Brian Brazeau's Pro Shop won the recent battle of Ocala (Fla.) by defeating his neighborhood rival Jeff Edens' Pro Shop 495-413 in the two-game Baker format title match at Seminole Lanes to win $3,600. Edens and teammates Stoney Baker, Craig Auerbach, Don Yoshihara, and Darin Hays took home $2,000 in their loss to Brazeau's team of Dennis Rakauskas, Adam Colton, Tony Biondi, and Ryan Boyd.
It was the second consecutive victory for a Brazeau-led team that includes four previous victories and two second-place finishes out of the seven times it has competed in the nine-year tournament history in St. Petersburg, Fla., of the ABC/Brunswick World Team Challenge.
BWTC tournament director Tom Boedecker said that if trends for his tournament don't change soon, the ninth season for the World Team Challenge could be its last.
"We don't have a tournament location yet for our Grand Championship, which is the final stop for us each year and normally we do," Boedecker said. "In fact, our entire schedule for next year is up in the air."
Brunswick has been making cuts in its sponsorship budget, and if they pull out of the World Team Challenge, this yearly nationwide series of team tournaments will belong to the ages if it comes to an end this year.
The BWTC has been suffering for the past three years from lack of media exposure and is on the opposite end of the sport event spectrum from the NFL's championship game—the Super Bowl—that engulfed Tampa Bay with the ultimate in media exposure and buried its bowling counterpart during its two-week domination.
The red flag for the BWTC first flew when it lost the power of regular TV coverage on the former Prime Sports Network (now Fox Sports Net) in 1997. The second blow came to the Team Challenge last year by the rebirth of the Professional Bowlers Association with its new ownership led by former Microsoft executive Chris Peters and partners who pumped new money into the faltering PBA.
The first part of this double-edged sword struck when fan and advertising interest began to wane because televised finals no longer existed for the Team Challenge. The tournament management has been drastically reduced since the BWTC's beginning in 1993.
In its first year, the American Bowling Congress and Brunswick were enthusiastic about making the Team Challenge a competitive companion to the PBA Tour which has focused on one-on-one top-five format finals. In fact, the PBA Tour has abandoned the "three-three-three-two" eight-bowler format demanded by the TV networks for the past three years and returned to the old top five finals for ESPN this winter.
The BWTC staff has been cut since its inception in 1993 from a dozen staffers including legendary bowler and commentator Earl Anthony and his broadcast partner, Florida Marlins announcer Jay Randolph, down to tournament director Tom Boedecker, who is the symbolic Lone Ranger for the current BWTC.
The BWTC was telecast delayed at least twice a month in the early years, and the tournament played to packed houses nationwide with acceptable overall ratings.
By contrast, the current BWTC plays to small gatherings of friends and family, and fan interest has become non-existent. This waning interest has caused sponsors to take another look at this national team tournament, and it has hurt the number of team entries. The regular victories for the Team Challenge by Brazeau and bowlers of his high caliber in this vacuum of obscurity have further discouraged competition.
The final blow to the BWTC is the desertion of many better known bowlers to the PBA Tour with its new influx of money and expanding schedule. John Gaines is a typical example of this trend because his team in 1999 was the winner of the last televised Grand Championships of the BWTC that appeared on ESPN. The same TV final was dropped the following year, and Gaines opted to join the PBA.
PBA member Dennis Rakauskas said his team disappeared completely because his teammates jumped from the BWTC to the PBA Tour full-time.
"Our team won last year and it affected us dramatically because four of our guys rejoined the PBA and another rule change with the BWTC is you couldn't win a title within the last five years so that was Brian so we reorganized," Rakauskas said. "We had to split up, but I think the rejuvenation of the PBA Tour is a good thing for all of us. The new owner Chris Peters is the man. He just hired a new man from Nike to run the regional tours so Steve Miller and Ian Hamilton are really working with Chris to build a strong, competitive tour."
The last remaining televised portion of the BWTC was dropped because, according to Boedecker, the cost to buy time on ESPN was a prohibitive $250,000 per broadcast.
Brazeau agrees that the recent improvements with the PBA has hurt attendance at recent BWTC tournaments.
"I think what the the PBA's doing is great, and if guys decide that's what they want to do, you can't stop them," Brazeau said. "It's good to have big articles in USA Today about the PBA Tour, and it will bring more interest in the sport in general because it must filter down from the tour. It helps me as a pro shop owner to sell bowling balls."
Brazeau said he is not interested in competing on the new PBA Tour and that the BWTC better fits his goals.
"I don't have any aspirations of going back out there because I'm too old," Brazeau continued. "I bowl megabuck tournaments instead, and I just got back from Vegas where my teammate Adam Colton won $100,000 at the Eliminator, so we're fine without the PBA. Adam got a good night's sleep after he returned from Las Vegas and he now has back-to-back wins. I know Adam was running on fumes Saturday, so he's much better today."
On the weekend before the Super Bowl, Colton said that Brazeau's Pro Shop team was his team of "Super Bowlers."
Brazeau said he has peaks and valleys in his game and on Sunday he peaked at the right time.
"My timing was better today than yesterday, and it makes a big difference. I think weather ranging back and forth between heat and humidity and the cold snaps make a difference with lane conditions because of levels of oil depletion."
Tony Biondi is the newest addition to the team. He replaced Doug Becker because they changed the rule on the number of PBA bowlers competing on the same team.
"They allowed three card holders from the PBA on a single team, and it was changed to only two PBA members per team," said Biondi. "I think it will open up the field that way and encourage more teams and make it more competitive. You can spread more bowlers out on different teams that way instead of stacking one team. I also like the new format of cutting to the top four teams and instead of having 10 games, we only have eight. I like it better by far."
Rakauskas says the new format will encourage some teams which have quit the BWTC to come back.
"I think in the long run, they may get some teams back with the rules changes," Rakauskas said. "Some of the teams were getting so strong that you could name the top echelon 15 teams that would make the cut and nobody else could. There were a lot less entries this year because some of the potential bowlers didn't hear about the rule changes in time, but I think eventually those teams will come back."
Rakauskas hopes that in addition to the teams which quit competing on the Brunswick World Team Challenge, the entire tournament will return next season instead of folding.
Syndicated columnist Richard Kolb is a member of the Bowling Writers Association of America.