It seems to me that there is something fishy going on. You cant find bowling magazines anywhere, you can only subscribe to them. Even the giant sporting goods stores do not carry any bowling equipment, you can only find them in a pro-shop. You can never find any bowling books anywhere. It seems like everyone wants to forget bowling even exist. Its like something out of the x-files. If it werent for the Internet i would be lost. Places like this forum are a god-send. What the heck is going on.

I don't know about a conspiracy, but I have to say we, bowlers are partly to blame. We need to get together and demand the respect that our sport deserves. Barnes and Noble does carry some books on bowling (very few), but NO magazines. If you look at he range of obscure sports that they do carry publications for, it's unbelieveable that bowling, which is the No. 1 participation sport in America, has been totally overlooked. Why don't we ALL start asking that they carry Bowling magazines and self-help books?? We can make a difference - together. Just look at what's happened with golf - which once was in the same category as bowling! :rolleyes:

The first thing to realize is where they get the term "#1 Participation Sport". This applies to anyone who has bowled in at least 1 game in a 1 year period. Now, if Joe Smith comes into a bowling alley on Jan 1st, bowls one game, leaves, and doesn't come back for the other 364 days of the year, is he really considered a "bowler"? In my opinion, no. Joe Smith is no more a bowler than I am a golfer (I golf maybe 4 times a year). So the whole participation sport issue really does not hold any water.

You're right about the limited exposure bowling gets in the mainstream media. One reason for this is the long standing image of what a bowler is: Beer belly, cigar chomping, a la Al Bundy from Married With Children (no offense Jeff ). In the last 10 years, there have been sporadic efforts to clean up the image... the term "bowling alley" was replaced with "bowling center", the centers were more brightly decorated, and had more to offer than just bowling, playrooms for kids, in some cases even restaurants were added, making it more "family oriented". But still the image has stuck with us. The PBA, now owned by former Microsoft exec Chris Peters, has re-vamped how the Tour is bowled, some decisions have been good, some have not. Steve Miller put it exactly right, "The PBA didn't get into trouble in one day, and Steve Miller and Ian Hamilton are not going to fix it in one day". One of the keys to fixing our image will be the PBA tour, because the tour is the only exposure that people who do not bowl will get of our sport. I'm not thrilled about the shortened season, and I'm not convinced a world tour will work in the off season, but these are decisions that have to be made. I'm sure that if a certain decision does not work, they will do something else to try to make it work. The guys from Nike weren't successful by accident, and if anyone can help the PBA, it would be those guys.

Mr. Freeman,
First of all thank you for setting me straight on the Participation Sport issue. I thought it referred to those who were sanctioned members of leagues, not just anyone who walks in a bowling alley and bowls 1 game. When you compare that to other sports - it would mean, for instance, someone who plays on a softball team, rather than someone who picks up a softball and plays catch. Doesn't make sense they should use that criteria for bowling.

I also agree that its going to take time to repair our image. I would like to see more exposure for collegiate bowling, which is exciting, and would prompt a lot of interest from youth....who are this sport's future.
And we have to continue to ask our local medias to cover bowling, in other words, we have to let them know that our sport has an audience.

P.S. I read and enjoy your "Expert Tips" and show them to the youth bowlers that I coach all the time....Thank you and keep them coming!


[ 03-24-2001: Edited: bowl4life ]

Go to books-A-Million

The truth is most of the bowling magazines aren't even worth reading! Only Bowlers Journal is half way decent. Bowling This Month has good articles but no eye candy or look appeal.