As bowling continues its struggle to maintain an identity with the youth of America through cosmic bowling, league restructuring, and larger monetary expenditures for the pro bowling tours on television to maintain a higher profile, bowling in foreign nations is mushrooming with much less effort. The popularity of bowling on a worldwide scale has only been derailed by politics, notably in Europe, and the falling of the communist bloc has signaled a bowling renaissance in locations of Europe and Asia, where the sport was nonexistent for much of the 20th century.
A prime example of this bowling revival can be found in Germany. The expert on the European theater of bowling is Ferdinand Janka, president of the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of Germany. Janka explained that major bowling corporations such as Brunswick and, to a lesser degree, AMF will build a multitude of bowling centers in Europe.
"The bowling market in Europe is growing, especially for the last two years in Germany and in what was once East Germany," Janka said. "In 1996, 48 new centers were built, and most of those are in East Germany. Only a couple have been built in West Germany because we already have them in the west. We have so many cities without bowling centers, even in West Germany. There is a major market for them everywhere."
The rekindled spirit of bowling in Germany is symbolized by the recent sponsorship by Brunswick of the new Golden Bowling Ball Tour, consisting of five events in Germany. The finals will be televised by Eurosport, which reaches over 73 million households in 44 countries. The winner of the Golden Bowling Ball Men’s Masters event also will receive an entry into the 1998 Brunswick World Tournament of Champions in Reno.
By the year 2000, Germany will feature 200 new bowling centers for a overall total of 400. The popularity for keglers in central Europe is so great that the bowling population could actually outstrip the number of bowlers in the United States.
Europe currently has over 1,300 bowling centers, and the number continues to increase. The new centers feature state-of-the-art equipment, with everything automated except the bowlers themselves.
"We expect to have bowling come to the former eastern bloc countries like Poland, the former Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and various parts of Russia for sure," Janka said. "American bowling manufacturing companies will benefit greatly as they move into bowling center construction in these countries."
Bowling will expand to where firms will eventually manufacture their own replacement equipment in Europe rather than depend on American importation. Brunswick already has a pinsetter machine factory in Stockach, Germany, and more are planned. The Brunswick plant manufactures an average of 7,000 TS-96 machines per year.
Bowling began its boom in Great Britain in the 1980s when AMF remodeled their centers and created a bowling market. According to Janka, Brunswick continues to upgrade their existing centers in Germany much the same way to keep pace with the new ones.
"In addition to bowling, these state-of-the-art U.S.-type play centers include roller skating rinks and six different kinds of restaurants in 60,000 square feet under one roof," Janka said. "Three of these were just opened in 1996-97 in East Germany. It’s drawing many investors to that market. Bowling in eastern Germany is ahead of tennis and racketball in popularity and was the first recreational activity to come into this part of Germany. The bowling centers do especially well when they are near cinemas, especially multiplex cinemas. Bowling centers near golf courses are popular, too, notably in Switzerland."
Italy has expanded its bowling horizons mostly through the efforts of Massimo Fenili, president of the Italian Bowling Proprietors’ Association. He is a partner in at least 55 bowling centers in Italy. Eight and 12-lane centers are the most popular size for Italian bowlers, and approximately 300 centers now exist there, where only 60 existed 10 years ago. Fenili created this Italian bowling growth explosion by purchasing used German equipment to economize his efforts and built new bowling centers with rebuilt German pinsetters.
"Fenili learned about bowling when he lived in Ethiopia," Janka said. "He took this knowledge with him back to Italy and started this boom from scratch."
Other areas of Europe continue to feel bowling’s expansion. France has about 200 bowling centers, and the sport continues to expand. Great Britain has doubled the 75 centers it had 10 years ago.
Northern Europe has government-owned centers, which were built in the 1960s and 70s. Sweden, Denmark, and Finland feature centers run by their respective city governments. In Norway, Arne Strom, the nation’s best bowler for 25 years, owns most of the centers.
In the city-owned bowling centers in Scandinavia, bowlers are assigned to professional bowling sports teams. They must be members of bowling clubs to bowl. You can’t just walk in off the street and bowl as we do in America. Germany also has the regulations of individuals signing with one single club of bowlers to compete on a regular basis.
"In the United States, bowlers sign up as individuals to bowl in leagues," Janka said, "but in Germany and other countries in Northern Europe you sign as an individual to bowl with a pre-determined team of a club of teams owned by the centers as part of the city government. You cannot belong to three or four clubs. You have to decide on one team from one club to bowl with and that’s all. The majority of leagues are scratch, no handicap."
As a result, these club teams have become very competitive over the years. The same bowlers are obliged to compete together as a team for several seasons. TEAM USA Coach Palmer Fallgren noted that teams from northern Europe gave his TEAM USA fits in international competition because they had bowled together as a team for several years. TEAM USA frequently has different players each year. This situation often makes it difficult to be competitive in international competition.
Holland has 200 bowling centers. The Dutch have bowling tournaments every weekend for their respective club bowlers. The proprietors and the federation of bowlers work closely together on tournament competitions that are telecast regularly. Ratings are high for the TV finals, and lucrative bowling careers result from the televised tournaments.
In Belgium, bowling is growing, with 80 centers currently. In contrast, Luxembourg opened its first bowling center two years ago.
Switzerland has 15 bowling centers and plans to add more in the near future. Austria had only two Brunswick centers for 30 years, but it are beginning to build more.
Hungary has 30 two-lane centers, with small teams. The largest center in Hungary has only four lanes at a hotel in Budapest. These are all tenpin centers. Nine-pin lanes are even more numerous in Hungary. This rendition of bowling is also found in Germany.
Croatia, which sends representatives to the AMF World Cup, recently opened a new bowling center in Zagreb, and championship matches are conducted there regularly.
Russia has two bowling centers near the Black Sea, but Brunswick has been exploring the possibility of opening more.
Spain built 50 bowling centers recently in conjunction with the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. Greece has only 10 bowing centers, but the Middle East is booming. The United Arab Emirates, where the World Championships will be held in 1999, is constructing 50 centers to help accommodate that tournament and to supplement the 10 already in existence. Turkey has several centers in Istanbul, and the cost per game is the equivalent of $8, as it is considered a state-of-the-art luxury for high society.
Bowling is steadily growing in Australia in preparation for the upcoming Summer Olympics. The largest growth going into the 21st century, however, will be in central Europe, where use of equipment such as reactive-resin bowling balls is equal to or better than that used by U.S. bowlers.
Developed countries worldwide will get more greatly involved in the sport of bowling in the near future. Their enthusiasm for the sport eventually will surpass that of followers of bowling in the U.S. if the current trends continue.
Syndicated columnist Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.