Executive Suite: John LaSpina
John LaSpina, seen at Farmingdale Lanes in Farmingdale, says grassroots marketing is key to his bowling business. (Feb. 22, 2012) Credit: Jeremy Bales
You can't sit and wait for customers to walk through the door, says John LaSpina, president of Maple Family Bowling Centers, a 52-year-old family business that owns bowling alleys in Coram, Farmingdale, Rockville Centre, Flushing and Brooklyn.
He's faced decades of fierce competition, tenfold insurance rate hikes, anti-smoking laws and video games that lured kids away from bowling.
LaSpina adapted by increasing marketing efforts and transforming the game he loves. He courted parents by building toddler-sized lanes with ramps to push the balls down, and added glow-in-the-dark bowling. He built a portable lane to lure outside fairgoers back to the game.
LaSpina, 63, even hired a fundraising staffer and has hosted events that raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charities (including more than $40,000 for the Bowlers to Veterans Link, which helps veterans and active military enjoy morale-lifting recreational and therapeutic programs), and holds annual scholarship championship bowls in his father's memory.
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