Do you miss the PBA telecasts on ESPN? Are you going through televised bowling withdrawal? Well, you can always go back and watch YouTube's archives of bowling telecasts, many of which you can view in embedded videos on this blog if they're from the past couple of years. Or you can subscribe to PBA Xtra Frame and watch live match play of senior and some regional Tour events over the spring and summer, as well as access the archives that go back ten or so years.
However, if you don't want to pay for any subscriptions and you'd like to watch bowlers at the USBC Open in Reno and other upcoming events this spring and summer, you can always check out Bowl.com for their live streaming of numerous bowling competitions, and you can also access their growing archives of past events including the recently concluded Queens match play and Senior Queens finals, Men's Team USA competition, and so forth.
Bowl.com has posted a schedule of upcoming events they'll be covering live over the next few months including tonight's live coverage of Carolyn Dorin-Ballard's team competing in the USBC Open at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno. So whether you're willing to pay for it or you want it for free, your bowling fix is literally just a mouse click or two away.
"Looking forward to next season, it doesn’t look like the tour will be growing at all. I am still very concerned about what is going to happen. We really need to get some money coming into the tour. At this point, it looks as if the 2012 schedule will be similar to last season, with a World Series and the other Majors. Other than that, we have not heard anything...As for me, it was a long season and I was ready for time off. Not sure how old most of you are, but I am 51 years old and have started a bucket list, just like the movie. I got to take one of the top items off of that list, spending the weekend in Augusta at the Masters. It was truly what I always dreamed it would be. Not only was it beautiful in every way, but the feeling of the power of this great event is just crazy. I will never forget this weekend. Someday, I hope bowling can create an event with the stature of the Masters and that people all over the world would hope to attend."
Part of the great news for the 2010-2011 PBA Tour is that Lumber Liquidators will once again be its primary sponsor. And someone in the PBA discussion forum made an excellent suggestion. We who are grateful to them should send them a letter thanking them for their continuing sponsorship of the PBA Tour during these difficult times. It only costs 45 cents and a few minutes of our time to do this.
Here's where to send your thank-you letter:
Lumber Liquidators 3000 John Deere Road Toano, VA 23168
Of course, if you want to follow another commenter's advice and take things a step further, you could buy something from Lumber Liquidators and enclose your sales receipt WITH your thank-you letter.
If the news from yesterday's meeting of exempt players on the PBA Tour is any indication, widespread predictions and my own worries about the PBA's eminent demise may have been premature. Because the news is good. Better than good, actually.
For starters, next year's TOC will feature a staggering, at least for professional bowling, $1 million prize fund and a $250,000 first prize check. Wow! And the tournament will be open, as I've always thought it should be, to ALL previous national title winners and not just to a select few. By golly, it's even open to all past Regional, Senior, and Women's Series titlists. Now THAT'S a true Tournament of Champions. I can't wait to watch it on PBA Xtra Frame!
Other highlights include:
An even bigger and better World Series of Bowling than we saw last year, including a United States vs. the World special competition at the WSOB.
ESPN live broadcasts in HD, with some events, including the U.S. Open and PBA World Championship, being carried live by the ESPN family of channels over a groundbreaking three consecutive days.
A new, season ending six-week series of PBA Playoffs in an elimination format and with its own separate prize fund and a big impact on the PBA Player of the Year race.
A new "Xtra Frame Tour" in which PBA Tour players will compete in at least five separate locations in tournaments using a modified format and covered exclusively by PBA Xtra Frame.
Yes, this and more is the unbelievable news coming from yesterday's meeting in Norwich, Conn, site of this week's national tournament. Click here to read the whole fantastic story.
Of course, the cynically inclined might detect a scent of desperation pervading next year's plans and argue that, even if all of the elements of this wildly ambitious scenario come to fruition, they will be the prodigious but dying gasps of a doomed organization before it fails once and for all and dies for good.
Well, I can be as cynical as anyone, but I'm going to suspend my cynicism for now and let myself revel in the marvelous excitement and hope I feel over this unexpected and amazing news regarding next year's PBA Tour.
