With all the topics in the past about the sport of bowling dying and leagues dwindling in numbers and fewer bowling centers surviving, I am just wondering if competitive bowling continues to decline like it has over the past 20 years..what will that mean for the bowling ball companies?? It would seem that the league bowlers or the tournament bowlers are the biggest purchasers of bowling balls--especially high end..and if this decline continues would it get to a point where most companies would/could no longer justify producing balls other than just generic low end balls for a bowling center that needs balls on their racks? I am just curious  if you think it will ever get to that point where if a more serious bowler needs to replace a league or tournament ball that he would no longer be able to?

Brad

They are all surviving, with maybe only a couple making money. There is too much saturation of balls and not enough people in bowling like there once was.

This why the international market is helping a lot of them survive. Especially the small companies. It's expensive to run a ball plant, you have to sell a lot of balls to make good money, when there is so many choices for the consumer that has dwindled down anyway, something has to give or you keep on keeping on and try to "make a living".

You would think the high end market would be in decline, but there are more ball companies today than in the 80's when league bowling was still at a fairly high levels membership wise.  One thing, I think the biggest decline in league bowlers has been at the low end.  Most of the remaining league bowlers may not be scratch level, but they are the ones who were always buying the most equipment. 

 There will always be high performance balls manufactured in the states despite a decline in numbers. Your turn and burn high revers will continue to buy the newest ball about every 30 games or so. It's imprinted in their genetic make up to get the newest shiny gem much like a raccoon can't help but steal shiny trinkets. It may seem like there are a lot of ball companies. But the reality is it's only by name. With Storm you have Roto Grip recently prominent over the last decade. Newly back from the ashes like a Phoenix you have AZO. Storm hasn't produced a ball from AZO since 2010. AZO may last or will disappear again after a few runs. AMF only reappears from Global with a new high performance ball every 2 years. Otherwise they are pretty much extinct. Lane Masters is only slightly alive due to Lord Field taking over. Ebonite has Columbia, Hammer, Dyno-Thane and Track. Much like General Motors had done to remain relevant over a century it's much easier to buy your competitors out to keep your brand from falling off a cliff. Some other small ball companies just recycle old cores that are discarded from Larger Companies in small batches. Manufacturing a single name ball for most in massive numbers is not common any longer. Unless a certain brand becomes the hot pocket killer.

I am just wondering if competitive bowling continues to decline like it has over the past 20 years..what will that mean for the bowling ball companies??

My guess is that Ball companies will create high end bowling balls that will die quicker. Oh wait! They are doing that already!.