International Bowing Industry June 2010

CONTENTS

VOL 18.6

6 THE ISSUE AT HAND

34 PROFILE

Of bedtime and Ballantine

A different approach For Ros Hull, it was the Cardinals’ outfield.

By Scott Frager

THE WORLD'S ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE BUSINESS OF BOWLING

PUBLISHER & EDITOR Scott Frager frager@bowlingindustry.com Skype: scottfrager

MANAGING EDITOR Fred Groh groh@bowlingindustry.com

37 OPERATIONS

8 SHORTS

What are your top rules for managing, Rex Golobic and Warren Hardie?

SMART money in new hands...new centers... and peoplewatching

40 CENTER STAGE

Rocky Casstevens has spent as many as 10 hours in his deer stand, but a trophy isn’t the point.

Anyone’s guess

Twenty-five years ago, AMF commissioned an architecture school to design the center of the future. How close did they come, would you say?

12 PROFILE

Fire and ice

44 PROFILE

Two kinds of blaze struck in Omaha on Jan. 7.

Personal best Navigating the game you can’t see.

16 PROFILE

Ghost story

16

Cue Twilight Zone theme, if you dare.

48 BOWLING GAMES

A Wii bit of bowling The hottest game console on the planet becomes the framework for a national tournament.

20 OPERATIONS

Open and shut

A case for treating league bowlers like they’re the other kind.

heath@bowlingindustry.com

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT Victoria Tahmizian tahmizian@bowlingindustry.com

ART DIRECTION & PRODUCTION Designworks

10

10 MY PARADISE

OFFICE MANAGER Patty Heath

62 REMEMBER WHEN 1958

www.dzynwrx.com (818) 735-9424

FOUNDER Allen Crown (1933-2002)

13245 Riverside Dr., Suite 501 Sherman Oaks, CA 91423 (818) 789-2695(BOWL) Fax (818) 789-2812 info@bowlingindustry.com

www.BowlingIndustry.com

HOTLINE: 888-424-2695 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: One copy of International Bowling Industry is sent free to every bowling center, independently owned pro shop and collegiate bowling center in the U.S., and every military bowling center and pro shop worldwide. Publisher reserves the right to provide free subscriptions to those individuals who meet publication qualifications. Additional subscriptions may be purchased for delivery in the U.S. for $50 per year. Subscriptions for Canada and Mexico are $65 per year, all other foreign subscriptions are $80 per year. All foreign subscriptions should be paid in U.S. funds using International Money Orders.

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Printed in U.S.A. Copyright 2010, B2B Media, Inc. No part of this magazine may be reprinted without the publisher’s permission.

MEMBER AND/OR SUPPORTER OF:

24 COVER STORY

Bowling and the blokes

Fifty years of tenpin ups and downs in the UK, where a critical lesson about running bowling centers was learned for the first time.

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24

50 Showcase 52 Datebook 54 Classifieds

THE ISSUE AT HAND

Of bedtime and Ballantine One part of being a dad I love is bedtime reading with my kids. And while each of my Rugrats has had his or her favorite books to read over and over again, one they all loved was the classic Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish. It could always be counted on to whisk my kids into a gentle slumber of sweet dreams.

Little did I know this children’s book would one day be connected with a professional “nightmare,” of sorts, for me.

Last month, in our “Remember When” feature, we reprinted an ad for Ballantine Beer published in 1953. In our caption, we commented on how the artist, Mr. Frederick Siebel, got his gorgeous bowling center illustration wrong.

Mr. Siebel’s painting shows a cutaway view of “Leo’s Recreation – 24 Lanes.” Leo’s is in a downtown that belongs in an Edward Hopper painting.

We see four bowlers who have released their balls. But there are six balls on or about the lanes. We wagged our finger in print at Mr. Siebel for the mistake.

Our goof!

Two of the balls are in the gutter. And as our readers wrote to us, quite emphatically, ball returns were above ground back then. The illustration therefore shows four balls heading down toward the pins and two coming back. One hundred percent accurate, Mr. Siebel.

My only excuse is the rather flimsy one that I wasn’t around in 1953 to watch the action in a bowling center. I wasn’t around at all, having been born

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in the following decade.

I promised each reader who wrote in that I would do my best to restore Mr. Siebel’s reputation. And while I can’t do anything to apologize to the artist directly – he passed away in 1968 – I decided to honor his legacy by doing a little research on the artist.

It turns out that Frederick “Fritz” Siebel was not only a famous and well-respected advertising illustrator back in the day, he also illustrated many magazine covers, including a well-known issue of Collier’s featuring the infamous Stalin on October 20, 1951.

Most significant to me, was that Siebel also illustrated Amelia Bedelia, the same book I have read to my kids night after countless night.

So Mr. Siebel, if I could, I would raise a glass of Ballantine Beer to you and hope that you would forgive our unintended slight.

And I thank all of the IBI readers who set me straight. Without your close scrutiny, I would never have made the connection between the artist, the illustrator and my chosen profession, bowling.

– SCOTT FRAGER, PUBLISHER AND EDITOR frager@bowlingindustry.com By the way, I’ve posted a link on www.BowlingIndustry.com if you’d like to learn more about Frederick “Fritz” Siebel.

THIS MONTH AT www.BowlingIndustry.com

You and your friends.

Chat with old ones, make new ones.

SHORTS SHORT

SMART SCHOLARSHIP MONEY IN NEW HANDS The SMART Bowling Scholarship Funding Corp., an entity legally and financially separate from USBC, was formed in March to manage bowling scholarship money in the SMART program. The fund is currently about $33 million.

“The mission of the new corporation is to be a trusted custodian of scholarship funds, bring more attention to the benefits of using SMART and continue providing a service that protects the interest of young people,” said Wally Hall, who chairs the board of the new corporation. “SMART assets will be professionally managed and the focus will be on safety and preservation of principal as well as effective and efficient administration with complete transparency.”

Hall, of Pasadena, MD, is former president/CEO of the Fair Lanes chain and a past-president of BPAA. Hall is joined on the board by Steve Moehrle, professor of accounting at the University of Missouri - St. Louis and a former member of the Ernst Young audit staff and accounting policy officer at Citicorp Mortgage. Moehrle currently sits on the USBC board of directors; his term ends in August.

Filling out the board is Sandy Hansell of Southfield, MI, president of Sandy Hansell and Associates, a broker and appraiser of bowling centers. Hansell was a chain owner in the 1970s.

The three directors held an organizational meeting in conjunction with the USBC convention in Las Vegas in April.

In May, the scholarship funds were transferred to the new corporation. The directors will meet as needed, probably three

New Center Is Happy, Sad Occasion Mario’s Bowling and Family Entertainment Palace was a dream come true, but the man who wanted to do it never lived

of four times a year, according to USBC president Jeff Bojé, who appointed the three.

Announcing the new corporation at the USBC convention, Bojé said it would lay to rest recent public charges that SMART money would go to USBC creditors if USBC should go into bankruptcy, that USBC funds and SMART funds have been co-mingled, and that SMART money has been used for USBC operating expenses. He denied all the charges.

Bojé said the seed of the corporation was an inquiry about a year ago from David Weakley, former operator of a scholarship tournament in Las Vegas. Weakley had deposited about $200,000 in the SMART program which had not been claimed. Having left the bowling tournament business, he wanted to know if the money could be withdrawn and donated to a charity, as Weakley said he had been told.

The query moved Bojé to order a review of SMART rules for their adequacy in covering such contingencies. The reviewing lawyer reported that while the rules were adequate for the present, they would ultimately prove insufficient as the program continues to grow. Discussions among pertinent USBC personnel followed, resulting in the formation of the new corporation.

“We’ve got smart people [on the USBC board] but 85% of our time is taken [up] by the finance affairs of the USBC. That doesn’t leave us a lot of time to think about policies and procedures,” Bojé said, explaining the thinking behind his initiative. “Over the years, things come up. Who’s going to focus on them?”

to see it. He was murdered about eight years ago.

The 50-lane center, which opened in Nassau, The Bahamas in January, was named for him. The man who saw the project through, cut the ribbon and now presides over Nassau’s sole bowling emporium was Mario’s father, Leslie.

“My son went to school in Florida,” says the former member

At Mario’s, the approaches and the reception desk.

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SHORTS

PEOPLEWATCHING of Parliament, 1987-2007, whose tenure included three and a half years as Minister of Trade and Industry. “After graduation he drove up to North Carolina – about ten years ago – and saw a state-of-the-art bowling alley. Young people in The Bahamas have little to do except nightclubs.

“Unfortunately in our country, crime is on the uprise and every time you send your son or daughter to a nightclub you hope like hell the phone doesn’t ring at 3 o’clock in the morning saying that there’s a problem. So he wanted to have a family recreation center where young persons like himself could go and enjoy festive activities in a safe and friendly environment.”

It worked. Eighty percent of the clientele on Fridays and Saturdays are younger than 21, mostly high school.

They average between 1,000 and 1,200, pouring into Mario’s from 7 until 2 in the morning.

The $10 million, two-story project includes 85 games in a 6,000 sf arcade, a restaurant that seats 300, a private nightclub seating 120, a pizza parlor, an ice cream parlor, and an outdoor roller rink. US Bowling/US Steltronic supplied the bowling equipment, whole-house audio-video including video masking, and high-end carpet.

Mario’s also has full security in the person of two fully armed policemen and two military security guards. So far, there have been no incidents.

IN THE ARMY NOW Sixteen lanes are thronged at the recent grand opening of the two-story Wiesbaden Entertainment Center in Wiesbaden, Germany.

The center is part of $600 million in projects for the area’s military community in preparation for the base becoming headquarters for U.S. Army Europe, which is moving from Heidelburg by 2012 or 2013.

The entertainment center also sports a restaurant, lounge, dance floor, slot machines, video games, party rooms, glass-enclosed deck and an outdoor beer garden.

Photo by Michael Abrams. Used with permission from the Stars and Stripes. © 2010 Stars and Stripes.

Marshall Holman

John Handegard

First inductees to the USBC Hall of Fame since the opening of the International Bowling Campus include pro bowlers Marshall Holman and Kim Terrell-Kearney.

John Handegard joined the honor roll in the Veterans category for his performance on the PBA senior tour, while Betty Barnes, long-time WIBC sergeant-at-arms was elected in the Meritorious Service division. The historic inductions were marked by a special outdoor ceremony, open to the public, last month at IBC.

Jack Moran, BPAA president 2002-04, was inducted into the Empire State USBC Bowling Association recently. Moran was honored for his significant role in shaping the course of organized bowling in the state over the past 25 years. In addition to his service with state and national BPAA, he has been president of the New York State Bowling Council and has coached bowling in local schools for years.

Kim Terrell-Kearney

Betty Barnes

Jack Moran

Tom Smallwood, who garnered plenty of attention as an unemployed GM man who won the PBA World Championship last year, has joined the Brunswick pro staff.

Nadine Swee, five years manager of the Fargo (ND)Moorhead (MN) Youth Association, is the new executive director for North Dakota BPA. She takes over for Bob Strack, who retired from the position after 33 years. Swee has been a youth coach and directed the Pepsi tournament for four years.

Tom Smallwood

Nadine Swee

Debora Cherry is new sales rep for Intercard Inc. debit card systems. Her 25 years in the amusement industry have included redemption prize sales, game distributor and manufacturer sales, and FEC arcade management.

Debora Cherry IBI

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9

MY PARADISE

H

e sits in a metal-framed seat called a deer stand that is strapped around a tree, 25 or 30 feet above the ground. He sits and waits for white-tailed deer to pass below. He might be in southern Illinois or south Ohio or in Saskatchewan or, rarely, near home in North Carolina.

“I worry a lot,” Rocky Casstevens says.

“I’m one of those people that wear my thoughts on my sleeve and everybody can see them. As a business owner I’m pretty stressed. I like to go out, think it through and let it go, because if I didn’t, I’d probably be in bad shape.”

Out in the woods, away from Northside Lanes in Winston-Salem, which he owns, he doesn’t take a phone. Nobody can reach him. He sits in the deer stand with his bow and arrow. That’s about the only way he hunts these days. He waits for mature bucks.

But the killing is not the point, he says.

The waiting is–for as many as 10 hours at a stretch. And the thinking. ❖

PHOTO BY TAMMY CASSTEVENS

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PROFILE

T

Air temperature was 25 below zero; with the 20-40 mph winds, wind chills were 50 below. Several fire trucks had to be pulled off the line because water froze in their tanks before it could be sprayed. Water hitting objects that had not been warmed by the blaze froze instantly.

Thirty-year firefighting vets told Steve Sempeck the weather was the worst in which they had ever fought a fire. Afterward, three feet of ice covered what was left of the bowling lanes. The ice took two months to melt.

he week his bowling center burned down is “such a blur,” Steve Sempeck says, but he does remember his phones were ringing constantly.

The first call came about 2:30 on the morning of Jan. 7, asking if he was the owner of Elkhorn Lanes. “There’s a large fire going on there,” the county sheriff’s office told him. “We wanted to let you know. You probably should get out here.”

Sempeck and his wife, Lori, threw on their clothes and drove over as fast as they dared.

Snow had been on the ground around Omaha since just before Christmas. On Christmas Eve, the sky opened and dumped another two feet. Four or five inches fell the night of the blaze.

Sempeck had cancelled his leagues that night because of the severe wind and cold forecast and closed about 9:30.

Usually he didn’t turn the key until 12:30 or 1. “I wonder, if we wouldn’t have cancelled leagues, if we would have

the reception desk. Something electrical, they theorized.

A few yards north of Elkhorn Lanes was a small ice cream place, closed for the winter. But the owner came down, opened the building, and welcomed Steve and Lori and embattled firefighters to warm themselves. The firemen would come in covered in six inches of ice, Steve avows. “It was like watching the Abominable Snowman walk in.”

That was just the beginning of a blaze of neighborly concern. A steady stream of cars and people stopping off the next day to ask after the Sempecks and offer help didn’t extinguish it, either.

Sempeck frequently hosted fundraisers at Elkhorn Lanes, where

been in the building at the time to stop the fire,” he muses.

Investigators from the City of Omaha and Sempeck’s insurance company were never able to determine the precise cause, but did narrow it down to the ceiling near

the beneficiaries included a kids’ baseball team. “Twelve-year-old kids, 13 kids on the team. Every family, the week after the fire, brought dinner over to our house, already made. Some of these people,” Sempeck says, “we didn’t even know who they were. We

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PROFILE

Steve and Lori at the new Sempeck’s.

knew a few people on the team but not everybody.”

Bowlers, too, came by with victuals, and the number of encouraging cards the Sempecks got was staggering. People would include a $50 check, saying they were devastated over the loss of Elkhorn Lanes. Again, some were folks they’d never heard of.

Credit Charlie Johnson with one of the biggest ideas. A personal friend of Steve’s and owner of JTS Midwest, a local IT company, Johnson created a website and a Facebook page to sell Elkhorn T-shirts and hoodies. He created the shirt design, “Support your local bowling center” with “Elkhorn Lanes” printed underneath. He found a company that would make the garments and quickly sold 115 Ts and 10 hoodies over the Internet.

Johnson’s project together with a fundraiser by the Fraternal Order of Eagles chapter, which neighbored Elkhorn Lanes on the east, and other similar efforts on the Sempecks’ behalf netted several thousand dollars.

They gave the money to their 30 employees to help tide them over.

“We wanted to make sure that our staff that had been so good to us was taken care of,” Steve says. “The support from our customers, our employees and the local residents – the outpouring – we can’t put it into words.”

Forty-eight hours after the fire, Sempeck was drafting plans for a 16or 24-lane center to build on the ashes of the old Elkhorn Lanes. He and Lori would sit at the kitchen table and sketch. Insurance would take care of them financially. “We didn’t have to worry about how we were going to survive financially. We were worried about what we were going to do for a family business. We were adamant we were going to rebuild,” he relates. “We never thought the Thunder Alley property would be an option.”

Thunder Alley was an FEC about a mile from Elkhorn Lanes and the realization of a dream Sempeck carried for two years. He had owned and operated Elkhorn Lanes for more than 20, but he wanted something 14

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grander. Denver, Wichita, Dallas, Atlanta–he flew all over the country for two years looking at FECs. In 2007 he and several friends and $10 million built the dream: 40 lanes (in 24/16 configuration), go-karts, laser tag, a restaurant and bar seating 200, five party rooms, 86,000 square feet and 130 employees.

There was, unhappily, a falling out. Sempeck, who had been the managing partner, left in spring 2008 and returned to his old premises determined to bring Elkhorn Lanes back to life. The league players who had followed him to Thunder Alley followed him back to Elkhorn Lanes.

How could Sempeck hope to compete? We told the story in our cover piece, September 2008. The secret was customer service that sounds simple.

“I just tell [staff] people we just need to treat people like God would want you to treat your fellow man. If they’ve got an issue, talk to them about it.

‘What have we got to do to take care of you, (1) to make you happy, (2) to make sure it doesn’t happen again?’ When they walk out, whether they spend $20 or $200, we want them to say, ‘Wow, we had a great time and we’re going to bring the kids back’ or ‘We’re going to come back and eat here tomorrow because that prime rib really looked good.’ All this is applicable whether you’re in a 40-lane center or an 8-lane center in a little town.”

It is simple, but Sempeck did it superlatively well.

From the time Elkhorn Lanes reopened, he was doing “outstanding” business – his best season in 22 years, he told us.

Then, on June 8 last year, Thunder Alley abruptly closed. Bowlers and employees arriving that evening unexpectedly found the building dark.

Business at Elkhorn Lanes got even better.

Sempeck says the idea of trying to take over Thunder Alley and reopen it coalesced out of talks between him and Lori and their friends about what the Sempecks should do now that Elkhorn Lanes was a thing of the past. If the Sempecks rebuilt, someone could come along, take Thunder Alley out of bankruptcy, and Sempeck could be faced with stiff competition.

Talks between Sempeck and his former partners in Thunder Alley began late in January. The arrangement was that he would go back in and operate the facility while they were in bankruptcy, in effect paying rent to the bankruptcy trustee. The trustee would use the money to begin retiring Thunder Alley’s debts.

When the formal agreement was reached, Sempeck moved fast.

PROFILE On Feb. 18 he reopened Thunder Alley after two and a half weeks of sprucing up, hiring and training new staff, choosing a new name, and getting the word out through his database. It had been on his computer, “thank God,” and not in the bowling center when it burned.

He opened on a Thursday, and the Elkhorn Lanes Thursday night leagues reported for play. That night and the ensuing days of the week, not one Elkhorn league bowler who was physically able to make the move to Sempeck’s Bowling and Entertainment failed to. In fact, a couple of leagues picked up a team or two.

“It’s been a crazy three months,” Lori said when we talked to her and Steve for this story. “Community support from Elkhorn has gotten us through.”

She says happily that the new Sempeck’s is a “step ahead.” She expects to be learning new things more than applying expertise she gained at Elkhorn Lanes.

She’ll be more specialized, moving less from one operations area to another, given the 86,000-squarefeet spread of the new Sempeck’s.

“We’re going to run this place how I intended to run it the first time,” says Steve, a reference to differences with his partners on how Thunder Alley

Almost 900,000 gallons of water were pumped on the two-alarm fire, which more than 100 firemen fought for 15 hours. Daylight reveals a bus between the fire truck and the center, half-buried by the snow.

should be run, which ultimately caused the split.

“I don’t think we’re going to be a full FEC, like Main Event or Big Al’s.

We’re going to continue to have a very, very good league bowling base.

I think in the grand scheme of things, you need to still have a league base to help you with your menu of events.”

Also, as Steve Sempeck will be the first to say, he is at heart a bowling alley guy. ❖

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PROFILE

O Gary and Sue Williams and the skull ball.

nce upon a time about two years ago, Gary Williams and his wife, Sue, bought an old bowling center in Wadsworth, OH, a medium-sized town with an oldfashioned atmosphere.

Kolony Lanes had been built in 1948 by a local doctor named Klotz. He held it for a couple of years and then sold it to the local Veterans of Foreign Wars chapter. In the 1970s, the center began to pass through a succession of individual owners.

Williams owns a construction company and was going to use the building for storage until folks started going on about all the history mortared into the building and how they hoped he would open it up again for bowling. They didn’t tell him everything.

The Williams spent six months cleaning the 10-lane place, raised the ceiling, gutted and rebuilt the bar. They put some of Gary’s collection of scooters and pedal cars on display. He also resurrects and collects old cars, especially Studebakers.

Every so often Gary would be working on the clean-up with Tim Shelly, a good friend, owner of a glass business, and a former proprietor of Kolony Lanes. “Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?” Shelly would ask, and laugh.

Business is “fantastic” since the re-mod, says Sue. She estimates 200 or 300 people a night. “Standing room only–people waiting to bowl.”

But other things have been going on, too.

Staff in the bar would sometimes say they felt a tap on the shoulder but no one was there. A mechanic would go in the back and someone would yell, “Get out of here!”

Sue says she was not a believer in things of that kind. Gary is more inclined in that direction. She was “really intrigued,” though.

She began quizzing patrons and former Kolony Lanes employees, and found people who claimed to have seen things. A group of girls had been in the basement once. About 10,000 square feet, it used to be a bar and banquet room. Years ago, they had been down there one night getting ready to close when a man walked by and smiled at them. The lower half of his body was missing, they said.

Sue Williams says she’s a true believer now, “because I think I had the biggest happening of anyone.”

“It was last summer. We weren’t open all the time because, obviously, bowling is slow in the summer. I would lock myself in and do my paperwork and things.

“A food order came in one day. I had things I [had] to take to the freezer in the basement. I went down with my arms loaded with these boxes and the lights were all on. Sometimes Gary’s construction guys come in and out to get things they need, so I didn’t think much of it.

“I went around the corner into the biggest part of the basement, where the freezer is, and all the lights went out. I was in complete darkness in this huge basement. I’d been down there so much I kind of knew my way. I thought maybe some of Gary’s employees were 16

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PROFILE playing a joke on me.

“There’s only one set of light switches and it’s in the far corner of the basement. I walked over there and I got about 10 feet from the light switch and one of the lights went on, and there he stood in the doorway, right next to the light switch.

“He was tall and slender. He had a blue work uniform on.

He had kind of a mist around him but I could see him plainly.

“SEEN ANYTHING

OUT OF THE ORDINARY?”

SHELLY WOULD ASK, AND LAUGH. Dark hair and very, very vivid green eyes. He was very handsome. My husband said, ‘Well, what did he look like?’ I said, ‘I’m thinking of leaving you.’ And he had the most pleasant smile, like curiosity.

“I never let go of my corn dogs, but I said, ‘Turn the lights back on.’ The dumbest thing, but my heart stopped. Here we were face to face. He just smiled like ‘No, I can’t do that.’ I said, ‘Well I’m going back upstairs if you’re not going to turn the lights on.’

“I’m thinking, ‘How am I going to get to the stairs?’ but I somehow found my way and when I got upstairs, the lights [still hadn’t come] back on. I was hysterical. I called my husband. He said, ‘While I’m on the phone with you, check and see if the lights are off. Look down the stairway and shut that light off,

and just come home.’

“So I opened the basement door at the top of the steps and turned the switch off for the stairway. The rest of the lights were off. And [the stair light] went back on. There’s a switch at the top of the stairs and one at the bottom; it came back on from downstairs.

“I locked it up and came out of there. There’s glass block [in the outside wall of the center] where the basement is, and as I was leaving I saw all the lights come back on.”

According to Sue’s local sources, the ghost’s name is Charles.

He was a construction worker when the center was being built in 1948. He tripped and fell into the machinery and was killed.

A paranormal researcher told her Charles wants to be near her and indeed, Sue reports, things happen at home occasionally. According to the reseacher this is because Sue reminds Charles of someone he loved. Charles had a wife named Carolyn.

Sue and Gary haven’t capitalized much on their ghost. They keep a skull bowling ball on the counter and tell the story of Charles. Little kids are especially interested in the story. The Williamses also changed the name of the center to Ghost Alley and Scooters Bar and Museum. Sue says they probably should do a little more.

These days, Gary teases his friend, Tim. “You didn’t tell me I was getting a ghost, too.” Gary has had experiences down in the basement–“somebody talking and nobody’s there, and things like that,” says Sue as though it’s the most common thing in the world. But then, Gary loves anything like that, she says–“UFOs, all of that.”

As to Sue, she goes down into the basement quite often.

Many times “something strange” will happen on the far side of the room.

“You’ll hear something fall.

But I don’t feel scared anymore.

I think they feed on fear; they need energy to exist. I think they’re there, but nothing bad has ever happened to anyone.”

Charles is not a mean ghost, it seems. Neither are the other two who reside at the old Kolony Lanes, including the one who screams.

But that, kids, is a story for another time. ❖ The refurbished bar and some of Gary’s wheels.

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OPERATIONS

OPEN AND SHUT

A case for treating league bowlers like they’re the other kind.

Y

es, Greenacres Bowl in Greenacres, FL is in a strong senior market. Palm Beach County, roughly 45 miles square, has about 300,000 folks who are 65 or older. But that alone doesn’t explain why the 60lane house runs three shifts of senior leagues, Monday through Friday at 80% or more of house capacity.

Altogether, general manager Chris Arbour runs four shifts of league bowling (all ages) on weekdays, three shifts on Saturday and one on Sunday. Only three of his day shifts and two of his night shifts are less than 80% of capacity. Even in the current economy, Arbour is adding leagues to his night schedule.

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Noon Thursdays, Guys & Dolls .

Grand total: at least 5,000 league bowlers all the way through the season.

And yes, Greenacres stays up-to-date. In the three years Arbour has been general manager, he bought two lane machines and upgraded the scoring (first year), put in new pindecks to replace overlays, installed new flooring and carpet through the center, and painted the place (second year), and he’s putting in 42-inch flatscreen monitors this year. He is modernizing constantly.

But can that explain why Greenacres is chock-a-block with leagues? Why players on his NFL league–45 teams of five–drive 30 miles to get to him?

Other suspects: Lineage rates? Day leagues pay $7; night leagues, $10.

Specials, like F&B? Since last fall, the house has been selling games after the Tuesday night leagues for 50 cents, but Arbour is emphatic that he doesn’t want to run “crazy waves of specials during leagues.”

Length of leagues? He has two short-season leagues, but otherwise night leagues are 34 weeks minimum. Day leagues average 27 weeks.

His house shot? It is easy, but he says the shots at his two main competitors are just as easy, maybe more so.

Ask him what the secret is and Arbour’s first reply is, “I don’t know.” He means he can’t think of anything way out of the ordinary going on. “We have a family-run atmosphere,” he offers, but that isn’t so unusual.

Or is it?

Arbour is persnickety about his staff of 40. He “hires within.”

OPERATIONS “We like to hire bowlers that bowl here or youth bowlers that are coming up. We give them jobs on the floor–customer service, things like that. Kind of get a feel for them.”

When he needs more hands, he asks the people who already work for him. He knows a lot of his bowlers, but many of his younger customers–a good pool for customer service jobs–he doesn’t know. So he asks. “Anybody you would refer?”

“And we keep the morale with the staff. I won’t bring anybody in outside that’s going to disrupt the camaraderie.”

Ninety percent of the staff bowl at Greenacres so they know from experience the difference between league and open play customers. It gives them a feel for catering to league players, and their youth makes it a natural for them to “turn the center around and make it fun, kick the laser lights on, bring in the new crowds.” So Arbour doesn’t have a training regimen for new hires.

He also capitalizes on the new demographics in league players, at least on the changes he has seen at Greenacres.

“In years past you had the league bowler that practiced 10 games a week, they were in the pro shop, constantly working on their equipment, and they were adamant about the sport. Now, we see the league bowler that uses it as the night off. They have a 65 average and they don’t care. They use a house ball and it doesn’t bother them. They want to come in, have a few drinks, mingle with their friends.”

A case in point is a four-person, 24team league of co-workers and friends from a local water district. They don’t allow outsiders to join and they don’t have a prize fund. Bowler averages are around 80 or 90. They know what they like, and it’s a clean bowling center, cold beer and good food.

Arbour also has a short-season league called Survivor–as in the TV show. It starts in the fall and plays until just before Thanksgiving. It adjourns for the holidays,

then resumes until the end of April. It works like its namesake. Every week, there’s an elimination. You can be in first place with points, and still get the boot.

The rules make it hard to understand exactly what’s going on, Arbour says, “but nobody cares. It’s just a big fun league.”

But it is a league. These are league bowlers Arbour is talking about.

Thinking it over, he will tell you his success with leagues rests on a tripod:

1 Loyalty to the bowler. “Showing your league bowler that you care about them.

We do redemption programs for our league bowlers. We have a VIP card that [gives them] discounts in the diner and the bar, on lineage, and things like that.”

2 Consistency. “You’ve got to make sure your lanes are dressed consistently.

Consistency in how you run your center.”

That does not call for a tough house shot. On a 1-10/easy-tough scale, Arbour

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OPERATIONS

Thursdays at 7 p.m., the District league.

says his shot is a 2. But it does call for making sure to put out the same shot every time.

That was why Arbour bought two Kegel machines in one year and why he always strips and oils before night leagues.

When he decided to try PBA Experience leagues a few years ago, he worked with Chris Chartrand at Kegel to make sure the patterns were accurate and he put down the full 50 mil of oil called for. (The experiment flopped. He got no more than eight teams of three, and not one person showed up the fourth time he tried to run it.)

3 Family. “We keep the small, family atmosphere. You see the same people. Our employees bowl in the leagues with the league bowlers.”

From the feedback he gets, Arbour thinks other proprietors may be making either or both of two mistakes with their leagues. They tweak the shot, which frustrates bowlers. “It doesn’t matter whether your shot is easy or not. If it’s the same every week, they’ll learn how to bowl on it.”

Second, prize fund payouts. Arbour does not make a prize fund mandatory but for his in-house leagues he can give the payouts a certain structure.

“A lot of our bowlers will complain about prize funds they received from bowling in other leagues at other centers. They weren’t spread out the right way. For example, last summer we had a Monday night league, four-person mixed handicapped.

We had 16 teams, split into two divisions—two eight-team leagues, if you want to look at it that way. The top two teams in each division — four teams out of 16 – profited. [Even] with the expense of lineage and everything, they made money.

“One of our competitors had a 24-team, four-person mixed handicapped league. First place did not profit.” This summer, Arbour’s leagues will be bigger because those bowlers didn’t like that way of paying out the fund. ❖ Our thanks to Brad Cohen of The Green Revolution for background for this story.

How do you keep your league players? Tell the industry at www.BowlingIndustry.com.

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COVER STORY

hen television came to Britain in the 1950s, movie theater owners started to fret. Their worried glance crossing the Atlantic, they spied the new automatic pinsetting machines and a bowling boom, and they took note.

One chain, Associated British Cinemas, converted a small movie theater in Stamford Hill, North London to a bowling center as a test. The UK’s first bowling center for the general public, it bowed on January 21, 1960. A scant two months later, an ABC competitor, Rank Organisation, did the same with a movie house in Golders Green, also in North London.

When Rank gave Brunswick, who had converted and equipped Golders Green, a contract for 1,000 lanes, and ABC, who had used AMF, immediately moved to counter Rank’s expansion, a boom was on. At the end of 1966, Britain had 250 bowling centers.

Intrigued by the explosive beginning and what happened after that – and the British discovery of a crucial lesson in operations – we reminisced with five men who were there. ❖

W

The first center for the British public, Stamford Hill, London. It officially opened Jan. 21, 1960, when Sir John Hunt rolled a celebratory golden ball. (It was a gutter throw.) Hunt commanded the Hillary expedition to Mount Everest in 1953.

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COVER STORY Wally Hall worked in the UK for Brunswick in the late ’50s, then joined an international investment group as general manager of 15 UK centers the group proceeded to build.

In 1967, he moved to America as vice president of planning and acquisition for Fair Lanes, a chain of 20 centers headquartered in Baltimore, which had been a partner in the investment group.

Bowling boomed. I mean boomed! Because it was a new form of entertainment, a novelty, fresh, exciting. The places were nice.

They were bright, cheery, all automated. A bowling alley in those days was like a country club to the working class man.

We were doing in our [Fairlanes] centers lineage of around 20,000 games per lane per year and upwards, 120 games per lane per day on Saturdays and Sundays—that’s five games an hour—very difficult to do that with all open play. You’re putting people on the lanes as fast as you take them off.

[Why no leagues at the beginning?] Because nobody knew anything about bowling. We had to teach them how to bowl.

[Eventually] we did form leagues at Fairlanes [but] the thing to remember is that nobody knew anything about tenpin bowling in Britain. They knew nothing about it.

One night, the bowling center is absolutely packed. We’re running waiting lists. It’s on a Saturday night and this bowler

Excel Bowl was a prominent chain in the 1960s. Photo from 1965 shows a members’ bar in its Southampton house.

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comes running up to the counter and says, “Do you have any more balls?” “What d’you mean? They’re on the lanes.” “None by us.” We go down and we find there are no balls. They’re all in the under-lane ball return. We had two lanes where the ball had gone off the track and the people had just continued going and getting a ball and bowling.

[Britain] went from zero to 100 centers in a matter of two or three years, by 1964-65. Then the initial leagues began to fizzle. Open play began to stop. To the ordinary person in the street, bowling was booming still. It was only those who were privy to the P&L statements that would have seen some trends that were not as strong as they had been.

The key trends were the difficulty of shifting to an organized league-based business, a weakening of the weekend peak activity, and the increasing competition from other entertainments. British people began to think in terms of holidays beyond what they normally had had. Instead of going to the local seashore, to Blackpool and that, travel agents began to sell holidays in France and Italy and the Mediterranean.

That became a big thing in Britain.

The first signs of erosion began to occur for most people around about ’66, ’67. Business activity [declined] in bowling centers, and the inevitable consequence of owners responding by not spending money on their facilities: there was a general deterioration in the condition and the maintenance of these facilities. Then the inevitable happened. You begin to get closures. ❖

Paul Lane started in bowling as a pinboy at the U.S. Air Force base bowling center in Mildenhall, England in 1954. While rising quickly to center manager, he turned out to be a natural bowler and was asked by AMF to fill in on an exhibition tour of USAF base centers. That led to a stint on AMF’s instructional staff. Lane also had a flair for promotion. He became AMF’s director of marketing and marketing services worldwide and relocated to the U.S. in 1983.

I probably did 100 centers for AMF grand openings. I’d do a 5-6 minutes bowling clinic, real fundamental stuff, then a bowling exhibition including a couple of trick shots.

I remember the most emotional grand opening I’ve ever seen, a 48-lane, two-story center, 24 up and down, in Nottingham. We always had a golden ball some celeb would

COVER STORY No one had seen bowling before, so the popularity was terrific. Remember, there was less competition for bowling then, too – fewer things to do. Movies were in the doldrums at that time.

A huge popularity of bowling, but they sold it too cheap.

The masses could all afford to bowl and they all went bowling, but that didn’t make it an activity that commanded a premium price.

Architects didn’t know anything about bowling. The errors were horrendous. The number of employees they had was increased because of the design of the buildings, so their overhead for employees was high.

They were high-priced locations.

They had an unrealistically high lineage break-even point, but they didn’t know that because when you’re doing 70, 80 games a lane with a break-even of 45 games per lane, you think it’s great. You don’t know that you’re probably going to go down into the 30s when it levels off.

Most of the chains were running 10, 15, 20 centers before they really had good experience running one. So any mistake they made running their first center was multiplied by every center they had.

Center management left much to be desired. They had been managers of movie theaters. They would just stand at the door and greet patrons. That doesn’t work in bowling. ❖

The gala opening of Princes in west central Scotland featured bagpiping to announce the arrival of the golden ball, in 1967 a standard part of AMF openings; a demonstration of technique by Paul Lane (pictured); and a fiveframe match between teams of the local telephone company and officials of the local government.

The four-page program intones, “When on the lanes guests are requested to wear the special shoes provided which are obtainable from the Control Counter.”

roll, the first ball. Douglas Bader was a phenomenal fighter pilot in WWII. He got shot out of the air lots of times. Once, he lost a leg. With an artificial leg he flew more missions, got shot out of the air and lost the other. He finished the war flying missions with two tin legs, from the waist on down. An absolute national hero. He did the opening at Nottingham.

He was 60 or something. In a private plane, he flew himself in and landed at the nearest RAF base, which caused a big flap because he didn’t file a flight plan, he just flew in. It put the base on an alert. When they found out it was him, they didn’t want to let him go to do the opening, it was such an honor to have him on the base.

He showed up for the opening. He tottered up to the foul line on two tin legs, trickled the ball down – the slowest I’ve ever seen a ball go 60 feet – and he threw a strike. Everybody burst into tears. He turned ’round and said, “My life always was a load of balls.”

About the late 1960s downturn, this is a mix of fact and opinions: 28

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G.H. “Jock” Caie was in charge of marketing, training schools and outside sales for AMF-operated centers in the UK for 25 years.

After leaving AMF in 1992, he served as general secretary of the British Tenpin Proprietors Association, retiring in 2007.

I was employed by the U.S. Air Force in their London finance offices [when] in 1960 I was approached by a friend who had recently taken up a position in a new company called AMF Bowling International Ltd. They wanted to start up a pension scheme.

They took me on one day [in 1961]. By the end of the week the job had folded, so they put me in the promotion department. [I had] the grand title of Assistant to the Promotion Manager and Assistant to the Advertising Manager. I don’t think I’ve had such a long job title since.

In late 1966 several of the large proprietors started to close some of their centers in favor of bingo halls and other activities. By mid-1967 many centers owned by Top Rank, Excel Bowling, Universal Bowling, ABC Bowling had closed.

As AMF leased their bowling equipment [to proprietors],

COVER STORY they were in a predicament of what to do with their equipment.

[Closures were leaving] them with no sales of Pinspotters and other equipment, no promotions, very little after-sales, which brought the closure of their factory. One day I was working up in Sheffield, managing the center on a part-time basis while they changed managers. My boss, George Lord, left a message at the hotel for me, “Can you see me the first thing in the morning?”

I called him that night. “We’re [AMF] forming a new company and it will be called Humber Bowling Ltd.” The centers we took over had very few customers, no leagues, poor liaison with local traders and many untrained staff.

So the first main objective was to get people coming through the doors. Secondly was to form leagues of all kinds. Thirdly and probably most important was to make a profit where the previous owners had made a loss.

We went up to 22 bowling centers. William T. de Chanvalon was chairman of the company with responsibilities for all the other similar AMF bowling operations outside the USA and Canada. George Lord was managing director heading up Humber Bowling, and I was the operations manager.

De Chanvalon had some very sound ideas. [One of them was] to have Carol “Red” Russell as a consultant because of his vast experience in the bowling business. He was a salesman who owned his own center in Yakima, OR. When he came here, he got us all together and said, “There’s only one way: leagues, leagues, leagues. But first you’ve got to teach your people here.” The idea was to go out and invite people into the bowling centers and instruct them. It was called a learn-to-bowl program.

I was to become his right-hand man in the UK and together we trained all our managers and staff about the learn-to-bowl program, not only to teach people how to bowl but also to form leagues–adult, seniors, ladies, juniors. That’s how we built the business here in the UK. ❖

A learn-to-bowl class under Jock Caie.

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The Lesson Learned: Renovation = Renewal Wally Hall I remember one guy and he was probably largely responsible for the survival of bowling in the United Kingdom, George Lord. He kept the AMF centers operating and he did something very interesting.

He embarked on a renovation of the centers.

They started with a few test locations and they suddenly saw that by reinvesting in these, they could bring them back to life. This was before even in the United States the big push for renovation and remodeling. AMF actually invited a group from MUBIG to go to the United Kingdom and see what they had done. A group of us went and had a tour.

I believe the bottom of the decline was reached in the mid- to late’70s. Then AMF came up with this concept of renovating some of their centers, and when [proprietors] do that they begin to see that they can improve the business.

Paul Lane Most of the modernization came from Bryan North in the mid1980s. He took over when George Lord retired.

George cleaned up the centers: coat of paint, new carpet, got rid of the duct tape on the carpet. Bryan North convinced the man who headed up AMF centers worldwide to appropriate the money to gut and remodel the centers and at the same time, to dramatically crank up the price because they now had something new and exciting to offer.

North started the trend of making bowling fashionable.

It became the thing to be seen doing. Celebrities would get their pictures in the paper because they were bowling. Women’s fashion magazines would do a fashion shoot using a bowling center as a backdrop.

It was North’s ideas that made the places super. They became a role model—people used to go to England to look at them. AMF even sent Nick Wallace, the newly appointed facilities design manager for AMF in the U.S., over there so he could come back and offer a similar facilities design service to our U.S. customers.

Fashionable bowling triggered the late ’80s, early ’90s resurgence of British bowling.

After they remodeled all those centers, the ripple effect was people seeing how much money was being made. Higher-end and new chains came in, and a new bowling boom was on. ❖

COVER STORY Distributor Nick Keppe is president of Bowltech UK. He is a partner in Bowltech on the continent, and managed bowling centers in England in the 1970s.

I was a bowing center manager from 1970 to ’72, and there really was virtually nothing happening. There was an established elite of around 30, 40 centers that were the remnant of the first ’60s big invasion of bowling. A lot of the other centers that disappeared were converting into bingo halls and discos and other such premises, but I remember through the ’70s and going into the ’80s, it was very, very stagnant as a growth business. It was the older established centers that had that nice mix of league, tournaments and open play that survived.

Then in the ’80s, the first new center in a long time opened in Lincoln. That started a slow resurgence that accelerated into the late ’80s. In the late ’80s the business grew gradually and steadily.

The family entertainment concept really established itself with a lot of these new chains in the UK. In the early days of FEC development, we were seeing visitors from the States coming and looking at our models. Because there was so much new development and growth in the UK market, anybody anywhere who wanted to see the latest development in bowling would come here.

[FEC development] was very much a “reinvention of the wheel” concept. Entertainment and leisure companies were looking at means of increasing their food and other sales, with a little bit of a decline in the disco market. It was a natural progression, which unfortunately left the sport side of the business a little bit behind. I recall in the ’90s one of the companies—Allied Leisure—actually refused to allow people to bring their own bowling balls into their centers. FECs incorporated laser tag, a billiard area plus the bowling, and catering [food] to all of those.

[Higher-end FECs] came in the mid-’90s.

We have seen the first of the boutique-type operations that you have in the States. But they’re smaller centers where the emphasis is even more on the quality of the catering and the bar and the general atmosphere rather than on any sporting activity. And again the bowling is a recreational attraction.

They’re FEC and boutique-y. For example, there is a chain in London called All Star Lanes. They’ve got three locations.

The one in Holburn has four lanes public, and a two-lane private center with its own bar and so on where they charge 32

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British Centers Today

Representative of leading venues is the Bowlplex chain, “The Great Indoors.”

The brand has 14 centers in England, two in Scotland and two in Wales. Properties fit the FEC model familiar in the U.S., with big-screen TVs, live-host dancing in the evening, video arcade, and birthday party packages.

COVER STORY $450 an hour with a three-hour minimum, and they’re booked weeks ahead.

I would say the boom carried on to about 2003, 2004, then started to level off. Now, we’re seeing a downturn. Some people argue that the FEC concept is very much a fashionable concept and like most fashions, they come in and they go out. In the last five years, we’ve lost something like 10% of our market. ❖

British Bowling At a Glance Approximately 320 centers in England, Scotland and Wales.

40% of centers are owned by chains.

About 170 centers are members of the British Tenpin Bowling Association (BTPA), including all chains larger than eight centers; one chain of eight centers is not a member.

Average center size, 22 lanes. A first-generation, 1963 center still operating is 24-lane Airport Bowl at Heathrow, the main London airport.

“One of the big things we do,” reports John Ashbridge, BTPA general secretary, “is third-party offers. We have a retained agency, Aztec Marketing Solutions, who looks for big brands we can align with. For instance, we currently have a third-party on a 2-for-1 offer with Mars, the big confectionary company, [one of] a number of large companies in the past two or three years. We’re trying to raise the profile of bowling continually and also trying to drive footfall.

“With the recession we’ve had a fairly flat period. Only a couple of centers have closed because of financial problems. A number have closed for other reasons – the landlord wanted the land back to redevelop, or those sorts of things. Over the last 18 months, there’s been about half-a-dozen close but about 10 opened, new ones.

“I think it’s going to be flat the next couple of years, but going forward the development will be slower because the number of desirable sites have dried up.” ❖

For background for this story, our thanks to John Ashbridge, general secretary of the British Tenpin Bowling Association, and Terry Johnson, Brunswick (UK) capital equipment sales manager for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

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PROFILE

A DIFFERENT

APPROACH For Ros Hull, it was the Cardinals’ outfield.

O

ne day a hearse pulled up and asked Roswell Hull if he wanted a lift. Probably because he was a high school kid then, out for his daily run of 15-20 miles in all weathers, and it was snowing. He continued his run.

Sports were just as intense back at school, if more weather-wise. He did the two-mile run, played football and basketball, and lettered in all of them all four years.

Maybe it was in the blood.

“My father was one of these people that could watch a baseball game on TV, listen to one on radio, watch playing out here in the field, and tell you the score in all three of them.”

Dad Ray was also a Cardinals fanatic, a baseball coach, manager and player for local amateur teams six or seven days a week, and a teacher of baseball to his son starting when Little Ray was six.

He remembers thinking about baseball, “This is where I want to go.”

To this day, he doesn’t know how the Cardinals found out about him. After high school, Hull had joined the Air Force. He played baseball at his first permanent duty station, Pope AFB in North Carolina. He played on a team when he was stationed at Whiteman AFB, Galveston. He was playing “at least six days a week” during off-time. “Just a bunch of guys. We got a baseball team together. We loved the sport.”

At Pope, he moved immediately to the outfield, mostly center. As soon as he got on base and they saw he could throw a ball, “it was automatic outfield. I had a pretty good arm–I was blessed.” And somebody must have been watching.

“All I know is one day I had a letter pop up and they [Cardinals] invited me to come

down. I said ‘Oookay.’ Let me tell you what: that’s a scary situation.”

He took a leave and got to the Cardinal home park, Busch Stadium in St. Louis, after a 2-1/2-hour drive. He walked in, showed his letter, and in company with others who were there to try out for the team, he walked out onto the field. Another 150 or 200 were auditioning for the outfield, and still another 100 or 150 for other positions.

Hull doesn’t remember the day of the week, but it was a weekday. 9 a.m. In June. The once-a-year tryout day for getting into the Cardinals system.

“We get out there and we all [start getting] loosened up. Just [tossing] the ball around with people who are trying out for the outfield.

“There [were] six different coaches or scouts, whatever you want to call them.

They’d give you a number and they’d say, ‘If we call your number out, you go.

You don’t ask questions. You just leave.

You’re gone.’”

Stationed on the warning track–the dirt and fine-gravel area next to the outfield fence–he had to rocket to the plate on one bounce and hit the cut-off man as well. The distance was close to 300 feet. He comments, “I watch baseball nowadays and it just makes me sick how many guys can’t throw a ball.”

Hull could. He did. Several times. And then on one of his throws, his throwing arm started to burn.

He was one of the final 10 candidates for the outfield at that point, but it wasn’t good enough.

“You’re gone.”

“On my way [out], one of the coaches stopped me and said, ‘You go home, get that shoulder [looked] at, and we’re going to send you another letter next year.’ Well, I thought, ‘Yeah, right.’”

Guests at the 50th anniversary of Ros’ Bowl in 2006, with Ros on the right. Between Pete Weber and his wife, Tracy, is regular bowler at Ros’, Tommy Day.

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PROFILE

Retro and immaculate. Just like his house shot.

But they did. And so in 1976 he reported to Busch Stadium again. “I could do okay as far as general, everyday ballplaying. But for what they were looking for, the shoulder was gone. There was nothing at that time they could do.”

The shoulder never gave him trouble otherwise. He could, for instance, still bowl, which he had been doing since age four–two years before he took up baseball.

Today, Ros Hull (pronounced Roz) owns Ros’ Bowl, an eight-lane house in Vandalia, MO. It’s about five miles from his growing-up town, Farber. He got back into bowling after discharge from the Air Force and a return home to work in the local brickyard.

Again, father Ray figures in the story.

Remember that this is the late 1970s: “We started a Friday morning league.

I was bowling with dad and a couple of guys I knew. I basically walked up to them and said ‘I’m tired of you guys beating my butt. What have I got to do to beat you?’

“Four of them took me under their wing. After a couple of years I got to where I could beat them. We’ve got a small eight-lane center, a tough house, very tough. I was the first one to carry a 200 average here and they said, ‘You’re beating us now. We can’t teach you anymore.’ [But I thought,] ‘This isn’t enough. I’m not where I want to be.’ I started reading the books and the magazines and watching TV. The foot, the hand releases, everything. Got to where

my highest season average was 227.”

If Hull sounds Type-A competitive, “Oh, I am. Very.”

He went back to bowling instead of other sports he excelled at because “it gave me more to strive for.” His drive has always been “to be the best out there,” he says.

“I want to beat the best.”

In the late ’90s he thought he was good enough to try, and headed out into the PBA central regionals. “Pretty tough,” he says now.

It takes time, “you’ve got to bowl on those conditions week to week instead of every once in a while,” and in those years, it required about $1,000 in equipment. He was complimented by Pete Weber, though.

Weber looked him up at a tournament where Hull was running second. It was the first time they’d met. Hull remembers Weber saying, “You go back home and get the right equipment, they aren’t going to stop you out here.”

Hull runs Ros’ Bowl the same nononsense way he bowls his own game. It’s the way he worked three years in the same house as a lane man and did just about everything else in the center, spending six or eight hours a day there because he loves the sport and “wanted to be around it.” If all house shots were ranked 1-10 from easiest to toughest, his would be “at least a 9.

“We’re trying to create a condition that if you’re a 180 bowler, it’s going to make you a 180 bowler.” He is adamant.

“I’m not going to turn a 180 bowler into a 210 bowler. There’s a lot of easy shots out there and to me, that ruins the game.”

Typically, he is not resting content with that involvement in his chosen sport. He has two bad knees and a recently installed stent. He quit bowling for a year and a half and has been back an equal amount of time. He finds he can still compete. When we talked, he was going out on the senior tour this summer. ❖ IBI

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OPERATIONS

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP RULES FOR MANAGING? Warren Hardie

President, Brunswick Bowling & Billiards Lake Forest, IL The most important rule would be fairly basic, and that would be integrity: say what you mean and do what you say.

Intelligence is not the most important [trait]. An academic background is not enough. One must have good judgment, certainly a degree of financial acumen, be able to think strategically, and attract and develop talent in your people.

Also, you have to trust and empower others and allow them to make their own mistakes as long as they’re not fatal mistakes–in other words, delegating responsibilities–and I think you have to be adaptable to varying circumstances.

I think you have to be an extraordinary communicator, both verbally and in writing. I think you have to be willing to take risks as a manager, but more importantly, [be] able to evaluate risk–taking the right risks, not the wrong risks, including knowing when not to take a risk. You need a degree of mature confidence, and I think you have to know the

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OPERATIONS industry you’re in.

Finding managers with all those qualities and skill sets is the challenge. And the danger is that charlatans abound–meaning they can come across as having many of those skills, but the heart of who they really are is different than how they present themselves. Over time, [you] will figure that out, but in the interview process it’s very difficult to know for sure who you’re dealing with unless they have a track record.

Rex Golobic

President, Bowling Management Group San Mateo, CA A proprietor must work with his management team to come up with a set of rules or principles that his personnel can refer to as they work on various duties. It’s important to have these rules in writing. The essence in any successful organization is to detail what is required of every employee.

A manager must be on-site because he has to know what’s going on all the time. For example, Jack Welch spent most of his time going around visiting General Electric plants and talking to the managers and having parties so he could get them all together [and] ask them questions when they had their hair down.

Every manager has to have a system of reporting to see if the goals that management has set up are being reached. And the way you get feedback is by participating [in the system]. [But] the successful manager does not micro–manage. He can’t do every job. Instead, he must know what all the jobs are and make sure the people working are occupied and getting the job done.

The bowling business is basically a marketing organization.

A manager must make certain that every worker understands that [the business is] about customer service, and that they’re part of the marketing strategy. Every aspect of the business, from having clean restrooms to having informative people working the front desk, is fundamental. If you don’t have the fundamentals, you can’t go any place in your business.

Absolutely everybody, regardless of their position in your bowling center, is part of marketing the organization. ❖

What is your number-one rule for managing your staff?

Share it with the industry on www.BowlingIndustry.com.

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June 2010

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ANYONE’S GUESS

CENTER STAGE

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on’t look, but it’s here. The future for bowling centers, as people imagined it a quarter-century ago.

In 1983, AMF approached the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign with a proposition. Tell us what bowling centers of the future could be. We’ll give you a grant for the study, and your architecture and industrial design students will have great practicum experience.

The students traveled widely to look at centers, according to Hub White, then associate professor in the School of Architecture. White supervised 13 grad students on the project. Four graduate students and 14 undergrads in the School of Industrial Design also took part, under then-associate professor Mark Arends. Nine faculty consultants and reviewers assisted.

Ten AMF staffers plus AMF’s William Bogard, coordinating for the company, also reviewed the results.

Surviving from the project are an eight-page summary and more than 100 black-and-white drawings and photographs of scale models, floorplans, facades and furnishings. How close did they come, would you say?

Our thanks to Hub White for lending us the project material. AMF Centers, Architectural Concepts, and Brunswick supplied the photos. ❖

D

CENTER STAGE 4

FACADES While most centers are still happily at home in big-boxes, today’s wrappings range from eclectic [1] to contempo [2]. Some centers push against the boxed look [3].

Some students in the design project liked drama [4, 5] and the “factory” look of the ’80s [6]; others went for a dressedup box that would work in most markets today [7]. Split houses appear more often than in-line designs.

5 1

2

6 3

1 Mel’s Lone Star Lanes, Georgetown, TX. Architect: Cornerstone

7

Architecture, Oklahoma City, OK. 2 The Bowler Family Fun Center, LaVale, MD. Architect: Kevin Mills,

Architectural Concepts, Denver.

3 AMF’s 300 Pasadena, Pasadena, CA. Architect: Abramson Teiger

Architects, Los Angeles.

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CENTER STAGE

CONCOURSE AND BOUTIQUE MODULES Concourses are still long and straight [1,2] but sometimes spread out to create vast open spaces, too [3].

Boutique modules [4] are hinted in the AMF study. One design sets lanes aside, but for practice rather than cocktails and bowling [5]. Another (indicated by arrow) earmarks a small area just off the concourse as a private club, but no bowling lanes are there [6]. (In [6], the concourse is turned into an indoor garden setting for the reception desk and F&B.) 1 The project summary raises the possibility of adding cinema, music and dancing to the bowling. FEC, anyone?

Glow was 15 years ahead.

2

3

5 6 1 Boston Bowl Hanover,

4

Hanover, MA. Architect: Kevin Mills, Architectural Concepts, Denver.

2 , 4 AMF’s 300 San

Jose, San Jose, CA. Architect: Aumiller Youngquist Architects, Chicago.

3 Big Al’s, Vancouver, WA.

Architect: SF Jones, Marina Del Rey, CA.

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CENTER STAGE 1

1 Pinz, Oakdale, MN. Architect: Fitzgerald & Associates, Oklahoma City, OK. 2 Boston Bowl Hanover, Hanover, MA. Architect: Kevin Mills, Architectural

Concepts, Denver.

3 Mel’s Lone Star Lanes, Georgetown, TX. Architect: Cornerstone

Architecture, Oklahoma City, OK.

2

3

SETTEE Some drawings foresee a more spacious and comfy ambience for bowlers than what they enjoyed 25 years ago.

Times have changed in other ways as well. Cigarette machines might be located in the settee area to reduce cross-traffic on the concourse, suggests the project summary. The personal computer, brand-new in 1983, was envisioned as an oafish terminal at the reception desk.

Concourse, settee and lanes are on multiple levels.

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PROFILE

P

infall doesn’t happen by chance but so many variables of such slight degree enter into it that a player might as well figure there is an element of luck he can’t get around, no matter how good he is.

Even the way you size up your shot can be partly an accident, the way it is for Wally Burmeister, who happened to have congenital cataracts. He was partially sighted in 1967 when he was found to have detached retinas, as sometimes happens with the condition. He became totally blind over the next two years.

Burmeister, who is 78 and has an arsenal of five balls, bowls once a week at Irving Park Lanes on Chicago’s north side. His best season average since he lost all his sight was 127 in 1996.

He’s running 98 this year.

“I don’t have the balance I had,” he says. “I still have the strength but I don’t have the equilibrium to roll the ball in as direct a line as I want to.”

Burmeister’s wife, Angela, is 12-time national scratch allevents champ in competition sanctioned by the American Blind Bowling Association. Her team regularly beats his.

Burmeister started bowling when he attended Illinois State University, first in mathematics, then switching to education and psychology with a minor in math. After college, he taught at the Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind for 11 years before becoming a medical records supervisor for the Veterans Administration, where he worked until retirement in 1986.

The main reason he got into bowling, he says, was “the competition and the friendliness. The beers didn’t hurt, either.”

When Burmeister was partially sighted, he had 20/200, or 10%, vision, enabling him to read the ‘E’ on an eye chart but nothing smaller. Standing on the approach, he could see the pins as “a mass of color,” but not individually.

Totally blind, he uses a guide rail 12 feet long and three feet

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off the floor. It’s held in place by a weight–two bowling balls can be used–and positioned so the end nearer the pindeck is 30 inches from the foul line. That way, players can still take a full approach without fouling. They follow the guide rail by sliding their hand along the top as they approach, trying to keep a constant distance from the rail. In effect, they’re bowling one-handed.

“Most blind people do not play much cross-lane,” Burmeister says. “They try to put it down in the same spot, like I try to put it about 15 inches from the right channel [gutter], and change my direction by changing my shoulders. [I] don’t change the position for putting it down because it becomes too complicated.

“When I was partially sighted, I’d choose the 7 pin by moving to the right and the 10 pin to the left. To a totally blind person that’s a little difficult because you’re dealing with too many variables. So I try to put it down in the same place and just change my shoulder position or my wrist position or maybe give it a little more turn for the 4-7.”

Burmeister’s Chicago AA League–named in fun after college athletic classifications–plays with the assistance of sighted bowlers, if the blind bowler wants it. The “pin callers” (also called pinspotters),

PROFILE

BLIND SCENE Wally Burmeister’s blind bowling league is one of six in Chicago. Like some other competitive leagues in the American Blind Bowling Association (ABBA), it’s been known to fracas with hardcore blind bowling leagues in other cities, including Milwaukee and Cleveland.

Farther afield, four ABBA regional associations–in the eastern, southeastern, midwestern U.S., and Upper New York State–sanction tournaments at designated times every year. A national tourney is held on Memorial Day weekend.

Burmeister, current chair of the Rules Interpretation and Enforcement Committee of ABBA national, says ABBA works with rehabilitation counselors and agencies for the blind in order to draw newly blinded people into bowling.

In the few schools for the blind that remain in the U.S., high school students are often offered bowling, “but more and more, blind students are going to regular public school, so we’re losing that contact,” Burmeister reports.

ABBA was organized in 1951.

It publishes an online magazine three times a year. For more information, visit www.abba1951.org.

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When George Rohe stands on the approach, he can see the front pins but he needs the assistance of a pin caller when pins are left in the back. His field of view is half as wide as the pindeck, so he takes everything in by moving his head.

In delivering the ball, Rohe says, “If I get close, I can see the dots. I go to the first set of dots. I take a couple more steps forward [and] take off from there up to the foul line.”

A member of the Buffalo League of Sightless Bowlers since 1991, he averages about 130, with a best game of 242. “Fairly pretty good,” he calls himself.

He bowls on Saturdays at 12:30 at Manor Lanes in Tonawanda, NY.

who are auxiliary members of ABBA, tell the bowler what pins remain. Some bowlers want to know the arrows.

Pin callers are also free to give playing tips. “They can advise you on how to pick up a spare. With a 3-10, they might say, ‘Try to get between the pins. Of course you can also pick it up by hitting the 3 on the left.’ Or they might say, ‘Maybe you should pick up your speed’ or ‘Maybe you should turn your wrist a little more.’ Bowlers would do that to each other anyway, whether they could see or not.”

The social contact Burmeister enjoys with bowling spills over to the outside.

He and some of his fellow players will go to the theater, play poker, take trips together. He has friends all over the country, tries to keep up the correspondence with them, and they

get together at tournaments.

As to other athletic pursuits, Burmeister and his wife used to rollerskate, swim and square dance, but they’ve gotten away from all that.

Now, he says, he has enough to do around the house. He washes windows, scrubs the floors, does the laundry and mows the lawn.

“I use an old-fashioned push lawnmower. I put my radio in a basket and I go back and forth, [then] move the basket. And we’ve got a fence at each end in the back and in front we’ve got a sidewalk at each end, so I know where to turn around.” ❖ Our thanks to John Shaffer, pin caller for the Buffalo [NY] League of Sightless Bowlers, for background for this story.

BOWLING GAMES

A

Introduced in 2006, Wii became a Cabbage Patch Kid, a Pet Rock and a PT Cruiser all in one, within 10 months. A year after launch, Nintendo was manufacturing 1.8 million units a month.

As of last month, the company reported worldwide shipment of 70.8 million units since the product’s intro.

About 61 million sales of its Wii Sports game-simulation suite had made that the best-selling video game title ever.

As a game console, Wii connects to a TV monitor or a computer to display the game elements and the play. But Wii stepped ahead of other consoles with a wireless remote paired with the ability to register three-dimensional motion. That enabled users to simulate the playing of sports that include tennis, baseball, golf, boxing and bowling in the suite currently shipping with all units outside Japan.

At a press conference a month after Wii’s U.S. launch in November 2006, Nintendo president and CEO Satoru Iwata clarified his company’s goals. Not fighting Sony’s PlayStation, he insisted, but trying to attract a wider demographic to game-playing.

No word on whether Iwata visited any U.S. retirement communities, but coming up on four years after his announcement, they are a hardened enclave of Wii enthusiasts, and entrepreneur Dennis Berkholtz has wound up the second nationwide bowling tournament for Wii users living there.

The 32-conference event ran eight weeks beginning in February, with 144 communities, 144 teams, 23 states and 800 Wii bowlers pursuing bragging rights and trophies. Each team bowled two games, the best two teams from each conference going into a 64-team bracket. In the finals April 27, seniors from Boca Raton, FL, the returning champs, went toe-to-toe with denizens of Lakeland, FL. (Boca Raton won again.)

Berkholtz says the event is one of three Wii competitions he is running through the year. In spring he schedules bowling; golf

WII BIT OF BOWLING

The hottest game console on the planet is the framework for a national tournament, but that is just the start for video-bowling entrepreneur Dennis Berkholtz.

I

t’s not bowling. Barely like it. All you have to do is aim with your arm and release a button at the right moment.

But will Wii turn out one of the biggest new things to connect with bowling in quite a while? Could its crowdpleasing appeal make it one of the better promoters of authentic tenpins?

Two mysteries thus far about the Nintendo video game console that are as thick as the connection between Wii and real bowling is thin. No question, though, that Wii is big.

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BOWLING GAMES gives a lift during summer lassitude; and bowling returns in the fall. The National Senior League, as he calls the competition, is just the tip of Berkholtz’s ambition, however.

“We’re trying to communicate with the plus-55 communities–adults that don’t want to be seniors yet–like Del Webb communities. Then we’re talking about VA hospitals, which would be a nice place to have a Wii bowling league. The goals are maybe two years from now [to] have these as international leagues.”

He’ll be filling in with fundraising competitions, such as one he plans for Mothers’ Day to benefit dementia charities. He will charge $20 for as many people in the family as want to bowl with Grandma or Grandpa. A thousand players will mean $20,000 for charity.

Eventually, Berkholtz wants to put together a Wii Olympics, “where we would choose about eight different Wii games and the community would play in six of those eight, and of course you tally results by points.” That, too, would be a fundraiser for Alzheimer’s/dementia.

The cause is a personal one for Berkholtz. In 2003, his parents moved into a Florida community that provides a continuum of services from independent, apartment living to 24-hour care. His father “didn’t last long” before he had to be moved from their condo directly into the 24-hour facility. His mother moved into assisted living after a couple of years in the condo.

In three or four years of constant visits to his parents, Berkholtz says, he was “always amazed that there wasn’t much going on for senior people who were still living quality lives, or even less than quality lives. [In October 2008] I Wii bowled for the first time. I was in a friend’s house and he said, ‘I’ve got a Wii, and why don’t we bowl?’ I bowled and boxed that day. I loved it. I had this revelation: this [bowling] is the game I think these people ought to be playing in senior communities.”

The sports emphasis in Berkholtz’s Wii events is also personal. A hoop man at Kansas State, he played in the world championships twice. He played team handball–like soccer except that the ball is thrown into the goal–in the ’72 Olympics and in two world championships, and he coached the U.S. team for the ’76 Games.

After sports, more sports as a consultant

on ticketing and housing at the 1996 (Atlanta) and 2002 (Salt Lake City) Olympics.

He even tried the senior tour in golf at one point, but found he wasn’t good enough to go as far as he wanted, nor did he want to take time off to get that good. “That’s a sevenday-a-week job,” he avers, “and I can’t concentrate that long. I always have new ideas to work out.”

The National Senior League has been one of his better ideas so far, “a feel-good thing” for himself as well as the senior players. But he also means to make money at it. Play was free for the first national competition, held last year, but starting with the tourney concluded in April, teams have to pay to play. The tag is about $5 a week per player, “reasonable in anybody’s book.”

On the other hand, participation did slide this year, as Berkholtz expected. Bowlers declined from 1,000 to 800 and the number of teams drooped from 186 to 144.

To make the money he wants, the Senior League will have to be successful “in an awful lot of communities, so it’s not like there’s no risk here. It’s a business venture, a good one because it combines all the elements of what people really want to do in business, which is, number one, make money, probably.

“More importantly for someone like myself,” Berkholtz says, “it’s to have fun and do what you want to do–create something and nurture it, bring it to life.

“That’s what entrepreneurs do.” ❖

THERE’S A RISK. BERKHOLTZ WILL HAVE TO BE SUCCESSFUL “IN AN AWFUL LOT OF COMMUNITIES.”

Universal Lanes Warren, MI (28 Lanes) We congratulate Jim Matti on his purchase of this fine center and thank him for working with us to complete the sale. We wish Jim all the best in the future.

Bowling’s Only Full-Service Brokers, Appraisers & Financial Advisors 28200 Southfield Rd., Southfield, MI 48076

(800) 222 • 9131

Check out our current listings at www.SandyHansell.com.

IBI

June 2010

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SHOWCASE SOCKS

PRO SHOP PROMO

DATA SECURITY

PARTY GOODS

‘MECHANIC’S SYSTEM’

CLEANING WIPES

LIGHTING

CREDIT CARD PROCESSING

Socks from Berry-Cutler set the industry standard. Bowlers love the added value and safety. Proprietors love the instant profits. And prices start at just 35 cents per pair! On top of that, get 10% discount on all orders placed at Bowl Expo 2010. For more information, call 708-410-2500, email info@bowlingsocks.com, or visit us at www.bowlingsocks.net.

New option from New Center Consulting, Inc.: back up your Xenix legacy systems onto any Windows computer for automatic security or back it up offsite on a web-based service. If your system crashes, NCC can rush you a brand-new back-up Pentium III Xenix computer, built with all your own data already intact. Contact Glenn Hartshorn directly at 248-375-2751 or go to www.upgrademyscoring.com.

Lower inventory costs, increase pinsetter run time and reliability with the Mechanic’s System by Brunswick. Includes real-time instant messaging and pinsetter control for any pinsetter and automated error notification and On Demand pinsetting capabilities for GS pinsetters. Available for both Vector and Vector Plus (version 2.8 required). Spare Parts software included for better pinsetter maintenance and inventory control. For more information, contact your Brunswick Representative, call 800YES-BOWL or 231-725-4966.

Industrial Lighting & Sound is the name for everything in lighting. Do you need a complete lighting and audio system? Want a totally automated system, a system overhaul, or a turnkey package? Looking for replacement parts? For affordable, reliable, quality lighting and sound, call 800-875-9006.

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Promote your pro shop with a set of four framed posters from Jayhawk Bowling Supply. Target kids, women, men, league bowlers and open players–your full range of customers–with colorful, dynamite images. May also be ordered online. For more information, call 785-842-3237 or visit www.jayhawkbowling.com.

A party plate shaped like a bowling shirt!? Yes, one of a full line of partyware from Western Pacific Bowling Supply. We have everything from invitations and hats to cups and plates (round ones, too), decorations and thank-you notes. For more information, call 800-595-2695, 714-974-1733, or visit www.wpbowling.com.

Felix Erickson’s new EZ® WOW WIPEIT wood and synthetic approach cleaning wipes are the easiest way to remove dirt, shoes marks, and grime from any approach surface, and they are non-hazardous. Also great for degreasing balls, pins, belts and machine parts.

Fast-acting, fast-drying. For more information, call 800-4451090 or visit www.festrikezone.com.

From Century Bankcard Services, now you can process Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express credit cards right on your iPhone! Safe, secure data transmission via SSL connection. Approve/Decline report in seconds. Alert when card numbers don’t match addresses. Email receipts for you and your customer.

2G, 3G, wiFi connectivity support. And to top it off, easy setup. For more information, call 800-528-1782 or visit www.cbsmerchant.com.

SHOWCASE LANE CONDITIONER

Introducing Synergy™ Lane Conditioner

by Tech-Line Products. This high-viscosity formulation provides maximum resistance to carrydown, while still exhibiting superior lubricity and durability. It gives you the “hold” you need through MolecuLink™ technology to inhibit oil migration. Synergy™ is packaged with 2 of the 2.5-gallon jugs per case. For more information, email jireland@techlineproducts.com or call 800-235-8324.

BALL SELECTION SYSTEM

Every 16 minutes a bowler spends searching for a ball that feels good costs you a game of revenue during your most profitable hours. The Smart Ball System from QubicaAMF offers the fastest ball selection, the most comfortable grip, and guaranteed quality. And, the Smart Ball System is guaranteed by QubicaAMF. For more information contact your local sales representative or call 866-460-7263, option 2.

CONTROLLER CHASSIS

BOWLER SEATING

SCORING UPGRADES

BOWLING PINS

MINIATURE GOLF

CARD READER

ZOT introduces its CXL Two-Lane Controller Chassis for AMF 82-90XL Pinspotters, recently installed by US Bowling Corporation across the house at 16-lane Plaza Lanes Fremont, OH, and 50-lane Mario’s Entertainment Center in Nassau, Bahamas. Notes Roger Rhoad, Plaza Lanes proprietor, “When we reopened last August we installed the CXL Two-Lane Chassis on all 16 lanes and are delighted with their performance.” For more information, call 800-525-8116 or email sales@zotpinsetter.com.

Since its creation in 2007, D&J Marketing has expanded rapidly and now leads the industry in legacy scoring upgrades. It has achieved the highest customer satisfaction rating in the industry. They offer a three-year warranty with no additional charge and technical support is always free. For more information, call 517-706-7611.

Rotating bowling pins, a flashing traffic light, and a pinball are among the obstacles in 18 holes of miniature golf newly installed at Frank’s Thunder Alley Bowling Center, Boaz, AL. The course was designed by Mini-Golf, Inc. of Jessup, PA, a manufacturer of pre-fab courses for indoor and outdoor use. For more information, call 570-489-8623 or go to www.minigolfinc.com.

GKM Int’l, manufacturer of the Smart Seat, was selected to remodel the bowler’s seating area for the newly created Splits Bowling Center in Kelso, WA. The former Hilander chose GKM’s granite grey glow color. This color glows in the dark when it is blacklight-activated. The center’s manager, Chris Fortune, commented, “Our Smart Seats were easy to install and they look great.” For more information, visit www.gkmintl.com or call Karen Murrey at 310-791-7092.

Diamond Duramid’s new “Super Glow” pins, made from only the finest North American maple and covered with the best quality U.S. synthetic with new “SuperGlow” additive, are offered for a limited time at a “credit crunch”-beating price. Available for immediate delivery. For more information, call 800-633-9025 or email sales@ddibowlingpins.com.

Intercard’s new reader, the iNano, is a compact, wireless, easy-to-use reader at an economical price. The iNano complies with international standards and is one of the most cost effective units being offered to the amusement industry.

For more information, call 800-732-3770 or 314-275-8066, email sales@intercardinc.com, or visit www.intercardinc.com.

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DATEBOOK

JUNE 15 2010 SBI Charity Golf Outing Kettle Hills Golf Course, Richfield, WI; cocktails and dinner, Village Bowl, Menomonee Falls, WI. Tom or Nate, 888-724-2695, info@schemm.com.

27-July 1 Bowl Expo Las Vegas Hilton, Las Vegas.

888-649-5585 or www.bpaa.com.

JULY 15-17 BPA Carolinas/Georgia Convention Crowne Plaza, Asheville, NC. Howard Baum, 910-484-5178, bpacga@embarqmail.com.

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25-28 The Bowling Centers Association of Michigan Educational Forum and Trade Show Soaring Eagle Casino and Resort, Mt. Pleasant. Ken Prokopec at 630-235-7794, BCAM at 800-8332695, or visit mibowl.net.

SEPTEMBER

28 Bowling Centers of Southern California Annual Golf Tournament Black Gold Contry Club, Yorba Linda. Victoria Tahmizian, 818-7890900 or bcsc@socalbowling.com.

OCTOBER

29-31 Independent Bowling Organization Trade Show & Convention Held in conjunction with the GMBCOA. Valley Plaza Resort, Midland, MI. Scott, 888-484-2322 or www.ibo-Show.com.

17-19 Wyoming Bowling Family Jamboree Sponsored by Wyoming Bowling Council Sheridan Holiday Inn, Sheridan.

Charlene Abbott, 307-324-3161 or kcabbott@bresnan.net.

3-5 West Coast Bowling Convention Harrah’s Harveys, South Lake Tahoe, CA. Sandi Thompson, 925-485-1855. IBI is the official magazine of the convention.

11-15 East Coast Bowling Centers Convention Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ. BPAA, 888-649-5586.

IBI is the official magazine of the convention.

CLASSIFIEDS EQUIPMENT FOR SALE NEW & USED Pro Shop Equipment.

Jayhawk Bowling Supply. 800-2556436 or jayhawkbowling.com.

Pinsetter Parts New from ALL major manufacturers. HUGE IN STOCK inventory.

USED Brunswick Scoring parts, AS90 cameras, processors, lane cables, monitors, and PC boards. Order online @ 888SBIBOWL.com or (888) 724-2695.

The Mechanics Choice!

AMF package complete: 8 lanes, 8270s & AccuScore Plus.

(641) 414-1542.

EQUIPMENT FOR SALE

24-lane Brunswick A-2 package. Automatic overhead scoring. Brunswick 2000 returns; wood approaches. In operation through 2003 season. Available immediately. Make offer. (906) 786-1600. Ask for Denis.

AMERICAN-MADE PINSETTER PARTS – HIGHEST QUALITY. Visit us on the web at www.ebnservices.com or call toll free (888) 435-6289.

Buy or Sell @ www.bowlingyardsale.com; one-stop shopping for bowling equipment — from lane packages to dust mops!

USED BRUNSWICK PARTS, A2 parts and assemblies.

Large Inventory. www.usedpinsetterparts.com.

REPAIR & EXCHANGE. Call for details (248) 375-2751.

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EQUIPMENT FOR SALE 16 Brunswick Factory A-2s, 103-000 serial numbers. Lots of extras. Removed & ready for shipment. Also, 16 lanes Horizon/Omega masking units w/ 2 foot upper graphics. Ron @ (605) 237-0288.

Complete 32-lane package available: A-2s, Frameworx seating, scoring, masking, synthetics & Phoenix oiler.

Still in operation.

Call Jim (313) 715-7921.

AMF AccuScore Plus scoring system (28 lanes) + 27” overheads, LowBoys, two front desk terminals with pole displays & back office computer.

Available immediately. Call John (260) 450-2903.

Small indoor playland (12’ x 12’ x 20’) about 10 years old. Already disassembled & ready to be moved. 40K value; asking 7K OBO. Call John (260) 450-2903.

EQUIPMENT WANTED LANE MACHINES WANTED. We will purchase your KEGEL-built machine, any age or condition. Phone (608) 764-1464.

CLASSIFIEDS CENTERS FOR SALE CENTRAL WISCONSIN: 12 lanes, auto scoring, Anvilane synthetics, 82-70s. Great food sales. Yearly tournament. Attached, large 3 bedroom apartment w/ fireplace. $550K. (715) 223-8230.

UPSTATE NEW YORK: 8-lane center/ commercial building built in 1992.

Synthetic lanes, new automatic scoring, kitchen and room to expand! Reduced to sell @ $375,000. Call (315) 376-3611.

WWW.FACEBOOKBOWLING.COM

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June 2010

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CLASSIFIEDS

I could not have gotten my loan without him.

Bill Ross Big Bear Bowling Barn Big Bear Lake, CA The leading source for real estate loans with low down payments

Ken Paton (503) 645-5630 www.kenpaton.com kpaton@kenpaton.com

CENTERS FOR SALE 16-lane center in Southern Colorado mountains. Great condition. 18,000 s/f building w/ restaurant & lounge.

Paved parking 100 + vehicles.

Established leagues & tournaments. $950,000 or make offer.

Kipp (719) 852-0155.

EASTERN NORTH DAKOTA: 6-lane Brunswick center, bar & grill, drive-thru liquor store in small college town. Also, 3 apartment buildings with 40 units, good rental history. Call (701) 330-7757 or (701) 430-1490.

SOUTHERN INDIANA (close to Indianapolis): 18-lane Brunswick center with lounge, liquor license & movie theater on 4+ acres. Turnkey business.

Owner retiring. Great investment!

(765) 349-1312.

CENTRAL IDAHO: 8-lane center and restaurant in central Idaho mountains.

Small town. Only center within 60-mile radius. Brunswick A-2 machines; Anvilane lane beds; automatic scoring.

(208) 879-4448.

SOUTHWEST KANSAS: well-maintained 8-lane center, A-2s, full-service restaurant.

Includes business and real estate. Nice, smaller community. Owner retiring. $212,000. Leave message (620) 397-5828.

LOCKER KEYS FAST! •Keys & Combo Locks for all Types of Lockers.

•One week turnaround on most orders.

For FLORIDA CENTERS Call DAVID DRISCOLL & ASSOCIATES 1-800-444-BOWL P.O. Box 189 Howey-in-the-Hills, FL 34737 AN AFFILIATE OF SANDY HANSELL & ASSOCIATES 56

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June 2010

•New locks All types •Used locks 1/2 price of new

All keys done by code #.

No keys necessary.

FAX YOUR ORDER TO US AT:

530-432-2933

CALL TOLL FREE 1-800-700-4KEY INTʼL 530-432-1027 Orange County Security Consultants 10285 Ironclad Road, Rough & Ready, CA 95975

CLASSIFIEDS

WWW.FACEBOOKBOWLING.COM

SELL IT FAST IN IBI 818-789-2695 IBI

June 2010

57

CLASSIFIEDS CENTERS FOR SALE

CENTERS FOR SALE

CENTERS FOR SALE

CENTRAL ILLINOIS: 8-lane center with AMF 82-70s, full service restaurant, pro shop. Plus pool tables, Karaoke machine, DJ system. PRICED TO SELL. Includes RE. (217) 351-5152 or toms-uvl@sbcglobal.net.

SOUTHWESTERN WYOMING: 12 lanes + café & lounge, 2 acres w/ 5 bedroom home. Full liquor & fireworks licenses.

Outside Salt Lake City area. Dennis @ Uinta Realty, Inc. (888) 804-4805 or uintarlt@allwest.net.

SOUTHERN NEVADA: 8-lane center.

Only center in town of 15,000. 30 minutes from Las Vegas. AMF 82-70s, newer Twelve Strike scoring. R/E leased.

Will consider lease/option with qualified person. REDUCED TO $175,000. Call Steve @ (702) 293-2368; email ljjaa1414@yahoo.com.

SE WISCONSIN: 12-lane Brunswick center including building, real estate & 7 acres. Raised dance floor, grill, pro shop, arcade, tanning room and more.

Reasonably priced. Owner retiring.

(920) 398-8023.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: 16-lane center w/ synthetic lanes, 82-70s, 19,000 s/f building w/ lots of parking. Newly remodeled bar & large kitchen. Owner retiring. (530) 598-2133.

NW KANSAS: 12-lane center, AS-80s, Lane Shield, snack bar, pro shop, game & pool rooms.

See pics and info @ www.visitcolby.com or contact Charles (785) 443-3477.

NE NEVADA: New 2001. 16 lanes, 19,200 square feet, 1.68 acres paved, sound & lighting, lounge w/ gaming, arcade, full service snack bar & pro shop. Call (775) 934-1539.

NORTHWEST LOUISIANA: 12-LANE Brunswick center. REDUCED TO SELL NOW! Includes auto scoring, glow bowling, pizza, large dining area & video poker. Good income. Long Lease. Great opportunity. Call Mike (318) 578-0772.

SW WISCONSIN: 10 lanes, new automatic scoring/sound. Bar/grill. Great leagues, local tournaments, excellent pinsetters. Supportive community. 2 acres off main highway. $299,995.

(608) 341-9056.

SW IDAHO: 8-LANE CENTER w/full service, award winning restaurant, new lanes & scoring. $500,000 includes equipment & real estate. Nicely profitable. Call Ron @ Arthur Berry & Co., (208) 639-6171.

GEORGIA: busy 32-lane center, real estate included. Great location in one of fastest growing counties in metro Atlanta.

5 years new with all the amenities.

Excellent numbers. Call (770) 356-8751.

NEW YORK STATE: Thousand Island region. 8-lane Brunswick center w/ cosmic bowling, auto scoring. Established leagues + many improvements. $309,000. Call Jill @ Lori Gervera Real Estate (315) 771-9302.

(570) 346-5559

SERVICE CALLS WORLDWIDE • PRE-SHIPS • WE SELL

AS80/90 • BOARD REPAIR • Frameworx NEW KEYPADS • FRONT DESK LCD MONITORS

Michael P. Davies (321) 254-7849

291 Sandy Run, Melbourne, FL 32940 on the web: bowlingscorer.com email: mike@bowlingscorer.com 58

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CLASSIFIEDS

BUY

AMF • BRUNSWICK EQUIPMENT COMPLETE PACKAGES WORLDʼS LARGEST NEW – USED SPARE PARTS INVENTORY

SEL L

Danny & Daryl Tucker Tucker Bowling Equipment Co. 609 N.E. 3rd St. Tulia, Texas 79088 Call (806) 995-4018 Fax (806) 995-4767

Bowling Parts, Inc. P.O. Box 801 Tulia, Texas 79088 Call (806) 995-3635 Email - bpitx@texasonline.net

www.bowlingpartsandequipment.com AMF and some BRUNSWICK PC board repair/exchange. 6-month warranty, fast turnaround. Call or write: WB8YJF Service 5586 Babbitt Road, New Albany, Ohio 43054 Toll Free: 888-902-BOWL (2695) Ph./Fax: (614) 855-3022 (Jon) E-mail: wb8yjf@earthlink.net Visit us on the WEB! http://home.earthlink.net/~wb8yjf/

MINIATURE GOLF COURSES Indoor/Outdoor. Immediate Installation. $5,900.00 & up.

2021 Bridge Street Jessup, PA 18434 570-489-8623 www.minigolfinc.com

PROPRIETORS WITH AMF 82-70 S.S. & M.P. MACHINES Save $$ on Chassis & P.C. Board Exchange & Repair!

A reasonable alternative for Chassis and P.C. Board Exchanges MIKE BARRETT Call for Price List

Tel: (714) 871-7843 • Fax: (714) 522-0576

WWW.FACEBOOKBOWLING.COM

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June 2010

59

CLASSIFIEDS CENTERS FOR SALE TEXAS: 40 lanes with reconditioned pinsetters, new synthetics & upgraded scoring. Building in top shape including remodeled bar. Good revenue & cash flow.

Ken Paton (503) 645-5630.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIA: 16-lane center REDUCED to $799,000 for quick sale.

Synthetics, 82-70s, 19,000 s/f + parking.

Newly remodeled bar, large kitchen. Owner retiring. Will consider selling only equipment or building. www.siskiyoulanes.com. (530) 598-2133.

MICHIGAN: Brunswick 20 synthetic lanes, Qubica scoring, liquor lounge, full kitchen & outside deck. Needs experienced operator. Email: kaynorcorp@comcast.net.

NW INDIANA (Lake Michigan/National Lake Shore area): Well-maintained 32lane center, family owned & operated since 1997 with spacious nightclub lounge on 6.6 acres. Also billiards, arcade, pro shop, full-service restaurant, established leagues, birthday party activity & MORE! Owner retiring. Reasonably priced. (219) 921-4999.

WASHINGTON: 24-lane, high revenue center. Strong league program & open play. Exceptional food/bar operation.

Rental income from adjacent space. GSX pinsetters, Pro synthetic lanes, Touchworks scoring, Frameworx seating. Real estate included. Ken Paton (503) 645-5630.

POSITION WANTED Brunswick “A” mechanic, 12+ years experience, AS-80/AS-90 scoring system expertise. Former owner/GM. Willing to relocate. Contact me at (308) 380-8594.

WWW.FACEBOOKBOWLING.COM 60

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SELL IT FAST IN IBI

818-789-2695 There's

Drill Bit Sharpening and Measuring Ball Repair. Jayhawk Bowling Supply. 800255-6436 or Jayhawkbowling.com.

SELLING, BUYING or FINANCING a Center? RC Partners can help–we are not brokers. (616) 374-5651; www.sell104.com.

KEN’S BOWLING EQUIPMENT – AMF scoring, pin decks, masking units & Brunswick power lifts.

(641) 414-1542.

o Bo

NE MINNESOTA: Food, Liquor & Bowling. Established 8 lanes between Mpls & Duluth w/ large bar, dining room, banquet area. Two large State employment facilities nearby. High six figure gross. 3-bdrm home included. $1.2m. Call Bryan (218) 380-8089. www.majesticpine.com.

Check this out! 30 new leagues, scores of new parties & fundraisers. Yes, I can do all that plus more. Looking for a Brunswick center in Midwest area.

Manage to own. Call Matt (507) 696-1151 or Andy (507A) 527-1551.

SERVICES AVAILABLE

o xp 21 lE 1 w #1 Bo th

WESTERN NORTH CAROLINA: One of the top five places to move! Remodeled 32-lane center. Good numbers. $3.1m gets it all. Fax qualified inquiries to (828) 253-0362.

POSITION WANTED

Facebook & there's

Facebook for Bowling!

See the difference at

FacebookForBowling.com

CLASSIFIEDS INSURANCE SERVICES BOWLING CENTER INSURANCE.COM. Helping you is what we do best! Property; Liability; Liquor Liability; Workers Comp.

Bob Langley (866) 438-3651 x 145; blangley@bbsouthcarolina.com.

Insuring Bowling Centers for over 30 years. Ohio, Illinois & Michigan: Property & Liability, Liquor Liabiity, Workers Compensation, Health & Personal Insurance. Call Scott Bennet (248) 4080200, Scott@Bowl-mail.com; Mark Dantzer CIC (888) 343-2667, Mark@DieboldInsurance.com; or Kevin Elliott.

TRAINING BRUNSWICK PINSETTER TRAINING COURSE – Colorado Springs, Colorado. 13day sessions including hotel accommodations.

Call for schedule.

RMGPinsetter@gmail.com; myspace – rmgpinsetter.com; (719) 432-5052 or (719) 671-7167. Fax (866) 353-5010.

FACEBOOKBOWLING.COM

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THE WORLD’S ONLY ONLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO THE BUSINESS OF BOWLING

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June 2010

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REMEMBER WHEN

1958 I

f you ever doubt that everybody went bowling in the 1950s, remember this ad. You know the game was huge when it could even find a place in selling lingerie.

The photo at the top was snapped at what was then Sterling Bowling Center in New York City. From what we were able to learn from New York E.D. Kathy Leitgeb and our own

62

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poking around, it’s the same establishment–considerably redone–today known as Strike Long Island.

The old Sterling center entered BPAA membership the next year, 1959. It was one of 4,752 BPAA houses (75,341 lanes) that year, while ABC/WIBC sanctioned 111,802 lanes in 9,467 emporiums. ❖