Entertainment options have changed from then to now.  The world has moved on and in most cases bowling alleys have failed to keep up. 32-36 week leagues for 3+ hours don't work for most people today as it once did. Bowling league is very much a social event. Always has been.


Bowling is the largest participatory sport. So bowling is still popular. It's the options available for leagues or tournaments that in many cases hasn't kept up.

Quote from: ignitebowling on August 12, 2019, 08:19:39 PM

Entertainment options have changed from then to now.  The world has moved on and in most cases bowling alleys have failed to keep up. 32-36 week leagues for 3+ hours don't work for most people today as it once did. Bowling league is very much a social event. Always has been.


Bowling is the largest participatory sport. So bowling is still popular. It's the options available for leagues or tournaments that in many cases hasn't kept up.

This also begs the question to be asked outside of the US. Yes, bowling is the biggest participatory sport, and we have seen a lot of other options come up for us in the US. But I'd love to see how it fares internationally, especially in other countries where bowling is huge Japan, Korea, Singapore, UAE, etc. It would be interesting to see the stats from there before making the call..

BL.

Japan had a bowling boom about the late 60s through the late 70s or early 80s, then came the bust.  At one time they had the world's largest bowling center, Tokyo Lanes, with 252 lanes but that closed with the bust.  From memory, I think it was several stories in height.

The largest center in Japan now is Inazawa Grand Bowl with 116 lanes.   
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-bowling-alley/

How popular is it now? 
https://jpninfo.com/3726

https://jpninfo.com/8369

Below 8 according to this list:
https://allabout-japan.com/en/article/4175/

It seems like this thread and others is asking what motivates people to bowl, or specifically bowl in leagues.  Instead of guessing what motivates people I'll explain what motivated me.

Bowled in youth leagues in the 80's cause my parents were league bowlers and took me to their league nights. Don't remember much but I was good and competitive for a 13/14 year old.  Stopped bowling probably because girls, cars, money and part time jobs became my motivation. 

In my single and married life before kids I golfed.  ALOT.  Dad taught me to golf too.  I had the money and TIME to spend an entire Saturday or Sunday at the golf course with my friends who were also golfers.  Well I had my first kid and golfing went away almost overnight. 

Later down the road my kids were about 8 and 12 years old and wanted to stop in the bowling alley we kept driving by every day.  We did.   I was still good and remembered how to hit the pocket and look good doing it!  I've been hooked on bowling again ever since that day.  It satisfies my need to compete and hang out with like minded adults and be social. Doesn't take as much time or money as golf.

Being exposed and taught how to bowl correctly at a young age was a contributing factor to me coming back to bowling.  I'm sure we are all getting our kids to bowl or at least trying.  All of the competitive bowlers in my leagues have kids that can bowl their asses off and sometimes or most of the time beat their parents so I know for a fact we are doing our part.

What else can we do?   Anybody tried recruiting league bowlers from their work or any place else where you frequently see adults that have lives just like or similar to our own???  Doesn't matter if they know how to bowl or not does it???  Anybody can be taught the basics.  Then then let their ability take them wherever their average goes. 

Honestly I don't really try to recruit adult age leagues bowlers with any real effort.  I'll tell them I bowl in leagues and they should give it a try and see if they like it.  Not much effort is given.  Maybe I'll step up my game and try a little harder.

I think most league bowlers have, like me, at one time or another tried to talk someone else into joining a league.  But really, who is more likely to have daily contact with open bowlers - bowlers who bowl league and do the occasional open bowling or the bowling center counter personnel?  I can't speak for other centers, but at ours, I don't remember seeing or hearing the counter person ask an open bowler if they would be interested in joining a league.  When I worked in centers, that was part of the duty of the counter personnel.  We would usually have a sign-up clipboard handy with all the leagues listed with the times and starting dates and contact info for the league secretary.

Edited to add:
I know all of the leagues we have are smaller (less teams) than a decade ago so they should be able to accomodate new bowlers.

Here is the rub.

The average league bowler's age is 52.

The game is trying to be marketed to 20 somethings.

There in lies the disconnect, and trouble of the game moving forward.


Look at it this way. It would be like Red Lobster promoting and pushing steak, or Lone Star Steak house promoting sushi. Think about it.

more like Buick marketing for millenials.

...is bowling the Buick of sports? 

Bowling boomed wirh the introduction of the automatic pinsetter in the mid 50s.  The business model was built around league bowling and was well received in a society that that was more in tune to long term committments.  Social organizations like lodges and even card clubs were built around weekly committments.   

The level of league participation initiated by this boom was not sustainable in the long run.  League membership began to dwindle for a number of reasons.  More options like youth soccer at the kids level,  vastly narrowed the pool of new bowlers coming to adult leagues.  People backing off from 2 or 3 leagues at the adult level made a difference or finding new recreational activities not generally available in the 50s.