It goes without mention that a large cause to the decline in the sport of bowling and leagues especially is the growing age of the bowling population. It has been mentioned several times on this site. The problem doesn't seem to be youth bowling, the problem is converting those youth members into future adult members. Granted, without a high school bowling program, you are going to lose the vast majority of the youth during their high school days. This is due to high school sports and other activities. However, once they go to college, most of those 'one time' youth bowlers do not play a college sport and/or participate in very many clubs or activities.

This leads up to my question: why is there not a greater effort by proprietors/managers to target these college students? Target them during their college days, get them in a league, then when they graduate and get a job in the area, there will be a much greater chance of them joining an adult league. Obviously I am talking about the students who don't already bowl or have never done it before. We focus to much on the people who are "already" bowlers.

So, how do we target this age group? I can think of several ideas.
1.) Create a college league or a "young professional" league where there is an age limit, say 21-30. Have it on a thursday night (most college kids don't have class on friday) or even thursday afternoon. Work out a deal with the school and possibly get a bus to take the students from the dorms to the alley and vice versa. Schools are always trying to get students active and eliminate drunk driving. This is perfect. Run the league using the college calender (i.e. start in september, take a "winter break" and then end at the end of April). It may be a shorter league with lower fees, but think of it as more an investment in your leagues future.

It might be tough to get the students to try it for the first time. I believe it would be beneficial to have an advocate, preferably a college student who already enjoys bowling. Tell the student that for every 10 students he/she gets to join the league, you will pay for 10 weeks of their bowling or whatever kind of a deal you can work out. There needs to be an incentive though.

2.) Have a special deal on friday night or saturday night that is specifically for this age group. Say buy two get one free, or $2 games with proof of college ID.


Maybe proprietors have tried this, although if they have, I have never seen it. Seems to me as though losing the bowlers during high school is inevitable. So why not target them when they are in college and about ready to enter the "adult world"? Curious on others ideas/thoughts?

Similar to most of you on this website love the sport of bowling. I am always trying to get people to try it for the first time. I don't want to see our sport slowly die, I want to see it grow and prosper.

Yes, money is an issue. That is why I said it would be a cheaper league and maybe not that profitable. But it is an investment in your future leagues and the longevity of your center, not the here and now.

I went to college out of town and ended up staying here because I got a job out of college. Granted, everyone from out of town doesn't stay, but if you convert 4/20 from your "college" league to your adult league, it is worth it.

As to no incentive to give them a discount, the money the bowling alley makes on the friday night where you give them a discount is at the bar. They will be drinking, you can assure yourself of that.

Yes, money is an issue. That is why I said it would be a cheaper league and maybe not that profitable. But it is an investment in your future leagues and the longevity of your center, not the here and now.

I went to college out of town and ended up staying here because I got a job out of college. Granted, everyone from out of town doesn't stay, but if you convert 4/20 from your "college" league to your adult league, it is worth it.

As to no incentive to give them a discount, the money the bowling alley makes on the friday night where you give them a discount is at the bar. They will be drinking, you can assure yourself of that.

They will be drinking if you give them a heavy discount. They won't be drinking if the bar charges it's regular prices. Besides,  Friday nights are usually pretty good business for a bowling alley(at least in this area), so the owner would not want to give up full price open play and full price bar sales. Now if it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday night after league, then they might be willing to reduce prices to a break even point.

They will be drinking if you give them a heavy discount. They won't be drinking if the bar charges it's regular prices. Besides,  Friday nights are usually pretty good business for a bowling alley(at least in this area), so the owner would not want to give up full price open play and full price bar sales. Now if it was on a Tuesday or Wednesday night after league, then they might be willing to reduce prices to a break even point.

Yeah, Friday nights are most likely pretty good in most areas. But I know all kinds of places that give deals to college kids, even during busy times. And I hate to disagree, but college kids go to bars and drink even if there isn't a discount. Granted, your right, they will be MUCH more likely to go and find the cheapest drinks. I like the idea of Tuesday, Wednesday, any night! If it is always full on friday night at 11pm, then don't offer the discount on friday. The whole idea is to try and get that age group interested in the sport...

One of our local bowling alleys has an afternoon league for the University of Pacific, I don't know the cost(but it's cheap), and it's only a few weeks at a time. It seems to be well attended. The center is dead in the weekday afternoons from 3 to around 4:30 so the impact is minimal.

I agree with trying to get the college age crowd to try bowling, but in my opinion, we need more people who view bowling as a sport, not an excuse to drink beer.

Good points. However, these are all items that can change easy. New bowlers (college bowlers) don't need their own equipment. The season doesn't need to be long, that is why I said run it using college calender. Give them cheap shoe rentals.You're right, they probably won't be there every week. Thus, you can't hold them liable the same as you do a normal adult league member. The GOAL of this idea is not to make a fortune. The goal is to attract interest in an age group where bowling FAILS to attract interest. They fail because they don't try. Run the league at a time when you don't have an adult league and when you are normally slow. Then you'd already be making more money than you would normally.

Not saying this would be easy or a homerun, but with the right people and the right amount of effort, it could be successfully in gaining interest in this age group and ultimately gaining future adult members.

I guess I see the demographic differently.  I would rather approach the over 21 demographic.  We had leagues/events for the food industry (bartenders and waiters/waitresses), we have young professional leagues (engineers/architects) and I have even seen some young business groups having events and leagues. 

I am not saying there isn't incentive for trying to acquire the college attending person, but there seems to be more viable groups to attract.  The difficult thing is finding a format these new bowlers finds appealing and transitions easily to the more traditional league setting.