I don't think there's any doubt there will be a sanctioning body. The real question is what will that body look like.
I do think we're likely to reach a point where the wants/needs of the individual members, long put into action through the votes of ABC/USBC delegates, are no longer the rule of the day. The key element is the influence of the BPAA, and the biggest question of all is at what point do you reach where the BPAA is really running things and not the members.
Some people say that point has already been passed, but I'm not talking about what it "feels like." I'm talking about it becoming official and on paper that the BPAA or its operatives within the BPAA-USBC dynamic actually hold the final say on rule changes, awards, etc.
We've passed the point at which a collection of league bowlers could go into convention and come out telling centers what to do. The annual inspection process is pretty worthless right now. Centers blatantly tell volunteer inspectors to "give them a heads up" when it's time to sanction so they know to get things in spec for a week and then after that, it's back to business as usual. I submit that if we held convention next year and bowlers voted to tell BPAA centers that they would only bowl league if the pins were neon pink, the centers would probably tell the USBC to take a hike -- and be able to make it stick.
I am not happy about the minor awards being taken away. You don't give out enough 7-10s or Triplicates in a year to make a real dent in your budget, and the folks that really like those awards are your core customers, typically seniors, for whom it actually means something. That smells like nickle-and-diming at its finest.
With that now gone, basically the only tangible benefit you get by sanctioning is prize fund bonding, and if anyone else ever figures out how to do that cheaper than the USBC does it, the clock will really start ticking. As far as rules enforcement, there's nothing to stop someone from just copying the rules the USBC already has in place and playing by them. So the prize bonding is the last real carrot left in the ground.
Jess
