Cheapest bowling you have played?

[mc_runner]

My local lane does $1.99 on Sundays, and has a bit of a tough time getting folks in there for open bowling. It's about $3.50/game otherwise.

I've always wondered: Have any operators ever tried "memberships", similar to a golf club? It sounds crazy, but it may be worth exploring.

Perhaps something like this:

- League bowlers get a card for open bowling, good for an increment of games, for a set price. There would be multiple increments, each with more of a per-game discount. The card is good from September-April.

Based off of $3.50/game, something like this:
25 games, $75
50 games, $125
75 games, $200
100 games, $300

Or

- For $50, league bowlers get $1 off per game for 50 games, something along those lines.

I've heard of a few things similar to this, where they offer unlimited games for a month for like $75. Great deal if you're going to be doing a lot of practice, maybe not if you only make it there as often as I have this season (once a month or so)

[britjeff]

best one we had, was when me and my very better half went one thursday morning. three games each cost us around £22 ( about ish $40) but we had problems with the lane. the manager saw and offered us either a refund or vouchers, took the latter and got another 6 free games, but when he came back he said there was another game each on the lane and a coffee. didnt think it was bad 14 games and a cofffee each for £22.

[Perrin]

I think the normal price is something like $3.50-$4 a game but if you are a league member you bowl for $2 per game.

One house here does a pay what you bowl night so if you bowl a 135 you pay $1.35 for the game.

Great night for practicing 10 pins

[nomad1721]

Free when i practiced with a worker from the lanes.

[JoeInPI]

When I bowled in youth league, we got a card for 75 cent games, usually valid for a year. My home centers cheapest bowling is now $2.50 a game on Tuesdays. I've also stayed after league on Fridays to bowl under the black lights for $10 for two hours.

Right on! If you really want to learn to concentrate, bowl under the glow lights with the noise and fog of glow bowling!

Cheapest I bowled was 25 cents a game shadow bowling with no pins at the now gone Meadow Lanes on Ecorse Rd. in Taylor. Best times I had were with my Dad bowling there when I was 10-12 years old. I learned a lot there, and I loved that old place.

There was also 50 cent games at Skore, Wildwood, and Satellite Bowl before 2 of them were torn down. Liked Satellite, bowled my first 300 there as a HS junior after getting my first real pair of "high end" bowling shoes at their pro shop.

...The time you get there determines what you pay per game.

My brother and I get there at 10:00 am. M-W-F and bowl ten games each. The total for both of us is ten dollars, and they always give us a 5.00 off of ten dollars coupon. That comes out to .25 a game ! I usually bowl ten games by myself once a week and it cost me 5.00. So for a total of 40 games a week, I pay 12.50 !

[Aslan]

I paid a quarter a game back in the '70s.

I think some centers still did that promotion as late as 1999-2000.

I like to go to different centers all the time and as kinda a "frugle" shopper…I'm always looking for a deal. What I've found is:

- Most of the centers around here charge you around $18 per hour and then that gets closer to $25/hour on weekend nights. But the AMF houses will have $13 for 2 hours before 5-6PM. Thats not a 'super' deal…but they also on certain holidays (like Veterans Day) will do unlimited bowling for like $14. And THAT is actually more of an annoyance than a savings because you simply can't get people to leave.

- In my old Brunswick league, league bowlers got 3 free games per day for a week…every week. You just couldn't use them during cosmic bowling times.

- I currently pay $2/game as a league bowler. They also have $2 games for everyone on Mondays.

- A center closer to where I work and a bowling alley in the student commons at a nearby university both have $1 games on Thursdays. The $1 games end when leagues start at around 6PM at the one center…but at the student commons it's $1 games all night long and I think they're open all night or at least until very late.

The most EXPENSIVE prices I've seen are:
- The Red Rock Lanes that Rob M took me and Iceman to…I think their "private" lanes are like $400-$800 an hour or something like that. "VIP Lanes w/bottle service". Fancy.
- My center is up to $30/hour lane rental on Friday and Saturday nights.
- A lot of the higher priced centers are just shy of $6/game…especially during league nights, weekends, etc...

[Aslan]

lucky buggers. my local alley is £5,25 a game( guessing that would be around $7 ish) even with my league discount it.sstill£2 a game ,round about $3 and a half, or $4 a game. can only get discount before 5 though

bowling aint cheap in the uk. wish we lived in the states

Yeah. It's funny how bent out of shape Americans get over small bounces in bowling game prices or gasoline prices…then we take a step back…look at what the EU is paying…and it's kind've embarrassing. When gas here hit $2/gallon…I got so mad I started riding my bike to work (quite a ways). Meanwhile…in the U.K. they were paying the equivalent of about $5.60/gallon at that same time. I grew up near Canada and we'd be paying $ 0.97/gallon and then cross the bridge into Canada and they were paying like $1.25/liter ($4.70/gallon). It was always a huge mistake if we had to stop for gas in Canada…you always made sure to fuel up in the States.

[NewToBowling]

I think some centers still did that promotion as late as 1999-2000.

I like to go to different centers all the time and as kinda a "frugle" shopper…I'm always looking for a deal. What I've found is:

- Most of the centers around here charge you around $18 per hour and then that gets closer to $25/hour on weekend nights. But the AMF houses will have $13 for 2 hours before 5-6PM. Thats not a 'super' deal…but they also on certain holidays (like Veterans Day) will do unlimited bowling for like $14. And THAT is actually more of an annoyance than a savings because you simply can't get people to leave.

- In my old Brunswick league, league bowlers got 3 free games per day for a week…every week. You just couldn't use them during cosmic bowling times.

- I currently pay $2/game as a league bowler. They also have $2 games for everyone on Mondays.

- A center closer to where I work and a bowling alley in the student commons at a nearby university both have $1 games on Thursdays. The $1 games end when leagues start at around 6PM at the one center…but at the student commons it's $1 games all night long and I think they're open all night or at least until very late.

The most EXPENSIVE prices I've seen are:
- The Red Rock Lanes that Rob M took me and Iceman to…I think their "private" lanes are like $400-$800 an hour or something like that. "VIP Lanes w/bottle service". Fancy.
- My center is up to $30/hour lane rental on Friday and Saturday nights.
- A lot of the higher priced centers are just shy of $6/game…especially during league nights, weekends, etc...

Two of the local AMFs around here the standard prices are $10 for two hours Monday-Thursday. Friday-Sunday are $15 for two hours but Sunday evenings are $6 for two hours. Not bad and they are both clean centers