AMF Bowland Lanes in Granite City, Ill., closed on July 9, leaving the steel-mill town on old Route 66 without a bowling alley, reported the Suburban Journals.
According to longtime bowler Terry Hogue, the bowling center’s shutdown came abruptly:
“Nobody got any warning or anything,” said Hogue, 72. “They came in (last) Monday and told ’em to shut it down.”
Now he’s wondering what will happen to his Hogue’s Route 66 Pro Shop, 103 Lenox Ave. in Mitchell.
“I’ve got folks that still come into the shop,” he said. “They don’t know where they’re going to bowl.”
Tom Bennett, general manager for Bowland, said the Granite City bowling center was one of a number of locations AMF closed because they were underperforming.
Bowland would have marked its 55th year in October. The closing took 15 jobs with it.
The city’s bowlers said they probably would patronize lanes in nearby Collinsville, Ill., and unofficially boycott other alleys owned by AMF.
Bowland was a 5050 Nameoki Road, on a 1926-1954 alignment of Route 66.
That’s the prominent third bowling center on Route 66 to become a casualty in the past decade. The Rose Bowl in Tulsa closed as a bowling alley in 2005, although it’s been periodically reopened as an events center. And the 66 Bowl in Oklahoma City closed in 2010.
The sport of bowling has been declining in the U.S. for decades. In the 1960s, there were 12,000 bowling alleys. Now, there are less than half that number.