What makes you bowl in a tournament

[xpense]

With Warrnambool Cup fast approaching, and the entries almost full once again for the great tournament, what makes you bowl in tournaments these days?

Is it entry fee?
Location?
Prizefund?
Your chances at making the final?
1 day or 2 day events?


Talking with Patrick during the week, we were trying to work out why bowlers supported some events and not others.

For example Warrnambool always has great turnouts, Werribee Cup always had good turnouts (sadly has not run this year), Mildura Marathon has a waiting list year in year out. But the AMF grand prix events could not even muster enough bowlers to last past 3 events, with very poor numbers at Sunshine & Frankston.

Looking at the above supported events, the prizemoney is not the same ratio in any of them.

Warrnambool - $1500 1st place $140 entry fee, plus $50 for finals
Werribee $650 1st place $100 entry fee

If centres were to run events at $140, plus a fee to bowl the finals, and have 8 games qualifying, top 15, 8 games matchplay, 1st place $600, would these be supported?

 

[CHRISSY]

Who knows i just love to bowl.
I think what kind of money is being paid out is a major factor. Would like to see a tourney for about $160 , 10 games qualifing. Something in between the $100 eventes and the big money ones like $300+.

Chrissy

 

[Jordo]

I like the ammount of games played in qualifying like mabey 12 games qualifying and 10-12 games matchplay

 

[Gatsby]

Speaking for myself - it is entirely a cost thing. I am only a middle of the range bowler and therefore if I bowl scratch tournaments, I am likely to miss more cuts than I will make. Therefore, the first prize money is not a huge incentive to me. I am mainly going to bowl for the experience and therefore a $100 - $140 experience is much better than a $400 experience. Also most people will not regularly pay $400 to bowl for the experience if they continually miss getting any cash back (esp. if they are like me and have two kids and a home loan). Also living 2 hours from Melbourne adds extra costs of travel (and if I make a cut – accommodation)

I realize it is a catch 22 - if you don't have high first prize / high payouts then you don't attract the very best and you can only have high payouts if you have a high entry fee and / or a lot of sponsorship. The bigger tournaments are always going to be popular with the bigger names but for these tournaments to be successful year after year they need solid numbers - which means they need up and coming or mid range bowlers to continually bowl in them - and for this reason i like the idea of the "bowl for a spot" tournaments. This gives bowlers a good chance to get into an expensive tournament at a lower cost (although they are too often won by the people that don't actually need to win free entry - and if this continues i also think they will lose popularity too).

I guess the trick is to be able to juggle the two. Have enough lower cost tournaments for the mid range bowlers to get into and keep the payouts for the bigger tournaments high enough to attract the best. I know that if i was able to bowl a couple of the cheaper tournaments and manage to get some cash back, i might be encouraged to have a go at some of the bigger ones.

I am not sure that the extra money to bowl in the final is the reason why W'Bool is a success. It seems to me that you get this money back two or three fold anyway. The difference between last place in the cut and just missing out - is a lot more than $50.

You talk about the popularity of Warrnambool Cup and Mildura marathon. These events also seem to be popular because people seem to really enjoy bowling in them. Whilst i have not bowled in either, i hear a lot of positive comments about how the Garioch's go out of their way to make people welcome each year and W'Bool cup is always spoken about as being a great tournament to bowl in. They become "traditions" for people where they go along to bowl but also to have a great time - if they happen to bowl well and make some cash - all the better - if not - they still had a great weekend.

As they say - "that is my two cents worth" long winded as it was