To fill in the blank, it would be (if I was running the BPAA)

The U.S. Open "Downloaded by CindyMargolis.com"

I know, you're all gonna say that I have a huge hang-up with Cindy Margolis, but hey, that's what you get when you have the almost-exclusive bragging rights to say you went to high school (Erikson Center) and graduated with her in 1984

I also know you're all gonna say that isn't Cindy Margolis a washed-up, desperate has-been whose prime was back in the 1990's and that she's well past that and is no longer even a blip of the modeling radar, but, right about now the PBA/USBC/BPAA might as well try ANYTHING to save our sport.

Overall national TV sports advertising spent $10.9 billion with the top advertiser spending 423 million and the PBA cannot find a company to sponsor the US OPEN events at a cost of less than 1 million? The money is out there.

I agree with you BOSS, no question we're talking small money here. But in the interest of also thinking longer-term, it would behoove the interested parties to rethink their ties to the BPAA, and take a hard look at how the USBC runs things.

http://www.bowl.com/benefitsposter/

Lots of money there. Perhaps they can discuss things with their counterparts at the USGA. Surely there would be some input from BowlU, and other very interested parties within the sport.

Piggy-backing off a few posts here, including Belmo's response to the BPAA...

I completely agree that it is a total failure that BPAA is already throwing in the towel on 2015. I understand that Pro Bowling may not be a ratings magnet, but I can not believe that BPAA can not find a core of sponsors to chip in. This is one of the most storied and revered tournaments in Pro Bowling, and there are hundreds of sponsors that would fit well as a "bowling sponsor."

They're either not trying hard enough through incompetence on their staff, or they're not trying hard enough because they want to get away from Pro Bowling, shift their image and focus, and just aren't being forward about their intentions.

Either way, they just aren't trying hard enough. Pathetic.

As it was mentioned above, approximately 70 million people bowl in the US at least once per year, making bowling one of (if not THE) biggest participation sports in the world. But, fewer than 2 million of those bowl in leagues, and maybe 10-20% of them watch bowling on TV. This is why advertisers don't throw money at bowling. They get no exposure for their money. Even Geico, who has been probably the biggest sponsor of the tour these last several years, spends a lot more on their NASCAR team and other sports than they do on bowling. We have to make the sport attractive to sponsors, not just to the public, and the only way to do that is to show them they'll get a return on their investment. With the way the sport is in decline, that's an awfully tough sell for anyone. I have been in sales for a long time, and I've been tasked with selling products and services that many people didn't think they needed or wanted. Showing them the value in a product or service was the only way they would buy, and there really isn't much of a value in sponsoring the tour these days.
The folks on here all watch the tour when it's on TV- that's pretty safe to say. Broadcasting the tour costs the PBA a lot of money, and it would probably be in the best interest of the tour to go dark for awhile, since production costs of the show eat up a lot of money that could be paid out to the winners. They already hold the World Series of Bowling in one venue to save on travel costs for the players and production team. We may tire of seeing the same people in the front row for weeks at a time, but without making this decision a few years ago, there wouldn't be a tour.
As far as the BPAA goes, I can't understand why they'd pull the plug on the 2015 Open. This tournament gets 400+ entries every year. They can't pull this together? Shame. I imagine someone could run this outside of the BPAA and keep it going.

Just wondering if canceling the 2015 U.S. Open so far in advance is a ploy to see what would happen and attract attention to the sport of bowling? Will somebody step up and bail out this event?

I sure hope so- it does give whoever might bail this event out plenty of time to arrange it.

Also, I would think the party(ies) that may bail out the US Open would have a ton of positivity created and garnered towards them from the bowling community and athletes alike.

Boss beat me to it but bowl.com also has a writeup. Only thing that's missing is TV coverage, but hopefully the PBA will be able to help in that area. Either way this is great news.

http://www.bowl.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?id=23622321774