The grand reopening of Wildcat Lanes

Renovations to Weber State University’s Wildcat Lanes were recently completed after five months of planning. A grand reopening was held after the lanes were closed for the last portion of the 2023 fall semester.

The upgrades to the lanes, which are located on the second floor of the Shepherd Union building on the WSU’s Ogden campus, were installed within a two weeks period. They featured improvements to the scoring system and pinsetters. The lanes were modernized through the installment of touch screens which allow players to take photos of themselves, share to Facebook and play interactive games while bowling.

Graham Sodom, retail manager at Wildcat Lanes, believes that the renovations were a long time coming. The lanes were originally constructed in the early 1950s and featured Brunswick A pinsetters, one of the first models of pinsetters.

“1962 is when we switched over to the A2 style pinsetters, which was the modernized version,” Sodom said. “We’ve been running strong with the exact same ones ever since.”

The renovations will help workers keep the lanes running smoothly.

“The old lanes would break a lot and you’d have to go back and kind of mess with it. Since it was like a machine, it was almost similar to fixing a car, where you’d have to figure out what was wrong,” Joshua Hancock, a WSU student who works at the lanes, said. “But this one, it’s electronic. We go back there, and most of the problems are solved by pressing a few buttons, so it’s really nice.”

These improvements were completed with the goal of increasing student activity at Wildcat Lanes. As part of these efforts a free activity was held on Jan. 24 from 4–8 p.m. to celebrate the grand reopening of the lanes. As part of the event the lanes organized a giveaway with prizes featuring a mini fridge, free bowling punch cards and a bowling ball package donated by Storm Bowling.

“We’re trying to have the Grand Reopening Event and other events to kind of show, like, hey, we have new lanes. There’s a lot of new improvements happening here,” Hancock said. “We love it when there’s a ton of people in here and the vibe’s really high.”

Sodom says they are trying to become more modernized and think of new ways to engage with both students on campus and the Ogden community as a whole.