Those constant changes are why so many people are no longer watching. I am one.
They took a national tour and moved it to a small regional area.
They took it from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon against the most popular sport viewer rating wise in the country the NFL.
They went through constant format changes. Often changing from one event to the next.
Gold pins.
Then went to less bowling and more commercials. They then fast tracked every match on TV.
Then they started making some events pay-per-view online.
There are several other things I'm sure I have overlooked. In the end, they got what they made of it. By trying to change something that had appeal to its niche market, and change it to have more mass appeal they were able to alienate their niche market and never got close to mass appeal.
You are right in much of what you say, but you have a few inaccuracies here and need a little history lesson from a geezer.
Saturday afternoons ended in the late 1990s. The last ABC show was 1997 in Fairview Hts., Ill. The new owners started on a Tuesday night right after 9/11 attacks. Eventually they went to Sunday afternoons.
I don't think gold pins were ever used under the new owners.
Back in the days of live shows on network TV they fasttracked ALL THE TIME to get the show done in time.
The PBA was dead and about to go bankrupt when the new owners bought it. They poured tens of millions into trying to make it bigtime. Did they make all great decisions. Of coruse not. But without them where we are now is likely where we would have been in 2001 -- IF anyone had put up money to keep PBA going at that time.