Bowling: A Billion Dollar Industry
1960; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 16; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2469/faj.v16.n1.27
ISSN1938-3312
Autores Tópico(s)Sports Analytics and Performance
ResumoWHEN AN INDUSTRY MOVES at a snail's pace, no one troubles to ask Can it keep up the pace? But when an industry grows by leaps and bounds (as bowling has for several years past) people naturally begin to wonder whether the boom can last. This question has been raised occasionally in financial circles during the past two years, and for that matter, a few individuals in the bowling industry itself have voiced uncertainty about bowling's future. To understand this concern-which is not to share it, as I emphatically do not-one has only to take a close look at bowling's phenomenal growth over the years. While the industry's greatest strides have been made since the advent of television, which helped popularize the game, and the introduction of automation in 1952, the upward surge got underway much earlier. When the American Bowling Congress was established in 1895, its roster of regular, organized bowlers contained a mere 2,000 names. Since there were only 13,000 additional bowlers, playing on a more or less irregular basis, this brought the total bowling population that year to a meager 15,000. But from that time on the bowling ranks have been growing, and growing rapidly. By 1920 approximately a million Americans were bowling; by 1932, five million; by 1943, 16 million; and today, the bowling population numbers an estimated 261/2 million, of whom some four and a half million are registered ABC bowlers. This explosive growth in the number of bowlersaveraging 63% a year over the past four decadesnaturally created a burgeoning market for bowling equipment manufacturers. To outfit themselves, this army of bowlers has bought millions of pairs of bowling shoes and mountainous quantities of bowling balls and bags. Moreover, their need for added facilities inspired the establishment of hundreds upon hundreds of new bowling centers across the country; and this, together with the expansion of existing centers, has raised the number of ABC certified lanes from 50,000 to nearly 100,000 within the past decade. The result of this growth is that bowling, including new facilities, game fees, and players' equipment, has now become a billion dollar industry. That's the picture today. But the question, as I indicated earlier, concerns the future. Will tomorrow tell a different story? Is the bowling boom likely to continue? The answer, in my opinion, is yes. And I say this for many reasons. For Recreation: $41 Billion
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