
The Rise and Fall of Professional Bowling - ryan_j_naughton
http://priceonomics.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-professional-bowling/
======
specialp
I actually used to work as a mechanic at a bowling alley while in college.
Bowling is still popular on Long Island where I live but I think the demise of
huge money pro bowling comes from 2 different aspects: 1. There are less
amateur bowlers now and 2. Ball technology combined with illegal lane oiling
patterns has made bowling too easy.

It was once a very rare feat to bowl a perfect game (300) Now it happens so
much that when someone was on 10th frame carrying a perfect game I would not
even bother to watch it. Bowling centers want to keep people coming so they
make the lanes very easy with "walled shots" (no oil near gutters to allow for
massive hooks). Now almost every reasonably good bowler bowls over 200
average, and the difference between winning or losing is much smaller to the
point it becomes luck.

This is the same in the Pros minus the illegal pattern. So now there is much
less differentiation between pro and amateur bowlers and it is hard to be
consistently dominate as everyone is bowling very high scores. They need to
make bowling more difficult again by regulating ball surface compounds more
closely and making lane oil patterns more difficult. This will increase the
divide between pros themselves and amateurs and make it more impressive to
watch.

~~~
mitchty
Man, now I feel even worse for not being able to ever bowl over a 100.

Granted I've bowled all of like 5 times in my life but still.

~~~
crag
You know, I always bowled better drunk. I was in a league once. it was a
handicap league and my average was like 95. And I played on one of the best
teams - due to my huge handicap. I'd start out terrible and sober, and by the
end of the game I was walking sideways and could barely see down the lane. But
somehow I always bowled at least 95 (usually over 100). Which gave cover for
the (much) better players to have a bad night and still keep the team's
rating.

I was lots of fun.

~~~
voidlogic
This just goes to show that the Ballmer Peak [0] varies greatly by task.

[0]: [https://xkcd.com/323/](https://xkcd.com/323/)

------
pfarrell
I used to sit in with a folk band comprised of some guys who'd been in the
music business since the sixties. I once told my mentor that it seemed to me
that general talent and musicianship seemed to be higher in artists in the
1960s and 1970s. Surely this was just because time had passed and I'm only
listening to the good stuff. Right?

He said, no, the music community is, in fact, less talented, as a whole, than
it was in older days. He blamed MADD (mothers against drunk driving).

Here was his reasoning. In the older days, almost every bar, tavern, hotel,
and other night spots would have a house band. This was the environment where
you learned to play different musical styles for different types of crowds.
It's also how you apprenticed with older musicians, learned the standard
repertoire, etc.

With the rise in criminal consequences for impaired driving, people stopped
going out as much. This had a ripple effect causing the end of the house band.
Today, musicians don't get nearly the amount of stage time and access to
mentors as they used to.

It was a compelling theory and I wonder if something similar could be at work
here given the coincidence of the drop in popularity in the early 1980s.

~~~
jakejake
That sounds like a pretty sketchy theory to me!

As a musician, back in the day you had to learn to play your instrument
without making mistakes in order to work and record. These days with software
based recording you can edit so easily it's not a requirement to be that good
- or even play an instrument. There's less demand in popular music for the
professional musician of that type in the earlier days who can play a song 100
times without making a single mistake.

That being said, I think there are still plenty of good musicians out there.
There's just a lot of other stuff as well.

~~~
wyclif
"Making music has gotten easier; selling it has gotten harder. Making music
has been democratized, but the market is in the hands of fascists." ~ Stewart
Copeland, former drummer for The Police

------
bsder
And yet he never addresses the "Why?" did this happen to bowling?

I suspect it is socioeconomics. Bowling is kind of viewed as a lower-middle
class sport, and the economy has wiped the lower-middle class out.

~~~
nilkn
I think part of the problem is that even if bowling is quite difficult it
doesn't appear to be so. Even if the athletes are in great shape, you can't
really tell at all. The great feat of a perfect 300 in bowling is accomplished
regularly.

The only things that really seem to distinguish a great bowler are his/her
speed and accuracy. That's basically it. There's no Michael Jordan running on
thin air with his tongue out. There's no massive 7' Shaq shattering glass with
the force of his dunks. There's no Peyton Manning watching over his team,
radiating some austere strategic wisdom (barring this last Super Bowl...).

Frankly, I'd (very seriously) rather watch professional juggling than bowling.

Finally, the overall style of bowling as a sport is decidedly 1970s midwest
America. The US is undergoing probably an unprecedented urban trend right now.
As profoundly shallow as it might be, bowling is just not sexy at all.

~~~
trafficlight
It's the oil pattern that makes it difficult. Spectators can't see it, and
thus can't appreciate the adjustments necessary to continue throwing good
shots.

They used the blue dyed oil on a televised match a few months ago as an
attempt to show it, but I feel that gives the bowlers an unfair advantage.

If there were a way to show the oil moving in real time to both the TV and
live audience, I think you could start getting people interested in the game
at a high level. Much the same way embedding little cameras in a poker table
enabled the audience to see a live poker game unfold.

I'd also like to see the PBA fully embrace video streaming, and no, Xtra Frame
doesn't count. I want to be able to watch follow an individual player
throughout the 4 days of a typical PBA tournament. I have my favorite bowlers
and I want to see their scores in realtime. I want to see how the lanes are
changing and how the bowlers are adapting.

I love the sport; I've been bowling since I was very young. But, I too, would
rather watch anything other than a PBA telecast.

~~~
stock_toaster
Maybe they could inject a dye that was not visible to the eye, but that the
cameras could pick up, and then overlay it digitally in some way to the tv
audience.

~~~
rangibaby
What about dye that is only visible to UV light?

~~~
stock_toaster
That was my first thought as well.

------
jameshart
Seems curiously parallel to the story of snooker and darts' popularity in the
UK from the 60s through to the 80s - similar non-athletic 'leisure' sports
that seem an unlikely candidate for professionalization. I wonder if the ease
of televising it (it's in a small, indoor venue) has anything to do with it?

Couple of differences: in the UK, snooker was originally picked out as a good
demonstration of the potential of color TV broadcasting; later on, it was
boosted by tobacco sponsorships following the TV advertising ban - surprised
in a way to see that the same didn't happen to bowling...

~~~
amix
Professional snooker is still very popular and the best earn millions of USD
pr. year. So the situation between snooker and bowling isn't quite the same.

------
lawncheer
"During one 1961 performance on ABC’s Make That Spare, pro bowler Don Carter
won $19,000 ($149,000 in 2014 dollars), and a brand new Ford Mustang."

Ford mustang wasn't introduced until 1964.

~~~
zackcrockett
You're correct; the show did offer Ford Mustangs as a prize (in addition to
cash), but not until 1964. Fixed! Thank you sir.

~~~
lawncheer
NP! it's not really a big deal, I'm just a mustang nerd. Great article.

~~~
winslow
So if you are a mustang nerd I have a question for you. Your choice of any
mustang, year/color/trim/engine etc. Which one do you pick and why?

~~~
lawncheer
1966 coupe, with the 200 sprint, because that was the car I bought when I was
16 (although I didn't get to drive it until I was 17, because I had to fix it
up).

~~~
winslow
Thanks for answering!

~~~
lawncheer
np, are you into mustangs, what's your favorite?

~~~
winslow
I'm a bit to young to have been driving the original mustangs but I am a Ford
guy. If I were to get a mustang it would have to be manual no doubt. The 302
Boss has always appealed to me. I typically don't buy flashy stuff but in the
case of the mustang I would go all out with the classic baby blue with black
stripes or orange/red with black stripes.

Something along these lines: [http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/rare-
mustang-boss-302...](http://autos.yahoo.com/blogs/motoramic/rare-mustang-
boss-302-emerges-barn-40-slumber-202830266.html)
[http://www.sportscardigest.com/wp-
content/uploads/F193_Ford_...](http://www.sportscardigest.com/wp-
content/uploads/F193_Ford_1970_Mustang-Boss-302_Fastback_0F02G188056_900.jpg)
[http://www.fultonleasing.co.uk/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2011/...](http://www.fultonleasing.co.uk/blog/wp-
content/uploads/2011/08/OriginalFordMustangBoss302.jpg)

------
lennel
Given the era of its collapse it seems to me that professional bowling missed
out on the ride which modern sport packaged television brought. A Kerry
Packer/Bernie Eccelstone type could perhaps have had bowling on every screen
now.

As a side note, I am watching my favourite sport, Test cricket, die as well,
replacing it is a glitzier, shorter less technically demanding version of
cricket called T20. The appetite for 5 day matches seem to be on the wan,
although any cricketer would tell you, the longest format of the game is where
your mettle truly gets tested.

~~~
windowsworkstoo
If anything T20 will replace the 50 over game. The recent ashes and the Aus v
SA tour has definitely re-ignited interest in Test cricket though.

------
loso
It's funny that while it seems like bowling has died out in the mainstream it
has picked up really big in the hip hop community. Especially in the big
cities. There are places where they even have a velvet rope to get into the
bowling alley. The bowling alleys are hybrid of alleys & clubs. I think the
biggest one in NYC right now has to be Brooklyn Bowl.
[http://www.brooklynbowl.com/bowl](http://www.brooklynbowl.com/bowl) and
popular DJ's that spin there
[http://www.brooklynbowl.com/calendar](http://www.brooklynbowl.com/calendar).

------
massysett
PBS had a great documentary on bowling several years ago...I'm not sure this
was it, but it looks familiar.

[http://www.bowlingmovie.com/](http://www.bowlingmovie.com/)

~~~
firebones
I highly recommend "A League of Ordinary Gentlemen". Great documentary and it
really shows the human side of the tour. It is currently available on Netflix
streaming.

------
chiph
For people in Austin, the annual Austin Cup is scheduled for May 3rd. I
participated in it a couple of years ago, and it's lots of fun (one of our
teams came in 2nd!)

Profits go towards the Center for Child Protection.

[http://www.austincup.net/](http://www.austincup.net/)

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nocoment
Bummer, I thought this was on candlepin bowling! Last I heard a startup
survived by taking over the league so it would make more sense on HN.

It also doesn't suffer from the "too easy" problem of 10 pin. For example, no
one has officially bowled a perfect candlepin game.

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LandoCalrissian
I didn't realize how much these guys once made during the bowling golden
years. I'm surprised they haven't managed to make more out of this with
livestreams, but I would wager the average bowling fan is probably up there in
age and isn't really cued in to online streaming.

Interesting article all the same. Thanks for sharing.

~~~
trafficlight
It's because the PBA's livestream offering, Xtra Frame, is utter horseshit.
It's a 320x240 stream that you can't even make out who is who. The live
scoring is horrendous.

I would pay $25 or $30 a month to watch my favorite players throughout the
course of a tournament. But I have no way to do so.

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marcelocamanho
This can be fixed. Exteme bowling! New rules! Stuff like obstacles, special
balls, pins, etc. could make it fresher. Much better than pretty much waiting
people to get a almost-perfect score.

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joshrotenberg
Jim Gaffigan has some interesting insights on bowling:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5fm7QPA9zY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5fm7QPA9zY)

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TwoBit
The article says bowling is the #1 recreational activity. There's no way, as
cycling is easily #1. Surely they rigged their definition to somehow exclude
cycling.

------
ScottBurson
Lots of people play ping pong too, but professional table tennis has never
been big in the US.

