Our new manager and I had a little sit down talk the other day. His biggest problem is that he gets direction from the Corporate office that may differ from what the local bowlers want. He is obviously driven to profits for the center, and has to make decisions against real bowlers, at times. He has to bring in money to keep his job so he goes where the money is.

He has expanded the concession menu. Now has karaoke 2 nights a week. Has a person walking the industrial area to bring in Company outings, and has the cosmic groups more nights a week. Only 1 league folded, but 4 of those teams were merged with ours.

BTW, Wed nite cosmic, right after our league, has pretty much been shut down. Not by the center, but by the Police. They cracked down on curfew violations and underaged drinking, which was rampant.

180fury, No it's not AMF. It's a Brunswick House. We have no AMF around here.

Shaking my head over .25/game lineage brought me to the conclusion that those bowlers that quit were on the brink of doing so. They just needed that last straw to push them. Coporate centers have minimal staff, the staff seems rigid and inflexible in what they can offer and no incentive to please the customer. Seniors quit over no free coffee for gosh sakes. Doesn't even have to be good coffee and they will bring their own cups.

One league of morning ladies came into the assoc office with their sanction asking about the new center. I warned them it would be more expensive and they knew that. But I also told them they'd have brand new fascilities, probably more then one staff person that had to run the desk, phone, pin chaser and cafe all at once at 9:30am. Probably a mechanic on duty. And maybe heat in the winter. For that, they'd have to expect to pay more. AMF doesn't always provide that.

Erin

I suspect you are right, Erin. They were ready to leave anyhow. that just says that there were other things that led them to that conclusion. For some reason, or an accumulation of many reasons, the bowlers were going to leave.

We are pretty widespread out here. It is not uncommon to have to drive 30-40 minutes to bowl. What is happening here is the gas price has put a halt to many bowlers driving distances.

Our Center had a $.40 increase on nightly lineage, up to $9.80 now for leagues. We decided to take it out of league payouts, since the threshhold of $25 per night seems to be a max.

Bowlers will complain about another buck in fees. But, gladly contribute another $25-30 for weekly pot games.

That's cheap all but the senior day leagues are over $10 here and the inlaws pay $14 lineage ($17 total) in San Jose for their Thurs. evening league. Even our 9pm leagues are over $10 for lineage.

Erin

Erin, I bowl in 3 Houses. The 2 Brunswick houses are $9.80 and $10. The privately owned house charges $7.80.

Then again, at the 2 higher houses, the weekly fee is $25 so quite a bit goes to prizefund. I have usually received all or most of my money back from these leagues. The cheaper house only charges $16 and the payout is generally lower. Because they spread the money out over the whole league. I don't get my money back here, no matter how I or the team finishes.

Back to my lane problems. It is so true that the laneman controls the results of your bowling night. We found out that the lane machine was causing all sorts of trouble. I and many others who use more of the lane, just couldn't hit anything. All averages are down, except for those with little ball movement.

I have been sitting with a high 160 or low 170 over 4 weeks in 2 leagues, and really struggling. Well, the lane machine got fixed last week, and I bowled twice on the new/improved shot. I averaged 219 over 6 games. Sure made a difference.

Now, on the Friday night league, I have already gotten complaints from the team we bowl next week. One bowler complained that with my average so low, it is unfair to add my relative handicap to me bowling on a better shot.

Bowlers are never satisfied. It was ok for him to roll straight, and still hit average. But, now that I have a shot, he doesn't want my 36 pins added as handicap.

Seems like House Sandbagging to me. My team is 1 point out of first. And, guess who we bowl next week? The first place complainers.

On the topic of centers, the Brunswicks around me, at least the one I bowl in the most caters to real bowlers, but how long that will last is a wait and see. Around the middle of last season the GM of the center was given a promotion to somewhere in the Carolina's. He was a bowler, and knew what he was doing as far as running the place. With his promotion a new GM was brought in, and so far things haven't changed too much, other than some people quitting that worked there because the guy won't stand up for his workers and is terrible at ordering stuff. Other than one or two AMFs out of at least a dozen in the Baltimore area, they just don't do much for the real bowlers. I don't get a chance to bowl any independent houses since they are at least a half hour away, if not more, but the one I have visited seems pretty good, especially since its pretty much been completely upgraded, but I don't think it has a Pro Shop.

On the topic of Dennis's average at this particular house due to several circumstances and the handicap he will get, that's the nature of the game. Its not like it's your doing that the lanes were the way they were. Some people just can't be satisfied, they always need something to complain about.

Oh God Erin, don't I know what a fickle sort bowlers are. The more you give, the more they take and expect. I will be honest and say that I was sort of like that at one point in time but once I got behind the counter, I realized that a) I wasn't as bad as some and b) the people who work behind the counter catch a lot of undeserved hell. Bowlers would fuss about what was on TV, the fact that some people would bring their little brats to the bowling center and let them run wild, and complain about the lanes, and the team 3 pairs down that gets happy when they spare, and on and on.

I told one constant complainer that if they would stop pissing and moaning so much they might enjoy themselves and I might actually be nice to them in return. They threatened to leave. I told them that flattery will get them nowhere. Needless to say they didn't quit, but actually learned to lighten up a bit. Of course I have also chased off a few people with my "low b.s. tolerance", but we were better off as a whole without them. I distinctly remember chasing off one couple. It's not like they used to dump money into the center. They'd bowl league once a week, buy a coffee sometimes, but mainly get water, and then complain about the conditions or what have you. When the wife complained about some kid running amok in the center I reminded her that her husband was no better because it took him forever to get to the lane (because he was yakking with some other idiot) and he held up play for everyone else, and then would cuss when "he was rushed to bowl." Yeah, not many people like to have their flaws pointed out, especially by desk people. They never did come back, and frankly, that was fine by me. Let them be someone else's headache.

There are some league bowlers who are more trouble than they're worth, but as a whole, in terms of keeping things afloat, they're the backbone of any strong center. You learn that some people you cater to and they won't take advantage of them, and with others, you "dangle the carrot" close enough to them to keep them coming back but far enough away so they don't get it.

This is why I'm glad I have a choice of bowling in a scratch league. I'm sure, right now, if people saw my average from last year (223) and now (189 as of tonight), they'd be calling me a sandbagger (the only reason why it's that low is because I shot a 502 the first week. Since then I shot a 602, I missed last week and shot a 597 tonight). Fact of the matter is there's only 4 people above 200 in our scratch league because the shot has been that tough. I would challenge any loudmouth idiot to 3 games on that shot and see how they fared.

As an aside, our league is the only one that has this shot. The other leagues have a modified house shot which still is tougher than last year, but not nearly as difficult as our shot. I've been told it's like bowling in two different centers.

the league that i used to be in was a great league. i think there was one complainer. and i think they quit. could be wrong. but one thing was for sure. if the center didn't oil the lanes before the league, the whole league would be up at the desk haveing a fit. one thing they wanted was to oil the lanes before league. but here lately before i quit it wasn't happining at all. the lanes would be oiled the night before and no one was aloud to bowl on them till league. but keep in mind that its a wood house. we all know what happens with wood and oil. they finaly got the lanes redone and recoated and its alot better now. and it hold oil better too. i shot for 3 hours and i still shot very good numbers and there was hardly any drying up. go fig.
dennis i know what you mean about people not likeing it when there about to have there game handed to them. they will try anything they can to get out of losing. thats how it is where i work. a lot of people are like that and that stuff drives me nuts.