Bowling business worth...buying?

[mario777]

Hi!

I've been personally approached by the owner of a local bowling alley, city population of 4000+ sitting beside a major highway, 20 minutes from major city. I'm presently renting a space at the back for my micro brewery so I know the place pretty well.

Building is about 5000 sq ft. 6 lanes, electronic scoreboard. A lot of active leagues. owner has been keeping the place PRISTINE since his dad started. The place could use a little paint and some minor improvements but nothing major. The alley is closed all summer and open to public on sundays only. There is a rock n bowl here and there and many b-day and corporate parties.

The owner is willing to finance it at 100% so no bank involved.

Asking price 500K. I'm sure the building alone given the location is closed to 300K, is the bowling business worth 200K? the building is about 60 years old.

At this point there is 2 rental units, one is an apartment and the other is my brewery. both generation 1200$ a month in rent.

How is the bowling demographics nowadays? Is bowling coming back amongst youngsters?

I have many ideas and one of them is to convert the apartment beside into a small brewpub, so I will have a bowling/brewpub which I think has never been seen before.

I have other ideas such as beside rock n bowl, do Metallica night, hip hop night, country night, disco and many other theme based bowling nights.

I'm at the evaluation stage and I would like to know from bowling alley owners, if this price makes sense?

Anything I should know or check for before going any further?

Thank you in advance your help is really appreciated!

Cheers!

[J Anderson]

Hi!

I've been personally approached by the owner of a local bowling alley, city population of 4000+ sitting beside a major highway, 20 minutes from major city. I'm presently renting a space at the back for my micro brewery so I know the place pretty well.

Building is about 5000 sq ft. 6 lanes, electronic scoreboard. A lot of active leagues. owner has been keeping the place PRISTINE since his dad started. The place could use a little paint and some minor improvements but nothing major. The alley is closed all summer and open to public on sundays only. There is a rock n bowl here and there and many b-day and corporate parties.

The owner is willing to finance it at 100% so no bank involved.

Asking price 500K. I'm sure the building alone given the location is closed to 300K, is the bowling business worth 200K? the building is about 60 years old.

At this point there is 2 rental units, one is an apartment and the other is my brewery. both generation 1200$ a month in rent.

How is the bowling demographics nowadays? Is bowling coming back amongst youngsters?

I have many ideas and one of them is to convert the apartment beside into a small brewpub, so I will have a bowling/brewpub which I think has never been seen before.

I have other ideas such as beside rock n bowl, do Metallica night, hip hop night, country night, disco and many other theme based bowling nights.

I'm at the evaluation stage and I would like to know from bowling alley owners, if this price makes sense?

Anything I should know or check for before going any further?

Thank you in advance your help is really appreciated!

Cheers!

I'm not a bowling center owner. I'm not sure if we have any owners lurking here. If we do they must like to remain anonymous. We do have some pro shop operators and center managers, so maybe they will provide some insight.

The questions that I would ask:
Will you have the cash to do the paint and minor improvements?
Will you have the cash or the financing to convert the apartment to a pub? As a residential remodeling contractor, I suggest doubling the number that you've got in your head right now.
Are you ready to go from running one business to running three?

I don't have actual figures on whether bowling is making a comeback. In our local junior program we seem to have lost at least half of the kids from the youngest group, but the two older groups seem to have grown, and we have several more coaches this season. Monday nights, almost all 56 lanes are in use. Wednesday night the 6:00 o'clock leagues are down to about 2/3 of the full house from 3/4 a few years ago, and the 9 o'clock leagues are down to about half the lanes.

[75lockwood]

where in Canada is this? i live in southern Ontario i'd like to think that bowling is flourishing as sport.

as for the ally, is it 10 pin only? or are some of the lanes designated to 5 pin bowling?

[Demoman]

Sounds like a good opportunity to me - if you want my advice about the lanes I would say to stay away from the rock and bowl and birthday party thing and cater to the serious bowlers. If its not a typo and there is only 6 lanes it doesn't sound big enough for that type of place anyways. I would focus on keeping the lanes spotless and well oiled - make sure everything is working right and go for serious bowlers. A good idea would be like a gym type membership where you charge a monthly fee for a certain amount and unlimited practice. Maybe hold small leagues with high payouts attracting the serious bowlers in your area? Just my thoughts and probably what I would do.

[Ball99999]

Given the details of your particular situation/city/bowling alley... it's a resounding HELL no.

First of all you don't have enough clientele to come in. Second, SIX lanes? SIX? People are going to realize it's always hard to get a lane so they'll never come back. Not to mention no possibility of a competitive situation/tournaments/leagues etc.

Hypothetically say you had a place with just one lane in it. Would anyone go there after the first time they visited and were turned away? Six isn't too far off.

If you were nearby I'd love to go into business with you on something else though!


Hi!

I've been personally approached by the owner of a local bowling alley, city population of 4000+ sitting beside a major highway, 20 minutes from major city. I'm presently renting a space at the back for my micro brewery so I know the place pretty well.

Building is about 5000 sq ft. 6 lanes, electronic scoreboard. A lot of active leagues. owner has been keeping the place PRISTINE since his dad started. The place could use a little paint and some minor improvements but nothing major. The alley is closed all summer and open to public on sundays only. There is a rock n bowl here and there and many b-day and corporate parties.

The owner is willing to finance it at 100% so no bank involved.

Asking price 500K. I'm sure the building alone given the location is closed to 300K, is the bowling business worth 200K? the building is about 60 years old.

At this point there is 2 rental units, one is an apartment and the other is my brewery. both generation 1200$ a month in rent.

How is the bowling demographics nowadays? Is bowling coming back amongst youngsters?

I have many ideas and one of them is to convert the apartment beside into a small brewpub, so I will have a bowling/brewpub which I think has never been seen before.

I have other ideas such as beside rock n bowl, do Metallica night, hip hop night, country night, disco and many other theme based bowling nights.

I'm at the evaluation stage and I would like to know from bowling alley owners, if this price makes sense?

Anything I should know or check for before going any further?

Thank you in advance your help is really appreciated!

Cheers!

[Demoman]

Given the details of your particular situation/city/bowling alley... it's a resounding HELL no.

First of all you don't have enough clientele to come in. Second, SIX lanes? SIX? People are going to realize it's always hard to get a lane so they'll never come back. Not to mention no possibility of a competitive situation/tournaments/leagues etc.

Hypothetically say you had a place with just one lane in it. Would anyone go there after the first time they visited and were turned away? Six isn't too far off.

If you were nearby I'd love to go into business with you on something else though!

I wouldn't go that far - Mario pick it apart like any possible business venture. Maybe try to find out exactley how much business the place does and see if it's worth the 200 or not. Is there room for more lanes? Could you connect to your brewery directly from the alleys?

[bayedup84]

sounds like a good idea, be fun to own a alley

[AngeloPD]

sounds like a good idea, be fun to own a alley

it will be fun to own an alley but it will be very hard to maintain it and attract customers specially it's only a 6 lane center.

[bayedup84]

mario777.... so you come any closer on an answer on buying alley?

[mario777]

Hey!

For some reason I didn't get any notifications about your replies!!!!! :mad:

Thank you so much for your various feedbacks! I'm getting the financial statements in the next few days and will send to my accountant for analysis.

The owner actually close the center from May to September and makes a very good profit from what I've been told (Financial statements will confirm this), i would open 12 mths a year for sure.

As for being a 6 lane center and getting people to turn away because there is no available lanes, well this happens in big centers with 40 lanes anyway on busy nights. Happens in restaurants happens in many types of business. So this ain't a factor I will consider as part of my decision.

Any other feedbacks and comments... they are surely very welcome!!!

Cheers

[UBowling]

A 6 lane center isn't worth that money. Think about this, a brand new bowling center being built is worth about $100k per lane. That is brand new with new equipment. With only 6 lanes your opportunity for income is very little. You can't have any good leagues or tournaments with a center that small, so it isn't a place you can use to cater to the serious bowler. The only thing they would use it for would be to practice. Private parties and open play would seem to be the only thing you could really market. if it has other amenities like a bar and billiards and food you can definitely see a bonus there.

Think about this, if you spend that much on it, how long would it take to make back the investment? With only 6 lanes, even at maximum capacity all day long, I can't see much profit coming in at all. Usually, it takes about 15 minutes to finish a game of bowling, if there are 4 people on a lane that is 3 frames, 3 people would be 4 frames etc. So you can get roughly 4 games in on a lane for an hour. If you are open for 15 hours a day and full the entire time that is a maximum of 360 games per day. Prime time lineage here is $4 per game. So that would be $1440 in revenue at max in bowling per day. I doubt you will be full the entire time, and open a full day every single day, and be able to get prime time lineage, so that figure would drop drastically. Let me tell you, working at a 40 lane bowling center I hardly ever saw days that brought in that much in open play unless it was Friday or Saturday. Even on weekends I would have shifts where they made under $1000 on some Fridays and Saturdays, especially in the Summer. And that was a 40 lane center with a full arcade and laser tag and everything.
How much overhead would you have as well? I don't see a 6 lane center making back a $500k (or $200k) investment within 5-10 years. Obviously you will be going over everything with your financial advisers to know for sure, but I would recommend talking them down quite a bit.

There was a local center here with 16 lanes, a bar, snack bar, pro shop and small arcade area that sold for $100k on a major road in a city with over 28,000 population and within 10 minutes of 4 or 5 different cities that double or triple that number. Within 15 minutes of the capital that has over 200,000 people. They do okay business but they haven't made their investment back yet, plus he has had to put a lot of money into it to upgrade and maintain the center.

[mario777]

Thanks for your reply Levi!

Been in business for over 13 years, this is not a decision to take lightly. thanks for the numbers and for sharing your experience, very much appreciated and will certainly help me in my decision.

Cheers

[mario777]

Think about this, a brand new bowling center being built is worth about $100k per lane. That is brand new with new equipment.

On that aspect Levi, do you mean it would cost 600K for brand new 6 lane center building included? I doubt that is what you meant.

construction cost of a new building today is about 100$ per sq.ft, so at 8000 sqft it would cost about 800K to build this from scratch + the bowling lanes at 100K a lane.

[UBowling]

According to numbers Brunswick has put out, the average cost to build a new bowling center is $100k per lane. So if you build a 40 lane center it would cost about $4 million.

I know there are companies that will build residential bowling lanes and for a pair they estimate $120k and that is brand new state of the art lanes, pinsetters, scoring and everything. So I am sure it doesn't cost Brunswick $100k to put in each lane on top of the costs for constructing the building.