Southland Lanes in Pinellas Park, open since 1986, has been sold to make room for townhouse development.
By LORRIE LYKINS
Published September 4, 2005
PINELLAS PARK - There was no sign on the door announcing that the Southland Lanes bowling alley was closing.
Except for the clearance sale Wednesday evening in the pro shop and the plaques that had been pried off the wall and piled on a table, there was little indication that the end was near.
But it was.
The summer league wound down this past week, and it would be Southland's last.
The bowling alley, which opened in 1986, closed Wednesday. After almost 20 years of operation, Southland was sold for $3-million to make way for 62 new townhouses. Details about the deal have not been made public.
"I guess you could say I'm jumping for joy, but I really am sad too; we had a lot of good times here," said Charlie "J.R." Sarley Jr., 52, whose father, Charles Sarley Sr., owns Southland Lanes.
Sarley Sr. also owns the land that houses the Southland Roller Palace, in front of the bowling alley, on 66th Street. The skating rink will stay for now, but that could change down the road, Sarley Jr. said.
"The bowling community is like a tight-knit family. We didn't have to put signs up that say we're closing," Sarley said. "All we had to do was tell one person, and the word got around fast enough."
The family had been looking for a buyer for a while.
"Three dollars a game doesn't go too far and doesn't do much for you when you have taxes and insurance to deal with," Sarley said.
The land, he said, is more valuable for housing than bowling.
"They'll be really nice townhomes with two-car garages," he said, adding that he is involved in the real estate business and hopes to sell some units at the future complex.
The timing of the closing was a tough decision. The Sarleys could have stayed open a bit longer, they said, but they wanted the closing to coincide with the end of the summer league.
"We wanted to do the right thing, and we wanted to allow the summer league to finish bowling," Sarley said. "We could have started the winter bowling league and made some money, but if we had the league on the floor then all of a sudden closed, I wouldn't be able to face these people, so we know we did the right thing closing it down now."
It's unclear where the regulars will go. Southland is the third mid-Pinellas alley to close in the past year or so.
Sunshine Bowl, on U.S. 19 near the former Pinellas ParkSide mall, was damaged in a hurricane last year. It was later destroyed in a fire.
AMF Kenneth City Lanes was sold and closed this summer.
"I'm going to miss this place and the people," said Judy Allen, 56, one of Southland's seven employees.
"I had 16 teams signed up here for the winter league. Now where do they go? That's 64 bowlers right there," Allen said, shaking her head.
No music played, so the air was filled with the sounds of ceiling fans creaking, the steady squeaking whine of the ball returns and the cacophony of balls hitting the floor and pins being struck and toppled, a steady rhythm of thump, roll, crash.
Ten of the alley's 24 lanes were occupied. Most bowlers went about their games quietly, especially 14-year-old Paul Stamper, who picked up a ball, poked the nosepiece of his wire-rim glasses and approached the lane. He threw another strike, the fourth one in five minutes. Then he hitched up his baggy cargo shorts and sat to watch his bowling partner, a man about 50 years his senior. The two have bowled together often and played this night for half an hour without exchanging a word.
"Paul has been bowling here for five years. We live right down the street, so this has been home for us," said his mother, Bonnie Stamper, 43, who sat and watched.
Paul, an eighth-grader at Morgan Fitzgerald Middle School, will bowl in the youth league at Sunrise Lanes in St. Petersburg.
He owns four bowling balls. His best score so far was a 246.
"I shot that here," he said quietly.
The coming townhouse project isn't the first such project in the area. Two large condo/townhome projects already stand on 66th Street, between 78th and 102nd avenues. The Palmbrooke and the Plantation developments are juxtaposed to used car lots, small roadside restaurants and mobile home parks on 66th Street.
The bowling alley offered a little bit of everything to its patrons - a video arcade, a snack bar, a pro shop and specialty balls with leopard prints or images of Mickey Mouse or Tom and Jerry.
The liquor lounge featured raucous evenings of karaoke and Southland's version of the Gong Show.
Some guys from the summer league teams planned to stop in today for one final goodbye. But much of what they loved about Southland would be gone by then.
As the night ended, a woman approached Sarley.
"What I was wondering was, can I have the gong?" said Ruth Ann Morton, 44.
Sarley chuckled.
"You want the gong, huh? Yeah, Ruth Ann, you can have the gong," he said.
Morton disappeared into the Hideaway Lounge and quickly returned with a small brass gong. She placed it on a table and stepped back to look at it.
"This is going to go on our mantel at home. We'll take it down and use it during our NASCAR parties," she said.
Sarley took the mallet off the stand and whacked the gong once, shaking his head and smiling.
"This came in handy, especially with the really bad karaoke singers," he said.
"Yeah, we always found ways to lose money, but we had some good times here."
Times staff writer Anne Lindberg contributed to this report.
