Hello,
First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Jason Wonders, VP of marketing for Visionary Bowling Products. Up to this point, I have tried to refrain from posting on ballreviews because it is my belief that one of the best ways to get non-biased opinions from bowlers is to view forums like this as an outsider. The last thing I want is for my presence here to change the way anyone posts about our equipment.
As for the PBA, many things have changed over the past ten years, including the Registration fees and format. As I am sure most of you are aware, the product registration has increased dramatically over the past few years and companies like ourselves have been forced to make very tough decisions on our involvement with the PBA.
While the information that Scott received from Samantha are factually true, there are many other factors that go into product registration that most bowlers are not aware of. For example, every company that registers with the PBA, no matter which level, must comp a certain number of balls for each Senior Tour event. This amounts to approximately $7,000 that gets tacked on to the registration right from the top. In addition, if you ever expect to get a touring player to use your equipment, you must also comp a fair amount of balls to the national tour truck. Add to this the cost of staff members, incentives for bowlers who make the telecasts, the additional PBA fees for bowlers using our equipment on TV, and a touring ball rep (if you desire), and costs add up significantly. What starts out as a $55,000 investment can very easily become $150,000 or more.
Now, if you decide to take the grassroots program, the cost is $35,000 plus the seed balls to the Senior Tour. This registration package allows all Regional and Senior players to utilize the equipment. However, if for some reason the PBA decides to televise a senior event, the bowlers will not be allowed to use the equipment during the TV finals. Add to this the cost of Senior and Regional staff members and what it essentially amounts to is a company spending at least $45-50,000 to have the PBA give their approval so that bowlers can use your equipment in non-promotional bowling events.
After numerous board meetings, and countless hours of discussing our options, we decided to remove ourselves from the PBA for the 2004-2005 season. It is our opinion at this point in time, that the promotional value we receive from registering with the PBA is no longer equal to the cost of registering. Now, this in no way means that we will not be registered in the future, and hopefully at some point our company will grow to the point where the PBA registration fees will no longer be an issue.
I want to take this opportunity to apologize to all of the senior and regional players that use our equipment, or purchased some of our equipment with the intention of using it during this PBA season. We understand that our decision has inconvenienced some bowlers, and for that we are truly sorry.
There are many reasons beyond those discussed here that influenced our decision, and to go through all of them here would be unnecessary, but if you have any particular questions that you would like answered, I will do my best to answer them for you.
As always, we thank you for your support,
Jason Wonders
Visionary Bowling Products
To answer questions that were previously asked:
scotts33: We have been fully registered with the PBA up until this season. Any bowler could use our equipment during any PBA event (televised or not) prior to this year.
charlest: While it wasn't necessary for us to hand over the check before the bowlers bowled in the finals, it was agreed to that if someone did make the telecast, we would pay the PBA an additional $7500 per bowler, per event. So, if 3 people made the telecast it would cost us $22,500 plus incentives (usually between $2,000-$6,000 per bowler)
