Starting a Bowling League!

[75lockwood]

Hey,

So living in Canada where i do there aren't very many opportunities for league bowling, I'm in the ybc on Saturday mornings but bowling 3 games once a week leaves a lot to be desired. So i spoke with the owner of my local ally and she was all for starting up a league, we decided on Tuesdays at 4:30 (after school) and that we would target for a high school audience. Since then i set up an email address, Facebook page, posted ad's on Kijiji and Craigslist and made up a flyer! (I've been busy)

Anyway, back to my question: does anyone have any suggestions on this? getting more bowlers, score-keeping, prize systems, tournaments that i could set up, etc? any advice on how to run a successful league would be great!

O, and if anyone lives near me and wants to bowl, come by!


Thanks,

Ben

[billf]

Ben, I think what you're doing is great. Most leagues in the states don't have their own tournaments but rather a position round the last week. How many weeks did you plan on this league being? Prize systems would depend on Canada's laws regarding minors competing for money. In the US that would cause you to lose your amateur status and therefor college eligibility.
Being a new league I would suggest using a handicap system like 80% of 220 or whatever the expected top average would be but not less than 200. Also, is it possible to have an announcement made at the area high schools to invite all that may be interested?

[floridanative772]

That is pretty cool, good luck with it

[Davec13]

I would suggest checking out bowl.com and reading over the rule and guidelines they have already established. While you are not going for a sanctioned league, i'm sure there are a few helpful ideas floating around there. This would be a good link to start with.

http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/rules/pdfs/leagueoperationshb.pdf

[75lockwood]

Ben, I think what you're doing is great. Most leagues in the states don't have their own tournaments but rather a position round the last week. How many weeks did you plan on this league being? Prize systems would depend on Canada's laws regarding minors competing for money. In the US that would cause you to lose your amateur status and therefor college eligibility.
Being a new league I would suggest using a handicap system like 80% of 220 or whatever the expected top average would be but not less than 200. Also, is it possible to have an announcement made at the area high schools to invite all that may be interested?

OK, so based on your suggestion i sent emails off to the 5 main high schools in range of of the ally asking for there support and if it would be possible to put flyers up on the extra circular activity notice boards.

I am looking at running it for approximately 34 weeks (September - June less holidays), based on the possible legal issue from directly competing for money, what do you think of spending money from the league on trophies at the end of the year and maybe prizes draws for things like attendance, etc (all bowling related prizes of course)

regarding Handicap and other mechanics, a 200/220 handicap seems like a great idea to insure that those new to bowling still have a chance, i also found the spreadsheet provided by bowl1820 to be a really great tool that i will defiantly make good use of - set up laptop at bowling ally so i don't need to worry about keeping track of a ton of paper work.

Thanks again for the great advice :)

[75lockwood]

That is pretty cool, good luck with it

Thanks :)


I would suggest checking out bowl.com and reading over the rule and guidelines they have already established. While you are not going for a sanctioned league, i'm sure there are a few helpful ideas floating around there. This would be a good link to start with.

http://usbcongress.http.internapcdn.net/usbcongress/bowl/rules/pdfs/leagueoperationshb.pdf

Thanks Davec, i will definitely be reading over this as well as exploring bowl.com

[striker12]

Ben, I think what you're doing is great. Most leagues in the states don't have their own tournaments but rather a position round the last week. How many weeks did you plan on this league being? Prize systems would depend on Canada's laws regarding minors competing for money. In the US that would cause you to lose your amateur status and therefor college eligibility.
Being a new league I would suggest using a handicap system like 80% of 220 or whatever the expected top average would be but not less than 200. Also, is it possible to have an announcement made at the area high schools to invite all that may be interested?

well bill i can say one thing on our jr bowlers are able to bowl in money leagues with out losing anything cause i have bowled in a few money turnnys and leagues and have not lost mine yet i think they droped it cause of canada not being that big and not so many leagues compared to the US soo they probly decided to make the leagues biger let the younger people join into the money leagues(thats what i think they did due to droping the rule).

[chrono00]

just make the money paid in go to different prizes and trophies. since you want it to be a kind of fun league, you could do prizes for tons of different things so everyone has a chance to win something. and i know some leagues opt to have a big banquet at the end of the season rather than doing large money payouts. you could do that too

[billf]

Check on the rules and laws for the money. One way around it is to have it become scholarship money.

[75lockwood]

Alright, so i read up on the rules on bowl.com and consulted with the ybc about rules around prizes and what seems to be the recurring theme is that prizes directly related to skill is a bad idea, but things like draws or fun prizes for attendance etc are fine. So what i think ill do is spend league money on a end of year banquet and a perhaps a Christmas party, then throughout the season I'll do draws for different prizes where the better your attendance the more entries you get.

Anyway, everything is good to go, Tuesday is the first day, 10 people from my school confirmed they would come and i was allowed to put flyers up at 4 of the 5 schools i contacted so i should get a decent turn out. I modified the score tracking spreadsheet bowl1820 posted (thanks!) with a summary sheet for tracking multiple people as well as adding attendance finance tracking features.

Thanks again for all the great input and suggestions, looks like this might just work :cool:


Ben

[chrono00]

sounds like it should hopefully work out (and you used my banquet idea!) keep us updated on how many you get to show and what not

[75lockwood]

I Definitely will, hopefully i can get a bunch of new people interested in the sport, when i was asking people, far to often i got the response "i suck at bowling"

[billf]

Contact local coaches. Tell them what you are attempting to do and see if any will offer a free lesson(s) to new bowlers of at least a discounted rate. I try to keep the price reasonable to keep current bowlers and get new ones. We can't grow the sport alone, it takes all of us.

[75lockwood]

Contact local coaches. Tell them what you are attempting to do and see if any will offer a free lesson(s) to new bowlers of at least a discounted rate. I try to keep the price reasonable to keep current bowlers and get new ones. We can't grow the sport alone, it takes all of us.

I will definitely keep the prices as low as i possibly can, as far as coaching goes i have no idea where to find coaches lol, I've looked online a few times for local bowling coaches and got squat, it seems like the bowling community is nowhere near what it is in the states, not to mention things like 5 pin bowling taking away from 10 pin programs (but that's a rant for another day)

[chrono00]

theres 5 pin bowling?

[75lockwood]

theres 5 pin bowling?

Please don't get me started....

from my experience there are more 5 pin lanes in Canadian bowling alleys then 10 pin lanes, you can find an ally that has 5 pin easier than finding one with 10 pin, all the little kids are put in 5 pin by parents who think the 10 pin balls are to big so when the kids get older they want to stick with what they know.... its a mess.

stupid skee ball meets bowling


http://www.playdiumlanes.com/en/images/playdium_recreation_3b42aa4c_160b_afc2_8afa_7f4d3d 22bdc9.jpg

[chrono00]

looks pretty dumb to me

[75lockwood]

That it is

[Davec13]

theres 5 pin bowling?

I think 5 pin is a Canadian only thing. Just like duckpin bowling is an east coast thing(mostly northern east coast). There is also candlestick bowling and rubber duckpin bowling.

[75lockwood]

yea, 5 pin bowling was invented in Canada, it kind of ruin's the youth enrollment in 10 pin the 5 pin youth league had 10x more bowlers at my ally for years, but finally this year we were able to get a bunch of 8-10 year old's so its growing. now I'm trying to grow the community for teenagers with this league. only 23 hours to go! lol

[Davec13]

I wouldn't mind trying 5 pin. I have bowled duckpins a few times and even though you get three balls per frame it's tough.

[75lockwood]

its not that its not enjoyable, its just that i feel it takes a lot away from 10 pin bowling

[75lockwood]

Hey all, its been a busy week and i haven't had a chance to get back on to let everyone know how the first day of the league went.

Well, we had 12 people show up and all of them signed up and will be back next week. This was a good start but i wanted more, so i have spent every day since putting up flyers in bus stops, storefronts, community centers, etc. so next Tuesday we will find out if my blood, sweat and tears were worth it (or if i just wasted a lot of ink lol)

Anyway, everything went smoothly and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Thanks again for all the great ideas everyone, let us grow the sport!