© Mike Fagan / ETA Street montage
Growing up on Long Island, Mike Fagan was captivated not just by bowling but by the electric, packed-house atmosphere at bowling centers during professional events. After a highly successful 13-year career on the PBA tour, the grueling reality of traveling 200 days a year took its toll. Looking toward his future, Fagan retired from professional bowling and enrolled at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Post-MBA, he landed in corporate finance at MGM Resorts in Las Vegas before being recruited by an independent sponsor. The private equity group was rolling up mom-and-pop bowling centers in the Twin Cities, and Fagan was brought in to integrate and modernize the operations of 10 disparate locations.
While the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted their expansion plans, the experience taught Fagan the operational playbook for modernizing legacy bowling centers: centralized IT, online reservations, and unified marketing. Craving true ownership, he left the PE world, did a brief stint in management consulting, and launched his own search.
Tenpins & More
Fagan focused his search on the Dallas-Fort Worth area (where he lived) and on bowling centers nationally. Through a specialized bowling industry broker, he found his target: Tenpins & More in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, just outside Albuquerque.
The center was a beloved community staple built in the early 1980s, but it was suffering from a lack of reinvestment and a steady 6-7% annual revenue decline post-COVID. The retiring owner had run it for 25 years and cared deeply about preserving the center's robust league-bowling community. Fagan’s pedigree as a PBA champion made him the perfect buyer to carry on that legacy.
The Deal Structure:
Purchase Price: ~$2 million (included the business, liquor license, and real estate).
Real Estate Value: Appraised at ~$1.8 million, meaning Fagan acquired the operating business for roughly $200,000.
Financials: ~$1.5 million in revenue and ~$250,000 in EBITDA.
Financing: 10% cash down ($180,000 funded personally and through friends/family), a 12% seller note, and a $1.8 million SBA 7(a) loan.
CapEx Loan: Fagan had the foresight to secure a simultaneous $600,000 line of credit from the SBA lender specifically for capital improvements.
Because the deal included real estate, Fagan secured a highly favorable 25-year amortization on the SBA loan, making the debt service manageable while he executed his turnaround.
Modernizing a Legacy Asset
Upon taking over, Fagan immediately deployed his $600,000 CapEx budget to drag the 1980s facility into the modern era, focusing on efficiency and revenue generation.
String Pinsetters: The facility still used original 1960s pinsetters, which constantly broke down and required 1 to 2 full-time mechanics to sit in the back and wait for jams. Fagan installed modern string pinsetters. The new tech rarely breaks, dramatically reducing labor costs and downtime.
Food & Beverage Turnaround: The center featured a massive commercial kitchen originally built for a steak and lobster restaurant, but it was losing $3,000 to $4,000 a month. Fagan updated the stagnant menu, adjusted pricing for inflation, and added servers directly to the lanes. Paired with new point-of-sale kiosks, food and beverage sales (and employee tips) surged.
Online Reservations: Previously, customers had to call to reserve a lane with no deposit, leading to massive no-show rates. Fagan implemented an online portal requiring a 100% deposit. On its first weekend, it brought in 20+ prepaid reservations.
The Arcade "Dwell Time": Fagan invested $150,000 to build a 20-piece arcade. When the bowling lanes are on a 60-minute wait, customers now spend money in the arcade and at the bar, monetizing the "dwell time" that previously yielded nothing.
Marketing Unlock
Historically, the center relied on organic foot traffic and league bowlers. Fagan decided to test the waters with digital marketing.
During the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta — a massive event drawing about 100,000 tourists daily — the bowling center was historically a ghost town. Fagan partnered with a league bowler who worked in digital marketing to launch highly targeted Meta (Facebook) ads aimed at tourists looking for evening entertainment after the morning balloon launches.
The campaign generated a staggering 10x Return on Ad Spend (ROAS), driving record-breaking Saturday revenues.
Strategy of Remote Ownership
Despite the heavy operational lifting required to modernize the center, Fagan deliberately chose to manage the business remotely from his home in Dallas, traveling to New Mexico a few times a month.
This is a calculated strategy. Fagan knows that if he lived down the street, he would inevitably get sucked into the day-to-day minutiae — running food, pouring beers, and dealing with customer complaints. By maintaining physical distance, he forces himself to work on the business rather than in it. This remote posture allows him to focus on building scalable systems, managing digital marketing, and plotting future acquisitions.
His ultimate goal is to acquire 3 to 5 locations generating $8 to $10 million in revenue. At that scale, he can afford to build a dedicated corporate team for HR, accounting, and marketing.
While Fagan is implementing modern business practices to drive the highly profitable Friday- and Saturday-night party crowds, his core mission remains tied to his roots. He wants to ensure the facility can continue to subsidize and grow the traditional league bowling community that first made him fall in love with the sport.
