I understand but the PBA has stood the test of time and bowling deserves a professional arm of the sport. The general public doesn't really view bowling as a sport. The key is to get them to understand how much of a sport it is. To be honest, I never really understood how much of a sport golf was until I got deep into bowling and realized how closely related they are. Bowling has an opportunity to spring forward with the hype it has now. Again, people love excitement. People can get behind teams or individuals that represent their interests, whether it's where they work or where they live. Bowling centers can offer incentives for local businesses to sponsor their league teams. Incentives like a free day of bowling for their staff for a certain amount of time with some help and maybe instruction from their league team captian/coach and possibly team. Have you ever played a sport with a pro whether it's a pick up game or for real? It's awe inspiring! This will make the employees excited about the people representing them, and maybe make some new bowlers to grow the sport and again, grow some excitement. This in turn gives new people to come out to be spectators. Maybe once or maybe on a regular basis. Either way, it gets people out.
Having these sponsor are great because it's a small investment to get the word out for their businesses also. Let's just say a 1000 dollar investment for a 5 member team. This easily buys shirts for around 300-400 dollars. Take another hundred to make a cool banner with company logo and team name to go somewhere in the center, and 500 to the prize fund. We have 36 teams on our Monday night league. That make 18,000 dollars to the prize fund alone!!! All the bowlers have to pay is laneage and possibly secretary fee. Probably 5 bucks a night. The question is payout. I would believe that top 3 teams get paid so everyone has a real stake in how they play and it really means something to win. Now bowling seems more than Al Bundy and his friends drinking brews and eating pizza all night. People can see that bowling is a SPORT. The general public doesn't see it that way, and all of these fun places that keep popping up like Main Event devalue the sport.
AND ANOTHER THING..... I started back bowling just a little while ago. There were some great representatives of the sport and many that sucked. For being a newbie at the time, people were nice at face level, but when it came to it, they were somewhat assholes. I understand that you have to prove to be proficient at anything to be in the 'in crowd', but things can get insulting. My PSO was amazing at helping me get started again. He walked my through what to buy and I even hired him as a coach. This was awesome. Fortunately, I got paired up with great team members also. But there were the ones that thought they were too good to even say hi. In fact, I would visit other pro shops, and the employees would look at me like "you don't know the Storm HyRoad?? Ok, you're an idiot." The different PSOs were always nice though. I say that because we should welcome every newcomer to the game with open arms. NOT to be overbearing about their game, but to guide them. Let them know they are appreciated even if they may suck-like I did and do on occassion-LOL.
I love this sport and we are all ambassadors to this sport and the more excited we are for doing what we do, the more excited others will be. Let's not be snobs. Let's invite people out to have fun, and then maybe show them the competitive side too.
That's my .02's on the matter.
Oh BTW!! I know a lot of people have been disgruntled with the USBC but I think the sport of bowling needs it or something like it. Baseball has the commission and so forth. Whether they do a good job can be argued, but I think bowling needs a governing body.
