Seems to me that years ago, (back when I had hair), most of the bowling leagues had five (5) person teams. A four (4) person team league was seen now and then, but usually, a TEAM was always 5 folks. Nowadays, four bowler teams are the norm, and we have quite a few Trio leagues and even Doubles team leagues. Is this simply due to the general decline in league bowling? Or is there some other reasons for this shift?
--------------------
What's with the Braille on a drive-up-ATM?
Never under any circumstances take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.

There are so many things that come into play here .. in NY we had a 4/5 man league (all men) starting at 6:15 PM and we were rushed out of the house with a 4/5 man (all men)league that started at 9:00 pm.

There are less bowlers around today .. most people have DIFFERENT REASONS for the decline .. a few that I believe are as follows:

1. Folks just don't have the time. Most need to work two jobs to keep up with HOUSING/cost of living.
2. Bowling COSTS .. CENTERS charges for bowling have gone up where it is TOUGH for PEOPLE WHO DON'T BOWL to go an get interested in BOWLING.
3. EQUIPMENT COSTS .. bowling balls and shoes are a must to get into a league .. not many can set THOSE EXPENSES aside for their own pleasure in todays world.
4. CENTER CONDITIONS. Many bowlers give up the sport because of conditions that were defined by BENNETT in his posting. Feeling is that it's not worth going to the league where you are UNABLE TO HELP YOUR TEAM and feel embarrassed from a POOR SHOWING.

In my opinion these are the contributing factors to FEWER BOWLERS in todays leagues.
--------------------
Hit them light and watch them fight
      J O E - F A L C O

I believe the standard of 5 was set to maximize revenue in bowling centers.

As Sawbones said, there use to be waiting list to get into leagues especially the early leagues. Around here early leagues start at 6:00 PM and 5 person teams took about 2 ½ hours to bowl. This let a second shift get on around 8:30 and be done around 11:00. If you went to 6 or more on a team, the time to bowl would go to 3 hours with the second shift not getting done till after mid-night. They would have probably lost a lot of bowlers for second shift’s so to maximize profit they settled on 5 person teams.

With the inability of centers to fill leagues they are now going to 4 person and less per team leagues. Often when going to 3 person or less they increase the number of lines bowled to make up for the loss of lineage.

As far as tournaments go it would make more since to go with an even number if doubles are being bowled but I don’t think you are going to see the ABC changing nationals soon.

I wonder if this changes from area to area.  Around here, 5 man leagues are the norm unless you're talking the short specialty leagues.

Personally, I like the 4 man concept.  My favorite league of all time had 4 man teams where there were 7 points per night.  1st game was team, 1 point.  2nd game you split into doubles for 2 more points.  3rd game was every man for himself singles for the remaining 4 points.  Lot of fun since you got 3 different competition formats in one night.


--------------------
9-

Why, WHY won't the last one just fall??  It's WIGGLING for cryin' out loud!!