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

Bowling Digest, Spring, 2004 by Rick Woelfel

"We will have a public relations firm and a marketing firm out with us full-time on tour," Sanders says, "marketing the girls, doing special events with the girls, making sure their image is correct--maybe add some sex appeal to it, teaching them how to do interviews and handle the media."

Of course, Sanders is also taking care not to neglect the bowling side of the operation. He wants to have a team of industry insiders on board to maintain contact with local bowling organizations. "We're not going to do what the PBA did," he says. "They brought everybody in from outside the industry, which gave everybody a feeling of being on the outside and a sense that there was no respect ['or the history of the game."

Sanders is well aware of the fact that one of the PWBA's biggest shortcomings in recent years has been the size of its fields or, rather, the lack thereof. But he firmly believes that an effective promotion and marketing strategy, as well as building strong relationships with local bowling organizations, will lead to bigger fields.

"[The tour's small fields] were because nobody did may marketing," Sanders says. "We're looking to have 75 to 100 women for each of our events and 250 lot each of our majors. Last year the only place where they did any real local marketing was Detroit, and they got 267 women for the U.S. Open. I don't see why we can't get 250 women for each of our majors."

Sanders might have a tougher time finding 100 women to bowl in PWBA events on a week-to-week basis. In 2002, the last time the PWBA bowled a full schedule (16 tournaments), the average field consisted of 43.6 bowlers (that figure does not account for the WIBC Queens, which is not a PWBA event, and the U.S. Women's Open, which was not contested in 2002). The largest field in 2002 was at the Greater Harrisburg Open, in which 12 of the 59 bowlers in the field were amateurs.

So where is Sanders going to find the 30 to 60 tour-caliber bowlers he needs to meet his own definition of a full field? He points to the college ranks.

"We are going to aggressively work with the collegiate people, now that the NCAA has sanctioned women's bowling," Sanders says. "Maybe we'll run couple of collegiate doubles events with the women so I can market the tour to them."

While he expects to lose money with the PWBA at first, Sanders anticipates turning a profit within three years and clearing enough to cover his investment in five.

And while taking on the tour may require something of an entrepreneurial spirit, Sanders sees the move as a sound business investment. Call him a practical idealist.

"I'm not going to do what the PBA has done: go $30 million in the hole and expect to get their money back," Sanders says. "I'm not a billionaire. I'm a comfortable man, and I have people surrounding me who are comfortable. I think it will take $3 to $5 million to pull this off and get the tour to where I want to."

Sanders has talked to many of the PWBA players individually and via conference calls. Cathy Dorin-Lizzi, the PWBA players' association president, got to know Sanders when she bowled in some of his amateur tournaments and is impressed with Iris approach to restructuring the tour.