I just got this from a friend. What do you think - good or bad for the sport???
THEY'RE NOT YOUR FATHER'S BOWLING CENTERS
(Courtesy Boston Business Journal)

A growing number of Boston's nightlife kingpins are
capitalizing on a retro trend and hoping to strike it big
with tenpin bowling.

Serious bowlers need not lace up their shoes,
however: The newest ventures are "entertainment
complexes" that come complete with billiard rooms,
fancy cocktails and the odd celebrity sighting.  They are
meant more for corporate events, product launches and
promotional parties than for the Monday night leagues
at your father's bowling center.

Earlier this spring, nightclub impresario Patrick Lyons
opened the $7 million Kings entertainment complex in
the former Cheri Cinema building. Along with 16 lanes
of bowling, the 37,000-square-foot Lyons Group venue
features billiards, a lounge and a full-service
restaurant.

Now Jillian's has filed an application to build 17 lanes
of its own at the three-story Ipswich Street
entertainment complex. If the company's plans are
approved after a hearing later this month, a $3.5
million, 25,000-square-foot bowling facility could be
open on the third floor by the fall.

At the same time, Strike Holdings LLC, the parent
company of Bowlmor Lanes in New York City, another
retro bowling behemoth and the one upon which Kings
was inspired, is eyeing Boston for expansion, say
officials of the company.

With $10 million in revenue last year, Bowlmor Lanes is
the highest-grossing bowling facility in the world,
according to a company spokeswoman, and a foray
into Boston by the company could mean fewer bowlers
to spare locally.

"It's very similar to pool, where about 16, 17 years ago,
pool halls were thought of as smoky, seedy places,"
said Kevin Troy, a partner in the Boston Jillian's with
Steven Foster, who, together with Foster, recently
created Lucky Strike Lanes, a chain of retro tenpin
bowling complexes designed to land a share of the $4
billion bowling industry.

"All good things come back, I guess," Troy said.

That resurgence of tenpin bowling has been going on
for some time nationally, said Troy, who co-founded
Jillian's in Boston in 1988 with Foster. Today, corporate
parent Jillian's Entertainment Holdings Inc. is based in
Louisville, Ky., and runs nearly 40 Jillian's
entertainment complexes.

Troy and Foster, who run the Boston location of Jillian's
independent of the corporate parent -- and who
introduced bowling to many of the Jillian's clubs during
their tenure with the company -- remain dedicated
shareholders in the company, but started Lucky Strike
to capitalize on the tenpin craze. They opened the first
location in Hollywood last month -- an opening that
featured such stars as Robin Williams and Christina
Aguilera -- and the partners have other outposts in the
works for Orange County, Calif., Toronto, and now,
inside the Jillian's in Boston.

That Boston has been late to embrace the trend,
relative to other cities, can in part be traced to a
longtime state law that prohibited the consumption of
alcohol at bowling venues. The law was repealed in
April 2000, clearing the lanes for more-lucrative bowling
ventures.

"With bowling alone (and no alcohol sales), it would not
be profitable," said Troy, citing the expensive cost of
building the lanes themselves.

Not surprisingly, Boston is considered "under-laned"
based on the number of tenpin bowling lanes per
capita, according to Troy. The local demand allows
places like Kings to charge as much as $6.50 per
game at night when the national average cost per
bowling game runs closer to $3.

Another potential profit source is the flexibility of such
entertainment complexes to hold meetings and private
parties.

Unlike traditional bowling centers, which generate
much of their business from league play, the new crop
of retro bowling entertainment complexes use bowling
as an add-on to attract younger, higher-spending
clientele and corporate meeting planners looking for
different offerings.

Corporate and private meetings account for about 40
percent of the revenue for Bowlmor Lanes in New York
City. Kings hopes to generate 50 percent of its revenue
from corporate meetings, said Lyons Vice President
Mindy d'Arbeloff. Already the Boston facility has hosted a
number of corporate meetings, including one for 500
employees of Canton-based Reebok International Ltd.,
she said.

Ironically, the renewed interest in bowling comes after
many years of decline in league membership, say
experts, who add that the retro entertainment facilities
are tapping into curiosity among casual bowlers.

"Our concept was, 'If you own your own bowling ball, we
don't want you at Kings'," said d'Arbeloff.

But Jerry Iannacone, manager of the 48-lane Town Line
Ten Pin in Malden, a "traditional" center that generates
about 75 percent to 80 percent of its business from
league play, says there's little overlap in their target
audiences anyway.

While league membership numbers have not grown in
recent years, he noted there are fewer than 10 tenpin
bowling centers left in the Greater Boston area
compared with a high of nearly 20 facilities in the
1980s, resulting in sufficient business for all.

"Bowling is for everyone," said Iannacone. "And they all
have their own niche."
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Bowling? Of course it's a sport.