When Waialae Bowl closes at the end of the month, there will be just three public bowling alleys left on O'ahu.

And when Pali Lanes in Kailua closes in December 2009, only Aiea Bowl and Leeward Bowl will remain, further squeezing league bowlers who have had to look for new venues because of the closure of 28 bowling alleys since 1960, when bowling was at its peak on O'ahu with 31 facilities.

"Bowling nationwide is coming to an end," said Frank Yamamoto, owner of the Waialae Bowl. "The expense of running lanes is just getting too high. There's just so much more to do. You've got soccer, football, video games. ... You can't blame people for that."

Yamamoto made his fortunes through real estate and investments. He bought into the Waialae Bowl in 1958 because he saw it as a boom sport with lucrative offerings. For years, he said, it was a very profitable business. The first 10-year lease he signed, rent was just $8,000 a year and one lane, a game, cost just 25 cents.

Fifty years later, the businessman in Yamamoto tells him it's time to move on. He said the last pin will drop at Waialae Bowl on Feb. 28 and on Feb. 29 the keys will be handed over to Kamehameha Schools, which owns the land.

"We lost money the past two years," Yamamoto said, declining to say how much. "Fortunately, from my past years I had reserves to cover the expenses. People don't like to talk about the costs, but that's what it comes down to. We've been paying $272,000 a year to lease the land, and another $100,000 in property taxes each year. Electric bills run around $7,500 a month and you have a lot of other expenses. If we had signed a new lease it would have gone up at least 6 percent and we would have had to increase the cost of a game to at least $4.35 (from $3.35)."

At Pali Lanes, Emma Jean Tamala, the general manager the past five years and a bowler at the facility since 1973, said costs and timing are also the reason the Pali Lanes will shut down when its lease expires in December 2009.

"Our electric bill is $9,000 a month and you have other expenses like oiling the lanes and replacing the pins at least once a year and that can be very expensive," Tamala said. "Our owners are older and believe it's time to move on. The owners of the land want to redevelop Kailua town. They have plans for this property."

When Waialae Bowl closes, it will be the second bowling facility in less than a year to shut down. This past June Kam Bowl in Kalihi, also known as Mak Bowl, closed its doors.

One group that's interested in keeping Waialae Bowl open is the Honolulu Bowling Industry Steering Commission, a group of bowlers who came together last year at the urging of City Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi after Mak Bowl closed and Waialae Bowl announced its closure plans. The commission's mission is to either save Waialae Bowl or find investors willing to work with the city and build a new facility.

"We've been told by Kamehameha Schools that there are parties interested in Waialae Bowl and we've asked that if those plans fall through we can talk to them," said Ed Sun, a longtime bowler representing the Steering Commission. "When we put this commission together, in one month we had 10,000 signatures representing more than 40,000 bowlers who have no place to go."

The City Council last year passed a resolution to look into land options for a new bowling center, but none could be found, Kobayashi said.

"We subsidize baseball fields, soccer fields, swimming pools, so why not a bowling center?" Kobayashi said. "We didn't propose to use city money, but we asked the city to find a parcel of land for someone to start a bowling alley and do a joint venture with a private party. None was available."

As for his bowlers, Yamamoto said several will be joining leagues at one of the six military base lanes. Those lanes have it easier, he said, because they are government funded and don't have to worry about land costs.

"I wish all the luck in the world to the people who run bowling alleys, but it's not the same anymore," Yamamoto said. "Now, you have to make it an 'amusement center,' with arcade games, other things, food, drinks. It's different. And arcade games are also dying because of all the portable games on the market."

For Janelle Tanna and Elias Nakahara, two 21-year-olds who recently had all 20 lanes at Waialae Bowl to themselves during open afternoon bowling, news of impending closing didn't sit well.

"We've been hearing rumors about this place closing since we were in high school," Nakahara said. "If it does really close, it'll suck. We've got plans in place to join a league at the Kane'ohe base lanes, but I've spent half my life at this place since I started bowling when I was 10."