After striking a lawsuit win, Triangle bowling alleys can reopen before bars and gyms
While owners of bars and gyms weren’t able to persuade state leaders to allow reopening during Phase Two of the coronavirus shutdown in North Carolina, bowling alleys struck success.
A Tuesday court ruling from Wake County Superior Court Judge James Gale determined that Governor Roy Cooper hadn’t sufficiently defended why bowling alleys shouldn’t be included in the current economic reopening of businesses.
“We were very shocked,” said Melanie Campbell, president of the Bowling Proprietors Association of the Carolinas and Georgia (BPACGA) who filed the successful lawsuit in court.
“Based on the ruling with the gyms and the bars we kind of expected to maybe not get it,” Campbell said to The News & Observer. “...But in the long run we knew that what we were putting out there is good enough. [Bowling alleys] are a safe place and we can make it safe for our customers and employees.”
Now, the 85 bowling centers in the state associated with the BPACGA can reopen again, according to the court ruling, including thirteen bowling alleys in the Triangle.
The court ruling comes with a set of guidelines that bowling alleys have to follow in order to open again, including mandatory masks, hand-sanitizing stations, and designated food and beverage areas.
Since Cooper has said he will immediately appeal the court’s decision, some bowling locations are being cautious in reopening and only some in the Triangle have planned to reopen or done so already.
Triangle bowling alleys
Campbell, who is also manager of Rainbow Lanes Family Fun Center in Clayton, said the 32 lanes at that alley will become 16 available lanes. Mask-clad bowlers will have to be separated by an empty lane in groups of five per lane.
“I am not sure how long this could take,” said Campbell. “That may be what is holding some centers from opening to wait until we get that ruling. But obviously some of us to go ahead and plan to open.”
Since a majority of bowling alleys in the North Carolina are part of the BPACGA, 14 centers in the Triangle alone are able to reopen.
These include the AMF Durham and Pleasant Valley locations, Rainbow Lanes in Clayton, the five Buffaloe Lanes locations, Village Lanes in Durham, Mardi Gras Lanes in Chapel Hill, Kings Bowl in Raleigh, Frank Theatres Cine Bowl & Grille in Cary, Brooks Street Bowl in Wake Forest and Stars and Strikes Entertainment Center in Raleigh.
Fourteen other bowling centers in state are not members, Campbell said, which means they wouldn’t be able to open under the current ruling.
Rainbow Lanes announced yesterday on their Facebook that they would be opening on Thursday at 11 a.m., posting a celebratory status of “We WON!!! Bowling is coming back!!!” on their Facebook page after this week’s ruling in their favor.
But it comes with the risk of being shut back down by Cooper’s appeal, although Campbell says that bowling alleys can prove they are safer places to be open than other places like bars or restaurants.
Three locations of the family-owned Buffaloe Lanes have already indicated they would open this week. The Erwin location opened Wednesday morning. The North Raleigh location plans to open Thursday at 10 a.m., and the Cary location on Friday at 10 a.m.
Bowling in the time of Covid-19
“We can operate safe, if not more safe than other businesses,” said Brandon Wilder, manager of Buffaloe Lanes in Cary, in an interview with The News & Observer.
The wide open spaces in bowling alleys and borrowed equipment like shoes and bowling balls means more control over disinfecting surfaces.
“If you compare us to grocery store, there you’re moving throughout the aisles picking up items and putting those items back,” said Wilder. “In a bowling center you’re not moving about, you’re going to your lane, you’re bowling and we know exactly what you’re touching. We’re handing you bowling balls.”
In addition to distancing markers in the center, food and drinks won’t be allowed on the lanes and an employee will be in charge of disinfecting areas after customer use in Buffaloe Lanes. In the arcade rooms, some games will be shut down and the others will be distanced from each other, Wilder said.
Plans to open other Buffaloe Lanes locations and hire new staff depends on business and the status of Cooper’s appeal to shut alleys down again.
For now, Wilder is happy to reopen.
“Look, we’ve been closed for close to four months now,” he said. “We’re ecstatic to possibly hear bowling balls again going down the lanes, hitting pins.”
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 5:56 PM.
