I think if you asked bowlers why they bowled league, they answer was to win the league and make a profit.  And by a profit, they mean cover their costs of lineage and prize fund paid during the league year.

Now, as we all know, lineage has probably doubled, tripled or more over the past 20 years.  League fees and prize funds have not.

So in previous decades, you had a $15 league where $5 went to lineage and $10 went to the prize fund.  Well in today's prices, that same league probably pays close to $10 in lineage.  So the league fees would need to jump to $20 a week just to be at same level as they were in the previous decade.

However, you are now paying $5 more per week or approx $170 (34 weeks x $5) a season and getting back the exact same prize fund.  Less bowlers are being profitable.  More bowlers are losing money and eventually quitting. 

The work leagues that existed in the 80's and 90's have gone away for the most part leaving fun leagues and money leagues, but the money leagues are going away as it is it harder and harder to make a profit.  Thus the bowler loses interest.

Try that here in the Dallas area with the competitive bowlers and you'll get an empty league.  The competitive bowler's in the area that I know of, bowl for profit including their lineage.  In some leagues, that profit may come through side action and brackets, but they aren't there if there's not a profit potential at the end of the league.

If leagues only exist for the bowlers to make a profit, then it is impossible for them to continue since not everyone can profit.  From my experience, the main reasons leagues exist is to have an organized competition between bowlers where you can bowl with friends while having a few beers if you desire.  As a small bonus, if you do well enough you might break even at year end.  Bowlers who are in leagues looking for profit are the minority and are not the cause of leagues declining.

I think the money is the big issue with some league members. Why not keep the costs low as possible. Charge for lineage, secretary costs, and a banquet (if your league still does that). Those that want to bowl for money can create brackets and any kind of side action they want each week. Those that don't stay out and enjoy their bowling. W

 

I agree prize fund amounts have not kept up when compared to total cost.  But what you also see are leagues with not enough competitive bowlers to vote a prize fund system that would give the league champion a chance to break even.  I bowled in one league that had a league rule stating at least 60% of the prize fund MUST BE POINT MONEY.

I also bowl in a men's league (you would assume was "competitive") that never votes for a prize fund that would put a higher amount of the prize money to the higher placing teams. 

The problem is bowlers don't want to be shut out.  Bowlers want to walk away with something, so they will continue to vote in prize funds that distribute the money across all members in a way where the winners of the league cannot come close to breaking even.

The mention of the past or the good old days as we like to call them. I recall few leagues where bowlers really cared about the money. It was the competition and love of the game. This would also be when averaging 190 was considered great and an 1800 all events in a tournament won you good money. Ah, the good old days....:-)

Txbowler and I bowl the same league. Small house that is a half hour drive from Dallas. We had 16 five man teams just a couple years ago and now 9 teams of trios. Oh, last year was 14 teams so this is in one year. We still don't know what happened, but the most common denominator appears to be money. Lack of trust regarding side action, the same teams dominating every year and to keep the top teams interested the league is heavy to the top side on prize fund. Had a couple teams with financial issues that were forced to forfeit points last year, so quite this year. Combine that with the high fuel prices last August and it became real easy to just go somewhere else or just not bowl. This was a highly competitive league where from the 80 bowlers there were as many as 1/4 on a given night that either were current or past members of the PBA and in some cases tour guys would sub in on teams occasionally. Not bad for a 16 lane center. Since the center tries to keep lineage down best they can, majority of weekly fees goes to the  prize fund and add $100 a team for franchise and wasn't too bad. Strke fund ran into a lot of money and generated the majority of complaining if one team got more shots than another, even though there was a big difference in money spent weekly by those teams or bowlers.  Rambling, but just an example of a league that has been affected by whatever the current mentality is compared to the past.

So, fact is today it is all about the money and if I don't get mine then maybe someone cheated? I hope if this is the trend it changes sooner than later. I bowl the league and am the secretary, so guess I am going to get a little extra, but I just like bowling with the guys on my team and against guys like Txbowler. We also travel to tournaments together and our two teams have won our share of league titles and a few tournaments. Hard part is once they have gone, how do you convince them to come back and how do you get the few that stayed to give it time so you can try and get others back to the league next season? 

What can a center really do...advertise? where?  the local bowling paper is only read by a part of the league bowlers and they are already bowling. Most new teams and bowlers are actually recruited by other bowlers and word of mouth. If bowlers talk about how great a league is, then others want in. If negative talk starts then it just runs off the ones on the fence and keeps new bowlers away. Its a tough question. But the league issues and bowling decline in general kind or run together into a big problem if your league is the one on the decline.

I bowl in a Monday morning league with very low cost linage, yet the areas of concern for league health seem to be the side action and the end of year payout.  What the majority of the league does not seem to realize (or they do, but it doesn't click) is that only the top two or three teams (out of 16) are the only ones who come close to making all their money back, plus a little.  Also, side action has seen a slow, but steady decrease, during the past three seasons.

The idea I bring up every year in the league meeting (which is laughed at and shot down) is that we should drop the cost of the league to just cover linage and secretary/treasurer's pay.  For example, say we paid $21/week to bowl (no side action included) and of that $8 was to bowl and $0.50 was for sec/treas.  My suggestion is to drop the weekly fees from $21 to $10.  For a 33 week season, that is a savings of $363 a season for each bowler and more than 75% of the league would recoup at year's end.  But, that "money at year's end" stigma is the way it's been done "forever" and there's no need to change (that's what I hear).

Now, my contention is that with lower weekly costs, it could be easier to advertise the league, the league could have a higher competition to cost ratio, and more bowlers could get into the side action pots.  These advantages might not pan out, but an attempt should at least be made.  They won't even try it for a half-season and see if the lower cost benefits pan out.

I just like to bowl for the fun, beer, friends, and competition.  That combination seems to be in the majority for this area.

I bowl in a saturday league in a 60 lane house. We currently fill the lanes (5 person team 60 teams). What I have noticed is 3-4 years ago, there was a waiting list to get in the league. Before that a very long waiting list(have heard people waiting 2-3 seasons to get in). Now, even though we fill the house, there is a periodic request from secretary if a person can be found to fill out a team and the waiting list has pretty much dropped to zero. There is plenty of side action (what I think keeps most coming back).

I myself have cut back to only 1 league this year due to finances. I really do enjoy the sport but can not afford $20+ dollars a league for 2-3 leagues, especially since the wife and kids bowl league also. When all is said and done we are paying $60 a week for 36 weeks. Not bad by some standards I guess but it is all I can afford.