Bowlero and the PBA announced today that they are forming essentially a competing league and tournament association to counter the USBC:

https://www.pba.com/2022/june/professional-bowlers-association-launch-league-bowler-certification-program

According to JR Raymond, this is a free association for all Bowlero league bowlers starting this fall.

Raises a few immediate questions.
1)  Since all Bowlero league bowlers will be included, and the PBA/Bowlero association has their own rules, will USBC sanctioning no longer be a thing at Bowlero centers?  Opens the door for conflicting rules if both will still apply.

2)  as this rolls out to other centers, what will be the fee for non-Bowlero bowlers?

3)  Will tournaments start acknowledging the Bowlero association average as a sanctioned average for those bowlers who may have a Bowlero association average  and not a USBC average?

There is a lot of potential here, but seems like there are still a lot of unknowns...

Stu Williams interviewed Tom Clark a couple of days ago.  Stu made it a point to mention that not all Bowlero centers are the same.  Some are better maintained than others.  Some are league centric, while others are focused on open play.  There is no consistency to them despite being owned by the same corporation.  It is a true statement based on my experience.  Prices are high, but leagues and the pro shop are soldiering on.

I must be the kind of league bowler that Bowlero hates.  I don't buy food or beverages ever at the center.  I bowl one league.  I don't need to rent shoes.  I don't go to the arcade.  If I ever open bowl, I use my 2 free games and pay the reduced league bowler rate for the third.  Essentially they get only lineage from me and that's it.  I am not the only league bowler doing this, but we are definitely not generating the kind of revenue Bowlero would like to see from their league bowlers.

And that is why they are about to start "taxing" there bowlers.

We have 3 centers in town that just sold to Bowlero. My initial reaction to the news of the sale was negative based on the stories told here and elsewhere.

I typically only see West Acres, but so far it has been pretty good. They brought in several pallets of new equipment to rebuild the snack bar with more to come in other areas.

We're friends with several employees and most were reluctant at best when the news of the sale broke. Most are warming to them now. Lots of employees were worried because they didn't know how to do their job with the new equipment. They've been told that trainers will be there for 4 weeks. I was there last night to bowl after leagues and there were at least 5 corporate trainers there. Things were a little slow but that's to be expected since they had to look me up to verify I was a league bowler since I have not been to league yet to receive my Bowlero card since they took over.

West Acres has a heavy league base. So much so that some of the corporate people were shocked by the numbers. So far, they want to keep that base intact.

I'm a little worried about pricing as I don't know what to expect yet. I'm not a drinker but there were some complaints during the first league night about booze prices. I hear there will be nightly specials so maybe that will help. I don't know if it's just a Bowlero thing or if previous owners just hadn't raised prices because of the impending sale. Inflation is hammering all goods right now so it's likely previous owners were going to raise prices anyway.

I'll give them a chance for now since this is the closest to my house and we know so many of the staff. I'm lucky enough to have a good alternative if this doesn't work out though.

We have 3 centers in town that just sold to Bowlero. My initial reaction to the news of the sale was negative based on the stories told here and elsewhere.

I typically only see West Acres, but so far it has been pretty good. They brought in several pallets of new equipment to rebuild the snack bar with more to come in other areas.

We're friends with several employees and most were reluctant at best when the news of the sale broke. Most are warming to them now. Lots of employees were worried because they didn't know how to do their job with the new equipment. They've been told that trainers will be there for 4 weeks. I was there last night to bowl after leagues and there were at least 5 corporate trainers there. Things were a little slow but that's to be expected since they had to look me up to verify I was a league bowler since I have not been to league yet to receive my Bowlero card since they took over.

West Acres has a heavy league base. So much so that some of the corporate people were shocked by the numbers. So far, they want to keep that base intact.

I'm a little worried about pricing as I don't know what to expect yet. I'm not a drinker but there were some complaints during the first league night about booze prices. I hear there will be nightly specials so maybe that will help. I don't know if it's just a Bowlero thing or if previous owners just hadn't raised prices because of the impending sale. Inflation is hammering all goods right now so it's likely previous owners were going to raise prices anyway.

I'll give them a chance for now since this is the closest to my house and we know so many of the staff. I'm lucky enough to have a good alternative if this doesn't work out though.

This sounds like it is more in line with the pivot that Bowlero is doing with trying to lure the league bowlers back. They know that they need to go out of their way to get them back, especially with the announcement of their certification program. I'd even say doubly so for where you are; Wichita is a huge bowling town, especially with having the Shockers there. I could see the same happening in Lincoln, Smyrna, St. Louis, and other cities where there's a huge community or even a collegiate team there. I don't see that being a problem, as they are now finally trying to put forth the effort...

The problem I see is where the damage has already been done. Those that are all for this program could view those bowlers as "salty" because they got burned by it, but they are justified in their saltiness, as that damage has been done, and they now fall into the category of "once bitten, twice shy". Those are the ones that Bowlero needs to seriously work on to regain their trust, because that trust needs to be seriously rebuilt.

BL.

The PBA certification gimmick will be doa.  Just a gimmick put forth by the PBA and Bowlero to make league bowlers feel appreciated.  More importantly it is an attempt to monetize league bowlers purely to benefit the PBA and their parent company (Bowlero).  It's a total nothing burger.

Imagine if they eventually start charging each of those 180,000 league bowlers $10 for membership or to continue to have access to the LeaguePals platform.  That's $1.8M in pure profit.  Nothing for a billion dollar company, but enough to try and make it happen just to add to the bottom line.  Since the PBA branding is so prevalent in this program, I am sure the PBA would be the primary beneficiary of a lot of this potential influx of money.

For anyone who says USBC does nothing for them...

If there was no USBC, then you would take notice.

Imagine if every bowling alley could change the pins, change the length of lanes, just do whatever the hell they wanted. Does nothing for you? Really?

The PBA has nothing to do with league bowling. Slapping the PBA brand onto league certification is just a gimmick that makes no sense. Bowlero would love to be their own regulating body. That's what this is about. It's so obvious.

There is definitely something afoot with the PBA and Bowlero.  When Tom Clark discussed this new program, he positioned it as a way to promote the PBA.  When Bowlero rejoined the BPAA a couple of weeks ago the announcement mentioned it was partly done as a way to elevate the PBA.

It is starting to look like the PBA may be struggling and Bowlero and the PBA are trying whatever they can to promote it and keep it going.  Pure speculation, but curious nonetheless.

So i have a question. I bowl at an Independent center in Texas. Some tourneys/travel leagues travel to Bowlero's around the state etc. For me to bowl those events, do i have to be sanctioned thru this and not just USBC or i'm wondering if our travel leagues will have to sanction with this one and USBC also.

That is up to the league.  Tom Clark said Bowlero leagues have the option of being PBA certified, USBC certified, or both.  If your traveling league's home center isn't a Bowlero, then you won't have to worry about this until the program gets extended to non-Bowlero owned centers.  Your league can travel to a Bowlero center, but since it isn't a Bowlero league the PBA certification won't apply.