Walt Rubel Commentary: Let’s go bowling and ice skating

Bowling and ice skating are both coming to Las Cruces.

During a State of the County Address last week, County Manager Scott Andrews announced that the county intends to add a seasonal ice skating rink as part of a larger upgrade at the Fairgrounds.

A temporary ice skating rink was constructed several years ago as part of a Christmas celebration at NMSU, but Las Cruces has never had its own seasonal ice skating rink. Skaters at the NMSU event were experienced on roller skates, but going from wheels to blades was a whole new experience.

County Commission Chairman Christopher Schaljo Hernandez said during a recent community radio interview that the county has put out a request for proposal seeking a private company to build and manage the rink from late November to February.

Schaljo Hernandez said he thinks the Fairgrounds have been an underutilized asset. The proposed ice skating rink is just one way the county will try to bring more people to the site. New microwave towers will improve high-speed Internet connections at the Fairgrounds.

While ice skating may be coming to Las Cruces for the first time, bowling is coming back for the first time since 2018, when Ten Pin Alley was closed. The old K-Mart building off Main Street on Bataan Memorial is being converted into a family entertainment center that will include 24 lanes of bowling, along with six lanes of duckpin bowling for kids.

That means for the first time in seven years Las Cruces residents will be able to join a local bowling league and compete in local tournaments. Because of our lack of facilities, bowling will not be offered this year when the state Senior Olympics are held in Las Cruces. Cornhole is in, bowling is out. It’s a new day.

Bowling’s heyday came in the 1960s, following the invention of the automatic pinsetter. Both of my parents were in a bowling league. Dad was serious, mom was there to socialize. In the mid-60s there were an estimated 12,000 bowling centers. By 2007 that number was less than 5,500.

The book “Bowling Alone” in 2000 predicted many of the troubling societal changes that we are grappling with today. Suffice it to say people were happier when they were bowling in leagues.

Which they will soon be able to do again in Las Cruces. 

The entertainment center will also include indoor pickleball courts, laser tag, bumper cars, sports simulators and a 5D arena.

Local developer Kevin McGrath said in a recent radio interview that the pickleball courts will be ready to open first, by September or October, and the rest will be ready by the middle of next year.

Bowling in Las Cruces will forever be connected to the horrific bowling alley massacre of 1990 in which three adults and four children were murdered. Police are still searching for the killers. But that crime had nothing to do with the sport. 

Like pickleball, the popularity of bowling is tied to the fact that it is accomodating to both serious competitors and those just playing for fun. We have gone for too long without it.

By the winter of 2026, we may be able to go ice skating in the afternoon and bowling in the evening. That sounds like a fun day.


Walter Rubel can be reached at [email protected]

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