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

Bowling Digest, Spring, 2004 by Rick Woelfel

As the higher seed, Stanbrough elects to start the match, which is shaping up as the most significant in the history of women's bowling.

Stanbrough starts off the championship match with four straight strikes, converts a 4-7-10 in the 6th frame and goes on to defeat Honeychurch, 216-201. The first-place check vaults Stanbrough to the top of the money list. The win is her fourth of the year; she goes on to earn Player of the Year honors from her peers and is named Bowler of the Year by BOWLING DIGEST.

AS the telecast concludes, Hershey Foods announces that it will extend its agreement to host the Challenge of Champions through 2008. The day after the finals, Stanbrough is back in Hershey to shoot a commercial for HersheyPark ...

Is the above scenario farfetched? Not necessarily. What will it take for the PWBA to make an impact with the casual sports fan? Here are several suggestions:

1. Stress the point that the PWBA players are the best women bowlers in the world. No one would dispute the capabilities of LPGA superstar Annika Sorenstam, and no serious golfer would challenge the notion that Sorenstam would thrash any amateur in a head-to-head match.

On a fair condition, Dorin-Ballard would be far superior to an expert amateur bowler as well, but somewhere somehow, that message has gotten lost, in part because bowling is being marketed as a recreational activity. There is a huge difference between participating an activity for recreation and being proficient enough to make a living doing it.

2. Take time on television to explain the lane condition. In golf, there is a vast difference between the course conditions that weekend hackers deal with and the setups that Sorenstam and Tiger Woods face. In bowling, there is a vast difference between shooting a 260 or a 680 on a house condition and doing so on the condition that the professionals bowl on, but a lot of bowlers don't seem to realize it.

"With golf, you can see the hazards," says PWBA veteran Kim Terrell. "With our sport, with me oil being invisible, you can't tell that there are strips. They've used graphics and they've tried in other ways, but it's just not obvious to the eye that the patterns that we're bowling on make it significantly different than the things that the average player sees every day."

3. Allow the players to display their skills. In other words, don't be afraid to make the condition for the televised finals difficult. A 270 game is entertaining, but not if everyone on me show is shooting 250 or better. One of the reasons the pros are better than the amateurs is that they make spares. If Leanne Barrette shoots 204 to win on a tough condition, that's as impressive as Kulick shooting 260 with an easier shot.

4. Put Cathy Dorin-Lizzi in the TV analyst's chair and leave her there. We made this point last year and we will make it again, because Dorin-Lizzi is the ideal personality to reach out to the casual sports fan (read: non-bowling fan) who will presumably be watching PWBA telecasts. It's this kind of viewer the tour needs to attract to be a long-term success and Dorin-Lizzi is the ideal woman for the job.