Here is my issue: I have been jonesing to bowl in a scratch league ever since I moved across the state and found that there is not one to be found within a 2 hour drive of my house. We have a fairly large center here and two other small ones. I primarily bowl at the larger center (32 lanes).
My first ever league was a scratch league, and I learned so much from that league and had so much fun competing with better bowlers that I want to let the competitive juices flow again outside of a once-a-month tournament for which I usually have to travel the same (minimum) 2 hours.
The problem is that the manager IMMEDIATELY gets his defenses up every time I (or anyone, for that matter) brings up the possibility of a scratch league being formed at his center. He almost ALWAYS says, "It'll never happen. You won't get enough people interested for me to create a time slot for it."
Other arguments include, but are not limited to, "No one wants to get their butt kicked by the 230 average bowlers," or "The only available times are too late at night for the bowlers in this house." In fact, this is the only center in which I have bowled that did not have a SINGLE league slotted to begin at 9pm. This center is not very old (5 years tops?) and I wonder if they have ever even TRIED slotting a league for 9pm, on ANY day of the week!
I respect that the manager has to do what he thinks is best for his customers and for his business, but to most of his excuses I say BULLSH*T. My home center was smaller (24 lanes) and in an area with fewer people than there are here, we bowled MONDAY NIGHTS AT 9PM! We consistently had 18 3-person teams, and this has been one of the better leagues in that house for several years now. There are 150/160 bowlers all over the place in that league (including me in my first ever season of league bowling). In fact, bowlers from all over the place travel to that center because they have the same problem I am currently having. My problem now is that it is a 5 hr. drive for me, otherwise, I'd still be bowling that league due to the lack of one here.
My point is that if the league is set up with a fair system that allows every team to be competitive (i.e. team avg. cap, divisions based on team avg., head-to-head points, etc.) it will thrive and people will appreciate the opportunity to learn the game from better, more experienced bowlers, like I did. I went from a low 160's average my first season to a 205 average my second season, in LARGE part because of the pointers the high average bowlers on my team gave me.
I am asking for suggestions from people who have spawned leagues with success or from anyone in the industry that understands the insider's point of view. Why is this guy so adamant against even giving it a one-season trial? I even told him I would do all the leg work and talk to every bowler individually if I had to, if even just to measure interest. There are PLENTY of good bowlers in the area, and plenty more lower average players who would fit in nicely if there were a team avg. cap, many of whom bowl more than once a week! If anyone has some tips on how I can be more effective in my quest for a scratch league, I'd love to hear your input!
