Interesting article by Jeff Richgels over at 11th Frame on this subject. He has an interesting idea on how to save bowling. Worth a read.

http://www.11thframe.com/news/article/6442

I would personally like to see more personality from the bowlers. They seem a little boring to me. I love when PDW is on. I love when Sean Rash goes against Belmonte. I think they need rivalries like that. I think they need some bowlers to really not like each other. They need a handful of bowlers to really dominate. People like dynasties. If Rash and Belmonte can continue to dominate and they can really display their dislike for each other, it makes for good TV. People love to argue about the Yankees and the Red Sox. Celtics-Lakers, Bird-Magic, Russell-Wilt.

People loved Tiger because not only was he great, he had personality, and he dominated. He showed emotion. He had a killer instinct. I don't want to see a gentlemen athlete. I want my Giants to crush the Cowboys. I want Ewing to finally beat MJ. rivalries make sports. PDW against Walter Ray made for good TV.
I think they are trying to mimic that with Rash and Belmonte, but they need to dominate. Be obviously head and shoulders above the rest. Like Phil and Tiger.

I know the stakes are higher, but curling in the winter olympics is really great TV. I wasn't even watching a US vs. (other) match, it was on a Canadian broadcast, but even without any patriotism at stake it still made for great TV. In many ways it is like bowling, but maybe it's the team aspect or the different strategy involved, but for whatever reason I like watching it.

The PBA league is OK, but would like to see formats that forced some kind of strategic usage of the bench. If your going to do multiple games then limit the number of frames each bowler can bowl and also force each bowler to bowl a minimum of a certain amount of frames. If you have to bowl 5 games and each bowler can only bowl 10 frames then maybe you save your best bowler for the last two frames of each match, or maybe you save them for the last match entirely. If you have someone that isn't striking maybe they are used to make all the spares. Save the lefty for when the right side is fried. etc.

+1. Fundamental problems need to be addressed at the fundamental level. While each organization has its own interests, the BPAA, USBC, and PBA working together would help bowling not only survive, but prosper.

I think being a High School Coach and Youth Director have both helped me learn to break things down and explain them so anyone can understand them. I try to be as informative as I can without overwhelming the viewer so I appreciate knowing that is getting across in the videos correctly.

Thanks again!

Randy is one big reason why I have no interest in watching the PBA broadcasts anymore. I think you hit it on the head with your weatherman analogy. Randy just has no idea how to relate the skills needed to be a top competitor to the average viewer, let alone a viewer that has no knowledge of the sport (such as kids).

Nelson Burton Jr., who I grew up on, was a master at that. Bowling needs to start with finding the next Bo.

I think the PBA tour TV casts are great, and that the brains power behind are doing their best.. However , like VVF57 said earlier there is a serious lack of interest in bowling in general.. That is the key here, to get people aware of Pro Bowling and creating that buzz where the average joe gets his buddies together and join a league.. Bowling has to increase its numbers, beginning with the kids!

Get the tour away from Monday night football to start also!

I have limited experience elsewhere, but here is seems to be pretty strong. There were five centers here for years, now down to two. The largest is 36 lanes, and they've done a ton of marketing and promotion to build up their leagues and party fillers. There's a line out the door sometimes after our Friday league for younger people coming in, college-age and up.

I know many guys that play in men's leagues that also are involved with softball and other team sports. Some of our leaves take all 36 lanes, seniors leaves in the morning are nearly full, and the junior program is fairly large Saturday mornings.

They have gone out and actively marketed groups, schools, colleges. Their competitors are still literally living in the 60's and 70's. Quite a contrast to see a family business with a tired attitude versus a once family operation that is now an acquiring corporation.

TV is a huge avenue for attracting new bowlers, especially here in the arctic north. I've watched the streaming for this Masters tournament, and it's pretty good.

...and I'll bet that there are a few of us (not me) naive bowling fans (mainly some of us giddy league players) who think "oh I can beat 159, I can whoop Belmo's/PDW/Sean Rash (rear end) with that".

The very problem with that theory is Belmo/PDW/Sean Rash got that 159 on a PBA lane condition, which usually incorporates a more equal, gutter-to-gutter oil pattern (covering all 39 boards on about a 1-1 or 2-1 shot as opposed to a up-to-a-10-1 house shot).

...that is the main problem with the telecasts is that the average league player like myself thinks we can throw the same shot as the touring players do (18-19 MPH/400-500 RPM, covering 15-17 boards from laydown spot to the breakpoint and back to the pocket), when in all actuality we know we can't.

One thing Bo Burton did so well on the ABC telecasts in the 1980s and 1990s is educate the viewers at home (most of us league players as well as kids at the time) about the difference between a PBA lane condition and your typical house shot so their is no confusion when (i.e.) when you see a PBA player on TV bowl a 150 on his first ever show, so we at home don't get the mistake that we can "beat him" in our league when they aren't bowling on our lane conditions in the first place.

I never have had the thought that I could beat any of them, on any lane condition. It's been interesting to learn more about the different conditions, and fascinating to see the Xtra frame. Just watched Smallwood blow out Belmonte, and then lose the pocket in the next match. It makes me be a little less hard on myself knowing these guys have issues too.

I'm sure I'll never see it here in Vermont, but it would be nice to see touring pros come around and show us what they can do, and get some first-class instruction. I'd travel to see it as well. Set up an open type match on a THS pattern. Then do a PBA pattern. They'd blow us out most of the time for sure, badly

We've had one Storm demo day, and it was well-run. I bought my Lucid that day, plus an IQ Tour for the GF. The rest of the demo days are more like when they sell wine on sale from a trailer truck. Hurry up and buy, we're on to the next venue.

All it takes is time and money. I wish I lived in an area where the economics make it possible.