A lot of what's wrong with bowling, in one little anecdote.

[swingset]

I just moved to a new city, about an hour away from where I used to live...I'm in Central Ohio. Lots of bowling centers around my new place, so I was jazzed to be so close to a new bowling scene. So, looking for something to do in the winter, I tried to find some short-season or winter leagues. I visit the websites of all the places around me. Most aren't up to date, list almost nothing, or only list house-sponsored leagues that don't apply to me (such as junior leagues, house-wife mondays, etc.). Well, that's no good if you want new blood.

So, I visit the centers nearest me and that sound the most promising, both large, popular centers. I inquire at the first about any upcoming leagues that might be something I could get in on. The desk help had no idea, except to point to a bunch of flyers that were house-sponsored leagues, at weird times, etc. They had no schedule or information on private leagues (which is always the good ones).

Awesome. That's the way to bring in new folks, right there. Now, if I was lucky enough to be from the area and know people who bowl on some league that's starting soon, on a day I'm free, I guess what happened isn't really deleterious to my bowling career or the state of the leagues and centers - but I'm a new kid in town.

So, I head over to the other house. Good news, counter guy says they have a league starting in January on Sunday which is what I want. It's a "Zombie" league - apparently the "get" for this league is they put Walking Dead on the jumbo-tron and give away a zombie spare ball to everyone bowling. Ok, whatever, I like the show that's fine...I just want to bowl and meet new people. I sign up, stating I'm just an individual but will bowl on a team if they need to fill one or whatever. They take my info, and I wait.

Finally, after weeks of waiting (on Dec. 23rd, remember this) a lady emails me and says she'll try to find me a team, and she'll be in touch. Last week, someone else calls to remind me that tonight is the starting night, and if the participation is good, I should be able to bowl. Doesn't sound very concrete, but whatever I'll make the 20 minute drive to find out.

So, tonight I show up 15 minutes early to the center. Very crowded, with of course a private league full of people who are having fun bowling. I don't see anyone anywhere standing around, so after 5 minutes or so I ask at the counter where the league is meeting or what's going on.

Ready for it? They don't know. But, they'll find out. After 2 phone calls, they tell me that the league is canceled, they only had 4 people show up to the pre-meeting. "What pre-meeting? I didn't hear anything about that". Girl says the pre-meeting was on Dec. 20th, 3 days before they got around to even contacting me. "I think I see the problem", I told the counter girl.

So, not wanting to just slink away in complete disappointment, I ask about the mixed league currently bowling. Do they need a sub or something? I ask. Counter girl has no clue who is in charge of the league. Awesome. So, I go over and start asking around, finally finding the very pleasant lady in charge (extreme sarcasm). When I introduce myself, and ask about the league, she says "We're 4 weeks into the league, it's closed". Ok, well if anyone needs a sub, can I leave my name and number, I ask. "We have plenty of subs".

Sweet! Nice welcome mat, I feel like royalty.

So, back to canvassing the dozen or so other houses to even see if anyone knows anything, while a secret & underground network of bowling happens. Back when the US was an industrial, blue collar social world getting people to bowl was probably a lot easier - but the sport still behaves as if that world still exists - but there are more people like me than not, folks who are (for whatever reason) on the outside and centers, leagues and tournaments almost seem to go out of their way to avoid fresh meat.

Tourneys are just as bad. I asked about those at the centers too...nobody had any idea. But I'll bet my savings there ARE tournaments scheduled in this area, and people know about them - but not me. Their websites are vacant or neglected, counter help are apathetic drones, organizers assume everyone who wants to bowl already knows about it.

And, I'm sitting at home on a Sunday night with money in my pocket. You do the math.

[larry mc]

that stinks , im happy the centers around me arent like that

[larry mc]

that stinks , im happy the centers around me arent like that

[Aslan]

I posted a similar story many moons ago.

I was thinking of joining a league with some co-workers and out of 4 centers that I called, one responed within 48 hours, another within the week. The other two; one responded later that month and didn't have a league that fit what I needed (4-man or 5-man all male team) and the other one never responded at all.

Wanna guess which two were AMF and which two were private centers? Hint: It's easy.

I then thought of leaving my center because they didn't have good practicing hours and were raising prices…and called the same 3 other centers….the only different result was this time the other private center responded by email that day.

I'm not some libertarian or even a conservative…but my experience has led me to believe that successful private centers do things the right way. Brunswick/AMF….there's a reason why they have been through bankruptcys and eventually got bought by Bowlmor.

[swingset]

I'm not some libertarian or even a conservative…but my experience has led me to believe that successful private centers do things the right way. Brunswick/AMF….there's a reason why they have been through bankruptcys and eventually got bought by Bowlmor.

Man, talk about a weirdly timed post - and don't get me wrong here, 10 minutes ago I would have agreed with you 100% because AMF killed my favorite house where I used to live and ran it like morons and my favorite center ever is this great 8 laner that I still drive an hour to bowl at....but tonight out of desperation I called the AMF in my new place, and the league officer called me back right away and was super nice and has a league and a spot for me in a few weeks - short league, with a free T-zone at the end of it for $10 a week!

Man, I think I just moved into bizarro world. The bad experiences were private houses, the friggin AMF is on the ball and wants customers.

Did I just take some lithium or something?

[mc_runner]

Well, at least you have a happy ending! Some houses are run better than others regardless of the owner badge on it... really comes down to management. Did the houses that were clueless seem to be kept up OK or were looking a little run down? I've been fortunate with my main center, but have certainly heard of others who haven't had the same experiences around here.

[swingset]

Well, at least you have a happy ending! Some houses are run better than others regardless of the owner badge on it... really comes down to management. Did the houses that were clueless seem to be kept up OK or were looking a little run down? I've been fortunate with my main center, but have certainly heard of others who haven't had the same experiences around here.

Both the houses that were flaky are really nice - in fact the one with the Zombie league is pretty famous (hosted a PBA tourney recently). The other is pretty nice, has a good reputation at least if you trust review sites.

I dunno, still getting the feel for the atmosphere here, it seems like the bowling community is more underground than it was where I used to live...maybe they're still spoiled by having more dedicated league bowlers and don't need to reach out or have a good online presence or whatever.

[Hampe]

Wow that sucks man. Around here if you just showed up a few times to either center in a month you would have people asking if you were interested in joining a league.

[Amyers]

I guess things are just different here. The centers run most of the leagues so you don't have the third party person that you have to get a hold of. The leagues do have league presidents and things like that but they don't have any real power here I couldn't even tell you who they are on any of the leagues I bowl on.

The up to date info on the web and facebook is something all of the centers need to manage better though. unfortunately most of the people who run these things are old guard types who didn't grow up with this stuff so it doesn't occur to them how necessary this kind of thing is in the modern world.

[Perrin]

Wow that sucks man. Around here if you just showed up a few times to either center in a month you would have people asking if you were interested in joining a league.

Pretty much the same around here. Come out to practice a couple times. maybe talk to the counter people or the pro-shop and even metion that your interested and they will give you several leagues to talk to
The Center I usually bowl at actually has a house sub list you can sign up for and they make that available to every league.