Bowling for dollars
If Kona Lanes goes the way of the Ice Capades, the Fish Fry Parade
and other Costa Mesa landmarks and traditions that have passed into
memory, we too will lament its loss.
Bowling is a piece of Americana. It is a family pastime of old
that leaves many of us with nostalgic memories.
But nostalgia doesn’t pay the bills. And just like the drive-in
movie screens before it, bowling alleys are fading from the
landscape, mainly because hardly anyone goes there anymore.
Kona Lanes is no exception. It is a piece of the past trying to
roll a hook into the future, but right now, we’re seeing nothing but
gutter balls.
C.J. Segerstrom and Sons, the owners of the Mesa Verde Center on
whose edge Kona Lanes sits, has decided to move forward with plans
for the refurbishment of that property.
Those plans call for the demolition of Kona Lanes and the nearby
vacant Ice Capades. In place will be built a new Kohl’s department
store, a Midwest transplant that has taken off like wildfire.
We will withhold judgment on whether or not Kohl’s is good or bad
for the community. It’s way too early to tell.
But what we do know is that residents who are naturally upset over
the loss of Kona Lanes need to be realistic. They need to understand
that if a business can’t succeed, then something else takes its
place.
The Segerstrom owners know this evolutionary law of the
marketplace all too well.
“Independent of the merits or demerits of Kohl’s, any discussion
of the bowling ally should be understanding of the marketplace for
bowling, and it ain’t that good,” Segerstrom executive Paul Freeman
said. “That’s just the way it is.”
He’s right.
It may not be the what everyone wants to hear, it may not be what
we want to hear, but saving the Kona Lanes from the wrecking ball
will be like nailing a 7-10 split.
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