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....erationshb.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....erationshb.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


Ben