Joe, the so called "things they don't need" are what makes the tournament special. Without them, you're essentially proposing that the Open be dumbed down to a bloated city tournament. Many bowlers won't invest in plane flights, multiple travel days, hotel nights, and all the other expenses for an experience they can sign up for close to home. That's certainly the case for me. I like the full blown booth experience. I look forward to bowling in all the side tournaments as much as the Open itself. Take these and other 'unnecessary' components away, and I don't go. And I don't think I'm alone.
I've yet to formulate my opinion on this.
I guess my question would be for Joe Cool would be, and I think this is a fair question: What SPECIFICALLY are the "things they don't need"? This year will be my first USBC Open Championships and I've been told it's a fun experience.
So, what specifically are the things "they (USBC) don't need" that I personally will experience this year? What is the expensive "overkill" that will be offered to me? I'm looking for specifics here........
What are the USBC Open Tournament's bells and whistles at Reno? What does it have that other tournaments don't have that could be eliminated to save money?
Off the top of my head:
1. Bowling industry or bowling related vendor booths, like the ball manufacturer's proshop/display booths. Do bowlers really need to spend money on new bowling balls at a tournament or have their bowling balls plugged/altered prior to their squads? Of course, if a ball is found to be illegal due to a static weight violation during check-in (see item #3), the bowler would not be able to use the ball if there was no proshop available to do the necessary corrections prior to the bowler's squad. You also have booths where souvenirs are sold. How many keepsakes does one need to remind them of their sub 500 scores?
2. A ball shipping service whereby the bowlers can have their bowling balls shipped to or from the tournament site. Too many lazy bowlers who don't like to lug their eight bowling balls over their shoulders to and from the tournament site?
3. A squad room and ball weighing check-in station. Do we really need to have all the bowlers for a squad waiting in one area? Most bowlers I know have personal hygiene issues so that can be rather uncomfortable for those who don't. Just have the bowlers show up early and mill around the bowling center like in most other tournaments. And ball check-in? What other tournaments even worry about something like that, especially with all the illegally drilled bowling balls in use daily in league play? Just a huge waste of money there for sure, because you have to pay a couple of people to do all the ball checks.
4. The walk down the center aisle before the squad starts. You could save space by eliminating that and keeping the bowlers out of the area behind the lane machines (which must be an insurance risk issue, so save money on insurance too).
5. The lane machines and mechanics. They really have a large number of lane machines in use for the Open, probably more than any other tournament. The cost for all those lane machines (eight?) and the people to run them before every squad could be saved by running like a normal tournament with just two machines. Of course, the squad times would have to be slightly extended, thus extending the length of the tournament run slightly, but the goal is to save money. The Open also has an unusually high number of mechanics working during the tournament. Cut those down to just two and some pin-jumpers to save money. Might be more breakdowns, but as bowlers we should be used to that, right?
6. Lane 81. The Open has an extra lane away from all the others that is used for instruction use. This takes up a large space and is something that you don't see in other tournaments. Do bowlers really need to get lessons before a tournament? Is it fair to those who do not want to spend the money on lessons and instead on beer?
7. Bowling ball lockers. These huge bowling ball lockers take up a lot of space and probably generate a lot of money for the USBC. Bowlers who bowl team event one day and the minors the next, use these lockers to store their bowling balls and bags and to save themselves some excercise from lugging or dragging them back and forth between events.
Now, if you really want to save space and eliminate things that are not really necessary to hold a tournament, you could also eliminate the food vendor booths. Is it really necessary to eat or drink before, after or during bowling? And by eliminating the food and drinks, you could cut down on the number of bathrooms, thereby saving even more space. Just have bowlers bring in an extra empty bowling bag for emergency use. Plus, the bowlers would be leaving the bowling site even faster than normal instead of loitering around causing congestion.
I probably missed a few things so feel free to add yours.