers to go.

But centers are closing nationwide.  Some cases, their leases expired and the land owner raised the price so much that the center would not have been profitable so they closed.  Other centers closed due to the pandemic when business dropped to nothing and even today, the business didn't return to pre-covid levels.

And even cities with competition for Bowlero, those houses are usually at least 10 to 20 miles apart and the casual bowler simply "won't drive across town".

I firmly believe the pandemic forced people to learn how to live in their homes.  Get groceries delivered.  Restaurants delivered.

Most of bowlers I know that came back after covid are the die hards that have bowled most of their lives.  90% of the casual bowler who maybe just started a league or started bowling in the last couple of years, didn't come back and they won't ever.  When I asked why thru facebook or seeing them at a local place, their answer was always the same.  I found other ways to fill the time and spend my money.

Again, every participation sport is shrinking.  Covid forced people to find ways to enjoy themselves without getting out of the house and now all these businesses are suffering because a lot of people rather just stay home.

As someone posted somewhere, USBC membership is under 1 million nationwide and going down.  This isn't going to change.  Getting rid of USBC will not change that.  Bowlero offering an alternative will not change that.  Cleaning a restroom better is not going to change that.

It's never going to be 8 million again.  The bowling of the 80's and 90's is long gone.  People have so many more choices in what to do with their entertainment dollars and bowling will not rank anywhere near the top of those choices.

Again, can't argue any of this. a few of the alleys here in the Sacramento region, and even the Bay area closed up shop because of not being able to afford the rent increase and COVID really hurt them. Yuba City Lanes and Cloverleaf quickly come to mind.

What can be done though, is up to all of us. I applaud the PBA for at least wanting to try something, but in what they are doing it has become more of an episode of eating their own while taking pot shots at the USBC and exacerbating the tit-for-tat they've been having since the Spectre and Purple Hammer issues. They could have worked on this more and better, with a lot more thought, and not try to rush this out before the beginning of the season. Perhaps they (Bowlero and the USBC) should have a look at how the IBF, Japan, and S. Korea are handling things and mirror what they are doing there, because they don't seem to be having this problem: COVID or otherwise.

BL.

In 1980 when Bowling hit peak membership center owners where beginning to face what I call social changes.

It was getting more difficult to get adults to commit and for the long seasons as more women than ever entered the work force. Leagues reducing from 36 weeks to 32 or 33 and eliminating a week prior for meeting and a week after for a banquet did help to stop some from quiting. 9pm leagues getting very very difficult to hold to gether. But this said our sr leagues immune from this and bowling weekly if for no other reason to stay active or yak about their kids, grandkids almost a given.

Aside from social changes many in the industry but a minority strongly believe cheapening the game was causing loss of membership. I believe Bill Taylor to have coined the term "inflated scoring" and having met him for PSO trainning he forged my views that have unwavered over these last 42 years. At age 17 could care less if I ever shot another 300 and it was not even the 80s yet. Us center owners in the 80s banded together by our trade organization (BPAA) met monthly statewide and annually for the industry convention. Those in the minor lost to the louder voices whom a willing ABC kowtowed to and further approved easier scoring conditions instead of protecting this sports integrity and acting above approach (F U ABC you destroyed my sport by prostituting this games greatest scoring acheivments).

What should have happened? What opportunities blown?
Had our trade organization focused on national campaigning, building the sport up from a youth level and getting more center owners to join to have more resource to pool but instead we sat on our hands during the good times. We all just woried about what was going on inside our own four walls and thought all we have to do is make the shot easy so joe beer drinker can pitch the ball anywhere left and hit the pocket he would have more fun. No longer paying to practice needed as national ave increased and overnight local associations bombed with lane inspections at centers for the 45k more honor scores getting shot by chops annually.

Smart proprioters formed our govening body and BPAA what? 90 years ago? I do not think this their intentions.

But what strikes me is while our focus had always been League bowlers and their lineage rates have always been lower than open play I do not see how the argument open play bowlers are "worth more" apply. I guess when our membership was at peak we were stupid by focusing on building sanctioned competive league play? and focusing on a model that promotes it as a sport? We should have kicked out leagues and took out the higher lineage for open play? and like Bolwero did turn it into a recreation?

And while open play bowlers pay higher rates am I the only one here that closed out the bar reciepts for 48 lanes of league bowlers? Am I the only one that sees the lobby full of friends that come in to watch? Tables full of chicken wings and barley sodas not otherwise sold on a tuesday night at 6pm and thinking they should join?

And while some of this saw this all coming since the 80s and could paint a bleak picture can we consider when bowling hit peak membership there was 100 million less people in the USA then than now.

And it is up to all of us...
Secretaries get your teams to ask others to join. I resigned from my team I formed this year to form another and we filled my spot to include an additional sub. While I am out of the industry now, thousands I brought to this sport and this just the little part I can do now from a family of generations of proprioters that built this game and not so Bowlero can F it all up or other lazy proprietors whom just rely on custormers walking in the door. Its never happened like that.

Fun to yak about and no longer care but still boycotting this scourge. Membership tos low for a corporation to play F around and not learn by simply looking at our past mistakes.

And in close, as a parent and while there are more things now too do but what offers what this great sport does?

My choice to not let my kids sit and get fat playing Xbox and becoming social mutants by chatting online or only texting. But rather teach there is winning and losing, competing is fun, competition is healthy with these 3 words... "Lets go bowling"

(ends soapbox)