My son and I rattle around ideas to bring more life into the sport and more money.
Years ago a local big company sponsored a league for their workers. The company my husband works for gives scholoarships to family members. When it was locally owned, one of the owners sponsored him in bowl for kids sake, a buck a pin!!! He bowled over a 200. Thanks to that donation, we got a free trip to Atlantic city that year.

It's a fortune 500 company, I think now.
Got plants all over, bought out our local one to grow on the East coast.

We were talking, it'd be different if Major Cities competed in Bowling like Football or something. Get some big name corps to sponsor them.

With the right proposal and well planned out idea I bet somehow it could happen.

Get companies that have company leagues to put on a BIG company against company event once a year, Winners of league get to go free!!! That would be cool in my humble opinon.

Years ago when my husbands company was smaller I wrote the owner about something, he was special, he called me on the phone to answer my letter!!!

Been so many buy outs over the years, never know who he'll be working for in a few years. One owner used to give him tickets to Hershey Convention Center for their conventions. That was cool!!! New company doesn't do that.
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Kathy, From PA!
Big mouth, loves to talk.
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I wish I knew as much about bowling as my son.
He's not a bragger but mom sure loves to share his good times!

I work for a large corp.  We used to have an annual bowling tournament against Shell Oil.  No money involved, just a trophy and bragging rights.  Well, the Shell refinery closed down.  Now all the company will do is subsidize our plant bowling leagues.

I like the idea.  San Diego & Detroit have their traveling ambassadors, St Louis is getting a group together and all 3 cities send teams out once or twice a year to compete.

Last year they all came here to St Louis.  Visionary was great in picking up the tab for all the games we bowled here.  Thunderbird Lanes covers everything in Detroit.  Not sure who sponsors Sandiego.

Unfortunately, we have to cover our own expenses for travel, lodging BUT, at least it is a start.
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~~~SrK - Have balls, will travel

1st law of combat, "Bullets always have the right of way"

Well ok, I wasn't going to give this idea away, but what the heck.  Let's hear what you all think...

When a buddy of mine asked how he could get some sponsors to put him into tourneys, the wheels started turning.  Looking at Michigan, let's take a medium sized city like Traverse City (where my friend is from).  Say they hold a qualifying tournament to get on a Traverse City All Star Team.  The qualifying event would be a LOT of games over a few days to make sure we get the right people on the team.  

Once on the team, the members will get together to organize bowl-a-thons and other fund raisers.  They will also seek local sponsors.  All of the proceeds go toward tournament entry fees and travelling expenses.  They would bowl in singles tournaments and other various tournaments, and if enough teams started to pop up, we could start holding State Team Challenge events for them to compete in.  Perhaps most of the money raised would go toward big money events like high rollers, super hoinkes, and ABC Masters, while each member would still be required to pay for their own entries in some of the smaller tournaments since the entry fees aren't so bad for most local events.

I think this could bring back team bowling and maybe even encourage the league that Proudmama is talking about in this thread.
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Brian
MichiganBowling.com
http://www.MichiganBowling.com

Famous Last Words of a Pot Bowler--"Ok, but this is my last game!"