How to Save the PBA Tour

[Aslan]

Bowling is at a great disadvantage to many of the other sports (football, baseball, basketball, golf, etc.) because of exposure on television.

It's also at a great advantage because it's far easier to become good at than those other sports Having played them all, I can tell you that the average kid has a better chance with current equipment and conditions of becoming a 210 average bowler in < 5 years than they have of making a college team in any of those sports.

Lastly, there are many schools and locations that do not have bowling teams; since these programs are not established it would be difficult to get schools to take them on; too many districts are trying to find new and creative ways to cut expense at this time, I don't think they would be as open to adding new programs and expense.

Thats where my plan would come in and "exploit" that issue.

You go to the elementary schools in your area and you simply pitch them this idea:

"I have a bowling alley. We have a "lull" at 10AM on Thursdays where I'd like to see more bowlers. I'd like to start a league made up of at least one team from each elementary school. I am asking each school for the following:

1) Form at least one team.
2) Ensure transportation to and from the alley for the team once every 2 weeks.

In RETURN:
1) The lane usage is free.
2) Each team will receive free shoe rentals.
3) The winning team each season will receive free, new bowling balls, bowling shoes, and a bowling bag with accessories.
4) For each team a school sends, that school will receive $250 per season as a donation. The longer the school participates in future seasons, that amount goes up.
5) Participants will receive reduced cost bowling and food and a discount in the pro shop for when they come to the alley other times.
6) The school with the winning team each season will receive an additional $500 donation.

If you do the math, from an accounting perspective, the alley will make money on this deal because it is HIGHLY likely these families will frequent the alley on other nights/weekends. And the REAL monetary benefit is IF this can lead to youth leagues or even adult league players increasing...thats where the real money is. It makes both short term and long term sense. The kids are out of school for a couple hours during the school day once every 2 weeks but that could simply count as their PE time. And the schools benefit because it's money they can add to their budget or PTA account. And it's a snowball rolling down a hill. As more youth get into it, those youth lead to youth leagues and that leads to middle school and then high school leagues. Then, college teams become more prevalent...then the Pro game sees some more interest.

The problem with the PBA is; they are trying to build a giant snowball without the advantage of it rolling down a hill. The foundation for bowling has eroded and it simply can't be fixed from the top down. The ONLY way they can make the PBA Tour solvent between now and when the grass roots efforts come to fruition is my idea of putting the "Tour" on hold and making it a year long tournament with a "reality TV" feel to it. As people get caught up in the stories and the bowling world gets excited about the Cindarella stories...and the pros get more exposure to average America...then culminating in a March Madness style single elimination tournament...??? Yeah...that'll work.

There are reality shoes about Duck Hunters and pregnant teenagers and 4 year olds in beauty pageants...which if it hasn't taught us anything, it's taught us that if you make it about the "stories", people will watch just about anything.

And financially, if I were to purchase the PBA, it would be simple:

ESPN, USBC/BPAA, and PBA in a conference room. And you simply pitch this:

PBA: We put the tour on hold for a minimum of 2 years. Your support will now need to come from your sponsors. However, the tournament will produce very large paychecks for the final 4-8 bowlers. Also, join a league because the only way in the new tournament is through a sanctioned league at a sanctioned center.

USBC/BPAA: We need every USBC center to conduct an annual tournament according to strict rules. Each center will receive to entries into this new year-long tournament/TV series.

ESPN: We NEED a spot to air this. I'll GIVE it to you for 1 year to see if this experiment will work. That means you pay zero fees to air the PBA show at a time slot of your choosing (so long as it's prime time weekdays or weekends). In return, I just need the network to help us produce and film it. We need, especially early on, film crews spread out at centers throughout the country....chasing "stories" that will resonate with viewers.

Sponsors, if any, will pay half their fee to ESPN for some commercial time and half their money into the prize fund. That will get them some commercial time and their logo at events. All 64 finalists receive automatic bids to next year's tournament (since they won't have time to bowl in a sanctioned league). Prizes for places 5th through 8th will be automatic bids to next year's tournament AND their fees paid (travel, room/board, stipend, etc..). The top 4 prizes will be somewhere in the 1 million to 10 million dollar range and automatic bids to next year's tournament. Differences between prize fund and sponsor support will be covered by me (the owner) so prizes are guaranteed irregardless of popularity.

I'm telling ya...THAT format will work. But, its the ONLY format that'll work.

[rv driver]

This isn't a simple of an answer as money being the only obstacle. While we could say that money is the final issue that is the easiest to point to, you have to build up exposure for the game before you can get more money. Looking at the 2006-2010 Tournament of Champions the ratings are just not that good (not that this is new news).

http://blog.timesunion.com/bowling/m...elevision/119/


As it was mentioned if a big brand could be convinced to be a sponsor it would help, but there isn't the return necessary for a larger sponsor to do this. The average cost of a commercial on some of the major networks is as follows (all 30 seconds):

ESPN: $19,301
FOX: $200,008
ABC/CBS: $94,000
NBC: $76,211

Taking the average number of viewers for the 2006-2010 stretch 877,000 and the Average commercial spot for ESPN you get $0.02 per viewer. You can adjust this down per viewer by saying that the commercial cost is lower on Sunday afternoon, but then adjust it up for the % of people watching this on DVR and fast forwarding for commercials. 19.8 million viewers were the average for football ( http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com...gs-2011/12798/ ), which would turn out to be a $396,000 commercial for the same $0.02 per viewer rate. Essentially if a larger sponsor thought that the PBA was appealing they would buy up a lot of the available spots on ESPN because of cost effectiveness. Thus you are stuck with in a circle of we need more money to become more popular, but we need a higher popularity level to get more money.

Looking at the common answer for building up the game, getting more kids to start up bowling, you can see many of the same difficulties. The biggest difficulty is getting kids interested in bowling over other sports and activities. Bowling is at a great disadvantage to many of the other sports (football, baseball, basketball, golf, etc.) because of exposure on television. During baseball season and basketball season you can turn the television on almost every day and watch a game, football is an activity that entire families will watch together (which is on the same day as many bowling events), etc. The second disadvantage is the ease of play for basketball, football, baseball...grab a ball and walk to the park or play in the front yard. Kids are not dependent on adults to take them to a specific location as they are in bowling. Lastly, there are many schools and locations that do not have bowling teams; since these programs are not established it would be difficult to get schools to take them on; too many districts are trying to find new and creative ways to cut expense at this time, I don't think they would be as open to adding new programs and expense.

That's all true. But my point is: how do you get exposure? answer: Money. Money pays for the time slots and the commercials and the sponsors' willingness to put their marketing necks on the line. Sort of a catch-22 situation.

Part of the problem is that the PBA Tour is set up as a "spectator sport." But bowling isn't a spectator sport -- not like basketball or football. It's a participation sport. People become involved in spectator sports because it's exciting. Lots of other people, lots of cheering. People can say, "The Bulls are my team because I live in Chicago." And there are products -- jerseys, balls, mugs, beer can cozies, car air fresheners, toilet paper -- that have team logos. How many logos are identified with Walter Ray? Zero. Is Walter Ray some city's "guy?" No. It's hard to rally around a player. Golf has the same problem, except that, as I've said, it's a rich man's game, so big companies with lots of money support the TV contests.

Another problem ties in with my last point. Bowling has a "reputation" as a "blue-collar" pastime, where people of no pedigree (unlike golf) sit around and swill cheap beer and smoke cigarettes. It's not viewed by many as a sport. It's an inside game, playable only with specialized equipment that you rent -- kind of like roller skating or pool. (I don't see a lot of pool tournaments on TV, either.)

When I was growing up, I'm sorry to say that the local bowling "alley" (baseball has "parks," basketball has "courts," football has "fields." Bowling has something shady and dangerous -- "alleys" -- bringing to mind places where thugs hang out and sell drugs) was second only to the local pool hall in bad reputation. It's a social stigma.

It's a real problem with no easy solution. Even Aslan's suggestion (which sounds good at the outset) isn't a real answer. I don't notice that "Duck Dynasty" has produced any greater interest in duck hunting, or "Dance Moms" in ballet.

[Aslan]

It's a real problem with no easy solution. Even Aslan's suggestion (which sounds good at the outset) isn't a real answer. I don't notice that "Duck Dynasty" has produced any greater interest in duck hunting, or "Dance Moms" in ballet.

I don't know. I'd like to think more teenagers are getting pregnant due to "Teen Mom".

[rv driver]

I don't know. I'd like to think more teenagers are getting pregnant due to "Teen Mom".

Here's the problem with your suggestion as I see it, Aslan: We all know that "reality TV" isn't real. It's staged. The stories are trumped up; the stars' idiosyncrasies are either completely produced out of whole cloth or highly over-dramatized. We all know that "pro wrestling" is largely fake. We all know it, and still we watch it, because we're entertained by it. But, as I stated, bowling isn't largely a spectator entertainment, as is reality TV and wrestling. It's something that we participate in for various reasons, most of which are honorable and plausible. To turn the professional arm of bowling into a sham/spectacle by trumping up stories and having certain players become "bad boys" will not produce any further interest in bowling. If bowling is to remain a sport, then it must be governed by rules that frown upon chicanery.

While I agree with your suggestions in theory, and while I agree that the players' stories should be better known, and while the tournaments could be better produced in order to generate interest, I just think that the whole "entertainment value" idea is a very, very slippery slope for the integrity of the game.

[Aslan]

Here's how you're unestimating the "stories":

First; there are going to be participants from ALL walks of life. Some of these people will have tragedies in their lives, some will be "characters" (like Iceman), some will be young, some very old. Some will be former professionals, some will be more current, better known professionals. Pro shop owners, bus drivers, bartenders, former pro athletes, homemakers, dog walkers, and corporate CEOs. ALL of them...will be part of roughly 80-90 thousand participants in a tournament that over the course of 9-10 months will be widdled down to a field of 64 with millions on the line.

Early on, it won't be the "same ole PBA telecast" where it's two people bowling against each other in one game. It'll be coverage bopping in and out and weaving all over the United States...covering a frame here and a frame there. Showing some 300 games, some mishaps, some tempers flaring, some dreams shattered, and some dreams being encouraged.

It's "stories" of real Americans in a sort of once in a lifetime fairy tale kind've situation. And because bowling is a perfect mix of white and blue collar...you're going to have all walks of life.

THEN...when it's time to get down to the final tournament..THEN...it's time for the lovers of PBA and sport bowling to show up and track their favorites. There might be soem guy from a league you bowl in and he's facing off agaisnt Parker Bohn III in Round 1!

It's not "fake". It doesn't have to be. You don't need 5 outrageous people...you have 80,000 to choose from! You're bound to find a couple interesting stories each week with that type of crowd. Non-bowlers will become bowlers...they'll follow the stories and they'll get pulled in. And then...the true blue sport bowlers will be there to watch it for more of the competitive side and tracking their favorite pro's progress.

I'm tellin ya...if I can win 10 million...I'd pitch it to the PBA, USBC, and ESPN. I'd buy the PBA rights for 5 million, use the other 5 million to pay prizes to winners. And I honestly think, as pessimistic as I usually am, that you'd see EASILY a 60% increase in viewers in the first year alone...minimum. And as viewers increase, sponsors catch wind, and pretty soon...you got the big boy sponsors back in play...not just bowling apparel, shoes, balls...but soft drinks, food market, fast food, car companies, beer companies, etc... I think it "could" be such a success...that in Year 2 ESPN not only agrees to PAY to carry it for a couple mroe years...but would also entertain putting it back on network TV (ABC). I think it would be so successful, you might even see a CBS or NBC come to the table to put in a bid.

[rv driver]

Here's how you're unestimating the "stories":

First; there are going to be participants from ALL walks of life. Some of these people will have tragedies in their lives, some will be "characters" (like Iceman), some will be young, some very old. Some will be former professionals, some will be more current, better known professionals. Pro shop owners, bus drivers, bartenders, former pro athletes, homemakers, dog walkers, and corporate CEOs. ALL of them...will be part of roughly 80-90 thousand participants in a tournament that over the course of 9-10 months will be widdled down to a field of 64 with millions on the line.

Early on, it won't be the "same ole PBA telecast" where it's two people bowling against each other in one game. It'll be coverage bopping in and out and weaving all over the United States...covering a frame here and a frame there. Showing some 300 games, some mishaps, some tempers flaring, some dreams shattered, and some dreams being encouraged.

It's "stories" of real Americans in a sort of once in a lifetime fairy tale kind've situation. And because bowling is a perfect mix of white and blue collar...you're going to have all walks of life.

THEN...when it's time to get down to the final tournament..THEN...it's time for the lovers of PBA and sport bowling to show up and track their favorites. There might be soem guy from a league you bowl in and he's facing off agaisnt Parker Bohn III in Round 1!

It's not "fake". It doesn't have to be. You don't need 5 outrageous people...you have 80,000 to choose from! You're bound to find a couple interesting stories each week with that type of crowd. Non-bowlers will become bowlers...they'll follow the stories and they'll get pulled in. And then...the true blue sport bowlers will be there to watch it for more of the competitive side and tracking their favorite pro's progress.

I'm tellin ya...if I can win 10 million...I'd pitch it to the PBA, USBC, and ESPN. I'd buy the PBA rights for 5 million, use the other 5 million to pay prizes to winners. And I honestly think, as pessimistic as I usually am, that you'd see EASILY a 60% increase in viewers in the first year alone...minimum. And as viewers increase, sponsors catch wind, and pretty soon...you got the big boy sponsors back in play...not just bowling apparel, shoes, balls...but soft drinks, food market, fast food, car companies, beer companies, etc... I think it "could" be such a success...that in Year 2 ESPN not only agrees to PAY to carry it for a couple mroe years...but would also entertain putting it back on network TV (ABC). I think it would be so successful, you might even see a CBS or NBC come to the table to put in a bid.

It would certainly be interesting to see your idea play out in the real world. I'd support that kind of thing. However, I'm not sure the length of time -- 9-10 months -- would hold the attention of viewers. The field would have to be (I believe) vastly smaller and the tournament much shorter. We wanna see winners winning millions, not wanna-be's hoping for millions. A little anticipation is a good thing, but you're also battling the football, baseball, basketball and Nascar seasons that provide much more exciting coverage in much shorter time.

[Aslan]

True. But the PBA routinely battles those sports. You'd have to work with ESPN on timing. During the week it could be evening…on the weekend it could be morning/afternoon/evening/night to work around other sports.

[rv driver]

True. But the PBA routinely battles those sports. You'd have to work with ESPN on timing. During the week it could be evening…on the weekend it could be morning/afternoon/evening/night to work around other sports.

I think you'd have to work up to one big event, like the Super Bowl, or the Final Four, or the World Series -- and that would take marketing & sponsors. nobody cares that much about regular season. EVERYBODY watches the Super Bowl. You'd have to "institutionalize" the "big event" in the minds of Americans.

[mc_runner]

Maybe someone should start up "fantasy bowling" leagues... I know when fantasy football hit it big it got a ton more people interested in and watching games they normally wouldn't care about. Although that does require interest in the PBA/bowling in the first place a bit, though.

[rv driver]

It would help if players could actually make a decent pro athlete living on the Tour. Again, it all comes down to money, as I've maintained all along (with all due respect to Aslan).