MSB, I can agree with a lot of what you said as well.....
1. By and large, card carrying PBA member does not equal best bowlers around at the regional level. There are plenty of people who have their cards and you ask yourself why? Cheap practice rates? Cheap equipment? Probably. I would bet 75% of the people who have their cards have it for those reasons. They dont have it because they choose to compete at a high level.
Those who do have their cards and do compete at the regional level what it guarantees you is the opportunity to bowl in a scratch environment for real and guaranteed money. It is nice to bowl for 12.5 times your entry at minimum. Most times 15 x your entry. It is nice when you cash, that you have doubled your entry. In todays scratch bowling world of "brackets mean everything", it just isnt a viable opetin for most because of the lack of brackets. Brackets, in my opinion, are one of the biggest reasons scratch bowling on a local level is where it is.
You are also right that the PBA has the center donated to them for the weekend that they are having the event at that particular center. But it is not the bed of roses you think it is because all that free money is not coming to usaa, the players. On an average weekend in the East, we lose/PBA takes about $3600. On a weekend like Forest Hill, it is about $7000. We get to bowl for those guaranteed monies more so because of the hard work of tournament hosts and the regional managers in securing sponsorships. Without their hard work in securing those sponsorships, there would be no regional program. It would be in the same downfall as most other scratch venues these days.
2. I will agree with you again, you dont need to know weeks in advance what you are bowling on as far as conditions go....you put on your shoes, you throw your ball, you see what you got. What the original post intended to say was you know what you were getting as far as the lanes being done correctly by a professional lanesman and the shot being put down by a lane machine that is kept in spec. The Wally Hall owned houses, Greenway and Annapolis do a good job of putting down the PBA patterns. Very close to what we bowl on. Those centers may have a knowledgable bowling staff. Suburban in York, pretty close. Perry Hall, pretty close. Ft Meade tries to but them down. Different lane machine different oil......not close. Crofton has tried...they cant even get a house shot right. The really should just turn that place in to one of those upscale Lucky Strike places. Most incompetent bowling staff I have ever seen but they sure know how to attract the Rock n bowl crowd. But most centers just have no idea how to put anything out other than a house shot. Anything else, you have just alienated your bowlers with garbage that a house you have no control over put out on the lanes.
On the other hand letting the bowlers know what they are facing in advance could be a good marketing tool. You may attract people you may not have other wise got.
4. Family obligations do come first and will probably keep that person away regardless of start times. A religous gambler, sort of contradictory, dont you think? lol They are gambling either way.
5 and 6 sort of go together. Promotion is HUGE if you are going to succeed. When you (not you but any tournament director) takes it upon themselves to run an organization, THAT becomes part of your commitments you need to fulfill. Yes,we all work. We all have family. We may even have kids with their activities. It may mean last night you had to stay up from 11pm til 130 in the morning to work on it but it is a responsibility you have chosen to undertake. If you do not take the responsibility seriously or give that commitment that you have pledged to the bowlers that you are trying to support, how will your organization succeed the way we all hope it will? You know (but most dont) that running a tournament is more than being at the bowling center on some given Sunday for 5 hours.
7. Sense of achievement is huge in my mind. I have that sense whether I cash, make the finals, win. Locally or on the road. League, Tournament or PBA. Even in practice when you feel you have conquered a flaw. The biggest achievement I see in most peoples faces these days is how much money they picked up at the bracket table. We have lost 33% of our entries for whatever reason (afraid, attrition, whatever), another 33% because of brackets. You stop running brackets you will lose 1/2 of the last 33% and you will have the last 15-20 guys who do it because they truly enjoy to compete. And there lies our biggest problem we face. The lack of desire to compete!
