They Want Fans’ Spare Time

Bowling, once the province of middle-aged cigarette smokers, beer guzzlers and Chris Schenkel, is going high-tech. At least, its new leadership is.

Three refugee executives from the world of Microsoft bought the Professional Bowlers Assn. last year for $5 million and immediately hired two Nike marketing specialists to breath life into the moribund organization.

“For about the price of a good third baseman, the guys from Seattle bought the bankrupt nonprofit PBA and talked me into making it a profitable business,” Steve Miller, president and CEO, said during the 59th U.S. Open being contested this week at Fountain Bowl in Fountain Valley.

“We’re making progress. Our membership is up 40% [to about 3,400], our tournament entry is up 25% [336 bowlers at Fountain Bowl], our prize money is up 138% [$100,000 for the Open winner] and our TV viewership is up 38% [to a 1.1 rating], which is better than Major League Soccer, the NHL or the WNBA.”

Moving bowling into the mainstream of sports should be easier for Miller, 58, than one of his earlier assignments.

He was athletic director at Kansas State when the Wildcats were universally considered the worst football team in the country.

“Hey, this should be a breeze for me after K-State,” he said. “That was more like Mission Impossible until I hired Bill Snyder and we turned things around.”

Nike lured him away to direct the company’s running business, then promoted him to director of sports marketing for the Asia Pacific region, a task that led to his overseeing the company’s $100-million investment in the Sydney Olympics.

“I retired after the Olympics and was enjoying myself when I got a call from Ian Hamilton and I thought he asked if I would like to become CEO of the PGA. I said, ‘What happened to Tim Finchem, did he die?’ He said, ‘No, I said the PBA, that’s bowling.”’

The PBA, which had been run for 45 years by its membership as a nonprofit organization, was purchased in March 2000, by Chris Peters, former Microsoft vice president; Mike Slade, past president of Paul Allen’s Starwave venture, and Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of Real Networks.

Hamilton, a former professional tennis player and global director of Nike’s tennis sports marketing, was their first hire, as PBA commissioner.

“The parallel between the athletes we marketed through individual sports at Nike, and the professional athletes of the PBA, will allow us to harness some of the techniques we’ve been successful with in the past,” said Miller, Hamilton’s first hire.

“We’re not greedy. All we’re looking for is the PBA to be valued about like a mid-level major league baseball team, in the $125-150-million range. That won’t be bad for a $5-million investment.”

In the days when Schenkel was host, the Saturday afternoon TV shows were a weekly staple and bowlers such as Earl Anthony, Don Carter and Dick Weber were nationally recognized names.

At the moment, the PBA has no title sponsor, but Miller said he expects to have one by the end of the season.

“There are some young bowlers who should become better known,” Miller said. “Bowlers like Pete Weber, Robert Smith and Danny Wiseman have tremendous potential. And there are some old-timers like Walter Ray Williams and Norm Duke who should be better marketed. They should already be recognizable, but the PBA dropped the ball when it came to marketing. Until we bought them out, their approach was to continue as a blue-collar sport for an aging consumer.”

Among the changes made under the new ownership were moving headquarters from Akron, Ohio, to Seattle, and creating a new season of approximately 20 national events that runs from September to March. Three events are majors, the Open here, the American Bowling Congress Masters, Jan. 15-20 in Reno, and the PBA World Championship, Feb. 24-March 3 in Toledo, Ohio.

The Open, which will conclude with a televised final Sunday on ESPN at 10 a.m., is co-sponsored by the Bowling Proprietors Assn. of America. It began Monday with 336 bowlers, of which 136 were amateurs who qualified through BPAA regional events.

Fountain Bowl, with its 60 lanes, is only the third California host in 59 years. It was previously contested in San Bernardino in 1961 and 1962.

“The bowling proprietors conducted the Open until we took over this year, so we have to give them credit for selecting Fountain Valley for the tournament, but we are so pleased with it that we hope to get a three-year extension and make this a semi-permanent site,” Miller said. “This area is high in the number of bowling leagues and is obviously in the heart of a major media market.”

The tournament format is a marathon. After four days of six-game qualifying rounds, round-robin match play begins today for the 32 survivors. They will bowl 16 games today, with another cut to the low 16, who will bowl 16 more games Saturday. From all that, the low four advance to Sunday’s TV finals, with $100,000 for the winner.

When Smith upset Duke to win last year’s U.S. Open in Phoenix, the winner’s purse was $35,000.

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At a Glance

What: U.S. Open, major event of Professional Bowling Assn.

Where: Fountain Bowl, 17110 S. Brookhurst St., Fountain Valley.

When: Today and Saturday--match play, 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sunday--Final rounds, 10 a.m.

Purse: $100,000 to winner.

TV: ESPN, Sunday, 10 a.m.

Admission: Today and Saturday, $15 and $10; Sunday, $20.