I know why my local bowling alley is less crowded. They installed roped pins and made it unaffordable for most.
pbsf on
Life has lost all meaning for Roman Bellic
fleebleganger on
Someone has watched that documentary about social capital
CHISOXTMR on
Too bad bowling in the Chicagoland area costs almost $80-100 for 2 on the weekend … love bowling but that is crazy
stillbangin on
Meanwhile 2 of em are within a mile of one another in my tiny town.
shellexyz on
I loved bowling. Bowled league for over 10 years and was actively involved in the local scene. Made a lot of friends. And while I was never going to be pro level, I got pretty good at it.
My men’s league moved to a house about 30 minutes away and the night just got too long, especially when I had a young child at home. The local house closed a few years later when the owner drank himself to death (alcoholics probably shouldn’t own bars, btw) and that was the end of bowling with my wife.
I’d love to get back to it but it’s just a hassle.
dinah-fire on
Last time I went bowling on a Saturday afternoon, the alley was completely packed. Had to wait half an hour to get a lane.
MyOwnWayHome on
One of the handful of sports they used to let you do while smoking
kkngs on
Entertainment interests change over time.
Bowling, billiards, video arcades, roller skating, bingo, dominoes, card games like bridge or pinclochle. Poker is down from its peak. Tennis is a shadow of its former self (in the US). Baseball is still healthy but not at the forefront anymore.
Movie theaters and drinking alcohol at pubs or bars is trending down fast. Even cable television is dropping rapidly (mostly because of rent seeking behavior on the part of cable companies).
MetaPhalanges on
I was just telling my wife that we should go bowling soon! We’re gonna do it, too. We also recently played mini-golf again for the first time in ages. Let’s all do our part there. I don’t want these sports to die out.
Dothehokeypokemon on
The cost of bowling is too damn high
mountainstosea on
This was a great article until the end, when the author was too lazy to make his own visual, relying on AI to do it instead.
KiltedTAB on
Love bowling. Don’t do it much. Places always smell of stale smoke. Carpets are greasy and gross. Atmosphere always feels like it’s dying.
mattyc182 on
Who do you think you are, I AM!!!!!
tht1guy63 on
The bowling ally near me is always packed out. They decided to expand even and make it like a full fun center including minigolf and gokarts for this year.
Aidspreader on
DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS LARRY?
discoslimjim on
Who do we think we are? We are.
Spi_Vey on
I don’t bowl but there is a great guy on YouTube called “one handed bowling” who makes great videos about bowling history and its current struggle it’s going through.
It’s one of those guys who speaks so passionately about something you listen even if you have no basis or understanding at first what he’s talking about lol
kk-Elk5220 on
A kid in the 1970s, I avoided bowling due to the noxious clouds of cigarette smoke that filled those spaces
wildGoner1981 on
It’s simple. It became tooooo expensive.
FangornLeghorn on
When I was a teen it was around three bucks to bowl. Now it’s fucking $27 to get a lane for an hour. I wonder why nobody bowls anymore.
fuzzyrobebiscuits on
Also, pinsetting machines are some crazy mechanical wizardry. Must be hard to keep them up with the dwindling numbers
The thing that killed leagues was the 30+ week commitment most still had as the sport was dying off. I bowled for 30 yrs and I just couldn’t make time for that kind of long term league. Going once in a while became so expensive that I lost all interest. Houses also saw that open bowlers were more profitable and didn’t really care about things like lane conditions. It was a perfect storm of of time, money and eventually private equity.
sum_dude44 on
it’s like $100 to take family of 5 bowling these days, w/o food
Sufficient-Pin-481 on
Add to the list of things I liked to do 40 years ago but are now too expensive to bother doing. I still miss putting under a windmill playing mini golf, now a round for two is over $30 and you’re done in 20 minutes.
Sata1991 on
My hometown of about 13,000 people in Wales had a bowling alley, and although I don’t think we had leagues or clubs it was fairly packed, my stepdad worked there.
There were a few dotted in small towns across the Welsh coast, too. Now? I think there’s only one in Cardiff and Swansea, but they were a lot more accessible in the 1990s and early 2000s.
hockey17jp on
Something about bowling just gets me so frustrated. I am so bad at it and just can never seem to figure it out.
Corey307 on
Bowling used to be a reasonably affordable activity, now it’s like $60 for two people for an hour. so yeah people aren’t going to go bowling.
halberdierbowman on
The number of venues is only one metric, and imho not automatically a very good one for measuring how often people do something. If the industry is consolidating like so many other industries, we might expect the number of venues to decrease as competitors are bought out and closed. But how many bowling *lanes* does each venue have (in other words are venues changing size)? How many customers do they see? How highly do people rank bowling on a list of sports they enjoy? How have prices changed?
msnmck on
I’d bet that tiny increase around 1996 coincides with the film *Kingpin*.
TheRatatat on
Theres only 3 alleys in my area. All 3 have league on Friday and Saturday so its impossible for an average person to get a lane on the weekend when most people would want to go out for a night of bowling. Around here you either commit to a league or you just dont get to play unless youre lucky.
GarbagePailGrrrl on
Obligatory plug for *Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community* by Robert D Putnam
TheDevilsAdvokaat on
Bowling is a very boring sport.
With the rise of consoles, internet and video games bowling was bound to lose out.
I’m guessing the bowlers left are increasingly older people who git into it when they were young.
It’ll see a resurgence in a generation like Millennials and pinball.
GoldieForMayor on
My grandfather was a ‘pin boy’. He said there was a bar to hang from and lift your legs because some asshole would always try to throw a ball at their feet. His job was replaced by a robot in the 50s.
313Wolverine on
I grew up in Metro Detroit. There was at least 8 bowling alleys in a five mile radius. When the indoor smoking ban took effect all the bowling alleys started to steadily close.
I never realized how many people bowled on leagues just to have a night out with the boys (or gals) so they could smoke and drink without being ‘at the bar’.
I stopped bowling mid 2000’s mostly because of rising costs. A non sanctioned league with food, a couple beers, and a jackpot or two was costing over $60 weekly. Yikes.
![The rise and fall of bowling in the United States [OC]](https://www.byteseu.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/VIw8QPxpaCwdcWyzt3RnnJG5VLS6PilF6bY8W_uFzag-1536x811.png "The rise and fall of bowling in the United States [OC]")
39 Comments
The year after Bowling Alone was published, [private-equity-backed Bowlero went public](https://jacobin.com/2024/05/private-equity-bowlero-ruining-bowling).
That data is not beautiful
I know why my local bowling alley is less crowded. They installed roped pins and made it unaffordable for most.
Life has lost all meaning for Roman Bellic
Someone has watched that documentary about social capital
Too bad bowling in the Chicagoland area costs almost $80-100 for 2 on the weekend … love bowling but that is crazy
Meanwhile 2 of em are within a mile of one another in my tiny town.
I loved bowling. Bowled league for over 10 years and was actively involved in the local scene. Made a lot of friends. And while I was never going to be pro level, I got pretty good at it.
My men’s league moved to a house about 30 minutes away and the night just got too long, especially when I had a young child at home. The local house closed a few years later when the owner drank himself to death (alcoholics probably shouldn’t own bars, btw) and that was the end of bowling with my wife.
I’d love to get back to it but it’s just a hassle.
Last time I went bowling on a Saturday afternoon, the alley was completely packed. Had to wait half an hour to get a lane.
One of the handful of sports they used to let you do while smoking
Entertainment interests change over time.
Bowling, billiards, video arcades, roller skating, bingo, dominoes, card games like bridge or pinclochle. Poker is down from its peak. Tennis is a shadow of its former self (in the US). Baseball is still healthy but not at the forefront anymore.
Movie theaters and drinking alcohol at pubs or bars is trending down fast. Even cable television is dropping rapidly (mostly because of rent seeking behavior on the part of cable companies).
I was just telling my wife that we should go bowling soon! We’re gonna do it, too. We also recently played mini-golf again for the first time in ages. Let’s all do our part there. I don’t want these sports to die out.
The cost of bowling is too damn high
This was a great article until the end, when the author was too lazy to make his own visual, relying on AI to do it instead.
Love bowling. Don’t do it much. Places always smell of stale smoke. Carpets are greasy and gross. Atmosphere always feels like it’s dying.
Who do you think you are, I AM!!!!!
The bowling ally near me is always packed out. They decided to expand even and make it like a full fun center including minigolf and gokarts for this year.
DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS LARRY?
Who do we think we are? We are.
I don’t bowl but there is a great guy on YouTube called “one handed bowling” who makes great videos about bowling history and its current struggle it’s going through.
It’s one of those guys who speaks so passionately about something you listen even if you have no basis or understanding at first what he’s talking about lol
A kid in the 1970s, I avoided bowling due to the noxious clouds of cigarette smoke that filled those spaces
It’s simple. It became tooooo expensive.
When I was a teen it was around three bucks to bowl. Now it’s fucking $27 to get a lane for an hour. I wonder why nobody bowls anymore.
Also, pinsetting machines are some crazy mechanical wizardry. Must be hard to keep them up with the dwindling numbers
Cool 3d animation of how they work: [https://youtu.be/Iod6uwUGM2E?si=i6XKyWjCxdmShJH0](https://youtu.be/Iod6uwUGM2E?si=i6XKyWjCxdmShJH0)
The thing that killed leagues was the 30+ week commitment most still had as the sport was dying off. I bowled for 30 yrs and I just couldn’t make time for that kind of long term league. Going once in a while became so expensive that I lost all interest. Houses also saw that open bowlers were more profitable and didn’t really care about things like lane conditions. It was a perfect storm of of time, money and eventually private equity.
it’s like $100 to take family of 5 bowling these days, w/o food
Add to the list of things I liked to do 40 years ago but are now too expensive to bother doing. I still miss putting under a windmill playing mini golf, now a round for two is over $30 and you’re done in 20 minutes.
My hometown of about 13,000 people in Wales had a bowling alley, and although I don’t think we had leagues or clubs it was fairly packed, my stepdad worked there.
There were a few dotted in small towns across the Welsh coast, too. Now? I think there’s only one in Cardiff and Swansea, but they were a lot more accessible in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Something about bowling just gets me so frustrated. I am so bad at it and just can never seem to figure it out.
Bowling used to be a reasonably affordable activity, now it’s like $60 for two people for an hour. so yeah people aren’t going to go bowling.
The number of venues is only one metric, and imho not automatically a very good one for measuring how often people do something. If the industry is consolidating like so many other industries, we might expect the number of venues to decrease as competitors are bought out and closed. But how many bowling *lanes* does each venue have (in other words are venues changing size)? How many customers do they see? How highly do people rank bowling on a list of sports they enjoy? How have prices changed?
I’d bet that tiny increase around 1996 coincides with the film *Kingpin*.
Theres only 3 alleys in my area. All 3 have league on Friday and Saturday so its impossible for an average person to get a lane on the weekend when most people would want to go out for a night of bowling. Around here you either commit to a league or you just dont get to play unless youre lucky.
Obligatory plug for *Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community* by Robert D Putnam
Bowling is a very boring sport.
With the rise of consoles, internet and video games bowling was bound to lose out.
I’m guessing the bowlers left are increasingly older people who git into it when they were young.
Dollop has a great episode on this: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3SHx6aPv1AJq5HVe6toOcp?si=uhZafBntQdyoBTUAEIROAg
It’ll see a resurgence in a generation like Millennials and pinball.
My grandfather was a ‘pin boy’. He said there was a bar to hang from and lift your legs because some asshole would always try to throw a ball at their feet. His job was replaced by a robot in the 50s.
I grew up in Metro Detroit. There was at least 8 bowling alleys in a five mile radius. When the indoor smoking ban took effect all the bowling alleys started to steadily close.
I never realized how many people bowled on leagues just to have a night out with the boys (or gals) so they could smoke and drink without being ‘at the bar’.
I stopped bowling mid 2000’s mostly because of rising costs. A non sanctioned league with food, a couple beers, and a jackpot or two was costing over $60 weekly. Yikes.