The price is right: Pinacle Events' Steve Sanders steps forward to revitalize the women's tour

Bowling Digest, Spring, 2004 by Rick Woelfel

WHEN THE PWBA CEASED operations last summer, the moment went unnoticed by almost everyone outside of the bowling industry. Try as it did, the organization never established a foothold with the sporting public and couldn't attract the corporate dollars it needed to stay afloat.

Operating in the shadows of the NBA, NFL, and even women's sports organizations such as the LPGA, WTA, and WNBA, the women's tour found it virtually impossible to make a lasting impression.

But new owner Steve Sanders wants to change that. Sanders feels women's pro bowling and female bowlers are marketable commodities. Considering the fact that Sanders' company, Pinacle Events, is the largest event marketing firm in the bowling industry, his opinion is worth noting.

Sanders has plans to create a "new PWBA tour." He envisions an organization that will make an impact on the public, be they bowlers or non-bowlers; will attract corporate sponsors; will be an enticing career option for young bowlers; and--last, but certainly not least--will make money. And his plans are already in motion.

As the calendar turned to 2004, Sanders had virtually finalized an agreement to purchase the PWBA from John Sommer Jr. in hopes of having a women's tour up on the lanes and on television sometime in 2004.

Sanders plans a 20-event schedule in 2004 for a total prize fund of $2.4 million. Sixteen events will feature a $100,000 purse and four "majors" will offer $200,000.

The deal is contingent on television arrangements being finalized with ESPN, which Sanders expects will televise all 20 tournaments. As is its usual custom, the net work refused to negotiate with Sanders until he completed his own negotiations with Sommer and officially owned the tour. If television arrangements are not secured, Sanders has a window of approximately 30 days to give the tour back to Sommer.

"This is just the next natural step," Sanders says. "I've had a lot of experience with the PBA and the PWBA, running and owning events, bringing in sponsors."

A proficient bowler himself, Sanders was working for a marketing firm when a client needed help running a tournament. That was his introduction to tournament administration. Today, Sanders' company administers a series of big-money amateur events, most notably the Mini Eliminator series.

Despite the PWBA's past problems, Sanders insists that women's bowling can be a profitable venture. "I just don't think they've had anybody to market them," he says. "The PWBA was a bowling organization. It was not a marketing organization. All I'm trying to do is take the model that I've been successful with five to seven times a year and do it 20 times a year."

Sanders wants to take the tour into secondary markets, at least for now. His reasoning is simple. "If you go into the major cities, people are more interested in the Philadelphia Eagles or the 76ers or the Phillies [than women's bowling]," he says. "But if you go to secondary cities, 50 or 100 miles from Philadelphia, whether in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, then you can really make an impact. We are very sensitive as to where we're going to get the best bang for our buck and for our sponsors."

Exactly when the women of the PWBA will be back on the lanes is a matter of conjecture. Sanders hopes to kick off the season in August 2004 and continue through October, before picking up again in March and finishing sometime in May. This format would situate the PWBA schedule closer to the traditional league bowling season, while avoiding scheduling (read: television) conflicts with the PBA tour. But the final schedule will be determined by ESPN.

But regardless of whether the tour is bowling on warm summer afternoons or chilly winter evenings, Sanders wants to make each tour stop "an event, not just a bowling competition." To that end, he plans to hire a staff of some 25 people, including a bevy of media and marketing experts from outside the bowling industry. He wants to put his marketing people on the road to build up file tom" in each market it visits.

"The bowling proprietor will get a total turnkey event," Sanders says. "All he has to do is get the bowling center ready. We will bring in our whole event marketing team to promote it. We will bring in the sponsors. We will do everything for the proprietor."

The PWBA will own all of its events. The proprietor who pays to bring the tour into his or her bowling center will keep 50% of the gate receipts and 10% of the pro-am entry fees. In addition, the proprietor will keep all his concession and bar revenue, rather than sharing it with the tour.

Sanders understands that for a "new PWBA" to not only survive but thrive, he will need corporate support from outside the bowling industry, support that the PWBA has had difficulty obtaining in the past. But he wants to take the sport in a new direction, to market bowlers not just as athletes but as personalities who will attract the attention of the non-bowling public and corporate sponsors. And if that means emphasizing the fact that the tour roster features a number of attractive women, that's fine, too.