Personally, one of the main reasons I watch pro bowling on TV is in the hopes of learning something. For that reason, I enjoy watching the women bowlers at least as much if not more so than the men. On the PBA shows, I enjoy seeing the different guys and their different styles, while still hoping to see at least one or two per telecast that have a style similar enough to mine that I can maybe pick up a few things from watching their approach, armswing, and release closely. The men have a combination of power and accuracy that is amazing. Most of us men bowlers can perhaps approach them in either power or accuracy, but getting the two in combination--that's the trick that keeps the vast majority of us off the PBA tour. That said, I kind of enjoy the PWBA shows a little more. That's because, with few exceptions (Michelle Feldman) most of the women don't match the men in power and have games that rely much more on accuracy and shot repitition. As a mere mortal male, I find that I can learn more from watching the women pros than from watching the men pros do things with the ball that I can never hope to do. A particular favorite thing to do of mine is to watch the release point in slow motion. Unfortunately, this doesn't work when the lefties are bowling because the camera is always positioned over the bowler's right shoulder and it is therefore impossible to see the lefties' release.
To get to the issue of the telecasts, that's a hard one. For me personally, the thing that bothers me the most is that it is the same seven or eight bowlers on every time. The top men are on the PBA telecasts, too, but usually there is at least one fresh face. On the women's telecasts, this rarely happens, and that gets boring. Of course, that leads to one of the problems--there are usually only about 40-50 women entered in a tournament, so the possibilities of fresh faces are limited. It also seems clear that one of the reasons there are so few entrants is that the prize money is so pitiful, most can't even meet expenses. Just recently, I spoke to one of the women pros who lives around here. She has won several national tournaments. I inquired about a couple of the women I had bowled with in a pro-am before a PWBA tournament near here (more on that below) last year. She said both of them had left the tour and gotten what she called "real jobs" because they couldn't make ends meet on tour. I'd sure like to see the prize money beefed up, but it seems unlikely.
For a couple years, the PWBA had an event in one of the houses where I bowl--Shore Lanes in St. Clair Shores, MI. I went every night to watch all the qualifying and I went to the TV finals too. Crowds were quite large. I talked to some of the pros and they said that the crowds on the non-TV nights were bigger than what they were used to, and that they liked it. The tournament was held there for two years. When I noticed that the tournament was not coming back, I asked the center manager about it, and he said that the house was expected to foot too much of the bill for the prize fund and they couldn't afford it in spite of the large crowds. (The PWBA is having a tournament at another house in this area this month, and I wish it success and I hope to go.)
Back to the telecasts. The announcers keep it pretty non-technical so as not to lose the casual viewer. More serious bowlers would like more, but they don't want to lose the casual viewer and they probably figure the fanatics will watch anyway. If they "Vegas up" the telecast with the usual American staples--bright lights, loud noise, and cheap theatrics like provocative clothing--then they risk disgusting and losing the serious bowlers in the audience--possibly without even gaining much in the way of additional viewers who can get the lights, noise, and T&A in ample measure from non-sports such as wrestling and Fox news.
I enjoy the PWBA shows, I bowl in the pro-ams, and I go and watch the live action when they're around here. I don't know what else I can do. The PWBA is in a tough spot and I wish them well.
Shiv
Maybe ballreviews member kimbo will get involved in this discussion. It would be interesting to get the viewpoint of a PWBA multi-winner.
Edited on 5/1/2003 7:07 AM
