now that the pba season is over, whats your take on the past seasons shows? what do you think they could do to make it better?  i personally don't like how the w.s.o.b. was done on tv. it was lame, no crowd, and all taped shows. i would like to see more tour stops that are all live shows. i also favor the 5 man stepladder finals. announcer wise they need to change it up, someone who has been in bowling for a while. maybe bring back Bo, but we need some better anouncers. anyways whats your take?

 

Edited by Ten Back on 5/1/2011 at 7:50 PM

i agree with many comments - i also feel that back when the pba was on Saturday afternoon, it did seem to be more exciting. and unfortunately i also agree, that most of the country will be watching the NFL then the PBA. so heres an idea, move the show to Friday nite?  the true die hard bowling fans will watch no matter what, heck you can always record it anyways even if its on on Sunday. but back to the main issue and thats getting the show back to where its exciting again. thats what this sport needs. bowler rivalries would be great to. i used to love it when Roth bowled against Holman. it was intense. we don't have that intensity anymore. but i also don't want to see the PBA fade away either. but if it keeps going the way it is it may just be a thing on classic espn. i hope not.

I love it when somebody disagrees with a view and they are labeled "pot stirrer".  Whatever.  Live in your fantasy world where bowling compares to golf and bowling on tv during the 70's and 80's was "magical".  They're your fantasies, enjoy them.  

I signed up for an account specifically for this thread. These thoughts are my opinion only. Take what you like and leave the rest.

 

I have been a competitive bowler in leagues and tournaments since the 1974-1975 season. Although I am not very accomplished compared to most people on this site, (This year I booked a 203 average with a high series of 724) I do understand the  game/sport from a 1970's, 1980's, 1990's and 2000's, and 2010's perspective.

 

My first league I was in as a child was in 1969 so technically my bowling goes back to the 1960's. I did not become competitive as a youth bowler until 1974-1975 season.

 

Back in the 1960's and 1970's bowling was indeed king. Every factory in my hometown had a bowling league. Some factories had  two or three leagues, one for each shift.  The PBA Tour was very popular since we had almost 10 million bowlers in 1979 with a population of just about 250,000,000 Americans. Approximately 2.5% of  America bowled in leagues at that time, so the PBA had a potential audience of 10,000,000 viewers each week.

 

 Now we have 309,000,000 Americans with about 1.5 million league bowlers. That is less than 1% of Americans bowl in a league. Not all 1.5 million are watching bowing every week.  That shows as the population increased, the amount of league bowlers greatly decreased! That is opposite of what the math should be! More people should mean more bowlers, but it ended up being the opposite.

 

So, why is this one may ask?

 

There are several reasons:

 

1) The ABC/USBC, BPAA, PBA have never done a good job explaining how oil effects ball motion and pin carry.

 

2) Bowling has done very little to clean up is cigarette, cigar, and beer image.

 

3) Bowling has done very little to attract a higher income clientele.

 

4) Bowling has done very little to encourage physical fitness of its participants at the amateur or professional level. (Golf has its share of overweight people too.)

 

5) Bowling has never acquired life long sponsors.

 

6) In my state, most bowling centers are in very high crime areas.

 

The general public has no interest in watching what they consider a blue collar activity. When they open bowl, they have no education on rules and etiquette of the game and bowling centers do not educate them either.

 

 Every American alive over the age of 12 or so knows about water hazards, sand traps, the rough, and other challenges of a golf course. I was speaking with a fellow bowler in my league this week who averages 180-190 and he did not know what the lane machine was actually putting on the lane, and he had no idea the PBA had more difficult lane conditions. Yes, he is ignorant of the game he plays every week, so how is the general public who does not bowl supposed to know or learn any different?

 

Until lane oil is bright blue and the world can see what is on a lane like they can see what is on a golf course, NO ONE WILL BELIEVE BOWLING ON THE PBA TOUR HAS ANY DIFFICULTY.

 

This ignorance of the sport since the inception of the ABC in 1895 is the sports fault. You cannot blame America for not watching a bunch of overweight blue collar white guys throwing a bowling ball on television. They do not see any difficulty in it, and they refuse to admit there may be some difficulty. They don't care! That is how they perceive bowling. It is something they believe they can do just as well. Tom Daugherty did more damage to bowling than he can fathom right now. Every American who saw it, or heard of it said "I can bowl 100..." That is something that can never be changed. That one game destroyed all hopes of bowling ever getting an audience.

 

In the mind of America, if a woman , Kelly Kullick, can win a pro title, then bowling is not a sport. If a guy can bowl a  100 game and win $50,000, bowling is not a sport. THAT IS HOW AMERICA FEELS!

 

So yes, the PBA is wasting its time. The bowling audience is only going to shrink. There is no need for bowling on television and ESPN has already said it's not going to pay the PBA to telecast its shows. That shows how ESPN does not respect bowling.

 

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THIS:

 

WITH AMERICA'S POPULATION GROWING AND BOWLING'S NUMBER SHRINKING, IT'S A DEATH SENTENCE.

 

Bowling is dead. R.I.P. bowling, you had a few good years.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Also Sprach Zaruthstra on 5/1/2011 at 12:18 PM

Here are my suggestions: 

 

1. Bowling balls used in the finals: Ball Specs before drilling, Drilling Layout, and Surface Prep needs to be described in detail. Maybe you can't say the ball name on the show but on the Internet describe all this. Just telling the viewer that a Norm is going to a ball with a little more length just doesn't cut it any more. Tell us what hed done specifically to the ball to get that length.  

 

2.  Get into the DETAILS and explain what they are doing to break a pattern down before the telecast, Show us what ball were they using (All Details - from suggestion 1), where were they standing, what is the desired effect.

 

Show the lane, and put the OIL PATTERN over the lane, similar to NFL 1st down line. Show the bowlers throwing in practice.  How many throws did they take? Are both bowlers doing the same thing? Are they working together to put a hole in the pattern or are they working against each other?

 

There is real strategy here before the finals begin. It needs to be show in a diagram. Just telling us isn't good enough.  

 

3. Maybe have feet markings on the lanes during the finals. (again something like 1st down line used in NFL). 

Every 5ft  starting at 35.  

 

4. Have a TECH Corner. Interview the guys that drill these bowling balls for the pros. Talk about what is new. Switch it around a bit. Take turns from week to week from each manufacturer. Make it brief but informative then

have further details on the internet. For information, visit PBA.com.

 

5. STOP saying about how much harder the pro oil patterns are than the THS.  Change the wording a bit. Come up with a difficult rating scale. We know the Pros are better than us, I don't need reminded every week.  

 

6. SET UP a fantasy league and offer prize money for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.  Offer prize money to people whose team threw the most combined 300 games (Call it 300 WATCH or something) over the season.

 

7. Offer tips or knowledge for the league or local competitive bowler.  Maybe this can be during the TECH segment but offering something a viewer can relate to their own bowling experience. 

 

8. Get rid of the player's music between shots. I am not sure how it sounds when you are there at the lanes, but on TV it seems kind of dumb. You can't really hear it and it is too short in time.

 

 9. Encourage bowlers to express themselves during the match. So many go into a shell a times. I always find it amusing the bowlers that put their heads down and won't look at their opponent. Not good for TV.

 

 Just throwing some things out there!!! 

while i agree with some of these ideas, i think we are missing the point of the bigger picture!

 

the question should be, how does bowling at the professional level aquire bigger and more lucrative corporate sponsors?

 

take a look at the top money earners from this year at the link below.  10th place won $60,000 with 25th place earning $30,000.  i for one would not want to be a professional bowler to earn that much money.  i earn more than some of the bowlers in the top 20, without the expenses of travel, lodging, etc.

 

 

now compare that to golf at the link below.  10th place in 2010 was almost 3.6 million while somewhere in the 200th place mark matched the top PBA money winner.