interesting....

http://www.bowl.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?id=23622329086

Actually, I would think that a lot of proprietors would be just fine with no prize money or pot money. I've actually heard a bowler rant and rave about the poor lane conditions keeping him from winning money that he needed to win because rent was coming do. I mean, proprietors just want full leagues; they really don't care what brings the bowlers to them.

As Milo says, tournaments are a different matter.

Really like milorafferty's idea of ranking and agree with others that for most leagues the need for prize funds is low (non elite leagues) and if explained to bowlers that they keep the weekly prize fund amount in their pockets most would be in favor. If there are bowlers who need a little action each week run game pots and/or raffles. And if you need prize money to pay your rent then you have bigger problems than lane conditions.

And if you need prize money to pay your rent then you have bigger problems than lane conditions.

Very sad......

Got a different problem where I live now: The only center in a 30-mile radius has two leagues with a grand total of about 20 people on each.

Of those 40 bowlers, there are only 25 or so "unique" bowlers (i.e., some are repeat customers, bowling both leagues). Of those 25, fully half are throwing plastic straight down the pike every night with zero revs.

Ergo, there's no way to compare me to them or them to me. There are 5, maybe 6 guys in there with a rev rate approaching 200 (I'm probably third-highest with a whopping 240).

We are part of a larger association (nearest house being 30+ miles away, however, and the next-nearest is 50-plus) but the other houses in the association all have enough bowlers so that proper sampling can be undertaken.

In our house, we have one guy averaging 200+, another in the 180s, and then there are 3-4 of us in the high 160s-170s, and I'm in that group. I've been in that group the last three years straight, ever since moving here.

Prior to that, I was a scratch bowler in another city. What happened? Well, I'm not getting any younger (nor is my right knee), but the big issue is we have a proprietor who loves flat shots and modifying the volume almost on a weekly basis so no one can get grooved in. I kind of like the challenge, since I basically don't bowl tournaments anymore, but that kind of thing screws with the baseline. The one tournament I have bowled in over the last 5 years, out of town, I finished 2nd. It was a regional tournament (not PBA regional, just regional in scope) and I averaged something like 230 for 9 games. With the kind of handicap I'd accumulated over the last 3 years, how tough do you think it was to catch me?

My very long point here is that I think the whole deal is futile. I'm almost to the point where I don't think handicap has a place in tournaments anymore. On the other hand, we still have to flight people somehow. I don't have the answer. I don't know if there *IS* an "answer." And with the game fast receding in interest, I wouldn't be surprised if I lived to see its eventual end. This whole three-tiered ratings thing feels like deck chairs on the Titanic to me.

Jess