# Civic Matters > Suburban & Other OK Communities > Norman >  HeyDay Expansion - $9 mil for bowling and meeting space

## venture

Story in the Transcript for tomorrow (paper was delivered today) has on the front page HeyDay's $9 million expansion. Will include a new 24-lane bowling area (increase from their original plans since AMF isn't rebuilding in Moore), 9 meeting rooms, a new adult only area with alcohol as an offering, laser tag, and more arcade games. It will triple the size of the facility and look much more upscale.

Everything will open Fall of 2014.

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## catch22

Cool.

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## Easy180

Very nice!

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## Plutonic Panda

Any renderings? This seems awesome!

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## venture

Yes there is a picture on the front page of the paper. I'm not sure if they'll update the website today, considering they delivered the paper a day early. So may have to wait until Thursday.

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## kevinpate

Building an empire, little by little.  Good on them.

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## venture

Story is now online but no photo: Bowling goes white collar at HeyDay  Headlines  The Norman Transcript

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## shawnw

Sorry if this has been asked before but are HeyDay and Andy Alligator owned by the same people?

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## venture

> Sorry if this has been asked before but are HeyDay and Andy Alligator owned by the same people?


As far as I know...they are not.

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## shawnw

Thanks. That's good, so they'll compete somewhat for business. I love that they took into account the AMF going away and expanded the bowling. Hopefully they'll go after those employees as well...

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## kevinpate

> As far as I know...they are not.


You are correct. They are competitors. These are game places, not towing services or cabs.   :Smile:

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## Zuplar

While I've never been sounds like an interesting addition. I never see advertisements for it. Maybe if they did they'd get some major business. I only ever here people talk about Dave and Busters which sounds like the same thing for the most part.

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## kevinpate

> While I've never been sounds like an interesting addition. I never see advertisements for it. Maybe if they did they'd get some major business. I only ever here people talk about Dave and Busters which sounds like the same thing for the most part.


Hey Day is more of a Celebration Station plus than a D&B, but they are growing. They also have a soild word of mouth going for them. I hear folks from parents of small ones to 20 somethings gabbing about the place, and doing so frequently.

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## shawnw

I like their half-price laser tag after prime hours...

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## catch22

> I like their half-price laser tag after prime hours...


I was a zombie several Halloween's ago.

You could choose a team and play against the Zombies.

Was pretty fun, got paid to play laser tag from about 5pm-midnight Friday and Saturday night for the month of October...Friend worked there and they asked for help so I helped out for a few weekends.

And had a one night stand on one of those nights with a customer, plus all the free pizza I could eat. 

Good times.

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## Garin

Trey Bates owns the Andy Alligator.

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## Garin

This thread should be combined with a similar thread under "Wither Moore bowl?"

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## venture

> This thread should be combined with a similar thread under "Wither Moore bowl?"


Umm no. 1) This thread is about Hey Day, not AMF Moore.  2) Hey Day is in Norman and not Moore.

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## kevinpate

It appears I was in error regarding ownership, as Bates is involved with both. Did not know that.

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## Garin

> Umm no. 1) This thread is about Hey Day, not AMF Moore.  2) Hey Day is in Norman and not Moore.


We'll the Amf Moore website is linked to the heyday Facebook page.

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## Plutonic Panda

NORMAN — HeyDay Entertainment has plans for a nearly $9 million expansion that includes a two-level, 24-lane bowling alley at Interstate 35 and Indian Hills Road.

The Lanes at HeyDay will include 16 bowling lanes and four private party rooms on the lower level, and eight bowling lanes and three private rooms on the upper level, along with an upscale lounge with a fireplace, island bar, televisions and games.

The expansion will give the Norman entertainment venue owned and operated by Norman residents Brad and Keri Little and Trey and Tracey Bates about 42,000 square feet of indoor space, in addition to the existing 18-hole miniature golf course outside.

- See more here: HeyDay plots multimillion dollar expansion, including bowling alley | News OK

Here is the rendering:

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## Zuplar

> Hey Day is more of a Celebration Station plus than a D&B, but they are growing. They also have a soild word of mouth going for them. I hear folks from parents of small ones to 20 somethings gabbing about the place, and doing so frequently.


That's interesting. Honestly I've never heard anyone talk about it. I hardly even notice it off the highway. I remember seeing it one day and was like when did that get there, and my wife was like it's been there for years. I would say the same holds true for Andy Alligator's, although recently I've seen some commercials for them.

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## Tavia

Andy Alligators also opened a waterpark a couple of years ago, it has been pretty successful.   A large apartment complex is being built nearby....probably going to get really busy.

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## Easy180

If you have younger kids you definitely know about Andy Alligator's...I'm guessing Hey Day is for older kids because out of 10,000 birthday parties I have had the pleasure of attending none have been there

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## Tavia

HeyDay has miniature golf, laser tag and arcade games, Andy Alligators has games, go-karts, rock wall, bumper boats etc.

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## Garin

HeyDay also has a pretty good pizza buffet, just don't go during high school lunch hours.

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## cdoyle

HeyDay and Andy Alligators are not owned by the same people.  

HeyDay is owned by Brad and Keri Little and Trey and Tracey Bates.

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## cdoyle

HeyDay does appeal to more of the older kid, teenager, young adult, and adult audiences.  The laser tag arena is multi-level and is 7,000 square feet.  You need to be at least six years of age to play (the packs can be a bit much for a small child).  There is also indoor ropes course, miniature golf, and an indoor arcade.  DoubleDave's Pizza is also located inside of HeyDay and is awesome!  Fresh made dough daily - nothing frozen.

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## kevinpate

> HeyDay also has a pretty good pizza buffet, just don't go during high school lunch hours.


That applies to most pizza buffets in Norman when high school is in session.   :Smile: 
When my lunch breaks were in large part dictated by munching with coworkers, timing around the student population was often a part of the decision process.

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## Soonerman

I take it the High Schools in Norman have open campuses for lunch.

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## kevinpate

I think they still do.  My youngest left high school a few years back.  These days my typical grab lunch tends to hit prior to 11 or after 2, depending on what I have been doing and when i started at it.  As a result I tend to miss crowds of all ages when I eat lunch.

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## Garin

They do but the Southmoore kids hit it also.

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## Jeepnokc

> If you have younger kids you definitely know about Andy Alligator's...I'm guessing Hey Day is for older kids because out of 10,000 birthday parties I have had the pleasure of attending none have been there


I'm the opposite but may be because of age.  My youngest is 11 and we have been to a bunch of birthday parties at heyday the last three years but I have never been to Andy alligators

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## shawnw

IMAG1435_1.jpg

Dirt moving on this site...

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## Plutonic Panda

Any updates? Pictures?

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## venture

Just some big concrete walls still, nothing very photogenic. :-P

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## shawnw

The expansion is really pretty massive. Kind of dwarfs the original building. Been meaning to take/post pics. Lately I've been wondering if they purposely chose the location/orientation of the extension so that it would block the view of Andy Alligator from the highway right up until you're almost past it...

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## warreng88

Drove down to Norman on Sunday and it looks like they were framing out the entrance in to the new section. Once they get a roof on it and get everything secured, it should move pretty fast, assuming the second floor is already in place. They are just putting in some bowling lanes and party rooms really. Wouldn't be surprised to see it open by the end of the year.

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## Easy180

Ate at Boomerang tonight at 89th & Western and our waiter said they are closing at that location and opening inside Hey Day with a different owner. Said it should all be open in September.

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## Plutonic Panda

Not past their HeyDay: Co-owners of Norman entertainment venue up their game with expansion | The Journal Record

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## macfoucin

I think the expansion looks great!  I drove by this morning and they have installed lights around the front of the building that cycles through different colors.  They sorta remind me of Riverwind.

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## warreng88

> Not past their HeyDay: Co-owners of Norman entertainment venue up their game with expansion | The Journal Record


Not past their HeyDay: Co-owners of Norman entertainment venue up their game with expansion

By: Molly M. Fleming The Journal Record October 21, 20140 

NORMAN – HeyDay Entertainment co-owners Brad Little and Trey Bates opened the venue in 2007 with laser tag, miniature golf, arcade games and DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks.

They spent $6 million expanding the facility from 14,000 to 50,000 square feet. The new space has 24 bowling lanes and an entire second floor for guests age 21 years and older, along with other new upgrades.

“We saw there was a need for places for adults to go and have fun,” Little said. “There’s nothing like it in this area. We wanted to create an experience that no one else had.”

The expansion had been in the works for two years, long before new competitor Main Event announced plans to move into the Oklahoma City market.

“We’re really committed to the community,” Little said. “We asked ourselves, ‘What would people be proud of?’”

One element they knew people would want was a bowling alley. When the AMF Moore Lanes announced it wouldn’t reopen following the May 2013 tornado, Little and Bates wanted to give a bowling venue back to the area.

HeyDay is at 3201 Market Pl. in Norman.

The expansion was designed by Oklahoma City-based Cornerstone Architecture’s principal owner, Shane Labeth. He has designed bowling facilities around the country and was glad to do one in his backyard.

LaBeth said the challenge with the project was to make it appeal to children and adults. That was accomplished using stone columns and warm-colored furniture and accents. Bates and Little gave their wives, Tracey Bates and Keri Little, credit for picking out the decor.

“They have been a huge part of this,” Bates said.

The facility was built by Miller-Tippens Construction. The project broke ground in December 2013 and will open Monday. HeyDay closed in August while the final touches were added. Miller-Tippens Senior Project Manager Tony Scorsone said the company often turns projects around in a short time period.

He said the company has worked with other projects that needed to stay open as long as possible during construction.

“It’s always a challenge, but it worked out pretty well,” Scorsone said. “We were segregated pretty well. It didn’t affect them too bad until we had to knock a hole into the existing wall that went into the new place. Once we did that, a whole new set of challenges came in with keeping it safe and secure.”

The closure allowed for the new addition to be completed with the highest quality. Everything at HeyDay was made bigger and better, with the game room now having 50 arcade games underneath a ropes course. Next to the game room is the 7,000-square-foot renovated laser tag arena and a laser maze, which Little said is Oklahoma City’s first maze. The laser maze features laser lights shot across the room in a crisscross pattern. Players must maneuver through the lights without hitting them.

Between the game room and the bowling area is a renovated seating area. The room has a large television screen for sports and four smaller screens that show what’s happening in HeyDay’s other areas. He said the smaller screens will let parents watch their children while using the venue’s Wi-Fi, as well as give patrons ideas for what to do next.

There is plenty to do next, with an updated 18-hole miniature golf course in the back and 16 bowling lanes on the first floor. The bowling area features two large screens showing sports or music videos. The alley is outfitted with television screens and audio. The system was designed by Oklahoma City’s Ford Audio-Video Systems Inc.

The second floor is where Little and Bates took the venue into a whole new market, creating Revolutions, the 21-and-up area. Bates said he and Little are committed to being a family entertainment center, which is why the second floor, built with an age exclusion, was important. The area has furniture and tabletops for seating. There’s also a pool table on the floor.

“If you have a parents’ night out, the last thing you want to do is take care of someone else’s kids,” Little said.

The second floor has a full bar with several craft beers on tap, and even a bottled HeyDay beer made by the Great Divide Brewing Co. in Denver. It also has eight cherry-wood bowling lanes and a climate-controlled patio.

Guests can access the bar menu and DoubleDave’s Pizzaworks on the patio or anywhere else in the venue. They can also enjoy the newly added Boomerang Grille.

The restaurant became part of HeyDay when Bates and Little were thinking about how they could expand the food options. They thought about Boomerang’s theta burger and how they’d like to offer something like that. Bates said it then hit them – why not offer the real deal? They called Mike Lawrence, who operated the only true original Boomerang in south Oklahoma City. Lawrence closed up that shop and is now working with Bates and Little, serving Boomerang’s iconic menu.

“It’s just exciting,” Bates said. “Mike’s an important part of our team.”

The HeyDay staff has expanded to fill the new spaces, growing from 47 employees to 110. Bates and Little are still learning their names, but they’re glad to have so many young people in whom they can instill the values of hard work.

The staff will deliver the first-class experiences that guests can expect with the new expansion.

“We’ve poured everything we have into this,” Bates said. “I can’t wait to have the doors open and have people come in.”

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## Plutonic Panda

HeyDay Reopens following a $6.5 Million Expansion

News | The Moore Daily

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## Plutonic Panda

Norman's HeyDay entertainment center renovation adds more fun | News OK

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## Dustin



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## traxx

> 


The poor guy at :20 is gonna be mortified with how he looks when he sees this. He keeps kicking his leg up every time he throws.

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## Pioneer

Here's a little video of some friends and I and the new bowling alley @ HeyDay... The place looks awesome.. Very well done.. I'd say it's Norman's Warren Theatre for Bowling

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## ljbab728

> Here's a little video of some friends and I and the new bowling alley @ HeyDay... The place looks awesome.. Very well done.. I'd say it's Norman's Warren Theatre for Bowling


Are those video boards above the pins always going?  I cant' imagine anything being much more distracting for a serious bowler.

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## shawnw

that's how it is at redpin

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## ljbab728

> that's how it is at redpin


That may be fun but, as someone who basically grew up in a bowling alley many years ago, that would not be conducive to good bowling results.

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## xa3021

My girlfriend and I went to the new Heyday just a few days ago (had a free $5 arcade card), while it was nice looking it was way too expensive and too cramped. All the arcade games were $1 or more and you barely had any room between the games in the arcade. Walked around just checking everything out and noticed it seemed cramped everywhere. Took a look at the bowling areas, which looked very nice (reminded me of RedPin), but I'm not exactly sure what the price was to bowl (there was a big group at the counter paying or something), but I did hear you have to pay extra to rent out shoes, which I thought was a little odd (but maybe that's normal now-a-days). We ended up going over to Andy Alligators to play some games and there were way less people and the same exact arcade games were half the cost! We had a blast at Andy Alligators and never once felt cramped. Now I know Heyday is "new and shiny" but for the price and not feeling cramped everywhere you go, Andy Alligators is great! Although, If the pricing isn't ridiculous, I would like to try out the Heyday bowling, one thing Andy Alligators doesn't have.

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## Jersey Boss

FWIW- I have always had to pay a rental fee for shoes in the bowling alleys that i have frequented, usually a buck or two. This is nothing new or unique to now-a-days.

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## jn1780

I have never been to a place that didn't charge a shoe rental price unless there is some kind of weekday special going on.  I don't really consider it an extra charge. I  just think of it as not getting a discount for having my own shoes.

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## Easy180

Big group of us reserved lanes upstairs last Saturday night. I was very impressed with the upstairs. Really nice bar, pool table, plenty of tables and our server said they were putting in a dartboard. The lanes were excellent and the setup was designed for a good amount of socializing and drinking. 

You actually pay for the lanes and shoes down stairs and they bring them up. This place is an excellent addition to the Moore/Norman and our group will definitely be spending some cash there over the years.

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## kevinpate

Haven't been to HD yet, but as for show rental, I've not rolled a ball in several, several years.  But thinking as far back as goof-off nights in my juco days at the end of the 70's, there have been shoe fees everywhere I have ever gone of you did not bring your own.  Gotta cover laces, Stink B Gone spray, and replacements somehow.  Never thought anything of it.

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## shawnw

I went in December and was pleased with the changes

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## Plutonic Panda

HeyDay was voted the top entertainment center in North America.

News | The Moore Daily

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## Questor

Awesome, that's quite an honor. The upstairs is really nice now, it's sort of a cross between a D&B and Red Pin. Also there are lots more food choices now. 

The arcade downstairs is still basically the same as before. I'm hoping maybe they'll expand it in the years ahead or at least get a little more diverse with the game offerings available.

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