With the news hitting last week that bowling centers got the green light to reopen, the first question on everyone's mind was - what about leagues? And so the waiting game began for Governor Andrew Cuomo to issue his official executive order.
And then the order was issued . . . and the questions persisted. The order says that bowling centers can open at 50% capacity with every other lane closed and social distancing protocols in place. Let's do a little math, shall we?
Let's take a normal 36-lane bowling center with a maximum capacity of 320 people. 50% of that would be 160 people. However, if you close every other lane, that leaves you with 18 lanes in use. And with no more than 4 people to a lane, that gives you a maximum capacity of 72 people, or roughly 22.5% of the maximum capacity. Even if you allow 6 people to a lane, that's 108 people, or 33.75%, still well below the 50% capacity limit. This basically makes the 50% capacity limit totally moot. So the question remains, how are leagues going to operate if every other lane must be skipped?
The rumors started flying. Pairs can be used. Pairs can't be used. Pairs can only be used with a divider. Pairs can only be used in zip codes with a 3 as the second number. What are the actual rules?
In speaking to Doug Bohannon today, President of the New York Bowling Proprietors Association of America, he confirmed that the NYBPAA Council is handling the nomenclature in such a way that, for league play, every other lane must be closed UNLESS there is a physical barrier separating the lanes, NOT the pairs. In other words, if you want to bowl on lanes 1 - 2, there must be a physical barrier or divider separating lanes 1 and 2, in between the actual lanes.
So what does this mean for winter leagues? Based on what I was told, if you want to have a winter league using alternating lanes on a pair, the bowling center is going to need to have physical dividers separating every single lane. And with most pairs being separated by that little thing called a ball return, this poses yet another obstacle in the way of running normal winter leagues.
Let's get those dividers out, people!
