I have to agree with Mike on this. He very true with the Chambersburg area thing, as their entries have not seen the decrease that others have. I enjoy bowling on tougher shots as well, just don't always have the time to make it to alot of the tourneys that I want bowl. I for one know a couple of people who won't bowl on tougher conditions because they need the big area to play. I do not agree with the easy conditions of today but it is  what it is. As Mile said an average Joe that averages 220 on a house shot is typically not going to bowl on a tough shot due to they are usually not that good with making shots.
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BRUNSWICK ADVISORY STAFF
VISE REGIONAL STAFF

Mike has some good points in his post.  My reason for not entering tournaments after I came back from the USBC Open in Albuquerque has come down to my economic situation and the on going down turn of the economy.  I like bowling tournaments because of the competition and the opportunity to bowl against the best bowlers in the area.  I wasn't the best bowler coming out of my league (didn't average a 200), but wanted better bowlers to bowl against, regardless if I won or loss.  But I just was losing more money entering these tournaments because I was not able to even cash.  I know that I needed more time to work on my game before entering another tournament.  Plus I was making more money passing certification exams, because my company reimburses me for the exam fee, and gives me a sizeable bonus for passing each certification exam.  This bonus is a lot more money than the top prize in a bowling tournament or winning a league.  With some certifications requiring two or more tests, I can make a lot of money in a short amount of time.  

Another reason that I don't enter some tournaments is that my center never advertises them.  They may hide the tournament flyer, or never even put it out.  Plus know one in my league even enters tournaments.  If it wasn't for this website, I would have no clue if a tournament was hapenning in my area.
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Ken - aka "dpunky" - Certified USBC Level I Coach



Edited on 10/29/2008 1:26 PM

Before the economy, yes, now with the economy, no its not gonna happen.  Your average league bowler is not just gonna give away at least $30 every sunday.  A prime example of this is the tournament that Suburban Bowlerama in York use to run.  Use to be $35 entry fee, bowl 4 games, brackets 2-4 and Alex would max people like me out at 99.  Well word got out that if you shoot 210s across the boards you wacked them, so more and more of the better bowlers started going up there and winning all the money and guess who stopped bowling, all the so called "donaters" and the entry fee was the same and the economy was in better shape then but your local league bowlers are not gonna just keep giving away their money when they feel they have no shot to win.

I just bowled the hagerstown doubles tourney this week on a dead wall, 40 teams, 86 single brackets, 30 team brackets.  Now next month for some reason the guy is going to put down a kegel pattern instead of his house shot, should be real interesting to see how many of their regulars participate.

All im saying is from my point in bowling the last 6 years or so in many different environments and tournaments, it seems to me that the people that are getting the entries are the ones that have these cheap easy tournaments.
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"Typical House Bowler"

I am going to weigh in on this topic as a bowler and as some who runs tournaments (www.40boards.com). I’ve been having this very talk with Walton (www.vmsbt.com) and some of my friends who bowl any and everything. Before I move forward, let me break down the economics:

•   3-4 $175-220 balls
•   1 $140 bag
•   1 $120 pair of shoes
•   $30-200 tournaments

You do the math! Who wants to spend that kind of dough to shoot 160, 170, 180 games every time they bowl a tournament. We all have egos and we want to stroke them with big scores so that when we are standing around the cooler we can brag about what we bowled. The core group of tournament bowlers keep screaming “MAKE ‘EM TOUGH!” but in the process the occasional tournament bowlers are lost. If you are the cream of the crop, you will find your way to the top regardless of the scoring pace. Some of the very people crying the scores are to high use to roll a lot of high scores too.

So now you are asking, where is the middle of the road scoring pattern? GOOD LUCK! Luck is just what 40 Boards experienced at Opposites Attract this past June when we shortened the house shot a little. The shot allowed folks to wear the pocket out but the scoring pace was reasonable as it took a team average of 413.4 to make the first cut and 428.8 after 14 games to cash. Year one of the doubles tournament, we had something way to hard down and finding a happy bowler was almost impossible to find. When I say hard, there were 72 bowlers and maybe 13 (18% of the field) averaged 200 and the field was talented with some solid amateur talent including: Fero Williams, George Gohagan and now exempt PBA members Edward VanDaniker, Joy Esterson Trisha Reid & Jen Petrick. The field looked a lot happier this year until the air conditioning died. People ask me all of the time, what about the happy median. If putting out something in the middle was so easy, we’d all do it at our tournaments now. The left-right issue is here to stay just like the 500 RPM people against the 250rpm people is here to stay.

I’ll be the first to say, the PBAx patterns are turning into something impossible to duplicate. One time you need a sanded ball to play the Cheetah and the next time you need a white dot at the same center. Did any of you go to VMSBT’s September event? The Scorpion was down – man were people crying the blues when they could not keep up with the scoring pace. The only thing I heard during and after the event was how VMSBT messed up. Did VMSBT lay the pattern down or did the center lay the pattern down? And then people were bumping their gums to those that would listen about how high scoring it was. Peep last December’s stop at the very same Country Club when Rhino Page set the PTQ scoring mark. That surface just matches to the pattern for some reason. There was a tournament in Virginia that went to the Chameleon for their weekly tournament after varying the patterns previously. Man, the middle of the lane was like carpet and the lefties were playing somewhere left of 8 and even scuffing their balls. Of course it held up since there were like 5 in the field of 30. Guess which bowlers benefited from this the most? LOL Some of us are starting to learn that when the house shot is down, it can be unpredictable too as centers aren’t oiling or just running their morning shot on what’s left from the previous day.

Some are speculating that a lower entry fee will bring entries. I’ve heard $500 up top is not worth coming. I’ll do the math this time winning $500 at a tournament that take 3 hours is like having a full-time career paying you $346K a year. Each of us has to decide why we are there. There are bowlers who bowl because they want to improve and realize they need to bowl against stronger bowlers, then there are those bowling for the competition (at least that’s what I hear from the PBA regional supporters) and then of course there are those there for the hustle aka the money.

If you want to know how to bring the entries, take a look at the tournaments that have a lot of entries. To start, they are annual events so they feel special. Oh yeah, the field can strike too. Or there is a big top prize whether based on entries or guaranteed and we all believe we can win!
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Baker...Why doesn't my ball hk?
40 Boards & A Ball Tournament Director
www.40boards.com
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"The left sucks & the right is wide open!" R.I.P. Brizmo 6/15/08