One of the aspects of our sport that has always bothered me is that the younger generation, that 18-34 group that marketing people have so much respect for, seem to have very little, if any, respect for the history of the game. As a baby boomer (I'll be 52 very soon), I'm especially puzzled that marketing experts and ad geniuses don't seem to recognize that my boomer generation is rapidly becoming the largest and most affluent generation in the history of the world.
However, that error in judgment may be corrected soon. With the downturn in the economy, more attention is being paid to the group where the real power lives. The marketing direction correction is not what I want to write about here, but it will be a big factor in the success or failure of my subject: senior bowling.
Senior bowling is big and getting bigger, and the laws of demographics are only one reason that we'll see more and better senior bowling in the next decade. Most centers these days, especially those in retirement communities in places like south Florida, south Texas and Arizona, have big senior programs.
Most good editorials start with a question or two, and my question for this one is: Is it possible for high-level senior bowling to be successful? I'm talking about a professional tour or the equivalent. And will it draw a television audience? The latter question depends on those marketing gurus I mentioned earlier.
I believe that it is possible for a senior bowling tour to be successful, but it will take huge commitment from someone with a passion for it, and a lot of hard work to make it a reality. The new Professional Bowlers Association, owned by Chris Peters and partners, has the resources, but they have shown no inclination or intention to build and improve their senior tour in the near future. The new PBA has made it crystal clear that their primary focus is on the junior tour, and given the present environment, most people can probably understand that.
So where does that leave the senior bowlers, most of whom helped build the sport and made it possible for the young stars of today to even have a tour? Out in the cold? Maybe temporarily, but there is a small light at the end of the tunnel for seniors.
Up until now, there has been no legitimate attempt to start a new senior pro tour, but several small groups have emerged to offer very good senior competition. Senior tournament clubs have developed in several areas and most are doing very well. Perhaps the most successful is Jamie Brooks' Senior All Star Bowling Association. Its members call it SASBA, and in a little over a decade it has grown to a membership of near 1000 and 50-75 events annually. At this writing, new divisions are being formed in the midwest, west and northeast. Its southeast region is becoming more popular, and its southwest region, where it all started, is thriving with a solid schedule of 24 events per year. Senior women's competition is also growing, although not near the pace of the men's. The new WIBC Senior Queens has become very popular, Jeanette Robinson's Golden Ladies Classic in Las Vegas has been going for a dozen years, there is a new annual senior event in Texas, and the PWBA added a senior division to its annual Regional Players Championship this year.
Other folks are looking very seriously at the feasibility of a new men's senior tour. Sandy Curtis, who resigned as PBA Senior Tour director because she didn't like the direction they were going and the lack of support, started a new group called "The Legends Tour," which has since ceased operation. Curtis may not be the one to start a new tour, but she certainly has the respect of the PBA senior players, who make up almost a third of all PBA membership.
Rumors abound in the industry about a new senior tour every year. The top PBA senior players have not been happy with their plight for many years, and at one point it looked like they would rebel and start their own tour, but cooler heads prevailed, and they are being extremely patient. The blunt truth is that many of them are mad as hell at the way they have been treated by the PBA, but they have not had the resources to go out on their own.
These guys are bowlers. Some are good businessmen, and there are even some millionaires among them, but primarily, they just want to bowl and leave the business of providing a viable tour to someone else.
That someone else may be New York's Steve Sanders, president of Pinacle Events, owner of the very successful Mini Eliminator tournaments that run semiannually in Las Vegas. Sanders, 42, has a masters degree in marketing, and many good connections in the industry.
Financially, he's not in the same league with Chris Peters and company, but he has ample resources, and is way ahead of Peters and Miller in industry knowledge and experience. He's also a very good salesman, who has brought many sponsors to his events.
Sanders' experience with senior events goes all the way back to the very successful 1996 BPAA Senior U.S. Open which he promoted and operated at Sam's Town in Las Vegas. His recent interest in a tour stems from the request of several PBA seniors, who are not satisfied with their back-burner PBA status.
Not long after Peters' group bought the PBA, Sanders offered to take on the PBA senior tour and run it as a separate entity. He made a generous offer to the new PBA operators, but it included their relinquishment of control and ownership clauses, which would have protected Sanders' investment. The PBA apparently decided they were not ready to give up that control, so they turned down the offer. That left Sanders with only one option—start a new tour for the seniors.
Should Sanders decide to start a new senior tour, the sponsor that may be the key to its success would be The Villages. The Villages is a retirement community in central Florida large enough to have its own zip code. It is also the home of more than a dozen golf courses, two state-of-the-art bowling centers and a third coming soon, a posh polo club, and about 20,000 homes in a beautiful village setting.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Dave Buschman, The Villages' director of bowling, and he related that The Villages was anxious to get involved in sponsoring a future event. Several very successful PBA events have been held there in the past few years, and they even sponsored a junior tour event won by Jason Couch in 2001.
Prior to that, The Villages sponsored PBA Senior Tour events since 1998 with outdoor finals staged on lanes constructed in their town square in 1999 and 2000. In addition to their cash rewards, two PBA seniors earned new homes in The Villages valued at $100,000. In 1999, Dave Soutar won the house, and in 2000, it went to Roger Workman. Even more significant was the fact that the television coverage of these events led to the sale of dozens more homes in The Villages, and that is the primary reason they are anxious to get tournaments going again.
Last year, the new PBA bosses attempted to make a deal with The Villages that excluded Steve Sanders, but they were unsuccessful, and the result was no Villages sponsored events in 2002. Apparently, the PBA underestimated the Villages loyalty to Sanders. That episode also led to their parting of ways on the successful Long Island Open, owned and operated by Pinacle Events in partnership with the PBA.
It also cost them three more events hosted by Coast Resorts in Las Vegas, another sponsor who refused to conduct a PBA event without Sanders involvement. Because the PBA informed Coast Resorts they wouldn't have their events in partnership with Sanders, they now must find new venues for a tour event, a senior tour event, and their regional players championship.
It was also Sanders who procured the rights to stage an arena finals in the Mohegan Sun Casino Arena in Connecticut for the PBA event. This year, the Long Island Open will be held November 27-Dec 1 without Sanders' help, and the PBA Tournament of Champions will be staged in the Mohegan Sun Arena December 12-15. The PBA's Steve Miller recently told columnist Dick Evans that "all PBA major events will have a prize fund of $350,000", but when the new T of C was announced, the prize fund is only $230,000. It was also interesting that the novice PBA guys chose to utilize Gary Beck's Battle at Little Creek format for the new T of C. Beck's comment on the Phantom Radio Show was that "this format was designed as an exhibition, and it's probably not appropriate for a major championship." Indeed, the winner of the T of C might bowl as few as 11 games to win, or 17 at the most. Beck is another example of the PBA's desire to succeed or fail without outside help. Like Sanders, he had been a successful partner, but the PBA plan apparently includes no outside partners in the foreseeable future.
Back to the seniors, Steve Sanders' next move will be to stage a new event October 5-11 - The Brunswick Senior World Open, sponsored by Brunswick, Turbo 2-N-1 Grips, National Airlines and Coast Resorts, the same companies that sponsor the Mini Eliminators. The $200,000 prize fund and $30,000 top prize is far bigger than any Senior PBA event, and if successful, it will prove Sanders' ability to compete with the PBA for senior business.
The event apparently captured the attention of a couple of people, Steve Miller and Brad Edelman. Miller is president of PBA, and Edelman is president of High Roller Inc., a rival of Sanders' Mini Eliminators in Las Vegas. After the Brunswick SWO was announced, Miller made the first move by attempting to prevent the PBA seniors members from "competing in any pro-am event not associated with the PBA". A contract was prepared and players were asked to sign it, but they voted overwhelmingly not to sign, and it was withdrawn. It would have also prevented them from bowling in Sandy Curtis' events or SASBA pro-am events. The thinking was that promoters wouldn't have events without the draw of the PBA stars in their pro-ams.
Not long after, Edelman announced that any senior bowler who competed in the new Brunswick Senior World Open would be ineligible to bowl in future High Roller Events. A couple of days after that announcement, it was rescinded. He later said that the move was made because he was told the Brunswick SWO was the first event of a new senior pro tour, and High Roller does not allow pros in their events. One Las Vegas insider told me that several High Roller supporters advised him to withdraw the new rule.
What's next? Sanders may or may not start a new senior tour. It looks like the sponsorship is there, but television, likely required by major sponsors, may be the deciding factor. If he can negotiate a good deal with ESPN or another network, the PBA Senior Tour may have some big competition as early as next year. One thing he won't do is schedule events at the same time as PBA events. "I want what's best for the players and I want to make a profit," he told me recently. The question is, if Sanders does start a new tour, will PBA step up to upgrade their tour to compete? Even if they don't, it looks like the senior bowlers will have more and bigger events. It just goes to show you what a little competition can do, and competition is great when it causes the product to improve.