Brooklyn Bowl, a bowling alley and live music venue with locations in New York, Las Vegas, Nashville, and Philly, is headed to Buzzard Point. The two story, 38,000 square foot complex next to the soccer stadium at Audi Field will have a 1,200 person capacity, 14 lanes of bowling, and a bar with a Southern-inspired menu overseen by New York City’s Blue Ribbon Restaurant Group.
The ground floor will feature a stage, with bowling lanes off to the side (Brooklyn Bowl co-founder Charley Ryan claims the sound of clanging pins doesn’t affect the concerts). To access the bowling, you’ll need a concert ticket.
Expect artists from lots of genres—other locations have hosted Adele, John Legend, Skrillex, Diplo, and Guns N’ Roses. In addition to its regular concert schedule, it’ll hold late-night shows. Quest Love used to play a late one at the Brooklyn venue every Thursday night, Ryan says. Some weekend days, the venue will be open for “family bowl,” where visitors can come to watch a game and try for a strike.
Groups will be able to rent out the entire venue or part of the space for parties. Ryan expects the second floor to be popular for that, since it will have lanes and a good concert vantage point. At the 80,000 square foot Las Vegas location, Nike once converted the space into a basketball court.
Ryan and co-founder Peter Shapiro came up with the idea when they ran venerable NYC club Wetlands—they’d take their staff out for bowling a few times a year. They realized that even though the alley was run down and the food was awful, the staff had a great time. That’s when the pair decided to build a different kind of bowling alley. “There’s nothing new about bowling,” Ryan says. “But we thought the secret sauce could be marrying it with the things that we know how to do, which is food and beverage but also live music.”
Brooklyn Bowl plans to break ground in 2023, and open in 2026.
Keely recently graduated with her master’s in journalism from American University and has reported on local DC, national politics, and business. She has previously written for The Capitol Forum.
