Bowling in Broward County may be struggling, but it isn’t quite ready to die yet.
The closing this year of two bowling centers — Bowlero Lanes in Pompano Beach and Brunswick Margate Lanes — has brought attention to the problems of bowling. It appears as if the sport’s boom of the 1960s and 1970s may be over, and in fact it appears to be losing popularity.
The demise of these two houses in Broward, one of the fastest growing counties in the United States, brings the problems into focus.
“Generally, I hear from members of the ABC (American Bowling Congress) that there is a dropoff every year of a few thousand bowlers,” said Sol Baum, proprietor and general manager of Flamingo Lanes in Fort Lauderdale.
Baum has encountered more than his share of difficulties at Flamingo Lanes during the past few years. When he decided to lease Flamingo in 1970, instead of continuing to run it himself, there was a decline in business and rumors began spreading that Flamingo was about to close.
Flamingo might have closed if Baum hadn’t decided to start running it again himself this year.
“We are doing pretty well now,” Baum said. “I think there is going to be improvement when the winter leagues start, but you never know for sure until they roll the first ball.”
Baum believes the decline in the number of bowlers is attributable to an increase in the cost of league bowling.
“Bowling always was a working man’s game,” he said. “Now the price has gone up and it is almost the same as going out on the golf course. Some leagues charge $12 to $15 and, if you buy a round of drinks, it can cost you $20 to $25.”
The price range at Flamingo for league bowling ranges from $8 to $15. The house takes $5.25. The rest goes for prize money and league expenses.
If Flamingo survives, the next bowling center to close could be Cypress Creek Lanes in northern Fort Lauderdale. Mike Kuhle, general manager of Cypress Creek Lanes, says the bowling house owned by tennis player Bobby Riggs will stay open for another two or three years. After that he isn’t sure.
In this case it isn’t a question of foundering business. Cypress Creek Lanes is operating in the black.
The problem is that Bill Knight, owner of the five acres on which Cypress Creek Lanes is situated, wants to sell the land to the state for use as a park-and-ride facility for Interstate 95.
The state already owns eight acres next to Cypress Creek Lanes, and Kuhle said eight acres should be sufficient for the park-and-ride facility.
“They have to prove they need our five acres, and that isn’t going to be easy to do,” Kuhle said. “We are going to fight them all the way (in court) and it will be a very long process. It will take two or three years.”
If Cypress Creek were to close within the next 18 months, it would bring to six the number of bowling centers closed in Broward County during the 1980s. The others were Bowlero and Bowlarena in 1988, Lighthouse Point Lanes in 1984, Brunswick Imperial Bowl in 1983 and Johnson Street Lanes in 1981.
Johnson Street Lanes burned down. The others were closed because of declining business. All of them were in the eastern sector of the county. Four were on Federal Highway.
Fair Lanes, Inc. owns three bowling centers in Broward County and their success is mixed right now. Business is down at Fair Lanes Davie, up at Fair Lanes Pembroke Pines and status quo at Fair Lanes Plantation, according to Bob Larson, district manager for Fair Lanes.
“Fair Lanes Davie is being impacted by construction on State Road 84,” Larson said. “Our other two centers are doing pretty well.”
But Larson admits this is not true of the bowling industry as a whole: “Bowling had been on the increase, but it sort of leveled off during the past 18 months. Industrywide, league bowling is down 1 percent.”
Larson said Bowlarena and Bowlero were old bowling centers that may not have been able to stand the competition of newer centers built in western Broward County. “But if we could put our finger on the reason for the general decline in bowling we wouldn’t have a decline.”
The general trend in Broward has been for older bowling houses to die in the eastern part of the county as newer ones are built out west. But not all of the older ones are dying. Holiday Lanes in Hallandale and Brunswick Margate Lanes on State Road 7 have shown sharp increases in participation recently.
Sherry Yochum, general manager of Brunswick Margate Lanes, said her center was showing gains even before neighboring Bowlarena was closed. Marc Gonneville, general manager of Holiday Lanes, said his center is “way above where we were two years ago.”
But even though some centers seem to be bucking the downward trend, there is not much confidence in the sport right now in the business community, and there may not be any new bowling centers built in the near future to replace Bowlero and Bowlarena.
“There has been a tremendous population influx in western Broward County,” Larson said. “I would imagine that if and when the next center is built, it would be out west.”
OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
— JOHNSON STREET LANES, Hallandale, closed 1981.
— BRUNSWICK IMPERIAL BOWL, Dania, closed 1983.
— FAIR LANES DAVIE, Davie, opened 1983.
— LIGHTHOUSE POINT LANES, Lighthouse Point, closed 1984.
— FORUM LANES, Sunrise, opened 1986.
— BOWLERO LANES, Pompano Beach, closed 1988.
— BOWLARENA LANES, Margate, closed 1988.
