Hey guys,

 

Hope all is well with everyone.

 

I want to ask a favor.  Could I tap your brains to see what advice you could offer me?

 

We have a league that is getting smaller by the year.  This upcoming year, we have 10 full teams, one-half of a team and a single bowler.  Some teams have threatened to quit the league if there aren't 12 full teams at season's first week.

 

So this is where you come in.  

 

How would you or how do you attract new bowlers and/or new teams?   

 

How do you differentiate your league from the other leagues in the house?  [Our league looks just like all the other handicap leagues in the house]

 

  Is a 9:15pm start time a detriment to leagues in your opinion?

 

Should we charge a $$ per bowler team entry fee to sweeten the pot to attract the better bowlers?  Would that entice them?    On the flipside, do you think that would turn off the not-so-good bowlers who have been uber-loyal for these past 14-15 years?

 

How much responsibility falls on the house to help us find bowlers?  Some?  None?

 

Please share some of your success stories, some  of your strategies and/or some of your suggestions...

 

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks for your help,

Chris 

I've bowled in a league that started at 9:30pm before. After two years, I'd had enough. It was well after midnight before I got home, so it was around 1am before I ever got to bed. Not good when you need to wake up at 7am or earlier.

unfortunatly my idea would/could penalize a lower average but, you could add money to the prize fund, make the payout worth something at the end of the season. Brackets are good otherwise they might help generate some interest.

Along with what most people have mentioned, is that the start time is to late... You cant get older people or even younger people with early am jobs out to bowl at that time of the night.

 

One of the best ways to add teams/bowlers is BY GOD ADVERTISE!!! You got means of facebook,twitter, to adds in the paper,etc. There is endless ways to advertise and what it boils down to, does the people really want to put forth the effort in doing this? Dont wait until the last minute either... I have local tournaments that lack advertising,etc, and then I have some that advertise daily or weekly on facebook. Hell I have some tournament hosts even text me letting me know upcoming dates!

 

Another great way to gain bowlers is offer a free ball or something at the beginning of league. It can be a Viz a ball or something related to sports. There are many athletes that dont bowl, but may get excited to see something offered such as that. Those non-bowlers are why bowling alleys have not shut the doors these days, always remember that.

 

One more great way to bring in bowlers is to offer a free practice session during the day from say 1-3pm. I used to know of a couple places that used to use that as an added bonus for bowling a cirtain league,etc. Now if you do the math "i promise you, that a huge loss will not be taken on this". Because one "most people work in the middle of the day, and two you will only have a handful of people really take advantage of such a feature"... This may be something you can talk to your center about. The may or may not agree to it, but heck at this point you dont have much to lose right? John