RENO MAYOR HAS DIVERSIFIED VISION FOR FUTURE OF BOWLING STADIUM

While the United States Bowling Congress continues to make plans for its 2023 Open Championships and additional events at the National Bowling Stadium. Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve says she wants the future of the venue to include the formation of University of Nevada Reno bowling and esports teams, plus a renovation to include technology for hosting large national and international esports tournaments.

According to the Reno Gazette, Schieve has long been a proponent of esports, something she believes can benefit tourism as well as college recruiting. In 2019, prior to the pandemic, the global esports industry was estimated to be worth $1.1 billion, including $34 million in prize money. From a tourism perspective, large esports events attract both players and spectators.

“That is a great place [for esports],” Schieve said of the stadium. “You have the bowling lanes and the screens. You could actually turn those screens into esports screens and you can have them be interactive… So it is really a great multipurpose facility that has never been used for anything other than bowling.”

Schieve also said she was interested in getting greater use out of the stadium’s lower level as the UNR campus continues to spread toward the downtown corridor.

“It is so close to student housing; we want to activate the bottom floor with a great coffee house and also a brewery and those kind of things,” she said.

That level currently includes a substation of the Reno Police Department, the Kingpin Club by Brunswick bowling boutique for small groups, as well as a satellite location of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame. Museum Chair Mike Aulby told BCM he had not been contacted about any proposed changes to the space.