See no reason why the topic was locked.

As for the USBC, I don't mind paying for product. I strictly believe that you get what you pay for. The problem is, the proposed pay is being sought without telling us what we are buying into. No disclosed plan whatsoever for how the additional dues would be used. That leads me to believe that the USBC is afraid to disclose the intended plan because they fear that the general membership would not go along with it.

UBA all day

You're probably right, it was a completely unsolicited proposal by some random dude out of the goodness of his heart and no one at the USBC or BPAA had anything to do with it.

You're probably right, it was a completely unsolicited proposal by some random dude out of the goodness of his heart and no one at the USBC or BPAA had anything to do with it.

Yea. I thought that explanation was smoke and mirrors too.

 Some people, EVEN RANDOM MEMBERS, get the idea that the USBC is going to go belly up if something is not done. They can't keep bleeding funds into programs that have NO returns ( LIKE AWARDS) without getting into trouble eventually. Just like your home budget, you have to put your money towards your obligations first, THEN you can do stuff like give aways with whats left. Thanks to economic changes, and no price increase in YEARS, USBC doesnt have the discretionary funds they once had to fund those "give away" programs.

 Like it or not, the USBC is what keeps bowling as a nationally regulated activity instead of letting it become a regionally, or locally, unregulated activity where every little "burg" you come across plays by their own set of rules.  You think cheating and sandbagging is bad now, try a world with no governing body and see how that one works out for you.

 Like it or not, when membership goes down, that does not mean administrative costs go down, it just means that, without a dues increase, the money you have to operate on dwindles.

 There once were close to 4 MILLION sanctioned bowlers. Now we're down to what, 1.5 million sanctioned bowlers? That's close to a 2/3 reduction in bowlers, so a comparable refuction in funding, yet you expect the USBC to still be able to operate at the same levels?

 C'mon man, you're smarter than that.

 Now don't get me wrong, I don't WANT a dues increase either, but I do feel like we are getting to the point where bowling is either going to become an unregulated activity with few "safeguards" for its participants if something isnt done.

 When the original ABC was formed, they took a highly unregulated sport with diferent standards and playing rules from one area to the next, and turned it into a real sport with real standards and real rules in order to, as best possible, ensure that all bowlers EVERYWHERE were playing the same game.

 When I started bowling, the fee was $5.00, but there was 4 million of us, so that was $20,000,000 in the 1980's. Now it is down to 1.5 million at $10.00, so that is $15,000,000 in 2016 dollars.  Thats $5,000,000 dollars less and 30 years of inflation later, and you still expect the same "bang for your bucks"? Where else are you going to find that?

 How about your car? In 1982, you could get a small car for around $5,000-$6,000 dollars, but not today. That same car will run you $15,00-$20,000 now. (Nissan Sentra)

 How about housing? Food? Clothing? ANYTHING? Geez, even bowling balls were only $75 for a top of the line model, now they costs over $200 in many cases, yet we pay that happily.

 Bowlers. We've got to be some of the cheapest people on the planet. And whiney too.

 "They are not needed".

 OK then, what is needed?  Do we need a national governing body?  If not, who will regulate the sport? The bowlers? Heck, they're the ones breaking the rules in the first place!

 If not the USBC, then what?  A new organization? How much do you think it will cost to get that up and running on a national level? And what happens when they can't kiss our butts and give us everything we want plus run the business on a $15,000,000 budget?

 Ever heard the old axiom "It takes money to make money"?  Without some financial "clout", it is hard to make inroads or get lasting results.

 Besides, we're only talking $5.00.  Why not try it and see what happens? At worst, if they are still ineffectual, it only cost a pittance to find out, and we can always move forward from there.

 Has the USBC made some big gaffes and goofs? Sure they have, I'm not trying to say they are blameless. What I am saying is that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, and the USBC is what we already have. If we have to start a totally new thing, we can, but lets try to fix what we've already got first, if we can. It will be easier, and cheaper, in the long run.

 

It's only 5 dollars. It's only 1 dollar etc...that's not the point. The point is they've done next to nothing with the money they get...now they want to more of nothing and get more money to do it.

 How do you know what they've done? Is it that they don't do what you want them to, or that they didn't do anything for you personally?
 I work for a company, and have been in the grocery industry for nearly twenty years, and I still have no idea what all they spend the money on because I don't personally run the business, so I don't know exactly what it takes to make it run correctly.

I play baseball in an adult league, we are not sanctioned. The league is run by the creator of the league and there are leagues all over the country. A league can govern itself.

 That's great, but USBC isn't some local guys running a single league, they're a large national association that attempts to assure that ALL leagues are regulated and run correctly. If all the people running leagues were completely honest, that would be great, and things would be fine. Problem is, they are not.

There is no need to have to be dragged along by a failing org like Usbc. They are a failure. It's simple, they need us, we don't need them to bowl.

 Here you are correct, we DON'T need them to bowl. If you just want to cosmic bowl, open bowl, fun bowl with friends, beer league with buddies, stuff like that then I get what you're saying. But, if you want a nationally regulated, and internationally recognized SPORT, you need a governing body.

 You want bowling to be a sport, or just an activity?  I prefer it as a regulated sport, even if they don't get everything right.

 The cost of living goes up, and so does the cost of running things. We can't expect them to continue to operate at the same levels as they did in the past with less comparable income. It just isn't possible.

 I say give them a raise and see what happens. If they still suck after a couple of years, we can still kill them then.