One of my financial
buddies sent me an article about AMF’s recent bankruptcy.
The article, really a
blog by Randy Hutchinson, CEO of White Hutchinson Leisure and Learning Group
talks about the implications of AMF’s bankruptcy and its causes.
http://www.whitehutchinson.com/blog/2012/11/is-amc-bowlings-bankruptcy-the-harbinger-of-the-death-of-bowling/?goback=.gde_1841652_member_189846333
While the article
made mention of AMF’s financial troubles, it specifically alluded to AMF’s
problems with league bowling. In effect
the article stated that AMF’s problems were the result of “league bowling
dying; the result of an old product that once catered to “the bored blue collar
and factory worker with amusement” in the evening.
Sure the demographics have changed, the economy has changed and sure there are less blue collar factory workers out there, but does that automatically mean that bowling has less appeal because people work in cubicles, rather than work "on the line?"
I don't think so.
To paraphrase, the
article further continued to say …”and since the demographics of America have
drastically changed, the league bowling aspect of the business is no longer
viable. Bowling centers that have not modernized to appeal to the new open play
customer will also eventually die.”
Further, efforts to
bring in people to “bowl in shorter league seasons have also met with
resistance and, yes, the league product is dead or if not dead yet, will soon
be.”
Like Mark Twain who
heard of his death, said, “The report of my demise is much too premature.”
And so is league
bowling.
If Randy White’s
analysis is right, then why do we replace about 20% of our league bowlers every
year with NEW people, but somehow still manage to lose $23% to 25% of our existing
customers?
Why we are able to
interest people in 8 week have a ball programs and have thousands of new people
across the country join these programs? Why indeed?
And finally, why do
we see, regardless of what Randy White may say, more growth in short season
leagues than in the past?
And why, as Randy
White says upfront, do 71 million people still go bowling; about 1 out of 4
people age 5 and older? What other pay
for play activity has that kind of following?
C'mon Man!
Maybe we are getting
smarter in learning how to utilize social media. Maybe our skills at inside and outside selling
are getting sharper. Maybe our centers are
getting better looking. Maybe we are hiring
better people. Maybe because league
bowling, like many products, is an evolving product?
Maybe because we
have no choice but to get better.
Really.
