I think a start would be to change the cut off situation in some tournaments, or maybe have a grading done even off scratch scores into maybe 2 grades, give people more for the money encourage people that play in tournaments but struggle to make the cut even when they play to their capability not everyone is capable of bowling a 210+ average over 10 games. A lot of these people do support the game as its enjoyment for them but at $200+ per weekend plus travel costs plus accommodation it works out to be a struggle sometimes. I am not going crook about this just if no one suggests the sport we love will soon go down the gurgle and non of us wants to see that. I didn't bowl in one of the sports series this year due to these costs and the 6 game format, it was just that the game cost was good but for someone like me the travel costs just couldn't be justified as I would be very unlikely to get more than 6 games, not a criticism just a fact for me. The sports series is something I enjoy immensely and I think it is well run and it also encourages those of us not so good to participate it goes to show things can be done if thought is put in.
Agree the graded competition idea. The majority of bowlers who call it a Sport, are not open grade bowlers. The sport should be geared to provide competition for the majority but there in imho, lies the root of Bowling's problem.
ie.. the sport at entry level is not constructed as a graded sport which results in people not being enticed to compete, improve and move through the ranks. In most other sports, you enter at a low grade and immediately that grading gives enticement to attain greater skills so you can move to the next higher grade and next and so on.
Winning unaided (no Hcp) against a worthy opponent is satisfying and makes bowling better value for money
Give players greater challenge and the majority would see bowling as better value because they would have some emotional satisfaction from the competition that barely exists at the moment.
There must have been about a million people in this country who have started playing Bowling as sport because they liked it and thought it would be a good sport to become involved in, but have since left because they became bored. I say this is mainly due to how the sport is structured and played, with handicap and mixing different grade players together in handicap leagues.
This "lack of value" is also the reason tournaments always have to be "marathon' events, because the competition is lacking psychological satisfaction, so you have to do hours of it to feel satisfied. If you derive more satisfaction per match, you need less total time to feel happy with your sport.
My partner was a Hockey player, her equipment, travel, training and other costs amounted to nearly the same as my bowling costs, but there was never any thought about how much it was costing her, because the satisfaction factor meant value for money in her mind. We should be building that into bowling.
