I think some of the ball companies are also to blame for this.
With the new rules they have set-up, the Pros can throw any ball from the same "family" of companies. Such as Wes Malott can throw Storm Invasion all through the week, Pete Weber can through a Rouge Cell, Tommy Jones can throw a Teack 715A, etc. But when they get to the show, they have to throw the main company that sponsors them. So Wes throws RotoGrip, Pete throws Storm, Tommy throws Ebonite, etc. So why would a Visionairy or Lane#1 spend the money when people might only throw their equipment on TV, and might struggle doing so after not having bowled with it all week. Or another way to look at it, a staffer on Visionairy can only throw a handful of balls during the week, while Tommy Jones can throw a ball from 4 different companies catalogs (Ebonite, Hammer, Track, Columbia). How hard will it be for the single company bowler to compete when others have that much to choose from? Again not worth the price of admission. Even if you did lower the costs a little, it doesn't help overcome this obstacle.
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Jorge300