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Stardust Lanes Sparkles Anew
By Robert E. Martin
Back in 1964 bowling was almost if not equally popular as The
Beatles when Stardust Lanes first opened its doors to the public at 3570
Bay Road in Saginaw Township. Spanning an expanse of 80,000 square feet,
the facility was a crown jewel in terms of area entertainment, offering not
only a vast expanse of 64 lanes, but also the splendor of The Orbit Lounge,
which featured national entertainment and possessed the pizzazz and class
of the finest lounges to be found in Las Vegas.
But times and places change.
In the 1960s and '70s, bowling was at its heyday. None of the competition
from VCR's, video arcades, and shopping malls existed, and in this area
especially, bowling was the main leisure-time activity.
By the 1980s, bowling started to decline because it had nowhere to go but
down. Of course, this created new challenges to owners throughout the
area. And as Stardust General Manager Don Montalbano explains it, in the
Saginaw area especially, "all the centers relied on league bowling. 'Open'
bowlers couldn't get a lane half of the time because proprietors didn't
hang their hats on it."
Over the course of time, Stardust owner Gary Richards decided it was time
to start looking at the numbers of families and young people going out at
night and devise a program to capture their attention. By creating
different events for families, children, and young adults, augmented by
instituting 'short season' leagues; things started to turn around.
Today, Stardust Lanes is like a golden Phoenix rising from the ashes once
again. "This past season business has been very good, with open play
up 35
to 50 percent every month, and that trend has continued through the
summer."
"What this has enabled us to do is put in spanking new state-of-the-art
Brunswick Automatic Scorers, "continues Don, "and we are tremendously
excited about it."
The new additions will be installed this July and consist of 36-inch
monitors, new masking and foul lights, with graphics that tell a bowler
their ball speed.
"We've gone from the old style 25-inch monitor that only told your score
to
a system called Frameworx that allows the bowler to not only keep track of
his score, ball speed, and direction, but also enables people to play other
games like poker on the scorer. It introduces a lot of great things you can
do and adds a whole new recreational component for the non-league bowler,"
notes Don.
Yet, even without this exciting new addition, Stardust's business has seen
an incredible resurgence.
"We turned over a lot of staff and have introduced all variety of league
and open play," explains Don. "The busiest time is during the Fall
& Winter
season, which starts right after Labor Day. The traditional bowling season
is a 32-34 week stint which finishes in April, and not everybody wants to
bowl that long. So what we do is offer a 12-week league from September to
November, as well as many different shorter term flights."
"Occasionally we'll have the random 'parking lot problem' ", comments
Don,
"as do most bowling centers. This is simply because when you go into a
bowling center people know you're going to be in there for a couple of
hours, but we are working very hard to eliminate that."
In addition to bowling, Stardust also features Hotshots, which sports 17
pool tables and a bar. "We just added a couple of 9-foot Brunswick tables
for the serious player, and of course we have the bartop tables for the guy
that wants to play with his girlfriend that has never shot pool before,"
smiles Don.
"But basically, we offer a good entertainment value dollar-for-dollar and
it just gets busier every year."
Other new additions at Stardust Lanes include current bar remodeling in
Bleachers, which upon completion will feature Karaoke and other lounge
entertainment.
"Our Rock 'n Bowl on the weekends is very popular with kids and we've just
started our 'Summer Run' on Friday night at 10 pm, which is hugely
popular," notes Don. "Plus we feature 'Family Night' which allows a
buck
for bowling, a buck for shoes, a buck for hotdogs and pop, and that is also
immensely popular in the summer months."
According to Don, the biggest challenge is dealing with public perception.
"People will go to a golf course and crop 30 bucks for 18 holes and not
think a thing about it. But if they go to a bowling center and pay $2.50 a
game it's like - Oh, my gosh! It's hard to find anywhere you can go for a
couple hours and spend seven bucks, so I think we offer incredible
entertainment value. And with the new and fun things we are doing, it is
changing public perception more and more each day. We are adding things to
make this center more fun and cater to the non-league bowler."
In terms of what he feels distinguishes them from other bowling centers in
the area, Don is precise. "We try to provide a higher level of
service," he
explains. "If you look like you've never bowled in your life, we'll enter
your name, find a ball for you, give you pointers, and try to add programs
to our leagues that other people don't have."
"We have a tournament at the end of the season that any league bowler can
enter for free," he continues. "People have the chance to win a
thousand
dollar purse and we do that just to say 'thanks' for being a league bowler
with us."
"We also offer a 'Bowler of the Month' program where people can win a
thousand bucks or a big screen TV, and offer incentives for bringing
friends in to bowl. So basically, we concentrate on adding value to the
experience. It isn't just a matter of coming here to bowl and then going
home. We strive to make it more fun."
With 2,500 people a week using the Stardust facility, Don says the staff
also strives to make each person's bowling experience fun and fair. "We
clean the lanes every day and use a state-of-the-art lane machine. You deal
with different types of people every day and a bowling center is a big
place."
"There is more going on here than you might think," adds Don.
"I've been a
supervisor at GM and run huge restaurants and also worked in a bowling
center for 15 years. This is much more challenging, in my opinion, because
you have to wear a lot of different hats."
"We also do company parties, birthday parties, and a little bit of
everything. But mainly, we work with people. If they want to bowl for only
8 weeks, we'll try and work with them. "
"But what makes me happiest is the fact that business has grown so. This
center has turned around nicely and I'm very happy about that."
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