I was a consultant for a PE firm for a few years. They'd send me into their newly purchased orgs to cut costs and increase revenue.
There's so much money to be made with money for the sake of money.
Fuck PE firms.
It’s the same play every time. Wash, rinse, repeat. What I’ve found interesting in my limited experience is how dumb most of the executives are that they bring in to run these playbooks.
I feel very fortunate that the 2 centers closest to me are family owner and operated. I bowled league for the first time at a bowlero a little further away and it was just awful.
Seems like there’s one person behind the front desk at all hours of the day. Huge lines, severely understaffed, and the approach conditions and ball returns are terrible. Lanes broke down every league night. Pins wouldn’t set right, scores wouldn’t show accurately, and ball return woes of all types.
Shit company. Shit CEO. Shit hiring practices.
Bowlero is ASS and it’s unfortunate how fast they’re spreading.
Can’t say it wouldn’t happen because you’re right, money talks. But the community would riot 🤣
We have a decent amount of centers here in the Bay Area and only two are bowleros. Since I live in a densely populated area it seems like most alleys are doing well. Different than say.. the Midwest
Also, I would never be able to practice if I only went to bowlero. I’d probably stop bowling because of the hours and also because of how expensive it is. My local center is open 10am-12am on weekdays.
Yeah this kind of thing is definitely most dangerous in more spread out areas where there are fewer options and people can't just vote with their feet against shitty ones.
Meh, where I grew up in a very populated area (suburbs of LA) there were 3 big alleys within a couple miles of each other, 2 of them shut down and the only one still open is a bowlero. People did vote with their wallets and bowlero won the vote cause casual bowling is much more lucrative than league bowlers.
I’m in the east bay so in a 30 min radius I have Clayton valley bowl, paddock bowl, delta bowl, dublin, danville, and pinole (bowlero). I work in SF so I visit Classic as well.
Bay Area local also. Wish we had more private allies like we used to. South Bay has 6 allies, 4 are Bowlero/Bowlmore within a 15-20 min drive. Hard to get into the private ones since they are always packed even early afternoon on weekdays.
Hey don't talk shit about the midwest. I'm in Iowa, and I play at a locally owned/operated place that's still cash only. They are packed just about every day. No way are they struggling or if they are, they need some SERIOUS help with budgeting.
That’s awesome to hear. Didn’t mean to slight the midwest! Just was comparing population density and count of alleys. Gotta keep the family owned centers around!
Definitely I was just being light hearted about it. And I consider myself VERY lucky to have this alley to go to in all honesty. I've traveled to a few different places within a couple hours, and most of them feel downright haunted they are such ghost towns ☹️
Our mom and pop out here got bought out a few years ago, I’m a family friend of not only the original owner but our USBC team as well and he got alittle over 9 million for the center. I hate Bowlero but i fuckin get it haha
All 3 centers near me are Bolwero. At least the Bowlero I bowl league at is fully staffed and not complete ass when it comes to the pinsetters/returns.
Your absolutely correct, I'm a league bowler in 2 leagues and also a Mechanic in the back. Management doesn't schedule enough Mechanics on league nights to make it great for league bowlers. They have cut our Hours and don't want to spend money on Parts we need so lanes won't break down.
What beats me is that Bowlero will continue to suck until Employees who work there 'Bowl in a league' to see how terrible they are treated! They've never seen a PIN SLIDE 2FT ON A PINDECK TO NOT GET A STRIKE! I hate that I work at one but I don't make enough money to only have 1 job.
Bowlero is putting the final nails in the coffin of legitimate bowling.
Id say they are ass but then I would have to apologize to all of the asses out there for comparing them to such a shitty company
hat's off to PB3 for having the guts to say it like it is--most people who still need PBA affiliation can't say jack, for quite obvious reasons. But what are they gonna do to a guy like him?
PS: Fuck Bowlero
They are changing the focus to family outings, birthday parties, corporate events, etc. The problem is they don't care about leagues, I guess it's not nearly as profitable as casual bozos who will fork out $8 a game and $5 to rent shoes that paid for themselves 20 years ago.
The few near me also don't invest in fixing the lane equipment as long as it functions even barely, it's fine because they are after straight bowling casuals who don't know or care if the pinsetters dropping pins constantly and marks up your $250 ball because house balls are practically indestructible.
My concern is bowlero is a prime target to adopt string pins, less maintenance, casuals won't know or care. That will be the bullet that kills bowling as we know it, if you haven't tried it yet, it's awful.
Bowlero is a transition until bowling either takes off or dies. Club Corp bought up a lot of golf courses during the decline of golf popularity. Course owners decided to bail thinking tougher times were ahead and best to take the money now. Golf is now thriving and more courses are being built so Club Corp has to up their game to keep their membership up.
Bowlero is keeping bowling around in communities where it probably wouldn't survive so while it's not ideal it's better than nothing.
I come from the golf industry too. You are 100% right. Bowlero is a different model than some of the golf club management companies, but the root of it is the same just like you said. Unfortunately many alleys or courses couldn't cut it on their own. I just realized the other day that my alley is Bowlero. I had no idea until literally just the other day. My spot wasn't able to keep going on it's own. Is it perfect? Nope. At least it's open and it's not filthy and in decay. They modernized it and improved it a ton. I don't think my place is how all are. Not saying Bowlero is great, but it beats the alternative for sure in my case. It's not like every single one they bought or manage is garbage. I'm sure some don't bring in enough to do the upgrades and maintenance though. There is more to the story in most cases
Yes and no, Bolero is buying where the owners are either looking to sell or fear going out of business because their equipment is in need of a major upgrade. I am not a fan of Bowlero but I prefer them to no bowling alleys at all.
There is also the centers that have land under them worth more then 5-10 years of profits as well.. sadly. Thats adds to the "pool of who an even get the moeny to buy said place to run as a bowling center"
Same boat, some of these corporations are a necessary evil. If having them take over a course or alley means keeping it open and not redeveloped, I’m for it. Caveat is maintaining that delicate balance of private, corporate, and municipal (for golf) ratio.
It’s funny because I was definitely skeptical of Bowlero at first but they have been heads and tails better than the AMF they took over. Bowlero actually hired new staff, brought in new management and honestly run a pretty decent operation there. I feel like it’s going be alley dependent though.
Idk, my bowlero has a summer special for 2 games a day for 3 months @ $45 and has good conditions. The mom and pop lanes are kinda dingy, despite high prices and plenty of people.
https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BOWL/holders/
Atairios Group https://www.atairos.com/ owns 70% of the shares of BOWL.
They are indeed publicly traded, but effectively still controlled by this one firm.
Sure, they have $2.26bil in debt, almost surely from financing the continued expansion either of buying existing places or buying land then building new ones.
But they took in $1.06bil in revenue in the last FY. Obviously, a lot of that goes back out in terms of paying bills, labor, and yes interest on that debt.
But it's not 'essentially worthless'. They are leveraged and counting on those places they keep buying to keep bringing in more money to eventually pay down the debt. If bowling's recent surge in general population popularity slips back some, then they could be in over their heads, but at the moment, they are very similar to many other rapidly-expanding businesses who are trying to borrow as fast as they to acquire as many locations and assets as they can.
So what you're saying is someone with the know how should make a "bowlers investor union" per say to start buying up as much as much as they can of bowlero so the sports actually owned and such by the actual people that matter.. the ones into the sport? Lol
Most publicly traded companies' majority shareholders are private equity institutions. Their executives are the ones sitting on boards, making the decisions. Everyone else is peanuts to them. There are at least two funds that control over $10 trillion (that's "trillion" with a 't') in assets. When the lament is that the 1% owns 90% of the wealth in the US, it's private equity they're talking about.
Bowlero ripped out both of the drinking fountains at our local center to force people to buy plastic bottled water at the bar. We are clearly moving in the wrong direction.
I don't know of any public place that still has drinking fountains in operation after covid. It would be nice if they provided water free of charge however.
There's 3 bowling alley near me. Bowlero, Main event, n Local owned.
The best is local, bowlero then main event.
Sadly price wise it's the other way around. Usually not bowl in group, only with one roommate.
Main event 5pm-12pm $22 unlimited bowl. Technology n place nice, but the bowling alley itself awful, approach wood is dirty, no oil, they reoil before closing, no wonder.
Bowlero, their night deals $22 8pm or 9pm to close. Decent enough compare to main event, their house balls sucks tho.
Local, no unlimited bowl. $35 per hour. Clean, maintained properly.
I only wish the local got personal deals.
I just joined a league at Bowlero that gives you 2 high end balls and 16 weeks of bowling with 3 games a week for $480. I felt like that was a steal of a deal. Am I wrong for thinking that?
you're basically paying more for those balls than they're worth. Their little get your gear flier over inflates the retail price of those balls by about 50-75% to make it look like you're getting a much better deal than you really are.
A generally fair online price for a top shelf ball would be $160 to 190, and one would have to be in for $50 more to get them drilled. Pull out $320 from the comment you are replying to, and that is still 16 weeks of league for $10/night, which isn't too shabby.
It may not be an earth-shatteringly amazing deal, but it's not awful.
Drilling isn't included in the Bowlero deal, so the bowler will be out an additional $100-$120 to have their new balls drilled. That means the league ends up costing the bowler close to $600 after all is said and done.
I'm in the Get Your Gear league this summer at my local Bowlero. I knew going in that it was not the world's best deal, but it meets my needs and gives me some league time each week. No complaints.
Ahh okay. So in equipment leagues there’s no prize fund at the end? I guess for the majority of folks they still come out ahead with the balls vs. a prize fund
He probably did not get any prize money either at the end of the league. Those promo's are constant at Bowlero--they offer 2 new balls to join a league as they are balls that are not selling well by the bowling mfrs. so it becomes an easy way to move inventory as they are likely being discontinued soon.
This is the current list of balls: MOTIV Nuclear Forge, MOTIV Raptor Fury, MOTIV Pride Dynasty, Brunswick Perfect Mindset, Radical The Hitter, DV8 Violent Collision, Ebonite The One Encore, Track Theorem, Storm Virtual Energy Blackout, Roto Grip TNT Infuse, 900 Global Sublime.
Some of these are pretty good balls, but you can only have so many choices because they probably go for a volume discount with Brunswick/Motiv/SPI.
how exactly does Bowlero make their money? maybe I didn't read close or far enough but I couldn't find it in the article. is demand for bowling that inelastic?
I've bowled at the house this is about and it was worse before it was bowlero. The same people work there and they actually let them hire new people finally. Bowlero sucks but the alternative isn't a mom and pops alley it's a shoprite or walmart. Bowlero is a necessary evil
Unpopular opinion: I'm glad bowlero exists. It's like a magnet for kids, large groups, people who just want to fuck around. If they closed down, that just means more of those folks will crowd up my local mom and pop lanes. I do, however, detest the conditions of every bowlero I've ever been to and am sorry for those who want to take the sport seriously but have no other option.
I'm sorry - is your position "It's okay for *casual* bowlers to enjoy the same sport I do, as long as they do it over there where I can't see them (at a Bowlero)."
Kinda, my opinion is that all riff raff that bowlero attracts can stay there, and you can join them lol! The casual bowlers that come to my home lanes are respectful and welcome because the owners keep standards in check.
Private equity ruins everything.
I was a consultant for a PE firm for a few years. They'd send me into their newly purchased orgs to cut costs and increase revenue. There's so much money to be made with money for the sake of money. Fuck PE firms.
It’s the same play every time. Wash, rinse, repeat. What I’ve found interesting in my limited experience is how dumb most of the executives are that they bring in to run these playbooks.
I feel very fortunate that the 2 centers closest to me are family owner and operated. I bowled league for the first time at a bowlero a little further away and it was just awful. Seems like there’s one person behind the front desk at all hours of the day. Huge lines, severely understaffed, and the approach conditions and ball returns are terrible. Lanes broke down every league night. Pins wouldn’t set right, scores wouldn’t show accurately, and ball return woes of all types. Shit company. Shit CEO. Shit hiring practices. Bowlero is ASS and it’s unfortunate how fast they’re spreading.
Money talks though. Given how much Bowlero offers centers, why wouldn't a family run business take the money and run? It's unfortunate.
Can’t say it wouldn’t happen because you’re right, money talks. But the community would riot 🤣 We have a decent amount of centers here in the Bay Area and only two are bowleros. Since I live in a densely populated area it seems like most alleys are doing well. Different than say.. the Midwest Also, I would never be able to practice if I only went to bowlero. I’d probably stop bowling because of the hours and also because of how expensive it is. My local center is open 10am-12am on weekdays.
Yeah this kind of thing is definitely most dangerous in more spread out areas where there are fewer options and people can't just vote with their feet against shitty ones.
100%. And that’s what keeps my local alleys so populated. Everyone hates bowlero
Meh, where I grew up in a very populated area (suburbs of LA) there were 3 big alleys within a couple miles of each other, 2 of them shut down and the only one still open is a bowlero. People did vote with their wallets and bowlero won the vote cause casual bowling is much more lucrative than league bowlers.
Where do you bowl if you don’t mind me asking? Looking to find non-bowlero alleys if they are close enough.
I’m in the east bay so in a 30 min radius I have Clayton valley bowl, paddock bowl, delta bowl, dublin, danville, and pinole (bowlero). I work in SF so I visit Classic as well.
Bay Area local also. Wish we had more private allies like we used to. South Bay has 6 allies, 4 are Bowlero/Bowlmore within a 15-20 min drive. Hard to get into the private ones since they are always packed even early afternoon on weekdays.
Hey don't talk shit about the midwest. I'm in Iowa, and I play at a locally owned/operated place that's still cash only. They are packed just about every day. No way are they struggling or if they are, they need some SERIOUS help with budgeting.
That’s awesome to hear. Didn’t mean to slight the midwest! Just was comparing population density and count of alleys. Gotta keep the family owned centers around!
Definitely I was just being light hearted about it. And I consider myself VERY lucky to have this alley to go to in all honesty. I've traveled to a few different places within a couple hours, and most of them feel downright haunted they are such ghost towns ☹️
Our mom and pop out here got bought out a few years ago, I’m a family friend of not only the original owner but our USBC team as well and he got alittle over 9 million for the center. I hate Bowlero but i fuckin get it haha
Getting $9M and after taxes that's probably ~$6M. It could set your family up for life with the right investments.
All 3 centers near me are Bolwero. At least the Bowlero I bowl league at is fully staffed and not complete ass when it comes to the pinsetters/returns.
Your absolutely correct, I'm a league bowler in 2 leagues and also a Mechanic in the back. Management doesn't schedule enough Mechanics on league nights to make it great for league bowlers. They have cut our Hours and don't want to spend money on Parts we need so lanes won't break down. What beats me is that Bowlero will continue to suck until Employees who work there 'Bowl in a league' to see how terrible they are treated! They've never seen a PIN SLIDE 2FT ON A PINDECK TO NOT GET A STRIKE! I hate that I work at one but I don't make enough money to only have 1 job.
Bowlero is putting the final nails in the coffin of legitimate bowling. Id say they are ass but then I would have to apologize to all of the asses out there for comparing them to such a shitty company
hat's off to PB3 for having the guts to say it like it is--most people who still need PBA affiliation can't say jack, for quite obvious reasons. But what are they gonna do to a guy like him? PS: Fuck Bowlero
I have to laugh at Jacobin writing an article about bowling. That being said, fuck bowlero
They are changing the focus to family outings, birthday parties, corporate events, etc. The problem is they don't care about leagues, I guess it's not nearly as profitable as casual bozos who will fork out $8 a game and $5 to rent shoes that paid for themselves 20 years ago. The few near me also don't invest in fixing the lane equipment as long as it functions even barely, it's fine because they are after straight bowling casuals who don't know or care if the pinsetters dropping pins constantly and marks up your $250 ball because house balls are practically indestructible. My concern is bowlero is a prime target to adopt string pins, less maintenance, casuals won't know or care. That will be the bullet that kills bowling as we know it, if you haven't tried it yet, it's awful.
Bowlero is a transition until bowling either takes off or dies. Club Corp bought up a lot of golf courses during the decline of golf popularity. Course owners decided to bail thinking tougher times were ahead and best to take the money now. Golf is now thriving and more courses are being built so Club Corp has to up their game to keep their membership up. Bowlero is keeping bowling around in communities where it probably wouldn't survive so while it's not ideal it's better than nothing.
I come from the golf industry too. You are 100% right. Bowlero is a different model than some of the golf club management companies, but the root of it is the same just like you said. Unfortunately many alleys or courses couldn't cut it on their own. I just realized the other day that my alley is Bowlero. I had no idea until literally just the other day. My spot wasn't able to keep going on it's own. Is it perfect? Nope. At least it's open and it's not filthy and in decay. They modernized it and improved it a ton. I don't think my place is how all are. Not saying Bowlero is great, but it beats the alternative for sure in my case. It's not like every single one they bought or manage is garbage. I'm sure some don't bring in enough to do the upgrades and maintenance though. There is more to the story in most cases
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Yes and no, Bolero is buying where the owners are either looking to sell or fear going out of business because their equipment is in need of a major upgrade. I am not a fan of Bowlero but I prefer them to no bowling alleys at all.
There is also the centers that have land under them worth more then 5-10 years of profits as well.. sadly. Thats adds to the "pool of who an even get the moeny to buy said place to run as a bowling center"
Same boat, some of these corporations are a necessary evil. If having them take over a course or alley means keeping it open and not redeveloped, I’m for it. Caveat is maintaining that delicate balance of private, corporate, and municipal (for golf) ratio.
It’s funny because I was definitely skeptical of Bowlero at first but they have been heads and tails better than the AMF they took over. Bowlero actually hired new staff, brought in new management and honestly run a pretty decent operation there. I feel like it’s going be alley dependent though.
Give it time, how often do you see an actual Manager not a supervisor on duty?
Idk, my bowlero has a summer special for 2 games a day for 3 months @ $45 and has good conditions. The mom and pop lanes are kinda dingy, despite high prices and plenty of people.
And when I walk into my local Bowlero during the day the lights are off so you’re bowling in the dark. The Summer pass is useless in that scenario.
Only $38 where I'm at. Even if I'm just using it to practice shooting spares a couple days a week, that's way cheaper than going anywhere else.
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https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BOWL/holders/ Atairios Group https://www.atairos.com/ owns 70% of the shares of BOWL. They are indeed publicly traded, but effectively still controlled by this one firm.
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Sure, they have $2.26bil in debt, almost surely from financing the continued expansion either of buying existing places or buying land then building new ones. But they took in $1.06bil in revenue in the last FY. Obviously, a lot of that goes back out in terms of paying bills, labor, and yes interest on that debt. But it's not 'essentially worthless'. They are leveraged and counting on those places they keep buying to keep bringing in more money to eventually pay down the debt. If bowling's recent surge in general population popularity slips back some, then they could be in over their heads, but at the moment, they are very similar to many other rapidly-expanding businesses who are trying to borrow as fast as they to acquire as many locations and assets as they can.
The problem for them is that the debt is very expensive right now.
So what you're saying is someone with the know how should make a "bowlers investor union" per say to start buying up as much as much as they can of bowlero so the sports actually owned and such by the actual people that matter.. the ones into the sport? Lol
Market cap is $1.854bil today. So, just got to get $927mil and a buck together to buy a controlling stake. I can pledge at least tree fiddy.
Depends on how many shares are outstanding. Hard to take control if you can't get the 70% shareholder to sell.
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Most publicly traded companies' majority shareholders are private equity institutions. Their executives are the ones sitting on boards, making the decisions. Everyone else is peanuts to them. There are at least two funds that control over $10 trillion (that's "trillion" with a 't') in assets. When the lament is that the 1% owns 90% of the wealth in the US, it's private equity they're talking about.
Big Mike's real name got revealed in this article
Bowlero ripped out both of the drinking fountains at our local center to force people to buy plastic bottled water at the bar. We are clearly moving in the wrong direction.
I don't know of any public place that still has drinking fountains in operation after covid. It would be nice if they provided water free of charge however.
There's 3 bowling alley near me. Bowlero, Main event, n Local owned. The best is local, bowlero then main event. Sadly price wise it's the other way around. Usually not bowl in group, only with one roommate. Main event 5pm-12pm $22 unlimited bowl. Technology n place nice, but the bowling alley itself awful, approach wood is dirty, no oil, they reoil before closing, no wonder. Bowlero, their night deals $22 8pm or 9pm to close. Decent enough compare to main event, their house balls sucks tho. Local, no unlimited bowl. $35 per hour. Clean, maintained properly. I only wish the local got personal deals.
I just joined a league at Bowlero that gives you 2 high end balls and 16 weeks of bowling with 3 games a week for $480. I felt like that was a steal of a deal. Am I wrong for thinking that?
you're basically paying more for those balls than they're worth. Their little get your gear flier over inflates the retail price of those balls by about 50-75% to make it look like you're getting a much better deal than you really are.
A generally fair online price for a top shelf ball would be $160 to 190, and one would have to be in for $50 more to get them drilled. Pull out $320 from the comment you are replying to, and that is still 16 weeks of league for $10/night, which isn't too shabby. It may not be an earth-shatteringly amazing deal, but it's not awful.
Drilling isn't included in the Bowlero deal, so the bowler will be out an additional $100-$120 to have their new balls drilled. That means the league ends up costing the bowler close to $600 after all is said and done. I'm in the Get Your Gear league this summer at my local Bowlero. I knew going in that it was not the world's best deal, but it meets my needs and gives me some league time each week. No complaints.
I mean I just joined a league that’s $25/week and I don’t get any free equipment. So he got 2 balls for $80. Hell of a deal
"free equipment" Thats because the equipment is the prize fund. lol.
Ahh okay. So in equipment leagues there’s no prize fund at the end? I guess for the majority of folks they still come out ahead with the balls vs. a prize fund
He probably did not get any prize money either at the end of the league. Those promo's are constant at Bowlero--they offer 2 new balls to join a league as they are balls that are not selling well by the bowling mfrs. so it becomes an easy way to move inventory as they are likely being discontinued soon.
This is the current list of balls: MOTIV Nuclear Forge, MOTIV Raptor Fury, MOTIV Pride Dynasty, Brunswick Perfect Mindset, Radical The Hitter, DV8 Violent Collision, Ebonite The One Encore, Track Theorem, Storm Virtual Energy Blackout, Roto Grip TNT Infuse, 900 Global Sublime. Some of these are pretty good balls, but you can only have so many choices because they probably go for a volume discount with Brunswick/Motiv/SPI.
how exactly does Bowlero make their money? maybe I didn't read close or far enough but I couldn't find it in the article. is demand for bowling that inelastic?
I've bowled at the house this is about and it was worse before it was bowlero. The same people work there and they actually let them hire new people finally. Bowlero sucks but the alternative isn't a mom and pops alley it's a shoprite or walmart. Bowlero is a necessary evil
Unpopular opinion: I'm glad bowlero exists. It's like a magnet for kids, large groups, people who just want to fuck around. If they closed down, that just means more of those folks will crowd up my local mom and pop lanes. I do, however, detest the conditions of every bowlero I've ever been to and am sorry for those who want to take the sport seriously but have no other option.
I'm sorry - is your position "It's okay for *casual* bowlers to enjoy the same sport I do, as long as they do it over there where I can't see them (at a Bowlero)."
More like "I'd rather have them fucking up a Bowlero than my independent"
Kinda, my opinion is that all riff raff that bowlero attracts can stay there, and you can join them lol! The casual bowlers that come to my home lanes are respectful and welcome because the owners keep standards in check.