Is bowling a dying sport? How to fix it?

[rand]

Maybe I can jump in and share my recent experiences with getting into bowling and how amazingly HARD it actually is.Lets start with which ball to buy.Its a nightmare picking which brand and which ball you should go with a newb.I wanted to buy a ball that I can learn how to curve with.Nothing crazy but some movement will make me happy.I called and emailed every pro shop in my surrounding areas.Guess how many responses I got to my inquiries.....0.I called at different times of the day trying to catch just anyone and it literally took me a couple months of this and me finally driving around to these places several times before finally getting information enough to make a decision.

I learned more off of here than I did in my pro shop to be honest.I wanted to start league bowling after getting a ball.So while I stopped by these places and or called I would ask about info on the leagues and there was literally no info out there.I have never in my life seen a more close knitted tight mouthed sport in all my life.For no reason though.You go to the alleys web sites and look at their league info and if there is any info at all its vague and its outdated.How can anybody run a business in this manner and expect success on any level.Or expect any growth.If we worked at our jobs this way we would be fired.

I am stubborn and wouldnt let all of this turn me away.I also tried going to the pba website I believe it is and looking for a coach.I emailed him off of there he responded once and asked me to give him some more info on my self which I did and I havent heard back from him in a couple months.I stumbled upon a great coach and shop during all of this,their still horrific with communication but they are great to deal with one on one in person.All of this had me thinking why is it so hard for everyone to figure out why bowling is a hard draw for some.

[Greenday]

My issues with bowling these days:

-League bowling is too easy. If it's a youth league or an adult's beginner league, by all means, use a THS so people who are just getting used to bowling have an easier time. But there needs to be more intermediate and advanced leagues. The same guys in my league continue to bowl 300s every single week and 800 series each week. I don't feel challenged at all when throwing my first ball of the frame. When I can throw the ball and miss my target by two or three boards in either direction and know it'll still hit the pocket, that's a problem.

-Bowling alleys suck at advertising. There's two nearby alleys I use for regular practice. One has a website that is NEVER updated. You click on the link for leagues and the page has no leagues listed. Click on the link for tournaments and one tournament is listed (It took place 9 days ago). Their "events calendar" is empty. The other lanes' website has a calendar that is the same every single week. Nothing changes. The upcoming leagues page has one league listed, which started back in November, and it's mixed adult/youth. Luckily I found a new link for 2013 summer leagues which is packed with leagues. (****, those leagues are actually cheap to at just $12 a week and they have good deals).

-Inconsistent oiling of lanes. I NEVER know whether lanes are going to be oiled or not. Alley #1 USUALLY oils lanes at 4pm, but if they have a league at 6pm, they push it back. Even when they are freshly oiled, despite it being a 38 foot pattern, I still find myself having to drastically change my style of play for the alley which I never have played anywhere else. It's usually bone dry and I really can't practice on dry lanes. Alley #2 sometimes has oiled lanes during the day, sometimes they don't. It seems like the staff never know either when I ask. I'd rather not bowl at all than bowl on dry lanes.

-Very little attraction to youth. At 25 years old, I rank as one of the youngest members of my league. I'd say 65% consists of seniors, 5-10% is young adults, and the other 25-50% are mature adults. It'd be a lot more fun for me if I was bowling people my age a lot more often. I'd say there's just two other teams that have a group of young adults out of the 32 teams. And on my team, I'm the only young adult. I don't know how to solve that problem.

-Being a pro doesn't really make money. A lot of pros don't have everything paid for by sponsors. They'll get some free balls but that's it. Winning a major tournament doesn't pay much. In the 2011-2012 PBA tour, just three bowlers made over $100,000 with Sean Rash making the most (a whopping $140,250). Guys who ride the bench in other pro sports like football, baseball, hockey, basketball make more money than that. It's too tough to make bowling a living.

[2fingerroller]

Is bowling a dying sport? Not where I live. But as to how to get more business they have to be more accessible. These are the 3 big ones nearby less than 10 miles away. Sunset Lanes which is where I bowl league, Big Al's franchise that just opened recently, and Park Lanes which is less than 4 miles from home. All 3 have free wifi, pro shops, and Facebook pages. As far as getting more people into the sport you need to have the media take more of an active stance beyond Espn 2. Maybe a celebrity reality show during primetime.

[bowl1820]

My issues with bowling these days:

-League bowling is too easy. If it's a youth league or an adult's beginner league, by all means, use a THS so people who are just getting used to bowling have an easier time. But there needs to be more intermediate and advanced leagues. The same guys in my league continue to bowl 300s every single week and 800 series each week. I don't feel challenged at all when throwing my first ball of the frame. When I can throw the ball and miss my target by two or three boards in either direction and know it'll still hit the pocket, that's a problem.

-Inconsistent oiling of lanes. I NEVER know whether lanes are going to be oiled or not. Alley #1 USUALLY oils lanes at 4pm, but if they have a league at 6pm, they push it back. Even when they are freshly oiled, despite it being a 38 foot pattern, I still find myself having to drastically change my style of play for the alley which I never have played anywhere else. It's usually bone dry and I really can't practice on dry lanes. Alley #2 sometimes has oiled lanes during the day, sometimes they don't. It seems like the staff never know either when I ask. I'd rather not bowl at all than bowl on dry lanes.

These are basically contradictory.

You find League bowling is too easy. (do you mean For you or everyone else?)

Yet then your basically saying it is too hard, do to different alleys oiling the lanes differently, your having to change your style of play and having to play different parts of the lane your not use to. And you'd rather not bowl than bowl on lanes you don't like the shot on.

So you would like the alleys to all be oiled the same, with a pattern that doesn't make you have to move and fits your style of play.

Well simple fix put out a Typical House Shot (THS)

[Greenday]

These are basically contradictory.

You find League bowling is too easy. (do you mean For you or everyone else?)

Yet then your basically saying it is too hard, do to different alleys oiling the lanes differently, your having to change your style of play and having to play different parts of the lane your not use to. And you'd rather not bowl than bowl on lanes you don't like the shot on.

So you would like the alleys to all be oiled the same, with a pattern that doesn't make you have to move and fits your style of play.

Well simple fix put out a Typical House Shot (THS)

They are not contradictory at all. I find the league bowling is too easy for people who are not beginners. Lately, now that I've got my mental game down, shooting 200s is insanely easy. I just roll the ball somewhere near my target and it'll hit the pocket. It's not challenging me. And as I said, there are guys who shoot 300s and 800 series every week. Clearly they aren't being challenged either.

I'm not saying it's hard at all. I'm just saying that the pattern is so light, that instead of playing a line somewhere between the 10 and 5 boards more straight up, at that one house, I stand at 30, throw 15, swing it outside and it'll come back into the pocket every time. I don't know what it is about that pattern, but that's what works for me every single time there. It's not challenging at all. I can still miss a few boards and it'll still hit the pocket. The only thing that's challenging about those lanes is that the lane is bone dry half the time. It's unbearable conditions that I refuse to bowl on.

I don't mind bowling on different patterns. Hell, I love bowling on a sports pattern. But finding my line on a THS, whether I need to throw straight down the five board, or swing it out over the 15 board to the outside and back in, is super easy (at least for me). Challenging to me is when you miss your mark by a board, either your ball isn't going to reach the pocket or you'll overshoot it. That's challenging myself. Finding the correct line for myself on a pattern is no longer a challenge.

[J Anderson]

The game of bowling is not dying. It seems like every year the BPAA claims to have set another record for games bowled in the course of a year.

The sport of bowling in the U.S.A. seems to be at death's door. Accounting for inflation, the prize money in the PBA is a fraction of what it was 20 years ago. Fortunately for the better pros, there are is a growing number of big money tournaments in Asia.

The USBC has been losing members for years and doesn't seem to have a clue as to what to do about it.

League bowling is declining. Part is due to the disappearance of the company sponsored industrial leagues. These league started early enough that you could run a second shift of leagues starting at 8:00 p.m. and finish by 11. With the shift from manufacturing to a service / knowledge economy, only public school teachers and retirees can participate in a league that starts before 6:00 p.m. With the early leagues starting at 6, the second shift leagues don't get to start until after 9, making them very unattractive to anyone who has to go to work in the morning. Those who work in retail or health care tend to have constantly changing schedules so they can't commit to a league. And how many people with "9 to 5" jobs can actually leave work at 5?

[GeoLes]

I think it's just a cultural thing. Any sport not part of the "big four" (baseball, American football (not soccer), basketball, hockey) are largerly ignored by the averager Joe or Jane. To illustrate, I will recall a comedian's funny bowling line, She grew up in the midwest in a sleepy bowling town and finds the whole thing boring. She kept referring to "Earl friggin' Anthony". Regardless of the skill reqired to master the sport, the issue of populari image will always exist.

Talk about obscure popularity, I have a friend who loves curling. She curlse weekly at a local ice rink and loves it. We common folk only see curling every four years when Winter Olympics comes around. (Yes, I know; yawn. get the point?)

As for perceived difficulty, I recall a sports announcer challenging Lance Armstrong's achievements. He said "How hard is it to ride a bicycle? I can do that!" He was being provocative, but it illustrates the lack of interest in bowling quite well.

[Greenday]

I forgot my other gripe. Winter leagues are too damn long. Sorry, but a league that goes from September until May is too long. Teams towards the bottom never have a chance to come back. Sandbaggers are rewarded too much (These guys who started with 190-200 averages are now bowling 800+ every week? That seems legit...). Should split it into two halves. Don't reset the averages in the second half, but split the prize into two halves.

[scottymoney]

I forgot my other gripe. Winter leagues are too damn long. Sorry, but a league that goes from September until May is too long. Teams towards the bottom never have a chance to come back. Sandbaggers are rewarded too much (These guys who started with 190-200 averages are now bowling 800+ every week? That seems legit...). Should split it into two halves. Don't reset the averages in the second half, but split the prize into two halves.

My league has 9 teams so we have actually gone to 3 10 week sessions. And every team has 3 chances to make the final roll off with each session winner advancing. Each session the standings reset and the last week is positioning rounds.

[swingset]

They are not contradictory at all. I find the league bowling is too easy for people who are not beginners. Lately, now that I've got my mental game down, shooting 200s is insanely easy. I just roll the ball somewhere near my target and it'll hit the pocket. It's not challenging me. And as I said, there are guys who shoot 300s and 800 series every week. Clearly they aren't being challenged either.

I'm not saying it's hard at all. I'm just saying that the pattern is so light, that instead of playing a line somewhere between the 10 and 5 boards more straight up, at that one house, I stand at 30, throw 15, swing it outside and it'll come back into the pocket every time. I don't know what it is about that pattern, but that's what works for me every single time there. It's not challenging at all. I can still miss a few boards and it'll still hit the pocket. The only thing that's challenging about those lanes is that the lane is bone dry half the time. It's unbearable conditions that I refuse to bowl on.

I don't mind bowling on different patterns. Hell, I love bowling on a sports pattern. But finding my line on a THS, whether I need to throw straight down the five board, or swing it out over the 15 board to the outside and back in, is super easy (at least for me). Challenging to me is when you miss your mark by a board, either your ball isn't going to reach the pocket or you'll overshoot it. That's challenging myself. Finding the correct line for myself on a pattern is no longer a challenge.

If the "too easy" sentiment is really true for you, you're consistently in first place in your league, frequently cash out at tournaments, and are flirting with going pro.

Any of those true? I'll bet not...cause none of us are in that shape.

When you can beat everyone in the house, every time, the game is too easy.

When everyone is rolling 900's, the game is too easy.

Your issue seems to be the lane conditions are too easy for you to struggle on....but that's mindset. Who cares how easy a particular shot is? You're not competing against the lane or the scoreboard, you're competing against the other bowlers. Whether you shoot 198 on a tough pattern or 230 on a THS, you still have the beat everyone else. That means every time you miss striking or miss a spare on an "easy" pattern, you're acknowledging that the sport isn't so easy afterall....because someone else is beating you.

Sort of like NASCAR. Sure sounds easy to drive in a circle right? Well, it is, but it's not easy to do it for 4 hours, at 200mph, 4" from 43 other guys and beat them every week.

Easy is between your ears, and I find nothing about this sport easy...because there are thousands of people better at it than I am.