Author Topic: Can anyone save Pro Bowling? (Read 7166 times)

Bjaardker · « **on:** October 10, 2006, 04:08:15 AM »

(moved this from the PWBA forum because I would like to get more input on this & start a conversation)

I think that saving pro bowing all hinges on the USBC revolutionizing the sport itself & getting people to come back to bowling.

There's no mystique to bowling anymore. When you watch Tiger nail a chip shot from 180 yds out & hit it within 2 ft of the hole, you're in awe. But almost any jackhole can throw the front 5 or 6 now days. It's not magical. If they brought back the sport to bowling, gave people reasons to compete again, then people would watch it on TV.

Why do so many people watch golf? Because so many people are golfing as a sport. People wont watch bowling on TV anymore, because they can't relate to it. Now I know what you're thinking, tens of millions of people bowl every year. However, there's a huge difference between some people going out & bowling for a fun evening, and Bob & the guys getting together on a tuesday morning to hit the links. People are no longer bowling as a sport, it's become just a game, and that's not changing any time soon thanks to an incompetant USBC. It's no coincedence that around the same time ABC dropped the PBA, leagues were folding all over the country & memberships to the ABC & the WIBC were in decline.

IMHO It's going to take a network TV contract to save the pro bowling tours. Without the revenue from such a contract, I don't see the PBA lasting much longer, let alone the PWBA coming back. Only problem is, unless you're producing a product people want to watch, and are excited about, the networks wont be interested. I think this starts with the USBC.

DP3 · « **Reply #31 on:** October 10, 2006, 05:38:39 PM »

In the entertainment/sports world, the games go through cycles. For the past few years, the most budding "new wave" sports have been televised Poker and UFC. Both have a great formula that works in establishing characters and showing how a good work ethic is rewarded.

The UFC, while being around for about a decade, is in a powerful resurgence due to it's ability through television to make their characters personable and establishing credibility. The same with poker. Millions of millions play poker everyday and make quite good money, but even the skilled amatuer doesn't want to sit down across the table starting down Johnny Chan or Phil Ferguson with a ton of money on the line because they know that they'd stand no chance.

Bowling has always had the trouble of making the athletes into "characters". We see Walter Ray and Norm Duke on the show for the majority of the season, but how much do we really know about them? The more you can relate to a persons plight, the more interesting the game becomes.

The PBA has also had the problem of separating the Pro from the Amatuer in skill level. Sure you can spit out technical jargon all day and tell the people at home that they would only average 175-185 on tour while a pro would average 225-230, but that still remains to be tested and seen. The average bowler doesn't understand much of the technical side of their house condition, much less separate what they bowl on from what the pros bowl on and how the pros transition lanes much differently than the house player. For one, as much as we don't want to admit it, I think higher scores will lead to more viewers and help to create a larger than life figure for the guy at home to look up to. Look how excited we were the first show of the season when Tommy Jones was firing on all cylinders and almost shot 300 the first show of the year. Then look at how disgusted we were on the grindouts that had Scroggins making shows every week. We all are fascinated by physical prowess and scoring to a certain extent.

I think for TV, maybe they should experiment with softening them up a bit just to test the waters of bringing in more viewers. Maybe PBA would garnish more sportscenter time if there was more 300-279, 279-268 final matches, instead of 219-180 final matches. The people that we need viewing and participating the most are the ones that are going to be fascinated by scoring and top notch physical execution. Some of us are already set in the mold of "getting bored by striking", but what about that larger percentage that's "getting bored of sparing". There are plenty of guys, and I hear it all the time throughout the center that will say "Did you see (...bowler...) shoot that 175 on Sunday? Hell, I shot 740 last week". But then whenever someone shoots numbers on TV they are talked about in a larger than life manner.

Excitement, scoring, and presentation are the only things that will bring people back to the TV.
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- DP3
Hoss Central Inc.
Respect the Game

LuckyLefty · « **Reply #32 on:** October 10, 2006, 05:57:02 PM »

Great post DP3.

And yes...Walter Ray...you are NOT on this weeks SHOW! (note I am a big fan of deadeyes game too)

Maybe would wake them ALL up! Until you do....X! Walter Knows what X is...and he would do it...if he really believed tour was going away and his income with it!....(pssst...I believe it is...in less than two years!)

The Men's game is on a virtual cliff ready to fall off!
The Woman's game already did...and now they learned a little something about promotion over the last several weeks! I'm sure their ratings were very good(for bowling).

PICK the fields as above! Perfect....just like they did for the woman's challenge AND there are hardly a guy out there who could use a little sprucin up except for Voss and Pete Weber, Robert Smith, Chris Johnson, Jason Couch, ...our own Jeff Carter and...well a few others.

Others (just like in the USBC woman's challenge) could be included who are just great. Patrick Allen is exciting with his game and fire!

If you want to know what doesn't work...there was a bowling show I call..."the worst sports show ever" this year on TV. IF you saw it...you know what it was!
IT is the antithesis of the USBC Woman's challenge we just saw!

For the rest...get ready for someone to say...get a haircut, press your pants, get a wig....show some fire!!!whatever....it takes!

REgards,

Luckylefty
PS 1) as a required class...every tour member(both genders) must watch match of Clara Guerraro with Carolyn Dorin Ballard, and Clara and CAra Honeychurch.
2}Also required viewing Shannon Pluhowsky in her losing effort of the previous weeks(likeable future superstar). 3) a Jason Couch pre match interview! 4)And finally ALL should watch the show I referenced above and note it..."as the show...never to be seen again!"
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Open the door...see what's possible...and just walk right on through...that's how easy success feels..

pin-chaser · « **Reply #33 on:** October 10, 2006, 06:09:34 PM »

There is many things wrong with bowling today. One such thing is that bowling as a sport is in a catch 22 situation more so now than ever. And that catch 22 all surrounds "money". (This is not to say there are many other things, integrity and a strong second....etc).

It is hard to intice a family to support there child in bowling when the best they can do is to get a job that guarentees $32k (on the pro tour). As well, its hard to invest large sums of money in yourself to become better when the amatuer level is so strong. As well, its hard for TV to support (again money) the PBA when it is a declining sport which translates directly to a decrease in the pool of potential watchers.

Suffice it to say, that if the pro's were earning $100k as a minimum and there was 200 pro's there would be more interest by everyone all the way down. There must be a multi-phased attack to resolve bowlings decline which has been going on for a couple decades now. But until the bowling community finally realizes that it is not going to happen until the bowling community takes control of the situation itself. By this I mean all bowlers should pay an extra few dollars for there yearly dues (USBC) and all proprietors should pay extra, and all manufactures should pay a few dollars for there goods. With this money ($10-20M yearly) we could assist the funding of PBA, WPBA, investigate how to restore integrity, do surveys into why we are really suffering the attrition, work with proprietors to build back there leagues.... ie... help ourselves to make the changes needed. What we are doing is sitting back and waiting for some else to solve this problem. Its a small investment from everyone that can provide the money that we need to turn this around.

In keeping this post short, I will leave it here. But there are other things that could be done if we were able to.
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Fluff E Bunnie · « **Reply #34 on:** October 11, 2006, 08:33:14 AM »

You guys reminded me that people watch poker on TV. If this is true, anything can be popular on TV.

You don't need Bowling Tiger Woods or a bikini to do it either.

Personally, I wish they would show some of the stuff leading up to the final people bowling in match play. Like maybe something like WRW was talking about... Kind of do it like golf where you cut from one game to the next when there is something interesting to show.

That way, people can see more bowlers than the few that end up on TV at the end.
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I mean what's next, WRW in a Codpiece if the mens tour suffers? - Nodsleinad

SirAshley · « **Reply #35 on:** October 11, 2006, 09:10:35 AM »

Okay here is the question that needs to be solved in order to save professional bowling. How do you get people to watch, who are not bowlers? You and I watch because we like to watch their form, their shot, their swing...etc... If you have no desire to see that, then bowling is just flat out boring. IMO, in order to get people to watch, who don't bowl, there has to be a reason to keep them coming back. So how do you do this? Well someone mentioned character developement, that is a good place to start. We need good guys and villians, we need drama, we need trash talking (something more than just Pete Weber, PLEASE!), and most importantly, we need reality that people can relate to. If you get all of those things, people who have never bowled in their lives will have someone to root for and a reason to watch again. The PBA needs a vested interest to keep people watching each week, without this, there is no place to go but down. It has nothing to do with the integrity of the sport; it has everything to do with the fact that people have more choices of things to watch that are simply more entertaining. Make bowling entertaining and more people will watch. How do you do that? Well, as I stated above, you're going to have to do more than just bowl.
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To be Politically Correct in this society I feel we should change the term "House Hack" to "One House Wonder". It will make alot of losers feel much better about themselves!!!

RealBowler · « **Reply #36 on:** October 11, 2006, 10:07:33 AM »

quote:
Okay here is the question that needs to be solved in order to save professional bowling. How do you get people to watch, who are not bowlers? You and I watch because we like to watch their form, their shot, their swing...etc... If you have no desire to see that, then bowling is just flat out boring. IMO, in order to get people to watch, who don't bowl, there has to be a reason to keep them coming back. So how do you do this? Well someone mentioned character developement, that is a good place to start. We need good guys and villians, we need drama, we need trash talking (something more than just Pete Weber, PLEASE!), and most importantly, we need reality that people can relate to. If you get all of those things, people who have never bowled in their lives will have someone to root for and a reason to watch again. The PBA needs a vested interest to keep people watching each week, without this, there is no place to go but down. It has nothing to do with the integrity of the sport; it has everything to do with the fact that people have more choices of things to watch that are simply more entertaining. Make bowling entertaining and more people will watch. How do you do that? Well, as I stated above, you're going to have to do more than just bowl.
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To be Politically Correct in this society I feel we should change the term "House Hack" to "One House Wonder". It will make alot of losers feel much better about themselves!!!

Does anybody know the ratings for when ESPN had the pro athletes bowling? That seemed like it was more entertaining and might have appealed to more of the general public.

Heck, if people get so excited about watching celebrities trying to dance I think people will watch just about anything.

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Haywood

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I don't need a stupid
signature. This is enough.
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Jeff Carter · « **Reply #37 on:** October 11, 2006, 10:41:25 AM »

The question isnt how to save professional bowling, its how do we save bowling in general. The sport is broken and is in dire need of fixing. The PBA will tread along the way it is for a while, the owners have made a substantial investment and things arent as bleak as people make them out to be.

The answer starts with all entities of the industry working together to revamp the sport. Its all going to have to start with coaching. Coaching youth bowlers has to become more than having volunteers on saturday mornings to "babysit" youth bowlers. The youth bowlers are the future ballreviews.com posters. They need educated, just like every other sport.

Next step would be for the USBC to set up a mulitple-tier membership program, based on playing conditions. This would be totally up to the members as to what tier their league would be in, but then it would be recognized accordingly. I would suggest having a recreational level ( with conditions similar to the way they are now ). Within this level, honor scores would be recognized with certificates, etc...but would be considered recreational honor scores. The next level would be a competitive level ( with conditions somewhere inbetween todays league conditions and the sport level...maybe 5 or 6:1 ratios ). Within this level, honor scores would be recognized with the current awards or rings, watches, etc...The next level would include the sport bowling system ( with condtions around 3 or 4:1 ratios - not 2:1 like todays system ). The level would allow honor score members to recognized nationally with substantial awards. The USBC could tag these levels as bronze, silver and gold and market them accordingly. The dues could be structured so that the bronze members pay less in yearly dues than the gold members, but also receive much fewer benefits. This would allow people to have a choice on what level they want to bowl on, plus it would be much easier to explain the difference in lane conditions from level to level. When people see the gold, silver and bronze levels they will know exactly where they fit in. After that you would have the Professional level as the highest tier in the membership. One other idea that has come up a lot lately is that the USBC should put $2.00 ( or so ) from every membership card sold into the PBA / PWBA to help sponsor the tours and keep the highest level in bowling alive and prospering.

This will take a collective effort from everybody, from the PBA owners to USBC officials to bowling center proprietors to coaches to the bowlers. Everybody needs to get involved in making the sport grow.
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Bowl up a Storm,
Jeff Carter
www.stormbowling.com
www.jeffcarterbowling.com

shelley · « **Reply #38 on:** October 11, 2006, 12:48:00 PM »

quote:
Next step would be for the USBC to set up a mulitple-tier membership program, based on playing conditions.

I think that's a great idea for many of the reasons you give. There are tangible, understandable differences and benefits for going up or down levels.

However, it suffers precisely the same lane condition regulation that Sport bowling does. We had a Sport league a few years ago here and it was a pain in the butt to pull tapes every frickin' week. I understand wanting to be able to verify that the condition really was harder when handing out the accolades. But it's a catch-22: Lessen the lane inspection requirements to make compliance easier and you run the risk of centers being dishonest when it comes to conditions. I've read here that some houses probably don't comply with the 3-unit rule. The house states that leagues bowl on a silver-level condition while putting down a bronze or recreational condition for normal league play.

Alternatively, keep the Sport rules in place, requiring tapes every week to verify conditions. It's a big cost and a big hassle (hassle here, maybe not other places, but I'd it's a hassle in most).

I'd hope that houses wouldn't be so dishonest as to do something like that. Given that there would be several levels to choose from, if they wanted to put down an easier shot, just advertise as bronze-level. No harm, no foul. Make the inspection rules stricter as you move up the scale. Every 60 days for bronze, once a month for silver, and weekly for gold.

SH

justdale · « **Reply #39 on:** October 11, 2006, 01:03:07 PM »

You want to save the PBA huh!

Well 1st thing is to make it a little more acceptable to everyone, sure keep the minimum requirements out there, but I got to tell you, it is dishearting to see the same people on TV week after week. What ever happened to opening up spots for rabbit squads for the local bowlers.

Getting some new faces on TV can't hurt. Knock the prize funds down, and pay more spots. Some of the Professionals are making money on top of just bowling, you look at how many of them have a paycheck regardless on how they perform.

Fluff E Bunnie · « **Reply #40 on:** October 11, 2006, 01:09:46 PM »

All this stuff sounds great. I would rather see them improve the sport itself than sell it out to try to make it someone's definition of "cool".

One person's cool is another's lame.

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I mean what's next, WRW in a Codpiece if the mens tour suffers? - Nodsleinad

Jeff Carter · « **Reply #41 on:** October 11, 2006, 01:53:00 PM »

Just a few additional comments based on some replies :

Fireguy - The conditions on the show have gotten softer over the years and scores have gone up. You cant run a different pattern for the show that you used all week, that would be more unethical than whats going on in bowling now. In professional bowling scores are relative. It doesnt matter what the score is, it only matters who scores the highest ! As far as the comment about bowlers not looking like athletes, we only have a handful of guys that would be considered "out of shape". Take a look at somebody like David Wells, CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon, Matt Stairs, etc....How about 99 % of all the offensive linemen in the NFL. My point is that you are talking about less than 10% of the Tour in your comment. The image problem isnt nearly as big as you make it out to be. The problem lies in peoples perception of bowlers in general

Shelly - i agree that there are some logistical hoops to jump through in my ideas, but the sport is so far down that somebody needs to "re-invest" in the sport and do whatever it takes to bring it back to life. If this means that local associations need to do more lane inspections, then so be it. This could only help the integrity issues, as well as when the Olympic questions arise again.

Justdale - I totally disagree with you here. The restrictions for being a PBA member have to be stricter. The reason that the requirements are so low right now is the fact that the PBA is relying on membership dues from over 4000 members to help "foot the bill". If the sport was stronger, they wouldnt have to rely on that money as much and they could make being a PBA member mean something again. As far as getting fresh faces on tv, you are already seeing that now and hopefully that will be a trend that continues this season. You are somewhat offbase on the comment about players having a paycheck no matter how they perform. First of all, players arent paid nearly as much as you would think. There are a select few guys that have substantial contracts, and they have certainly earned those. For the most part guys get by on contracts that pretty much help cover expenses on tour. After that guys invest in Pro Shops or other business to help suppliment income, but that happens in every aspect of life. We may be guaranteed a check every week right now, but that money isnt as much as you would think after expenses. The fact is professional bowlers have to work twice as hard as athletes in just about every other sport for what we get.
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Bowl up a Storm,
Jeff Carter
www.stormbowling.com
www.jeffcarterbowling.com

Monster Stitch · « **Reply #42 on:** October 11, 2006, 02:51:48 PM »

I also feel that the past 2 seasons with the oil machine made the conditions look softer compared when the Kegel was being used. When the PBA was using Kegel
the patterns used was really there. Patterns that were suppose to play inside did. When the new machine was used the last two seasons, shots that were suppose to play inside played out. Just not very true in my opinion. I think the PBA should go back to using Kegel instead.

Gazoo · « **Reply #43 on:** October 11, 2006, 03:02:34 PM »

As long as the PBA is shown on ESPN at 1:30 pm EST on sundays it will never be a player in sports. If you want to be primetime then you have to be on primtime!IMHO As far as the ladies, they never had a chance with the times their telecast were coming on ESPN!

qstick777 · « **Reply #44 on:** October 11, 2006, 03:54:00 PM »

I think Jeff makes a good point with the different levels. I also think that it makes the idea of leagues that much more confusing, and you would probably see a number of leagues decide not to go with USBC sanctioning.

I think you would have a number of leagues move towards sanctioning only with the local (and maybe state) association. A number of centers in my area also do their own awards programs (on top of the USBC awards).

I think there is definately a place for the different levels, but I think a majority of bowlers don't really care about things like that.
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Jeff Carter · « **Reply #45 on:** October 11, 2006, 04:05:05 PM »

Fireguy - i understand and agree that 180-170 doesnt make good tv, but sometimes that isnt in anybodys hands...it just happens. Ive been part of matches where i go 250-260-160. When the lanes transition, it usually happens pretty fast. Mix in the fact that you have tv lights creating a lot of heat, and factor in the fact that you are on national tv anything can happen. Do you remember Steve Jaros' imfamous 129 game on tv ? Certainly not good television, right ? What you dont know is that after practice, the PBA decided to cross wipe the back ends to increase scores. What happened is the ball went sideways off the back of the pattern, creating the lowest scoring show in history ( if i remember correctly ). My point is that sometimes when you try to create higher scores it can have a reverse effect.

As far as the Scroggs / Loschetter comment goes, i guess i dont really know how to answer that. I do know that a lot of guys are in good physical shape. Its tough to translate looks into image, because i guess you play the cards that you are dealt. It would be tough to tell somebody that they couldnt compete on tour because you arent good looking enough ( although Gary Beck did that with the Womens Challenge ). The best part about the sport of bowling is that anybody and everybody can do it, but it still takes a lot of hard work and tremendous talent to make it to the top.
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Bowl up a Storm,
Jeff Carter
www.stormbowling.com
www.jeffcarterbowling.com

Author Topic: Can anyone save Pro Bowling? (Read 7166 times)

Bjaardker

Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

DP3

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

LuckyLefty

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

pin-chaser

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Fluff E Bunnie

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

SirAshley

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

RealBowler

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Jeff Carter

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

shelley

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

justdale

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Fluff E Bunnie

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Jeff Carter

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Monster Stitch

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Gazoo

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

qstick777

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?

Jeff Carter

Re: Can anyone save Pro Bowling?