onefrombills
07-31-2009, 03:08 AM
This year, the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) borrows a page from the World Series of Poker and will kick off the 2009-2010 season with the World Series of Bowling (WSOB). And by saying borrow, I mean the concept of a grouping of events located in one general 50 mile radius that will crown multiple champions with a big championship event to culminate the previous less important events.
Anyways, in a first for the PBA Tour, seven separate events will be contested in one city over a one-month span instead of over seven weeks in seven different cities. Alongside the PBA Tour will be the PBA Women's Series and even a Senior Tour event for the greats of the game. Including sweepers and side events, over two million dollars in prize money will be handed out beginning in early August. Bowling centers in Detroit will be flush with the best talent in the World for a whole month! Does it get any better than that for a city that has been a shining star of the Nation’s bowling community for a very long time? I won’t lie…I’m jealous.
Yet, for many, this has only been viewed as a cost cutting measure for the PBA Tour due to the economic crunch of the recent year for everything from insurance companies, small businesses, big banks and even car manufacturers. Realistically, the last thing the PBA needs is Obama running the show. Rumor has it he would replace all bowling centers with basketball courts. So even if it was purely cost cutting, which it’s not, I’d be content with it to keep the PBA viable.
However, while in the short term the WSOB will definitely cut costs for travel and set up associated with the more traditional traveling PBA Tour, to make the argument that the WSOB is only a cost cutting measure would be to completely ignore the potential positives of it. Let me explain why I think the WSOB could be the next step in bringing the PBA Tour to greater prominence.
The WSOB will be held across various centers in the Detroit, Michigan area. Detroit is a bowling Mecca in regards to membership, location, and sheer number of bowling centers. Throw in the fact that their economy is in such bad shape that you could literally buy a house cheaper than renting a hotel room and you have a place that actually needs the PBA Tour. Hopefully the PBA’s getting a good deal on rent! Regardless of Detroit’s economic woes, Detroit is centrally located in the country and draws big numbers of bowlers. Fact is, it’s not just a cost cutting measure for the Tour; it also saves money for the bowlers and a byproduct of those savings is increased participation.
With that said, there is a reason many of those high stakes amateur tournaments do fairly well. They take a lot of events and cram them all into one area over a short period of time. With what you will save on multiple flights or day long commutes in and out of seven various cities over the course of a traditional PBA Tour season, you can enter more events, more side pots, and even spend more money in a city that desperately needs it. This doesn't just apply to the full time exempt bowler or the full time non-exempt bowler, it applies to that talented guy who just never saw it as fiscally responsible to fly all over the country for a check here and there. Now he can settle down in one city for a couple weeks or even the whole month and focus on bowling against the best in the game in more than a just one tournament. For example, I live in Alaska and have a well paying full-time job that I wouldn’t dare quit to get my rear-end handed to me on the PBA Tour for 21 events. But, I’d be willing to take a month of paid vacation time and get seven rear-end kickings all on one plane trip. That doesn’t mean the wife would let me, but negotiations are currently at full blast for 2010.
Having a month long stay also provides ample opportunity to manufacturers of bowling equipment and other vendors with a vested stake in bowling to set up shop in the city and promote their new line of equipment. Similar to the USBC Open Championships.
This WSOB should also promote greater International participation. We'll likely see some of the best International players not already exempt taking flight to Detroit to prove that they have game on the toughest stage in bowling. This might be the ignition switch the PBA needs to explode in popularity overseas and open up new opportunities for PBA events in Europe and Asia.
The PBA Tour will also be pre-taping almost all of the telecasts instead of doing it live like they have since before man walked on the moon. Purists hear the word tape-delayed and they immediately start freaking out and loading up on anti-anxiety pills. Even I was hesitant at the thought. Many diehards might have to go into forum board rehab just to stay clear of the possible spoilers. I will personally avoid all contact with my bowling friends and quite possibly take a hiatus from my weekly bowling leagues just to be safe.
But seriously, let’s look at this from a general viewership perspective please. There is a reason poker does well on TV these days and it’s primarily due to the action being tape-delayed. One, they can show you the hole cards. Two, they can show you a lot more of the big hands instead of the ones where the whole table folds. Three, they can present the more personal side of the players through pre-tournament interviews and background stories. And finally, they can avoid errors and the occasional foul word often exposed through live telecasts. All in one or two hours, depending on the event.
The PBA Tour has been fixated on four and five bowler finals forever. With the TV timeouts, the re-racks, the balks, and any miscellaneous delays that come with preparing for every shot there is barely enough time to finish all the games within the allotted time, let alone time to get to know the bowlers, to educate the viewers on the difficulty of the pattern, to educate the viewers on the skill of the bowler, or to show how the finalists got to the finals. Last year, they even started bowling through the commercials just to finish in time. To the average viewer who doesn't watch the live scoring updates during the course of qualifying, they have no idea how those four or five bowlers made it. As far as they are concerned, their names were drawn from a hat. The TV format is old and has crossed five decades. It is time to try something new. Pre-recording the telecasts gives the production crew a plethora of options to present to the audience a fresher 90-minute telecast.
Anyways, in a first for the PBA Tour, seven separate events will be contested in one city over a one-month span instead of over seven weeks in seven different cities. Alongside the PBA Tour will be the PBA Women's Series and even a Senior Tour event for the greats of the game. Including sweepers and side events, over two million dollars in prize money will be handed out beginning in early August. Bowling centers in Detroit will be flush with the best talent in the World for a whole month! Does it get any better than that for a city that has been a shining star of the Nation’s bowling community for a very long time? I won’t lie…I’m jealous.
Yet, for many, this has only been viewed as a cost cutting measure for the PBA Tour due to the economic crunch of the recent year for everything from insurance companies, small businesses, big banks and even car manufacturers. Realistically, the last thing the PBA needs is Obama running the show. Rumor has it he would replace all bowling centers with basketball courts. So even if it was purely cost cutting, which it’s not, I’d be content with it to keep the PBA viable.
However, while in the short term the WSOB will definitely cut costs for travel and set up associated with the more traditional traveling PBA Tour, to make the argument that the WSOB is only a cost cutting measure would be to completely ignore the potential positives of it. Let me explain why I think the WSOB could be the next step in bringing the PBA Tour to greater prominence.
The WSOB will be held across various centers in the Detroit, Michigan area. Detroit is a bowling Mecca in regards to membership, location, and sheer number of bowling centers. Throw in the fact that their economy is in such bad shape that you could literally buy a house cheaper than renting a hotel room and you have a place that actually needs the PBA Tour. Hopefully the PBA’s getting a good deal on rent! Regardless of Detroit’s economic woes, Detroit is centrally located in the country and draws big numbers of bowlers. Fact is, it’s not just a cost cutting measure for the Tour; it also saves money for the bowlers and a byproduct of those savings is increased participation.
With that said, there is a reason many of those high stakes amateur tournaments do fairly well. They take a lot of events and cram them all into one area over a short period of time. With what you will save on multiple flights or day long commutes in and out of seven various cities over the course of a traditional PBA Tour season, you can enter more events, more side pots, and even spend more money in a city that desperately needs it. This doesn't just apply to the full time exempt bowler or the full time non-exempt bowler, it applies to that talented guy who just never saw it as fiscally responsible to fly all over the country for a check here and there. Now he can settle down in one city for a couple weeks or even the whole month and focus on bowling against the best in the game in more than a just one tournament. For example, I live in Alaska and have a well paying full-time job that I wouldn’t dare quit to get my rear-end handed to me on the PBA Tour for 21 events. But, I’d be willing to take a month of paid vacation time and get seven rear-end kickings all on one plane trip. That doesn’t mean the wife would let me, but negotiations are currently at full blast for 2010.
Having a month long stay also provides ample opportunity to manufacturers of bowling equipment and other vendors with a vested stake in bowling to set up shop in the city and promote their new line of equipment. Similar to the USBC Open Championships.
This WSOB should also promote greater International participation. We'll likely see some of the best International players not already exempt taking flight to Detroit to prove that they have game on the toughest stage in bowling. This might be the ignition switch the PBA needs to explode in popularity overseas and open up new opportunities for PBA events in Europe and Asia.
The PBA Tour will also be pre-taping almost all of the telecasts instead of doing it live like they have since before man walked on the moon. Purists hear the word tape-delayed and they immediately start freaking out and loading up on anti-anxiety pills. Even I was hesitant at the thought. Many diehards might have to go into forum board rehab just to stay clear of the possible spoilers. I will personally avoid all contact with my bowling friends and quite possibly take a hiatus from my weekly bowling leagues just to be safe.
But seriously, let’s look at this from a general viewership perspective please. There is a reason poker does well on TV these days and it’s primarily due to the action being tape-delayed. One, they can show you the hole cards. Two, they can show you a lot more of the big hands instead of the ones where the whole table folds. Three, they can present the more personal side of the players through pre-tournament interviews and background stories. And finally, they can avoid errors and the occasional foul word often exposed through live telecasts. All in one or two hours, depending on the event.
The PBA Tour has been fixated on four and five bowler finals forever. With the TV timeouts, the re-racks, the balks, and any miscellaneous delays that come with preparing for every shot there is barely enough time to finish all the games within the allotted time, let alone time to get to know the bowlers, to educate the viewers on the difficulty of the pattern, to educate the viewers on the skill of the bowler, or to show how the finalists got to the finals. Last year, they even started bowling through the commercials just to finish in time. To the average viewer who doesn't watch the live scoring updates during the course of qualifying, they have no idea how those four or five bowlers made it. As far as they are concerned, their names were drawn from a hat. The TV format is old and has crossed five decades. It is time to try something new. Pre-recording the telecasts gives the production crew a plethora of options to present to the audience a fresher 90-minute telecast.