Ughhhhhh....
I'm not even gonna bother. I'll wait till 2-handed bowling takes over before.....well, that'll never happen so I don't need to finish the sentence.
I said they sustain on endorsements, not get rich by them. As you pointed out, if a pro is living solely on what he nets from bowling...only 10-20 bowlers could afford it.
The endorsements make up a LOT of the difference. They pay for all the equipment, they usually will pay the tournament entry fees, and usually still give the bowler a "small" salary. It's not enough to live on like in the good ole days...but when it gets added to the tour winnings...then usually you can make a decent living.
There lies the problem. The PBA's new owners thought having PDW behave like a complete *** and having Belmo and Rash act like teenagers would make the sport exciting to a young audience...and it hasn't. And in the process, it's pushed the traditionalists away who view those antics as disrespectful to the game. Would an all-out brawl get ratings? Yup. But then what? Make brawls a weekly thing? Hockey tried that and it didn't work.
To grow the sport and to grow the PBA are entirely different topics...and people don't understand that. Both are necessary but are gotten to differently.
1) PBA needs the stories and the ratings like I proposed.
2) To save the SPORT...we need influx of kids...YOUNG kids...with an emphasis on actually bowling well. NOT cosmic bowling or 2-handed or "rocknbowl". You know what excites me about bowling? Knowing that on any day of the week I can outbowl and of those teenagers at cosmic bowling. I knock down a 5-bagger and they all stare in disbelief. Meanwhile, they're throwing it underhand and end up with an 87.
We have to get away from that mindset by having youth learn how to bowl the right way....get good at it...then it develops into high schools and colleges and eventually into a strong class of pros. For each young kid that you can get...thats thousands of dollars for the bowling center in practice time and food and all that. Kids leagues start to form...now ya got even more money. And as these kids start growing up and showing up at cosmic bowling...it shifts the mindset of cosmic bowlers that bowling is about chucking a 6lb ball through the air and laughing hysterically...and there's actually some merit in learning how to bowl well. We have to make it "cool" to bowl well...rather than what we currently have where it seems like the worse you bowl the cooler you are.
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