Bowling centres in Ardent gun

ARDENT Leisure will close down an unspecified number of its AMF bowling and entertainment centres as it looks to carve costs from its bottom line.

Chairman Gary Weiss could not say how many centres or whether they’d yet been earmarked for closing.

The company has recently closed four bowling centres at Dandenong, Cannon Hill, Kedron and Panmure in New Zealand.

It operates one AMF centre on the Gold Coast at Robina.

Former Australian Bowling Association Noel Ambler said it was “disappointing” Ardent planned to close AMF centres.

“I’d like to make the point that some of those centres weren’t underperforming until Ardent started managing them,” he said.

Dr Weiss said there would be no bowling-specific hunt for a new CEO.

“The venues are moving very much to multi-entertainment facilities — bowling will still be undoubtedly a significant component of our new facilities moving forward.

“I do appreciate that for the pure, traditional league bowler that this is a different format than what they’re used to but this is very much the direction that we’re taking.”