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Author Topic: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling  (Read 6974 times)

WOWZERS

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Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« on: December 01, 2016, 09:17:55 AM »
Link included below. Comments are from Jack Nicklaus complaining that advancement in golf ball technology is the reason for course closures.

I think some could draw a similar conclusion with the advent of new bowling ball technology.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/jack-nicklaus-blames-golf-ball-132904968.html


 

morpheus

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #31 on: December 03, 2016, 10:53:33 AM »
Regular PGA and PGA Champions plus LPGA to a lessor extent has sponsors so it has $$$$$.
PBA few sponsors no money it's that simple.

Wasting your time with this. Facts are irrelevant if they don't fit the agenda.

Sponsors invest because there is an audience to market too...bigger audience, more sponsorship dollars. Assuming roughly 2% of membership is interested in the "sport" of bowling, this becomes a math problem because 2% of 10 million is more than 2% of 1 million. More members equals more consumers equals more sponsors, but don't let facts get in the way.
Regular PGA and PGA Champions plus LPGA to a lessor extent has sponsors so it has $$$$$.
PBA few sponsors no money it's that simple.

Wasting your time with this. Facts are irrelevant if they don't fit the agenda.

Sponsors invest because there is an audience to market too...bigger audience, more sponsorship dollars. Assuming roughly 2% of membership is interested in the "sport" of bowling, this becomes a math problem because 2% of 10 million is more than 2% of 1 million. More members equals more consumers equals more sponsors, but don't let facts get in the way.

Sponsors pay for exposure. And people do not watch televised sports just because they participate in the sport. So your "facts" don't fit your agenda. But I'll give you a C- for effort anyway.

We are talking about participation sports, not NASCAR or the NFL. When bowling had 10's of millions of members it was on ABC Wide World of Sports and there were plenty of main stream sponsors, now not so much. The sport was strong when membership was strong, that's called causation (the relationship between cause and effect).
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milorafferty

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #32 on: December 03, 2016, 11:06:18 AM »
If people were interested in bowling, then they would watch and sponsors would pay. It's that simple.

The fact is, popular interest in sports come and go. Bowling has probably had it's day (and may yet again), NASCAR isn't as popular today as just a few years ago. The NFL viewership is down this year. NBA is doing great. College football is more popular than ever as is Soccer.  Golf has probably passed it's peak just like Indy car racing.

Trends come and go. Buy don't let fickle public interest get in the way of your grudge.
"If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words?"

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morpheus

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #33 on: December 03, 2016, 11:14:25 AM »
If people were interested in bowling, then they would watch and sponsors would pay. It's that simple.

The fact is, popular interest in sports come and go. Bowling has probably had it's day (and may yet again), NASCAR isn't as popular today as just a few years ago. The NFL viewership is down this year. NBA is doing great. College football is more popular than ever as is Soccer.  Golf has probably passed it's peak just like Indy car racing.

Trends come and go. Buy don't let fickle public interest get in the way of your grudge.

Again, there are no facts in your posts, only opinion. Discussions are more interesting when they are factual, but that would require higher intelligence on your part and that clearly isn't possible.
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milorafferty

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #34 on: December 03, 2016, 11:33:49 AM »
Facts are facts. You not agreeing with them do not make it not true.
"If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words?"

"If you don't stand for our flag, then don't expect me to give a damn about your feelings."

morpheus

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #35 on: December 03, 2016, 11:58:04 AM »
Facts are facts. You not agreeing with them do not make it not true.

Thanks for your subjective opinion, but just so there's no confusion with my objective approach based on facts I provided definitions for you:

Subjective - placing excessive emphasis on one's own moods, attitudes, opinions, etc.; unduly egocentric.

Objective - not influenced by personal feelings, interpretations, or prejudice; based on facts; unbiased.
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milorafferty

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #36 on: December 03, 2016, 12:19:39 PM »
http://www.si.com/nfl/photo/2016/10/20/nfl-television-ratings-decline-causes

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2016/07/01/nascar-declining-attendance-tv-ratings-fans-social-media/86573130/

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2016/10/pga-tour-ratings-wrap-2016-cbs-nbc-fox-viewership/

But you know, I thought about your "facts" and you are right. It's all the USBC's fault. Why the hell aren't they doing something about this??

Actually, the reason for decline in all sport that have seen declines is USBC's fault. 

They better get off their ass and use the $10 a year I send them. And don't dare ask for more either.


Have a nice day. It's a typical beautiful November Saturday in Central California and I have better things to do than deal with the town dullard.


I could go bowling, but USBC has done nothing to encourage me to do so.
"If guns kill people, do pencils misspell words?"

"If you don't stand for our flag, then don't expect me to give a damn about your feelings."

morpheus

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #37 on: December 03, 2016, 12:35:42 PM »
http://www.si.com/nfl/photo/2016/10/20/nfl-television-ratings-decline-causes

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2016/07/01/nascar-declining-attendance-tv-ratings-fans-social-media/86573130/

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2016/10/pga-tour-ratings-wrap-2016-cbs-nbc-fox-viewership/

But you know, I thought about your "facts" and you are right. It's all the USBC's fault. Why the hell aren't they doing something about this??

Actually, the reason for decline in all sport that have seen declines is USBC's fault. 

They better get off their ass and use the $10 a year I send them. And don't dare ask for more either.


Have a nice day. It's a typical beautiful November Saturday in Central California and I have better things to do than deal with the town dullard.


I could go bowling, but USBC has done nothing to encourage me to do so.

First, what in the world does NASCAR and the NFL have to do with a participation sport like golf or bowling. Secondly, your talking about a 5% decline in golf viewership, I wish bowling was within 50% of its peak...but hey don't let logic or reason get in the way of your opinions.
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MI 2 AZ

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #38 on: December 03, 2016, 12:45:04 PM »
Perhaps I am missing something here, but what does posting numerous complaints about the USBC or the decline of bowling on a ball reviews site accomplish?  I would think posting them or sending them to the USBC would accomplish more.


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morpheus

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #39 on: December 03, 2016, 01:10:58 PM »
Perhaps I am missing something here, but what does posting numerous complaints about the USBC or the decline of bowling on a ball reviews site accomplish?  I would think posting them or sending them to the USBC would accomplish more.




They're too busy running a professional tour and promoting their numerous "Open" tournaments to be bothered with membership decline. I would be happy to pay $100 a year if there were actually programs designed to acquire and retain members but apparently the best they could do was this PDF last updated six years ago.

http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/associations/pdfs/2010-2011/Forms%20and%20Manuals/Membership/Volunteer%20mbshp%20recruit%20plan%207-14-10.pdf

They aren't listening and anyone with a differing opinion from Chad Murphy is labeled as negative which is the same tactic being used by many on this forum. The fact is our game has been in a tailspin for decades and apparently the solution is to run the PWBA and focus on "Open" tournaments which does little to attract the vast majority of current/prospective members. Our game deserves better than the USBC is capable or willing to provide, but most on this forum are the elite and the current strategy caters to them so they defend it.
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avabob

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #40 on: December 03, 2016, 07:55:22 PM »
Remember this.  In the 70s bowling had much higher tv ratings than golf which should have resulted in much better sponsorship than was actually achieved.  Probably multiple reasons but the one cited most often was demographics of the viewing audience.  Big corporations didnt believe that bowling audience had the same level of disposable income as golf audiences.  It went back to the old pool room, blue collar image of bowlers.   The wall street elite didnt bowl and they pretty much viewed bowlers as low class.

Bowlaholic

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #41 on: December 04, 2016, 08:09:07 AM »
Back in the 70's when the numbers for bowling were at it's peak the sponsors were focusing their advertising dollars on products that appealed to blue collar necessities, not the amount of disposable income which may be true for golf. 
Examples such as shaving cream, pain relievers/aspirin, spark plugs (Spitfire), car tires/tuneups (Firestone/Goodyear), mufflers (Midas) the latest greatest car deals to be had for blue collar level transporation (they weren't pitching Cadillacs or Lincolns).
The advertisers always knew that a high level of disposable income did not exist in bowling market and therefore, big ticket items which produced large profits for the sponsors fell to the golf market. Hence the difference in the level of sponsorship/  prize funds.
There were differences then, now, and will be in the future because although they appear to be similar, in reality they are completely different markets in the world of sports.

avabob

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #42 on: December 04, 2016, 02:00:01 PM »
It really showed up in the pro ams which golf used to bootstrap itself into the charity market.  Corporate execs willing to  pay upwards of 1000 to play with their top golfer.  The same companies willing to pony up huge prize fund dollars for great publicity.  No such possibility in bowling.

jls

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #43 on: December 06, 2016, 02:59:03 PM »
Jack should just fish....golf is hurting because the under 30 crowd does not have the time to play 18....it's about a 6 to 7 hour day when you factor on driving time, playing time and eating time...

And the game is too expensive....the golf ball has nothing to do with the lack of play.

Jack wants to scale back the driver and the ball.... if this was done a big hitter would barely be 200 yards...

ignitebowling

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #44 on: December 06, 2016, 04:31:04 PM »
What demographic is golf losing?  If it's the casual golfer it ain't the golf ball.  Most hackers use crap balls, refurbs, or balls found during a round. That along with cheap clubs, or clubs better then them and not properly fitted in most cases.

Golf has fallen off in popularity,  and started to shrink back from where it has gotten too big for it's customer base. It happens.

Not the golf balls fault.  Hack golfers with bad form can't hit a Pro-V1 any better then a Top Flight.
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Pinbuster

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Re: Golf has the same perception issue as bowling
« Reply #45 on: December 06, 2016, 05:32:54 PM »
Golf had the Tiger effect were everyone wanted to take up the game.

After a while they found out how hard golf is and many have quit.

The biggest problem with the golf ball is that it is making some classic courses obsolete. They are limited on space and can not have length added.

While club and ball technology has helped golfers, only the few with high swing speeds really get the length effect from the ball. The average golf handicap is pretty much the same today as it was 40 years ago. You don't hear of large number of holes in one shot or sub par rounds by a lot of amateurs.