A friend thats a PBA member got a questionnaire about bowling. One of the questions was ...if the prize fund was $8000.00 how many events will you join? He answered zero. 8 grand? what a sorry state of affairs bowling is in. The PBA is run by idiots. They rape the ball and equipment companies to have their products used on tour. This is why many companies are dropping out..AMF, 900 Global etc... and why other companies like Seismic, Lane#1 etc...never joined. ITS TO EXPENSIVE! Watch Brunswick pull out next. Whos worse? The PBA or the USBC?

They have been trying for 50 years to figure  out at way to bring big money interest to bowling in the form of advertising to create decent prize funds.  Were mistakes made.  Probably, but the fact is bowling, unlike golf, never had a following in the moneyed class.  How many CEOs came from a bowling family as opposed to coming from Country Club families. 

It killed the potential because these guys were not interested in pouring advertising money at the demographics of bowling, even though the number of bowlers and people who watched it on tv dwarfed golf at one time.   

DOOM has it covered.

If the PBA held only 4 major tournaments a year, first place coud be .5 mil. Concentrate on Regionals. Forget TV, concentrate on the money.

Most of the changes proposed amount to the equivalent of re arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.  Bowling is a great game.  I feel sorry for young people who may never get a chance to get hooked on it like I did.   From a money point of view the pro game has been doomed from the 70's.  Back then people use to ask me why I didn't go pro.  Easy answer, I had a college education and a job that netted me as much as a top 10 money winner on the tour.  Probably a couple of thousand other guys out there just like me around the country.  I remember coming back from watching a national PBA stop in 1975, right after bowling nationals.  It struck me at the time how many really good bowlers weren't on tour, and how many mediocre ones were out there.   

The PBA has had high dollar payouts in the past, in a lot of ways it's irrelevant.

Bowling is not broken just the idea of what some feel the game needs...if the game, the centers primarily looked at growing the game and not just the higher levels, the game would be rewarded.
If you look at golf, every golf course I visit has summer programs for the kids and many are free and supply clubs...too many centers look at a transparent bottom line, one of urgency as in today and not tomorrow...or too concerned abt implementing programs that don't turn immediate returns. 
If we don't grow the youth and look at the 70mil rec bowlers out there, the same ole consensus will continue to infect the psyche on some...the game is not broken and should be presented as such...

We had one that fell in the sand trap and couldn't get out
Lost his keys wallet and eventually his clubs...got 2 outa 3 back

This whole drinking during the game thing is not the problem with the sport. We might like to believe were all twenty something's with a 26 inch waists who climb mountains and run marathons in are spare time but it's not true.

There's nothing wrong with a sport that reflects real people who might drink a beer, smoke a cigarette, or be a little overweight, and like to have a good time.

You don't have to bench press 300 pounds or be 6'10" to bowl well. There should be a way to market this as the common mans sport. I don't know maybe just doesn't work in an age where we raise are kids to think everyone's special.