Chris Beans breaks down news on the new PBA League Certification program and benefits to bowlers. Launching Fall 2022! Is this the beginning of the end of the USBC?
#pba #bowlersmart #bowlersrant
PBA LEAGUE CERTIFICATION PROGRAM! | END OF THE USBC? | FALL 2022 LAUNCH! | NATIONAL TOURNAMENTS???
This is fucking FANTASTIC. The sport of bowling needs this kind of support because the USBC has completely dropped the balls (pun intended).
I cannot wait to give my money to the PBA and join their program.
Nice, thanks for the comment broseph
Great article, hope it is for the good of the sport. I do hope the USBC and the PBA can work together. I don’t think the PBA should be owned by Bowlero.
Will be interesting to see how it plays out
I agree Bowlero should not be able to own the PBA. Its going to depend on how bowlero handles this. It could be the nail in the coffin for “mom and pop” centers. I have seen so many close in the last 30 years and I don’t want to see that happen. Bowlero is a corporation with shareholders, big corporations don’t like competition. So how are non bowlero centers going to be treated? It feels like a conflict of interest when your business competitor owns the governing body.. LOL idk.
I think this would be good for bowling the USBC has taken bowlers money and giving us nothing for bowlers paying dues
I hear this theme quite a bit. You arenāt wrong for feeling this way
This program shows promise, but before jumping on the bandwagon about this being the end of the USBC, everyone should hold fire. Here’s why.
1. All sports, especially if wanting to be Olympic sports, have to be run by a governing body. In the case of the US, the world body would be the WTBA (World Tenpin Bowling Association), followed by the governing body for each particular country. In our case in the US, it is the USBC. The USBC will still handle leagues, national tournaments, Collegiates, etc. that is not going to go away. That said, there is a defined line between corporate sponsorship of a governing body, and corporate OWNERSHIP of a governing body. Corporations can sponsor bowlers like they sponsor NBA teams, for example. But they can not own what would be the governing body of a sport for an entire country. That is why the USBC will not be going anywhere.
2. The corporate oversight on this is going to be huge, and may not work for some places. Right now, a lot of this looks to be geared towards adults, who are the biggest soapbox for the complaints about the USBC. That’s fine, but what are they going to do about youth bowling? nothing mentioned so far as to how they would handle awards for them, no mention of how any scholarship money will be handled, if awarded, or anything of that type. If this is going to be going live for the 2022 season, none of this is in place, and they would have a little under 2 months to get that going. Because of that, the USBC won’t be going anywhere.
3. Again, this shows promise, but a lot is lacking for this to signal “the end of the USBC”, and I haven’t even brought the PWBA in on this, especially since the USBC handles all of the older ABC, YABA, and WIBC tournaments. This program effectively leaves out the women’s tour (which is run by the USBC), and all youth bowling. Because of that, the USBC isn’t going anywhere.
For this to be the “end of the USBC”, there’s a lot that has to be done, and more than that, a lot would have to change at the World Bowling level for corporate ownership of a governing body to occur, which wouldn’t fly at all, especially if there is this push to make bowling an Olympic sport.
The big question is how Bowlero will be handling USBC sanctioning this fall. This new association they have created has their own rules and equipment specifications. If those are in conflict with the USBC’S rules, how can a Bowlero league be both USBC sanctioned and a PBA experience league? I could totally see a scenario where Bowlero bowlers are told that USBC sanctioning is no longer observed in Bowlero centers. Then bowlers that only bowl at a Bowlero will no longer have a USBC average to use in USBC events.
@RysterARCEE well said
Since most tournaments take usbc avg from the last 2 or even 3 years Bowlero bowlers will be able to use last year’s averages for now. Let’s see what happens in a year or two though.
All in all corporate competition usually will give us a better product as consumers.
@RysterARCEE Very well said. And to take that even further, and all bowlers being equal, this would effectively rule out any Bowlero league bowler from bowling in, say, the Masters or the US Open. If I remember right, the alley hosting those tournaments also has to be BPAA certified, which Bowlero did not renew their certification for any of their alleys. This would then force the bowler to have to establish an average at Bowlero houses to keep this certification program average, plus at a USBC house to keep with USBC certification, costing the bowler even more money. That really screws up over the bowler. Additionally, the professional bowler would have to do the same.
What would be cool is taking a local bowler with the highest avg or maybe a champ from a particular tournament in the area and giving them a chance in a Local Tour Stop.
Should have never gotten rid of the ABC. Definitely see the writing on the wall. The USBC has become too full of themselves and live In the past. Look no further than the USBC Nationals where 176 average bowlers have to compete on par with the best PBA bowlers In the world and where If you are not a “Captains Club” member you have to hope for table scraps to get a decent squad and time to bowl for your team while paying up front a year before It starts.
Nationals has divisions.. what are you talking about?
@Poopknife Yep and the highest division Is 176 AND UP. Regular Division for those who average 176 and higher.
@james bills Holy cow.. I’m an idiot.. Thats terrible.. has it always been like that?
No way there will be two organizations that control specs, regulations, and rules. We can only hope for a better system than the USBC.
yes this is to go after the USBC and with the PBA you get awards every yr
They did not say that. They talk about digital awards whatever that is.
Hopefully this leads to more PBA pattern leagues
I hope so.. i love bowling but i would like it more if my leagues had PBA patterns.. it would make for some interesting bowling .
More questions than answers. What makes them think all Bolero bowlers will fall in line with this? Bolero has never been known as a league friendly organization. What is the cost? What are digital awards? What about all the State and local tournaments that require a USBC average? I would need to know a LOT more before embracing this idea.
Give them time. I’m sure more will come out later.
I run a center in White Plains and were already trying this stuff out in my sport league. Can look up averages that are posted within minutes. Can look up all your personal info. Like what you left, did you make the spare, etc. I like the potential but you know big corporations. At the very worst it’s worth signing up just to pay 15 bucks for 25 free games instead of a sanction fee for a patch.
Usbc or PBa, doesn’t matter to me. I just want a fair sport when it comes to sanctioned events (leagues & tournaments).
I hope maybe this will be good discounts if not in āleagueā timeframe. This way it does not cost $10+ a game per person for you and your kids to go and practice. DISCOUNTS across the boards.
I love this idea but let’s not get to excited just yet. Its going to take a lot for it to be successful. I hope it works out though. I’m 100% for this
Anyone want to guess the number of hours till USBC files some kind of legal action?
I have been hoping for this for a while actually. I feel the USBC has become “stagnant” in all that it does…. and that the PBA has more of a presence with marketing and sponsors outside of bowling equipment and the current. I feel the PBA has the resources to actually get bowling back into a “golden age” where major sponsors host major tournaments and bring more money into the PBA. As for leagues, I think the USBC can handle these things…but again… if the PBA has the manpower and the will to transition that many people into their system “willingly”, I am all for it. After some of the things that happened in 2021-2022 and the USBC using “not enough money to test” as an excuse…it would seem to me that the resources are not there or are not managed well by them to make sure we don’t have these near game-breaking mishaps that affected bowlers from the pro level to the entry level.
it is about time .i will support this new league. but it needs to reach out farther than bowlero. i bowl in 5 different centers and none are bowlero.
I’m all for competition , and I’m not terribly impressed with usbc , but if only bowlero centers are starting this will it last? What about independent centers? A Lot of questions to start , but if it’s better then I’m for it. What about the open championship? Who knows , guess we will see in the fall
I want to wait and see what they are going to do
Let’s bring up the bigger elephant in the room here: Tom Shannon’s comments from 8 years ago. He stated when Bowlero bought AMF that “No-one cares about bowling”. He then set about closing numerous (and some of them famous) alleys (yes, I’m looking at you, NJ Zone Carolier), eliminated senior leagues with the late afternoon opening time, and all but pushed out leagues and youth leagues. This pattern continued for a good 6-7 years. But NOW, they want leagues back, and are willing to launch a certification program to get leagues back? Chris, where is the rant on this!?!?
This is something that Bowlero needs to reconcile, because over the last 8 years, their actions have spoken to being the exact OPPOSITE of what they want this program to be and to target. I’m surprised nobody is talking about this, and asking Bowlero to own up to their idiotic mistake from that comment back then and basically say “we got it wrong”.