If they change all the regulations for making certain leagues qualify for scoring that's the end of the USBC... Most alleys just simply wont comply... at that point why pay the sacantioning fee... We need to start focusing on getting more people bowling and that is the biggest issue facing our sport... Everybody is distracted by the high scores to realize that no more youth want to bowl! deal with that before anything else. Everybody loves to complain about this that and the other thing about how its "the integrity of the game" but for Christ sakes! Youre gonna have nobody left to govern by these new rules!

Ever read the current rules for golf? A person needs to lawyer up before playing in any USGA event. I haven't noticed golf suffering because the rules are too strict.

Bowling's popularity is only suffering here in America. Overseas, it does better and it's actually growing in some countries.

As long as our youth and even some adults spend more time on an iPhone than with other 'real' people, bowling will suffer. We've created an entire Sesame Street generation looking for instant gratification and bowling doesn't provide that.

Bowling just isn't attractive enough for everyone. The worst aspect, the real estate that most sit on is worth a small fortune. Faced with a 3% profit margin and becoming an instant millionaire, I'd be selling :-) A 10-year CD will return 2.9% risk free.

You can blame what you want to blame for the decline of bowling but you cant tell me that changing this that and the other thing will be good for getting more people bowling... As for the golf analogy, I don't know how many people go to USGA events usually... A lot of people go bowling now just to drink and bowl in the lights... I compare that to when I go golfing with my buddies with a 30 pack and have fun... Again, I don't know enough about golf but I have a hard time imagining that these USGA tournaments have a lot of young golfers

I mean no offense when I say this but the only way to get more yoth in bowling is to start including them more. I have one guy in my league who will nit pick every single little rule he can to try and get free games off other people.

Not really that Boat. The USBC is an elitist organization now solely dependent upon the 95% (or more) of bowling they don't even look at. USBC could care less about league bowling, which is virtually unregulated. When they discuss the Integrity Of The Sport, they never mention the fact that lanes have been unregulated for decades.

Golf is a sane sport regulated by common sense for the most part. Golfers, and the USGA, understand that their leagues don't mater as far as the sport goes. That does make golfers smarter than bowlers, especially since golfers don't fund the USGA.

It's high time for the sport of bowling to cut ties with recreational bowling, which includes leagues.

My point was, making the game more difficult won't drive participants away. When bowling was really difficult, it was in it's hay-day.

What's hurting bowling isn't the rules or USBC. For young people, it's simply not as popular as what can be done on an iPhone.

I remember being a junior coach back in the late 70's and early 80's. One of the biggest problems was getting the kids out of the game rooms and down on the lanes. Back then, maybe 10% wanted to become better bowlers. The other 90% could have cared less.

That trend continues today. I don't know how a proprietor can make bowling more exciting to participants. Light-shows and loud music may draw a few teens on Fridays and Saturdays, but it won't encourage them to bowl in a league where they need to make a commitment for months.

Maybe grab-bag mixed-doubles where young people get a chance to meet others of the opposite [censored] in a controlled environment :-)

From what I've heard, even back in the day, conditions varied. Even before the short oil era.

Most league bowlers want a fun night out. We had a fun league with no prize fun. Everyone loved it, juniors, adults, music. All different averages there.

It's hard to make league bowling exciting, but apparently pretty easy to make it not fun.

Conditions did vary back in the day, in the '70s lots of bowlers (at least around here in (SoCal) flocked to the easier houses but still when an honor score was shot the ABC came out and inspected the lanes every time, though honor scores were rather rare back then.

That's what I've heard from a lot of people around the country. Many like revisionist history that starts with Back in the day.......

When the BPAA forced the 3-unit rule and got away with no inspections, that was the end of true honor scores. Although it's relatively easy to come out with decent house shots that are at least challenging, but not that difficult, most don't want them. USBC has already changed their expert recs for ball specs twice, and many don't think they're even close to being on target.

I know that with current house shots, there's really no reason to have many of the expensive top of the line monsters out there now.

Agree completely. Anyone buying top-of-the-line balls, are probably wasting $50 or more. Science has proven that there 'is' a placebo effect, so if people believe a new ball will do the trick, who am I to burst their bubble?

However, if reducing hook and increasing RG keep the game honest, I'm for it. Personally, I'd like to see THS's become flatter. Make spare shooting a bigger factor again.