Handicap vs Scratch

[NewToBowling]

This may come to you as a bit of a surprise, but bowling doesn't support the industry.

Bowling is just a reason for people to come in and eat, and drink.

Snack Bar, and Liquor Bar are the prime profit sources at a bowling center.

Lineage is a distant 3rd.

Agreed. I don't think bowling centers would survive without a busy kitchen and bar

[Tony]

This may come to you as a bit of a surprise, but bowling doesn't support the industry.

Bowling is just a reason for people to come in and eat, and drink.

Snack Bar, and Liquor Bar are the prime profit sources at a bowling center.

Lineage is a distant 3rd.

It does not come as the least bit of a surprise, if you only count the dollars in income derived directly from each source. Unfortunately it's not that simple, take a look at the primary source of the food and drink revenue, and you will find the league bowler. If you look at the income taken in hour by hour it's very evident
that the money flows when the leagues are in the house. I can't verify that this is the case for every bowling house but I know it's a
fact in many. You see I have been bowling on a team for many years with a fellow that owns some bowling alleys. We don't bowl at one of his locations so
every so often the fellow that owns the one we bowl in (and several others) comes over to talk shop. Sure they also make money when people come in and open bowl, but when they compare what drives the dollars it always gets back to the number of leagues and bowlers. League bowlers purchase more and on a more regular basis, plus many of them come early and stay late to consume beverages and food. They come in to practice, they bring their families to open bowl, and each time they are likely to spend some money on food and drinks, but if they weren't league bowlers would they be there ?
In most locations the drop in leagues equals a drop in total revenue, some locations have a thriving bar business, pool hall or gambling establishment, they might drive enough non league business to make up for the drop in leagues, that's their goal anyway. Things might be different in other area's but in the midwest according to bowling proprietors, the drop in league bowlers hits them directly in the pocketbook.

[Tony]

Agreed. I don't think bowling centers would survive without a busy kitchen and bar

I totally agree, the question is, would the bar and kitchen be busy if it weren't for the league bowler ?

[Aslan]

Thats not how it worked. If you didn't have a 3rd person on the team, you got 160, if someone was absent, you got avg-10.

That makes it even worse!!

[bowl1820]

We must consider the motivation of the house in all this, if the lower avg bowlers and teams lose consistently what percentage takes it as a challenge and what percentage just quits because it's no fun to lose all the time. .

The motivation of the house is basically irrelevant in regard to handicap they don't set handicap.

Houses don't promote/have scratch leagues, because there's little to no interest in them these day's by the majority of bowlers. No interest, No money.

As for handicap leagues, The house (with the exception of maybe a few special cases.) don't control the handicaps used in the handicap leagues. So they can't say lets raise handicap or we'll lose customers.

You want to see a scratch league, get a sponsor that will pony up $10,000 first place prize money. (Back around when I started bowling here, they had one. It was full house or almost full league, first place got 10k and 2nd & 3rd got a good payout too.)

Then you'll have one.

[Aslan]

It does not come as the least bit of a surprise, if you only count the dollars in income derived directly from each source. Unfortunately it's not that simple, take a look at the primary source of the food and drink revenue, and you will find the league bowler. If you look at the income taken in hour by hour it's very evident
that the money flows when the leagues are in the house. I can't verify that this is the case for every bowling house but I know it's a
fact in many. You see I have been bowling on a team for many years with a fellow that owns some bowling alleys. We don't bowl at one of his locations so
every so often the fellow that owns the one we bowl in (and several others) comes over to talk shop. Sure they also make money when people come in and open bowl, but when they compare what drives the dollars it always gets back to the number of leagues and bowlers. League bowlers purchase more and on a more regular basis, plus many of them come early and stay late to consume beverages and food. They come in to practice, they bring their families to open bowl, and each time they are likely to spend some money on food and drinks, but if they weren't league bowlers would they be there ?
In most locations the drop in leagues equals a drop in total revenue, some locations have a thriving bar business, pool hall or gambling establishment, they might drive enough non league business to make up for the drop in leagues, that's their goal anyway. Things might be different in other area's but in the midwest according to bowling proprietors, the drop in league bowlers hits them directly in the pocketbook.

Correct on all points.

Lineage doesn't support the center as much as food and even to a greater extent bar. I used to pay $13 a night in league fees (most going to lineage since it wasn't sanctioned or a sweeper league) and my bar/food tab was on average about $37.

It's actually quite simple. How many bowling alleys don't have leagues but are still successful? I can only think of a handful of very high-priced kinda niche centers or centers in resorts or something.

Why? Because if you look at ALL non-league time revenue…it spikes when they have a lot of parties, corporate events, etc…but for most times it's virtually nothing. You have an alley with 2 people working there at 2PM-4PM…at $9/hr…thats $18*2hrs = $36. In addition, you have utilities and bills to pay for the center…lets say round number of $50/hr for all non-payroll expenses. That means it costs $136 to be open for 2 hours. On a NON-LEAGUE time…you'll be LUCKY to have more than 10 people bowling. 10 people renting lanes and shoes = lets say $130/hr.

So without leagues or bar/food…the bowling alley probably loses money. The pro shop CERTAINLY loses money because very little business comes from non-league bowlers. House bowlers use house balls and rent shoes.

So…if you add in snack bar revenue for that 2hr period…figuring half the people or so (6) eat…average cost of $10/person…thats about $120. $120 - $6 = $114. So a bowling alley with only 2 workers and no leagues likely makes $114/hr. Open 12 hours thats nearly $1400/day. So using that absurd example…a bowling center could theoretically survive on that. Granted…virtually no bowling center with a snack bar would have 2 employees…but you also have to factor in that there will be birthday parties and at night, if there's a bar, thats gonna be bar $$$ coming in.

But here's the thing, to Tony's point; while an average hour in a bowling alley may generate $120 of net profit before tax…I'd say the average bar/food/lineage PER TEAM in a league on any given night is = $50. I usually buy a large diet coke and get some take-out when I leave…and that runs about $40 in ADDITION to whatever lineage comes out of my $25/night league fee. So…$50/team…conservatively…even if there's just 10 teams in the league…and it takes 3 hours to bowl…thats $500/3 = about $170/hour. And thats in ADDITION to the $120/hour they are getting from casual/walk-in bowlers.

So most centers can increase their revenue by 140% by having leagues. You'd have to hire a minimum of one extra person…so that cuts the profit to 130%…but still…are you gonna more than cut your revenue in HALF on the hopes that with the leagues cleared out you'll get more birthday parties or young drinkers?? Some centers it works. My home center would be okay without leagues. Lots of colleges in the area, affluent community, a more nightclubish environment…good at bringing in corporate events, etc… But I gotta think they're the exception…not the rule. Otherewise I think we'd see far, far, far more centers give up leagues rather than actively try to get people interested in them.

[NewToBowling]

I know the Brunswick XL near me does very well across the board. They are always busy. Go in at 8am on Sunday and at least 30 of the 48 lanes are being used

[Tony]

The motivation of the house is basically irrelevant in regard to handicap they don't set handicap.

Houses don't promote/have scratch leagues, because there's little to no interest in them these day's by the majority of bowlers. No interest, No money.

As for handicap leagues, The house (with the exception of maybe a few special cases.) don't control the handicaps used in the handicap leagues. So they can't say lets raise handicap or we'll lose customers.

You want to see a scratch league, get a sponsor that will pony up $10,000 first place prize money. (Back around when I started bowling here, they had one. It was full house or almost full league, first place got 10k and 2nd & 3rd got a good payout too.)

Then you'll have one.

I'm not trying to promote either one but simply noting some important idea's that might be overlooked when considering the idea of handicap vs scratch leagues.
They heavily promote the idea of handicap leagues to try and recruit new bowlers. They also set or suggest the handicaps as they manage some of the leagues.
I thought this was commonplace since I've seen it around here.

I can't speak for other area's on the the house having input into the handicap system, the proprietors around here attend the league meetings
for the leagues whether they manage them or not. They make suggestions that are then put to a vote by the league members.
The move for our league to go from 90% of 210 to 100% of 215 was suggested by the owner of the lanes. (he also suggested going to
100% of 220 where we are now a couple of years later)
He looked at the history and could see:
A) The same few teams dominating
B) Could see teams dropping out
C) Upon contacting those teams the big complaint the same teams win everything
This was part of his little speech to get the league to adopt the new handicap,
every team voted for it except one, but they didn't leave the league they stayed
and they are still a contender because they're good bowlers, but they don't win all the time anymore.
In fact now they are glad to see the change because it makes them work a little to stay near the top.

We used to have companies that would sponsor things, they are pretty much a thing of the past around here.