Released last month, Overview of the Bowling Industry, a 16-page report issued by Sandy Hansell & Associates, Inc., surprisingly (to me) puts bowling in a favorable light.
Hansell, a bowling center real estate broker based in Southfield, Mich., writes that the bowling industry is enjoying “unprecedented popularity, financial stability and positive change” thanks to the application of new technology and more entertainment options, and the widening of its customer base.
It provides a brief history of the business of bowling and offers interesting industry data to back up its position. The report also touches on the types of bowlers – league bowlers, open bowlers and special events bowlers – and connects current developments in the bowling industry with current trends in society.
I say I’m surprised by the report’s findings because of the noticeable decline in the number of league bowlers and youth league members in our area.
To get a perspective from someone familiar with the industry nationwide, I called Marcel Fournier, the former general manager at Olympic Bowl in Rochester for more than 30 years. Fournier left Western New York in 2004 to take a position with Hansell & Associates and now lives in Port Orange, Fla., a suburb of Daytona Beach.
Fournier made a name for himself and boosted bowling in our neck of the woods by hosting the PBA Tour for many years and for promoting popular TV shows such as the Funtime Junior Rolloffs and the Brighton-Panorama TV Rolloffs.
When I mentioned the “gloom and doom” attitude that seems to prevail here, Fournier was quick to say that the Hansell paper is a comprehensive look at the bowling across the nation.
“Part of that gloom and doom comes from the Western and Central New York overlay, which is where you guys are,” said Fournier, who also sells commercial and residential real estate in Florida along with Lori Clark, one of his three daughters. “There have been a lot of industrial closings, league bowling is down and there are no big family entertainment centers being built in your area.”
He said that one enterprise in the Dallas area has built seven 24- to 32-lane centers with event rooms, arcades and lounges for a total entertainment experience. “These types of facilities give bowling a constant upbeat look and spreads enthusiasm for the game,” Fournier said.
Fournier said bowling in Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse (as well as other cities in the Northeast) suffers from a lack of positive marketing and public relations.
“AMF has the opportunity as the dominant operator in the area, but that’s not its mode of doing business,” he said. “There just isn’t the leadership in Western and Central New York. We use to have eight or nine people constantly working on (promoting) bowling functions.”
Fournier, 68, said things could turn around in this area but not without a lot of hard work and commitment from bowling proprietors, managers and United States Bowling Congress association officers and directors.
“Without a doubt, the first thing that needs to be done is present outstanding customer service, ‘We’re glad you’re here today,’ ‘We hope you had a good time,’ and ‘Come back soon’, Fournier said. “If I owned an existing center, I’d make sure that we did the best housekeeping that anyone could ever present – and I’ll admit that at times we didn’t do that and we suffered – and I’d make sure that we were asking people to join a league or go bowling. I lot of people that used to bowl would bowl again if asked to come back to the right environment.”
He also said he would like to see bowling return to television on a local basis. “TV is the best medium in the world to reach people,” he said.
While acknowledging that inflated scoring has hurt bowling, Fournier said he didn’t think it was a “substantial issue.”
“Coaching is more important … getting more people to bowl better. In Indianapolis, at Expo Bowl and other big centers, I’ve been told that during open play time they have a coach that goes from lane to lane helping people. Kids need to know that (good bowling) takes effort and it’s a challenge.”
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BOWLING FACTS & FIGURES
Hansell’s report includes much statistical information about bowling and the industry. Here are some of those stats:
§ Bowling is a $6 billion industry in the United States, with more than 60 million people bowling at least once every year.
§ As of December 2007, the domestic industry has 5,498 certified ten-pin bowling centers with 113,897 lanes. About 29 percent had eight or fewer lanes and about 25 percent had 32 or more lanes.
§ An overwhelming majority of centers are individually or family owned. The largest two companies only own about 450 centers while the next three largest companies together own only about 50 centers.
§ A “Superstudy of Sports Participation” conducted by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association found that 44.8 million persons age 7 and up bowled more than once in 2006 – outranking golf, fishing, tennis, billiards/pool, bicycling, roller and ice skating, running, jogging and hunting by wide margins.
§ A survey by the Simmons Market Research Bureau found that the average income of a bowling household is $67,965 per year, 20 percent greater than the U.S. Census Bureau’s estimate of $56,675 for all American households.
§ USBC statistics show that over the past five years the number of certified league bowlers (men, women and youth) declined from 3,370,588 in the 2001-2002 season to 2,608,279 in the 2006-2007 season. The actual number of league bowlers is higher than those figures, however, because only about 75 percent of all leagues now certify their members.
(Mike Pettinella’s Pin Points bowling column appears every Thursday during the bowling season. If you have an item of interest for his column, please contact him at mikepett2002@yahoo.com or at 343-3736 or by mail at 55 Edgewood Drive, Batavia).