My bowling first started around 1995-96 and many of you have been around bowling for much longer. We are often fed the stories of how great bowling was....wall to wall leagues any day of the week, morning leagues, late leagues, people bowling leagues for as far as the eye could see. That has rapidly declined. Many centers over the years have closed and many with the loudest voices blame it on bowling being too easy. Too many refuse to believe it has anything to do with the changes in society and the larger options in entertainment. Heard a book, Bowling Alone, mentioned on a talk show the other day in reference to the decline in several different social sports and sports in general along with other social groups and organizations in society. After reading a little over the premise of the book it seems pretty on par with what we have seen and many have tried to discuss with the decline in bowling. Not from a being too easy factor, but from a social change.

Why some choose to believe that in the golden era everyone loved bowling because it was hard and consisted of half board adjustments playing on the 3rd or 4th board I do not know, maybe it helps ones ego.Many videos available as far back as the 1940s and 1950s show professional bowlers playing 3rd or 4th arrow regularly...not 3rd or 4th board. Bowling is every bit as fun today as it ever has been. It can be as easy or as hard as one chooses. So despite USBC trying to define bowling as more of a sport to seem legitimate in the world, or all of the older PBA players saying the equipment made the game too easy...that it needs to go back to when...insert ball era here, instead continue enjoying bowling for what you think it is, not what others try to shame you into believing.

Most bowling centers like other businesses have fallen behind on the times. Most centers and leagues operate off of the same business model as they did in the 1950s. Open doors, offer 36 week leagues, and wait for people to sign up to bowl. Try offering anyone you know the chance to come bowl for 36 consecutive weeks and see the look of crazy you get. Bowling is still great. Once you get passed the hype of equipment sales the rest is pretty straight forward. Try and knock down as many pins as possible. interesting to look at if you get a chance.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone

I would be interested in what proportion of the total population bowls leagues in those countries. 

 Societal changes have played the major role in bowling’s decline. No matter what has caused those changes, they have occurred.

 Jobs and working hours have changed a lot. Entertainment options have exploded exponentially, and finances are tighter than ever.

 The psychology of the American consumer is fundamentally different than anywhere else on the planet. Here, if we don’t get instant gratification, we move on to the next thing, whereas other cultures tend to apply themselves to things to a much greater degree.

 Think of it like two separate choices:

 1. You’re looked up to, respected, and admired for applying yourself to a difficult task, and developing you skills to a very high degree

OR

2. You’re looked at as stupid for wasting your time on something as frivolous as bowling.


 If the same thing will get you admired and respected for in one place, will get you ridiculed and derided in another, there’s not much wondering why it’s bigger there than here.

 They respect bowling as a skilled activity, one that must be practiced to gain the necessary skills.

 Here, were taught it something done on the weekends by drunks. Something anybody can do, if they have the time and money.

I was going yo bring up some similar points.  Us old guys have a little different recollection of the game than some of you younger guys.  Bowling was born in the smoke filled pool  room atmosphere.  While the introduction of the automatic pinsetter brought the game to the suburbs and the middle class,  it was not able to find a niche with college educated professionals like golf did.  This explains to a large degree why golf was able to garner insurance companies, high end car makers, and investment banks as sponsors. 

I was going yo bring up some similar points.  Us old guys have a little different recollection of the game than some of you younger guys.  Bowling was born in the smoke filled pool  room atmosphere.  While the introduction of the automatic pinsetter brought the game to the suburbs and the middle class,  it was not able to find a niche with college educated professionals like golf did.  This explains to a large degree why golf was able to garner insurance companies, high end car makers, and investment banks as sponsors.

Great point. Smoke filled dungeons and shady people along with gambling was a very big part of bowling.  Reading some of Johnny Petraglias stories on it were nothing short of crazy.

Technology also a huge part with oil machines making the conditions more consistent lane to lane,  day to day.  Anyone can go into a bowling ally and throw a house ball and get lucky and shoot 180 plus and think hey I saw a pro only shoot 180 on tv once,  this is easy.  That will never change. Just like some league bowlers thinking them averaging 200+ means they can compete against pros on tv because of scores they see on tv.  Blue oil,  making house shots harder,  lessening bowling equipment changes none of that.


Someone mentioned bowling popularity growing overseas.  Also would need perspective on where they were in popularity in the 50s thru 80s compared to the U.S. and if that popularity includes league memberships.  What formats they might be using as well.  36 week leagues,  5 person teams,  etc. All would be great to know.

In regards to overseas, didn't Japan go through a bowling boom and then bust around the 80s?  At one time they had some of the biggest centers in the world, including multiple story centers.  They must have figured out how to recover from that bust (unlike the USA) if it is gaining popularity again.

Quote from: ignitebowling on January 19, 2018, 09:55:55 AM

Too many refuse to believe it has anything to do with the changes in society and the larger options in entertainment.

I've never understood why this is difficult to grasp/confront.  I've also never understood why exactly a pre-conceived bias with regard to this particular topic is incredibly difficult to break through.....very strange.  It is the answer that is accurate in reality, but for some reason this answer is not appealing to some old school peeps therefore it is disregarded and then it's back on the parroting of.....

Quote from: ignitebowling on January 19, 2018, 09:55:55 AM

the golden era everyone loved bowling because it was hard and consisted of half board adjustments playing on the 3rd or 4th board

Again, bizarre psychology.

There was a writer that used to post a lot here -- Mighty Fish or something like that. I used to get into arguments with that guy all the time about the role of societal change in America vs. ball tech and scoring environment. That guy never believed he ever lost a point, or felt the need to concede a point on the matter. But you'd hear plenty about how he had been in the industry for x-number of decades and the answer was scoring pace.

At the same time, I used to be a member on the PBA.com boards. I've never walked off a message board in my life over disagreements and such until it happened to me over there. You had a handful of regional guys and a couple of touring pros who would engage fans directly, in a negative and condescending way, about scoring pace and ball tech. Brian Voss was the worst. And heaven forbid you disagree with him, because if he did, you had a half-dozen guys come in right behind biting at your ankles: "Don't you know who you're talking to? That's Brian Voss. Genuflect, dammit!".

For a couple of years there, if you came to this site, or went to the PBA's site, and you were an amateur who just wanted to be a fan, or who wanted to be a good league bowler and decent teammate to his friends -- but you didn't immediately start singing from the hymnal of how everything wrong with bowling is the fault of scoring pace and therefore YOU, Mr. League Bowler, since you want to score high -- then you really didn't feel welcome. I had to quit PBA.com to get away from it. Over here, it seems some of the louder ones finally left. But I feel quite a bit of damage was done anyway. Granted these sites are just a fraction of the bowling universe, but what kind of message does it send when you basically had to come in the door kissing *** right from the get-go, or you would be ostracized? Because you da*n sure weren't going to have any of thsoe guys tolerate your viewpoint.

It got to a point on PBA.com where some of the other pros were trying to tell the worst offenders to chill a bit toward the fans. One of my last posts over there raised the point, "How many other major sports have an interactive forum where the players ridicule the fans for not being as good as they are?". It's no accident that I went from either watching live or taping everything PBA-related I could find on TV to basically nothing these days.

Jess

Brian Voss had a video and later a long post about equipment killing the game and how it needs to be dialed back and the only reason he cannot compete to still is the equipment takes away from great shot making…… yet the bulk of Voss titles came in the resin era.


Short memory I guess.  Interesting how many pba plastic ball events Voss has won the last few years or any of the pba shorter patterns where the majority of the field is using urethane and still no Voss.

Time passes everyone by…… doesn't take away from how great bowlers are today.