Why are summer leagues not sanctioned?

[GrumpyCatFace]

This is my first year of bowling, so may be the answer is obvious. But why on earth would there be no summer leagues?

Are there that many fewer bowlers in the summer? Why?

My local center is only open 3 days a week during the summer. In Ohio. This makes absolutely no sense to me...

[Phonetek]

There are summer leagues, unfortunately the popularity is low. Simply put, it's summer so who wants to go week after week to a stuffy bowling alley when it's 85 outside? That's popular opinion anyway. The duration is short. As far as not being certified I'm not sure, could be because of duration I don't know. It could be that the added expense of the certification fee could be a deal breaker for the few interested. There may be an official reason why but I don't know.

[JasonNJ]

Depends on the town and how large your center is. I'm in NJ and most of the centers still have some leagues but definitely less than winter. I think the main reason for less popularity is vacations. My wife has 2 trips planned which depending on the days may make my miss 3 or 4 weeks of bowling. So who wants to pay for a 12 week league if they are going to miss 1/4 of it.

[bowl1820]

This is my first year of bowling, so may be the answer is obvious. But why on earth would there be no summer leagues?

Are there that many fewer bowlers in the summer? Why?

My local center is only open 3 days a week during the summer. In Ohio. This makes absolutely no sense to me...

A lot of summer leagues are certified some are not, it just depends on where your at.

Summer leagues are typically smaller because summer is vacation time, so a lot of people are going out of town and they can't be here every week.

It all depends on where you live.

[boatman37]

Our summer league is 2 bowlers per team but you can have 3 on a team (even 4 I think). You rotate so only bowl twice each 3 weeks. What's nice is if you can't make it just have the off guy cover. Not sure if it is sanctioned though as this is my first year in it.

[bowl1820]

Not sure if it is sanctioned though as this is my first year in it.

Easy way to tell, Did you fill out a USBC membership card and pay the fee for it? If it's a Certified/Sanctioned league that's the first thing you do when you join the league.

[boatman37]

Easy way to tell, Did you fill out a USBC membership card and pay the fee for it? If it's a Certified/Sanctioned league that's the first thing you do when you join the league.

Don't know yet. It starts this Tuesday but I'm going to guess it isn't sanctioned but will let you know. I do know our fall league is sanctioned.

[Phonetek]

Don't know yet. It starts this Tuesday but I'm going to guess it isn't sanctioned but will let you know. I do know our fall league is sanctioned.

Joining a summer league aye Boatman? Keeping it going, very nice. I can't believe it starts that quick, none of our summer leagues start until June. I think the last smattering of our fall leagues finish up this week. I don't think we'd have enough people signed up yet to justify starting yet, still in the recruiting stages.

Speaking of sanctioned, or more accurately these days "certified".....Talked to the boss last night and apparently my voice has been heard and our house is going to ALL certified leagues in the fall. I about fell off my chair because that's the last thing I expected to hear. I don't know if going from none to all is wise given the clientele but the decision has been made and at this point he says it's written in stone. Hopefully it's not going to blow up in our face.

[bowl1820]

Joining a summer league aye Boatman? Keeping it going, very nice. I can't believe it starts that quick, none of our summer leagues start until June. I think the last smattering of our fall leagues finish up this week. I don't think we'd have enough people signed up yet to justify starting yet, still in the recruiting stages.

Speaking of sanctioned, or more accurately these days "certified".....Talked to the boss last night and apparently my voice has been heard and our house is going to ALL certified leagues in the fall. I about fell off my chair because that's the last thing I expected to hear. I don't know if going from none to all is wise given the clientele but the decision has been made and at this point he says it's written in stone. Hopefully it's not going to blow up in our face.

That's great when do they come in to certify the house or has the house been certified all this time and just no league bothered to certify?

If they come in to inspect & certify the lanes, That would be something for you to see.

[Phonetek]

That's great when do they come in to certify the house or has the house been certified all this time and just no league bothered to certify?

If they come in to inspect & certify the lanes, That would be something for you to see.

Our house has always been certified as far as the lanes go, they come twice a year. We are cutting the lanes in a couple months. Apparently more than a standard resurface is needed. After that they be there to certify them. Also our house is expanding to add either 8 or 12 new lanes, the number keeps changing. I also don't know if they are going to make the new ones wood to match the existing or synthetic. I do look forward to seeing the certification process, I will make a point of being there. After they cut the lane we are going to have to lower all the pinsetters to match up with the new height. Even if they take as little as 1/16 of an inch off the surface we still have to lower the machines or the tables will be too high and the spotting cells won't pick up the pins properly.

As far as leagues go, they haven't had any certified ones in years. There is only a handful of somewhat serious bowlers, most are just there for a night out. Out of all the leagues there is only one bowler that is in the 190's for an average. The last 300 in the house was 14yrs ago. Since it's just a 42' christmas tree pattern I don't understand that. I've personally had 2 279's there in the few months I've been there albeit in practice screwing around. So I guess their thinking was why charge the customers more for the fee if nobody is going to bowl well enough to reap the benefits.

Most use house balls, few probably know how to keep score on paper and fewer probably know all the rules. Maybe when the word gets out of the expansion it will draw some serious bowlers. I know they are expanding not only for the benefit of more lanes but because they said we need a minimum of 16 lanes to have certified tournaments. I never knew that. If all this is true then I will have no problem bowling serious there. As long as when I'm bowling I don't get a bunch of people coming to me asking me work related questions making me loose my focus. My next feat is to convince them to put down some sport patterns!