AMF Sportsman Lanes

AMF Sportsman Lanes is the largest bowling alley in town. They refinished the old JC Lanes (now Ali's) downtown on Crawford St. and opened it up a few weeks ago. However, they only have approximately five lanes. This is much larger.

There's a lot of league play at AMF, which isn't very surprising. You may want to call ahead to find out if there are lanes open or when the best time to come in would be. Generally speaking, it's quite the standard bowling alley. The food isn't all that great, but I don't go to a bowling alley for food. I suppose the smoking ban in Ohio was a fortunate change for nonsmokers, as I remember Sportsman Lanes having the classic curtain of cigarette smoke inside before the ban. Always be thankful for what you have.

It may not be on the list of "painting the town red," but it is definitely something to do on a Friday night with as few options as Findlay has.

This is actually the ONLY bowling alley in Findlay.  Well, there is a small, tiny one that not too many people know about (nor is it open yet...?).  But this place is just what you usually expect from an AMF bowling alley.  Several lanes, people enjoying their bowling.  Pretty open area.  The tables can get real cramped.

One thing that made me lower the alley's rating is the FOOD.  This may be from when I was part of a work league and had to suffer every Tuesday night at this bowling alley.  

I always had to remember to eat dinner somewhere else before going bowling.  When I forgot and needed to order something from the cafe, I dreaded shelling out $7-$8 for food that is prepared very slowly and many times way below par.  

One of my colleagues one time had bad sour cream served to her.  I on a couple occasions ordered the grilled chicken sandwich (because it was one of two healthier options on the menuboard) only to find it was a little piece of chicken with a lettuce on top.  This also happened to me on a grilled chicken wrap.  Lots of $$ forked over with not a lot of food or quality in return.  From then on, I only ordered either the cheesesticks or the pizza.... which wasn't bad, but I still paid up... but I guess what do you expect from a bowling alley right?

They improved a little bit on speed where they hired a runner to grab the food from the kitchen and served it to you.  However, that's like saying we're cutting the wait time from 1 hour to 40 minutes.

On the bowling end, if your bowling ball gets nicked on the alley, they fix it for free (don't know if this is just a league thing).  Lanes get real greasy often, so be careful.  Lanes break ever so often, so good luck.  

One BIG thing I did not enjoy is that smokers stand right outside the entrance.  I always need to hold my breath every time I enter and exit.  I believe this violates Ohio's smoking code......