Bowling Video--PBA Commissioner Tom Clark Discusses Past, Present, and Future of the PBA

Tom Clark Interview With Bowlers Journal

In the December, 2011 issue of Bowlers Journal International, Keith Hamilton interviews new PBA Commissioner Tom Clark, and here is what Clark has to say about his goals:

"I always wanted to be part of the PBA, but in that [collegiate] tournament, I remember bowling near Paul Fleming...He was so much better than me; I realized that I needed to concentrate on journalism...The constant goals [as PBA Commissioner] are to get as many people as possible interested in, respecting the ability of and following the greatest players in the world. We want great PBA players to be rich and famous. There is much involved with that, including TV deals, building the stature of events and making sure the best players are in the PBA. Other goals include improving the partnerships with our endemic and non-endemic sponsors to give maximum bang for the buck, and integrate sponsors in ways that are mutually beneficial. We also want to increase PBA membership by bringing younger players along and into the PBA, as well as to have continued increases in international participation and membership. But we always have the big goals in mind: The cover of Sports Illustrated, thousands more watching Xtra Frame, record-breaking ESPN ratings and prize funds for major events, increased sponsorships, and great partnerships with the industry."

Click here for Tom Clark's official PBA biography page.

Bowling Quote of the Day--Tom Clark on GEICO Team Shootout

"For bowling fans who may think the GEICO Team Shootout was a so-called ‘silly season’ exhibition, I think they will find out otherwise. It was a fierce competition for the second annual Manufacturer's Cup, with significant money and a great deal of pride on the line. It featured 20 of the best players in the world bowling with one goal - to win - and that shines through in this series."

--Tom Clark, PBA COO and Deputy Commissioner

Bowling Quote of the Day--Tom Clark on the 2011 GEICO Team Shootout

“We wanted to try to marry the newest trend in bowling with the greatest bowlers in the world. Chicago knows bowling, it has a good league base and it’s a great place to be in the summer. When you add those things together, this was a great marriage.”

--PBA Deputy Commissioner Tom Clark explaining why this year's Geico Team Shootout was held at Chicago's upscale 10 Pin Bowling Lounge. You can read the entire Chicago Sun-Times story here.

Bowling's Score Inflation and What to Do About It

"The balls we used in the 70's would be like golfers today using hickory shafts."

--Marshall Holman

Do you Facebook? If not, you might want to consider signing up. Even if you don't have the time or inclination to do much posting, you might want to befriend or "like" other people, groups, or organizations.

For instance, I "like" the PBA. As a result, I get updates from the PBA on my Facebook "wall" about players, tournament results, and other news concerning the PBA in particular and bowling in general.

This morning, I followed a link on the PBA's Facebook page to an article written by Tom Clark (I don't know if it's the same Tom Clark who is currently PBA VP and COO) for USATODAY in 2002 about the proliferation of 300 games since bowling's inception. The article begins by mentioning 84-year-old Joe Nagy Sr's 300 ring that he received from the American Bowling Congress in 1952 for being one of only 192 ABC members that year to bowl a sanctioned 300. Yet, in 2001, a staggering 42,163 sanctioned perfect games were bowled. This is despite the fact that in 1952, there were 1.6 million ABC members nationwide and only 100,000 more members than that in 2001. And in 1980, when there were 4.8 million ABC members or three times more members than in 2001, there were almost eight times fewer 300 games rolled.

The USATODAY article explores the issue of why people are bowling so many more 300's and other high scores today than they used to and what, if anything, can and should be done about it. Pros such as hall of famer Marshall Holman blame it on the newer hi tech bowling balls that flood the market due to a lack of reasonable restrictions placed on bowling ball manufacturers. Hall of famer Johnny Petraglia believes that this could be offset to a significant degree by making the bowling pins heavier. "Heavier pins," he says, "would bring back the need for a combination of power and accuracy."

You can read the entire article here.

Deputy Commissioner Tom Clark Discusses the Present and Future of the PBA, Part 1

Many have criticized the PBA mercilessly over the past few years for everything from its comparatively meager prize funds and diminishing tour stops to ESPN announcer Rob Stone's sacrilegious "hambones" to recent telecasts featuring blaring rock bands, cheerleaders, smack-talking Dicks, and bleating vuvuzelas.

Critics complain that the PBA is demeaning professional bowling and selling out its base supporters who deeply love and respect the sport by resorting to crude marketing gimmicks to grab hold of younger, uninitiated fans with gnat-like attention spans, iPhones, Facebook, and a zillion-and-one increasingly gaudy, glitzy, and energetic entertainment alternatives vying for their attention and their dollars.

These complaints are especially prevalent in the PBA Forums of the PBA website. So, it's not surprising that Tom Clark, the Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer of the PBA, recently chose that very forum to meet his harshest critics head on. Challenging questions and thoughtful suggestions were submitted to him, and he responded with trademark forthrightness and wit.

Over the next few days, this blog will present and consider some of the highlights of Mr. Clark's responses and invite your comments.

Some Season Highlights

Yesterday, I quoted Mr. Clark's overview of the challenges the PBA and its players face in today's market and of the misperceptions he thinks a lot of the PBA's most vociferous critics have of the organization's struggles. These words followed a litany of what Mr Clark considers to have been some of the highlights of the 2010-2011 season. Some of the highlights he listed were:

~ The first PBA telecast on ABC-TV in 14 years and Nelson Burton Jr's participation in that telecast.

~ The TOC boasting the largest prize fund "in bowling history."

~ Extended live television coverage of some of the majors.

~ Chris Barnes accomplishing an extremely rare Triple Crown victory with a dramatic strike in the 10th frame of the WSOB.

~ An unsung competitor from Korea winning a title by beating his Korean opponent in the final match of the PBA Scorpion Championship.

~ Bill O'Neill's masterful domination of "a WSOB qualifying marathon across five patterns and 60 games in one of the most demanding tests of bowling ever."

~ Widespread media coverage of Mika Koivuniemi's 299-100 victory over Tom Daugherty in the TOC.

~ Unprecedented live match play round coverage of a major.

~ The first "all-two handed match in PBA TV history."

~ Mark Roth throwing the ceremonial first ball of the Mark Roth Plastic Ball Championship.

~ Former Miss USA Kimberly Pressler "working the sidelines" of a televised event.

~ Jason Couch and Parker Bohn reviving the past by meeting in the final match of a plastic ball tournament.

~ Mika Koivuniemi making the finals of all four televised majors.

~ Howard Stern talking on his radio show about the PBA for a month.

~ The Chris Paul PBA Celebrity Invitational making the PBA "look cool played by the coolest people on the planet."

~ Tom Hess' "emotional win at the Masters."

~ Norm Duke's "stone 8-pin" followed by Mika Koivuniemi's 10-pin miss to hand Duke the U.S. Open title.

Clark Criticizes Misreporting

Mr. Clark believes that the highlights he lists demonstrate that the 2010-2011 PBA season was a "super year." But he laments that the critics flooding the PBA message boards and other forums with unreasonable complaints and misinformation obscure this.

For instance, he tells of how he once joked on Facebook that the three "cheerleaders" working the crowd during the final telecast of the season were paid $7,000 (they were actually paid $50) each out of the "PBA player buffet budget," and a bowling webcast host who should have known better reported Mr. Clark's "facetious comments" as fact. This same host reported numerous other falsehoods as fact over the course of the season. Clark says:

"I share that story with you because it is just one small example of the type of incorrect information that somehow becomes accepted as “truth” or fact because of the lack of a filter on the burgeoning new social media on the internet. Unprofessional, unqualified, uninformed, often bitter, often frustrated, agenda-driven people suddenly have a voice, often an anonymous one like on this board, and too many spread lies, rumor and paint inaccurate portrayals that somehow shape public opinion and somehow in today’s world that is OK. It’s really sad, it’s unfortunate that it happens on serious issues that shape our lives and even here on this relatively trivial message board almost every single day."

Mr. Clark also writes about how commenters on Facebook's PBA page were criticizing the PBA for allegedly paying only 16 of 250 spots in the WSOB when, in fact, it had a "better than 1:3 payout ratio," and about how other commenters insisted that the "exempt tour model was keeping people from their dreams (when the reality is most events were open last year, none were completely closed, and some of the most compelling stories of the year came from players who were not exempt at the start of the season)."

Mr. Clark concludes the opening part of his response with the following:

"I understand the frustration people in and around bowling have. But they shouldn’t have to make things up or wildly exaggerate to make a point...Thankfully, for every negative person there are many positive voices being heard because of the new media, and greater opportunities for people to share them so I suppose it all works out in the end...I personally appreciate the passion most of you here have for this sport. But pro bowling needs your help, not your venom. Please redirect that passion by demanding the media give coverage and respect to our sport, by thanking sponsors with your letters and financial support, by making sure your local center promotes the pro game, by supporting the professionals you admire on the lanes. Don’t get me wrong, criticism is great. Complaining and pointing out what you don’t like or think is wrong is great. As long as it is based on reality. Merely proclaiming bowling is dead or rooting for the PBA’s demise, and dishing negative facts without any confirmation or characterizing things as “atrocious” and the like while not doing anything positive is just really lame and really you should just go away. But wow, I’ve beaten that point to death."

I agree with Mr. Clark that people should check their facts before criticizing the PBA for things it hasn't even done and that they should keep in mind the tremendous challenges the PBA faces in making its product appealing to sufficient numbers of fans and sponsors and do everything they can to support the PBA in its herculean efforts to live long and prosper. On the other hand, I hope that the powers-that-be in the PBA don't defensively dismiss legitimate criticisms and suggestions that the PBA's most ardent fans serve up in the PBA Forums and social media. If we all work together, perhaps the PBA can survive and even thrive.

What's Next?

In my next post, I'll start addressing Mr. Clark's responses to the questions and suggestions that were put to him, beginning with Why the vuvuzelas?

If you wish, you can jump ahead of me and read the whole discussion here after, if need be, registering.

Bowling Quote of the Day--Tom Clark Addresses Criticisms of the PBA

"If you knew the challenges of our stretched staff to set ‘em up for the world’s greatest players while still recovering from the economic recession, and the challenges the players faced with relatively limited opportunities, you’d think it was a super year with much to build on. But of course if you read this message board with the daily doom and gloom, you’d think the PBA is desperately trying to go out of business and can’t produce a moment of thrilling sports. Believe me, there is a wide majority of people outside of the bowling world that are becoming tougher and tougher to reach and any failure to do so is not because of Rob Stone or me or Mike J. Laneside or Dick Allen or most of the other targets on this board. Bowling’s perception issues long pre-date “hambones” and those listed above and everyone involved with the PBA are in the game, busting it every day in their own ways to gain relevance and respect because we love the PBA, bowling and will do anything to make it reach its greatest potential."

--Tom Clark, PBA COO and VP addressing criticisms of the PBA in pbaforum.com

Bowling Quote of the Day--3/24/10

"Bowling people are ready to be upset. They're looking for things to dislike."
--Tom Clark, PBA COO commenting on reactions to a CSI episode (see video below) earlier this year involving bowling-related murder