Length of Season

[papjohn3]

I live in Tennessee. I Secretary 1 league and am President in 2 other leagues.

Every league in our center is being forced to bowl a 35 week season in the winter.

The owners of the center live in the Northeast. I'm fairly confident in saying that all of their northern centers are on a 35 week schedule. Because of climate differences, the northeastern states have a longer "cold" season, which would restrict outside activities. However, in the South, our "cold" season is usually only 3 or 4 months.

After all that being said, I'm trying to learn what other bowling centers are requiring of their leagues, in season length and what they charge for lineage.

And yes, I am aware that we could take the league to another center. Only problem with that is there are only 2 centers and they are owned by the same company.

Any input would be appreciated.

Jack

[Kerry Federer]

Unfortunately, the proprietor sets the season. Each league may negotiate with the proprietor for different season length and costs. Here in Illinois, most of our league are 33 weeks.
If you want to bowl less weeks, ask the proprietor what it would cost per week to bowl less weeks. Sometimes they will add money per bowler per week if you want to bowl less. Tell them you will lose teams if they don't shorten the season (or that more teams would bowl if they shortened the season)
It doesn't hurt to ask.
As for what houses charge for league depends on competition. Our house charges $6.75 per bowler per week for leagues (3 games). (we are in a small city with another bowling center in competition). Less that 30 miles away, there are houses charging more than $10 for leagues. It depends on location and competition.

[Bob Lanouette]

Like Kerry said, sometimes you can negotiate with management over the length of the leagues.
When I took over the Youth Leagues (22 years ago now), the normal season was 36 weeks, which most parents found too long, due to conflicts with other youth sports. What I did was to take a typical number of bowlers we have in a season, figured out how much lineage I was paying the center across 36 weeks.
I then calculated how much I would have to pay per bowler per week to arrive at that same $$ amount over 30 weeks.
Once I showed management that they would be getting the same amount of lineage money across a shorter season, they were more than willing to allow us to shorten our season.
Yes, I had to go up on fees, but the amount was negligible and the parents and kids ended up being much happier.
Essentially you have to talk $$$ with management to get concessions.