FEATURE
Upping The Game Todd Britton pulls out all the stops at Uptown Alley in Winnipeg By Robert Sax
W
innipeg, Canada, has had its ups and downs. In the late 1800s, it was one of the most successful cities in North America, a major rail center with more millionaires per capita than New York City. Then the First World War, the Great Depression, and plummeting wheat prices began a long economic slump that only began turning around in the last 10 years. As witnessed by the strong growth of its entertainment sector, life in Winnipeg has gotten much better of late. Winnipeggers once again have an NHL hockey team (the Winnipeg Jets redux) in a fancy hockey arena, and brew pubs and foodie havens are proliferating. Now they can also enjoy the city’s first modern bowling entertainment center, Uptown Alley, thanks to local proprietor and former Bowl Canada president, Todd Britton. Todd grew up in a bowling family. His father Brian Britton operated Winnipeg’s iconic Academy Lanes, located in a converted Moorish-style 1930s movie palace with an architecturall-significant exterior. “Like many kids that grow up in the industry, I hung out with my dad,” says Britton. “I think I started going to work with him when I was 12 doing odd jobs. I was lucky that I felt passionate about the industry at a young age.”
38
IBI
February 2020
Todd, 42, now runs the family’s three local bowling centers along with his dad Brian, mother Heather, and brother Jay. Those include two traditional centers, Academy West Bowl and Billy Mosienko Lanes, and, as of December 2018, their brand-new flagship operation Uptown Alley. It’s located in Polo Park just north of downtown Winnipeg in a big retail and entertainment area. How it came to be is a story of turning challenge into opportunity. A few years back, the owner of the building that housed Academy Lanes informed Todd that was he was not going to renew their lease.
The team at Uptown Alley from the left: general manager Nathan Hogg, Jay Britton, and Todd Britton
