So the wrecking ball finally caught up with the old Marshall Bowl bowling alley building. Wednesday morning, motorists who traveled down East College noticed the large excavator taking bites out of the building.

No one should be surprised a savior didn’t jump in to reopen the business before Wednesday’s demolition. More than three years ago, the owner of the bowling alley was quoted in the Independent that he was shutting the business down.

“It’s not for any one particular reason,” Bruce Shover said. But he mentioned costs, assessments for street work, minimum wage increases and legal costs. And he also mentioned he was facing some health issues.

Soon after news of the demolition hit the streets, area naysayers filled social media with finger-pointing comments. They claimed city officials and long-time “greedy” business owners only want to “kill businesses.” They blame the City Council for having no vision for developing a vibrant community. Their rally cry: Why didn’t the city step in to help save it?

The short answer is cities normally don’t dictate what private business owners or developers should do with their properties. Smart business owners and developers are going to invest in what they believe is going to give them the best return.

The long answer is bowling alleys are dying. Not just in Marshall or Minnesota. They are dying across the nation. The Marshall Bowl closed in May, 2015. That same month a USA Today article reported that the number of bowling alleys fell to 3,976 from 5,400 in the time period between 1998 to 2013 — a 26 percent drop.

The simple reason for the decline — at the time costs are rising, the number of bowlers have declined. People don’t have the time to commit to league bowling. The decline in bowlers started in 1999 and the sport hasn’t been able to recover those lost bowlers ever since.

All this doesn’t mean an investor willing to gamble on the sport couldn’t have revived the Marshall Bowl. Bowling alleys that have survived or thrived have combined the bowling with sit-down dining, a bar, arcade games and other entertainment. However, many of those types of venues are in much larger population centers than Marshall.

Business owners have to make profits to stay in business. That’s the bottom line.