UW SWAP strikes big with Union South bowling alley auction

January 6, 2009

8:30 PM

Bob Wright

Eight lanes for $17,503. If that was a contractor's bid on a highway project, the figure would be laughed off as too lowball to be serious. But we're talking bowling lanes here, and $17,503 is the winning bid on the Union South bowling lanes. It was posted by (Surplus with a Purpose) facility closed the online auction.

For that price, the winning bidder gets eight lanes, eight A-2 pinsetters with spare parts, 16 sets of pins, eight scoring consoles with CRT monitors, Brunswick Frameworx software, printers, a back-office computer, five stationary ball racks, a machine for cleaning balls and pins, four ball-return racks and lifts, six tables and 30 seats, manuals and a few other odds and ends.

This is all pursuant to the dismantling of the Union South Games Room and the demolition of Union South itself. The building is being taken down to make way for a

The decision, Wright says, "came down to it doesn't cost that much more to get new equipment." Auctioning off the old gear, he adds, also removes any worries about the prospect for unknowns, such as the possibility that it might be damaged during the two years it would have been in storage.

The Union South Games Room has returned its air hockey and foosball tables, electronic dart and video games to the facility's vendor, Modern Specialty, Wright reports. Other items remain in the Union's possession, he adds: The lane-dressing machine was retained because it doesn't take up much space and is thus easy to store. Ditto the orange pool stools and all the trophies and plaques that were on display in the facility. "Those we keep," says Wright, noting that Union South sponsors the UW men's and women's bowling teams, and that the men's team is carrying three straight Wisconsin Collegiate Bowling Conference titles into this year's championship, scheduled for February 7-8 in Manitowoc.

The Union South Games Room also put nine pool tables up for auction via SWAP, fetching bids of between $376 and $502 for each -- once again well north of what Wright had been forecasting before the auctions closed last night. When the new south-campus union opens, it will have new pool tables.

The Union South bowling alleys have seen heavy use, Wright notes. For the last five years, each lane has averaged 8,528 games per year. No telling how many strikes and 7-10 splits that adds up to, but he notes that the Union South bowling facility has been averaging 27 leagues per year in recent years, with an average of 820 league bowlers. It has also hosted an average of 141 group reservations per year, from birthday parties to a wide variety of campus groups who have gone bowling there.

When it opens in 2011, the new building will have the same number of bowling lanes. It will also have a wealth of new resources, including a climbing wall. How this might affect the level of use for the new bowling center remains to be seen.

Given the steady demand of recent years, Wright expresses little concern about the prospect of any drop-off. He also notes the level of interest excited by the auction itself. "We've gotten a lot of calls," he allows. Emails, too, from people asking about the possibility of purchasing one of their favorite balls, or an old pin to have as a souvenir. He's been saving all the emails in case the winning bidder chooses to entertain such inquiries. The whole auction experience, he concludes, "has been an interesting process."