Weekend in Byron!

Went to Rochester this weekend to help Kara and Kenny move into their new house. It is a very nice place in Byron about 8 miles east of Rochester. It has all the important stuff. Local schools. grocery store, Dairy Queen and of course a bowling center. Saturday was spent painting and moving. I painted the downstairs bathroom and ceiling and no I am not a professional painter. Made several trips from their old apartment and was able to get most of the big stuff moved thanks to Kyle's help. It went well except for the fact they are on the third floor and there is no elevator. Let's just say I got plenty of exercise. That night was the local street dance in  the parking lot of the bowling center featuring Hair Ball. We hung out at the house and had a few cocktails, watched the Vikings game, before walking over. It was only a couple blocks behind their house the only problem was there was no direct path, so being the smart and already drinking people we decided we could cut across. Needless to say, it was quite a trip, over the river and through the woods comes to mind, walking through fields and heavy woods and across railroad tracks, but we did make it. It was a fun time listening to all the songs of my younger days and drinking $4 double Barcardi's. It was a big turn out and well put on by the center. Hats off to them and we will be back again next year! The one thing about going to Kara's house is that we get 4 dogs together and it makes for very little sleep. Between barking and dogs jumping on me in the night Deb and I didn't get much sleep. It was a long trip home on Sunday as Deb and I were both too tried to drive but we did make. Was in bed by 8pm and got a good nights sleep. Damn I'm getting old! Congrats to Kara and Kenny on their new adventure. Hope to be able to visit again soon.

Pain in the ass!

So, it's been quite the last few days. I worked a long shift on Saturday only to find out that someone had hacked into my e-mail and facebook accounts and changed passwords and chatted with people as me trying to personal info from them. They also managed to get into my sisters account. I spent some time on Sunday fixing my account only to find them changed again on Saturday night. It really sucks because I like my e-mail address but if this continues I am going to have to shut down both accounts!
Then today I get a call that the Ultimate Sports that was to host the Road to Milacs qualifying tournament on Saturday is canceling due to they want to book fantasy football drafts. It really pisses me off that this is the second time he has done this and believe me it will be the last! Called McCann's to have it there and they have a car show that day so no go. It looks as if we will have it at the Clearwater Legion, but I hate to give them business as they just canceled the Sunday game even when they have been getting 30-40 players a week. What other promo can they run and get that many weekly regular customers. Most places would jump at that kind of attendance!

How do you really feel!

My wife recently read my blog about Granite Bowl closing and told me that I kind of sugar coated it and should really say what I really think, so here goes. The Granite Bowl was build back in 1939 and was run by me for 10 years. Yes, I did have 3 other partners but none of them were day to day operation managers. Before me was the Higgins family. They ran it for over 40 years. It was run as a family owned business for most of those 50 years. Then it is sold to the current owner, that believed that I had no idea what I was doing. Even though sales went from 250,000 a year to well over a million during my tenure. When I purchased GB it's sales were 90% from league and tournament bowling. When sold it was 40% league and 60% open bowling. I worked very hard to get the college and high school age customers to come to the center. These are the people that had discretionary income to spend and would spend money on food and beverage as well as bowling. The 1st thing that current owner did was to drive away most of the 60% of open play which in turn drove down food and beverage sales. Now if you read any industry magazine open play is the future of the industry and most proprietors are working to bring this customer in and he was driving them away. So, it's no surprise to me to find him in his current situation. Now if you read the article that was posted in the local paper http://www.sctimes.com/article/20110818/BUSINESS/108170047/Owners-merge-bowling-centers-Southway-St-Cloud-s-lone-center you would think that his current move was for the good of the bowlers when in reality it was maybe his only way to not have to file bankruptcy. Now the real question is why would my brother actually lease his business to a man that couldn't make GB work. Even though South is a nicer center its location is not near as good as GB. The old adage is Location, Location, Location. GB is a much easier center to get people to come because of this. The cold hard fact is my brother could care less about the bowlers of St Cloud attested by the fact that since I have left both centers they have been in a tail spin and South has been allowed to fall into a dirty mess and  has been losing money every year. They are just waiting for debt to be paid off enough to sell to anyone and get the hell out. So, by leasing to the GB owner they can get money to payoff what they owe and the bonus is if it losses money it would come from someone other them. The loser of this is the bowlers of St Cloud. They are losing the best location for a bowling center and local landmark. They have an owner that is headed for bankruptcy and another that could care less about them. The winner is Great River Bowl which has continued to do things the right way with a combination of bowling, food and beverage. The only problem is if you live anywhere south of division it is a long way to Sartell to bowl and you pass many other entertainment options to get there. What really could happen is the closing of GB is opening the chances of Brunswick coming into town and create a bowling entertainment center. They have done all the work and have a model already drawn up for here. I would recommend the old Sam's Club or Walmart buildings. Great location with lots of parking. For the morons at South quit screwing with the customers and get out if you don't care!

Post 200

Well, I have now reached another milestone post! Number 200. What to blog about? I think it will be another poker post. Last weekend was the 1st ever CMPPA Heads Up Event. Even though I had to work I was able to play a couple of matches. It was interesting watching heads up matches. Most bar players have very little experience in heads up play and it really showed. Many matches were over in a hand or two. The blind structure allowed you play good poker for 1/2 hour and then it turned into an all in fest. There was also matches that went the distance as tight players waited for big hands. Note to all you tight players, any two cards can be good in heads up. It's not about the cards It's about out playing the other player. Yes, you do still have to get lucky and win your coin flips but in general the more aggressive will win heads up. My hand of the day was in my final match against a good player. I had A-J hearts and was not the dealer. Player limped and I raised. He called. Flop is J-10-3 two hearts. I check he moves all in I call. He turns over QQ. Even though he has a pair bigger then me I am still a 51-49 favorite. The turn is an ace to give me two pair and a 82-8 lead. Turn is the only queen he can hit to take me out. LOL! We should have been all in preflop but he chose to slow play his QQ and it almost cost him. Better luck next time to me.

Thanks to all that keep on reading my Blog! I am going to try and write more often.

The end of another era

It has became public beginning next week the Granite Bowl will be closing it's doors. It's maybe the end of an over 60 year era. I am very proud to have been part of it's existence for over 10 years. I believe that I brought a little life to the place by making it a fun family bowling center over my run there. I do believe that at some point it will be reopened by someone with the right passion for the industry. Bowling is an ever changing business and unfortunately the current owner didn't have the insight to move the center in the correct direction. Too many proprietors today are relying on an old school approach to their businesses and not realizing that the casual customer is the future of their industry. The days of 32 week league bowling season are coming to an end along with bowlers bowling more then one league a week. To get the occasional bowler to come into a center it requires the following:
A clean center including the bathrooms and kitchen area.
Fresh and modern equipment.
Excellent staff that enjoy their jobs.
Well priced bowling, food and beverage prices. It doesn't mean that you have to give it away you just need the customers to feel that they are getting value from their experience 
Thank them for coming. It's a small thing but very important!
Too many owners believe it's a build it and they will come industry, when it is all about customer service. The public has many options for it's recreation dollars you have to make them want to come back!
Did I do everything right during my tenure at the Granite Bowl. Certainly not, but I believe that my family and I gave it our best efforts. A few good things did come from my time at GB. I met many great individuals and developed many new friendships. The CMJTT and SMJTT junior bowling tournaments came into existence and bar poker became a permanent fixture in MN. High School bowling became a bigger program and became a letter sport at Tech high school.
Many people have asked my " why don't you buy the Granite Bowl again" and the answer is it will take a great effort to rebuild the center again and I have already did it once. Now it's someone different turn.
So I say goodbye to an old friend or hopefully until we meet again!

Summer

It has been a great summer so far. I have spent a lot of time at the lake. Fish have been biting most of the summer and the weather has been good most of the time. My daughter got engaged and bought a new house in the town of Byron MN. Went to the Night Ranger, Foreigner, Journey concert with Kara, Kyle, Kenny, Kris and Debbie. A good time was had by all and included a tumble down a few rows and it wasn't even the old couple! LOL! Work has been good and keeping Debbie and I busy but at least we get time at the lake. Debbie is switching from every other weekend to every third. Should be better for her not sure yet how it will all play out for us being off together but we will see. Got a couple of vacations planned including a December Kauai trip for our 50th birthdays with Kara and Kenny and a first for me a spring break cruise to the Mexican Riviera with Kyle and Kris in March. My new chainsaw has gotten quite a workout this summer with all the rain at our lake place trees have been falling a lot on our bluff including the last one that landed on the stairs. Luckily it only took out one 2x4 and it can wait until the mosquito's are gone before I fix it. Also at our house our back yard fence was damaged during the big storm that hit our neighborhood that knocked down 100's of trees. Luckily most of ours survived and I only had to clean up what fell from our neighbors trees. It did take 5 loads to clear it all out, but got some great firewood for fires for next summer. Still don't play much poker and hardly miss it yet. Did go to casino and play one tournament but missed the final table by one spot, but that's good for the run of cards that I had that night. Just started working on the schedule for the 10th season of my Jr bowling tournaments and it looks to be another great season for the youth bowlers of this area with the help of Kara, Royal and Rob. Thanks guys. That's about it for now. I will try and not take a whole month before I blog again.