OK, I will admit I love watching bowling. I think I’ve seen every repeat on ESPN Classic!
The PBA has been working hard to turn itself into a profitable business again and I applaud there efforts.
However, something must be said about Sunday’s show, the 2010 Go RVing Match play Championship!
OK, the mixed conditions on the two lanes, one with Shark (the longest PBA named pattern) and one with Cheetah (the shortest PBA named pattern) was a challenge to say the least. It didn’t help that apparently the left side of the Cheetah was almost not playable on that lane as Randy Pederson and Chris Barnes mentioned several times.
Snooze…
The bottom line is that really low scores and easy spare misses on TV detracts from the PBA, the players capabilities, and “the Show”. The conditions seemed to be so difficult that neither player could find a rhythm but it’s clear that PA (Patrick Allen) struggled more than Brian Kretzer. Watching PBA players struggle on TV makes average bowlers feel “superhuman” and the average on-looker think, “this is pretty boring”. The crowd could not get into it at all and it took what, 4 or 5 frames before either player had a strike?
What’s happening this year?
As a spectator, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the broadcasts for the first half of the year. I was glad to get back to the weekly live events. The Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational was one show that was immediatly erased from my DVR (not accidentally 🙂 ), despite the fact that I was actually looking forward to it initially! I worry that the gimmicky shows could detract from the sport of bowling.
I don’t mind lower scores, but the PBA needs to be very careful how it appears to the general public or even bowling public.
Bowling fans are diehard
…but too many tough shows like this week’s Match play could turn people off who were just starting to become interested, that don’t have the background to understand how difficult lane play can be.
I’m actually very much looking forward to the Plastic Ball Championship! This is where you will really see our PBA bowlers shine. This is like using a spec-tire in your favorite motorsport. May the best bowler win!
Congratulations to Brian Kretzer on his first PBA victory!
The right lane had the Cheetah, and you wrote Chameleon.
Thanks for catching that, it was a typo.
You are so right about boring and this past Sunday the Roth tournament showed how interesting plastic can be. As a matter of fact I think plastic may be the best.
Wasn’t that impressed with the plastic ball challange. Next thing you read every where is how great these bowlers are and they do better with plastic then the newer balls. Also how much better they are then pros from Mark Roths era.
Give them plastic and an unmodfied pba pattern that has heavier oil. Then it will be closer to an older era.
It was an okay idea for last year, but as painful as bowling has been to watch this year they should try getting a format and using it longer then one week.
Every week is something differnt, and usually not very good. We get it, you have no idea what to do to get viewers. Changing it week in and week out doesn’t work either. Just get a good step ladder format and go with it.