A Format That Could Work for Majors

[Easy Tiger]

I'm just wondering if something like this format couldn't work for a major tournament, say the nsw open, canberra cup, spc or similar.

The whole group qualifying thing sounds like a good idea (see QLD Forum - World Cup), so for a national scale tournament, what if we had centre qualifying where bowlers pay X amount of $$ in a regional qualifier of say 10 games. The Top 4 in each region go through to the top 64 nationwide, so you could have 16 regions throughout the country sending qualifiers.

Once the top 64 is reached, a knockout to the top 32 could be done at the host centre where the tournament is traditionally held. From there, make it 8 groups of 4, all randomly drawn. The Top 2 in each group go through to the top 16. Then it would follow the FIFA World Cup Knockout system. Last one standing is the winner.

Reasons why I think this could work:

1) Bowlers don't have to travel a long distance to initially enter the major tournament. This should make it more attractive to fringe tournament bowlers. No airfares or accomodation to lose staight up.

2) It will help create a decent prizefund because of the above.

3) It will increase appeal of major tournament bowling and increase awareness of our majors because it will be on show from the beginning in the 16 of the local centres around the country. This can't be a bad thing! Not many people want to fork out over half a grand to see what the fuss is about with major tournaments.

4) If we could get some amateur coverage of the event, it for starters is a format better suited to TV, and would give us a fighting chance of creating some interest.

5) It's something fresh and different to bowling a kazillion games and finding the best who is still able to actually hold a ball at the end of it all. Hopefully people won't fall asleep watching it either.


As for the conditions not being the same, big deal. Since when is a Football field the same in Australia as in Europe or South America, different weather, different conditions. The best 4 in each qualifying region are still most likely to go through based on performance on the day. Conditions will be uniform once the Top 64 is reached anyway.


Is there anyone else out there that thinks this could work.

Tim.

 

[Andrew S.]

It sounds like a great idea for the Nationals.

 

[TheMatrix]

Love the idea - Really great if it works. Most of the time it's the travelling cost that keeps the bowlers from participating. This will definitely increase the #.

On the other hands, a few things we have to work on :

- How do you define the regions ? Some "region" has more bowling centers / bowlers than the others.
- The number of bowlers change not like the world cup where you have a fixed number of countries. I think it'll work best based of % of bowlers participating per regions.
- Which center in the region runs the qualifying stage ? Perhaps they can take turns ?

... gotta run home now Post more later. Better have a proper proposal to convince the big boys !

Cheers,
G.

ps: I think Patrick Birtig ran a similar approach for the SPC in Victoria -

 

[ratty133]

I think that this was done for the spc back in 03/04 i forget which (in terms of the qualifying), i think that should be bought back in as some people, especially from WA find it hard to get the costs together to compete in the major events we have in Australia.

Good idea i reckon

Matt

 

[weggy]

As for the conditions not being the same, big deal. Since when is a Football field the same in Australia as in Europe or South America, different weather, different conditions. The best 4 in each qualifying region are still most likely to go through based on performance on the day. Conditions will be uniform once the Top 64 is reached anyway.

I can't see where the difference would be. As long as TBA (or whoever) sets a standard oil pattern that everyone has to follow, I don't think there would be a problem. This is a great suggestion Tim, hope the right people are reading this thread.

 

[Easy Tiger]

- How do you define the regions ? Some "region" has more bowling centers / bowlers than the others.
- The number of bowlers change not like the world cup where you have a fixed number of countries. I think it'll work best based of % of bowlers participating per regions.
- Which center in the region runs the qualifying stage ? Perhaps they can take turns ?

The regions would have to be worked out, but it could be done quiet easily I feel. It would come by sitting down with the right people and discussing the options. As for which centre, once again that could be worked out with the right people. Rotation may be an option which could be looked at.

As for the number of bowlers, I feel that in terms of numbers changing that isn't relevant, because you are qualifying in regions. The best 4 go through whether there is 20 or 100 attempting to qualify in a given region. These 16 groups of top 4's will constitute the Top 64.

It is important to add too that based on this qualification format, only the 64 that qualify from the 16 regions would be able to bowl in the finals at the host centre. If you don't make it past round 1 at your local qualifier, you're not in the running to continue in the event, unless somebody is forced to pull out who was above you. Only the Top 64 would be in contention for the title past that point.

I really feel this can help add some prestige to our sport, and if we are serious about promoting it I think this format could be an exciting change to the way things are generally done now in this country. It eliminates the travel and accomodation cost which has been the "bugbear" because of our nation's size and population dispersement.

This format brings the tournament to the bowlers and gives it nationwide appeal.

I would like to see this proposed to TBA as an option for one of our majors. I really feel this has merit and could add value to the sport.

Tim.

 

[edfleminglanes]

So what do you win at the regionals, just the right to be part of the 64 bowlers. Who pays for Lineage and travel to the finals???

 

[Easy Tiger]

The Top 4 from each of the 16 regions make the Top 64.

It is anticipated that once you make the top 64, there would be no extra entry fees to be paid. This would obviously have to be assessed, but if all is organised properly I can't see how this couldn't be achieved. Lineage fees and prizemoney would come out of the entry fees of bowlers from the 16 regions. And Sponsorship.

If you don't make the Top 4 in your region, I don't think you should expect to receive anything at all - Prizemoney should be the result of a significant achievement, not just a pat on the back for participating. As for making the Top 4 in your region, how many tournaments do you know of where you receive prizemoney after the qualification stage?? These players will have made it into the Top 64 and as I said it is hoped that no extra entry fees would be required at that stage.

The aim is that if you don't make the Top 32 after bowlng at the host centre in the Finals, you won't get prizemoney, but you won't have paid extra entry fees either. The Top 32 would then play for prizemoney and a crack at a national title in the same format as the FIFA World Cup.

The Top 64 would be required to pay their own way to the final, including travel and accomodation - this is no different to any national tournament on the schedule now. For the trade off of no additional entry fee, I believe this is quite reasonable.

You will get more bowlers entering purely because they can enter and qualify in their own area, where they aren't required to fork out huge expenses before they even have a chance of making the field, and also they are qualifying where they are more comfortable.

If this type of format won't entice more bowlers into entering a major title, then I don't think anything will, unless we all become millionaires overnight. Then we could all afford to throw away half a grand or more to travel to have a crack at these major scratch events! (where most bowlers feel they are no chance - so they don't travel and hence don't enter!).

Please feel free to point out if I am missing something, but I can't see a reason why this couldn't be successful.

The choice comes down to this:

a) travel thousands of kilometres and fork out huge expenses in travel and accomodation before even paying an entry fee to have a crack at a major title

Or

b) Attempt to qualify in your own local region, save many $$$ on travel and accomodation, and qualify where you are more comfortable anyway. If you have a bad day, it's easier to deal with losing just an entry fee rather than an entry fee, travel, and accomodation expenses. And sometimes time off work too.

 

[TheMatrix]

Hi Tim,
Again, I love the idea and will definitely be in it if we can make it happen. In my initial post, I just wanted to point out a few things that we need to consider.
Can you explain a bit more on FIFA world cup format ? I am a soccer fan myself so I know what it is, but do you plan to apply that to bowling as well ? Does it mean the top 64 will be divided into 8 groups and bowl ? Then top 16 then top 8 .. ? Or I misunderstood it somehow ?
I think the main thing we're trying to achieve here is to bring the "qualifying stage" to the local "regions" so we can save the "extra expense". Currently, a normal major tourney takes 2.5 days, 1.5 for qualifying and a day for the final.
Let's assume we keep the same format for the final day with 30 bowlers. In my attached Excel, on the draft calculation sheet, I do a little math to compare the difference. We have 152 centers in AU, let's group 10 into 1. At the local region, there are 10 bowlers participating and top 2 will make the cut for final, we'll still end up having 30 bowlers at the cut but the prizefund is better, even tho the cost is slightly lower (to attract more bowlers). On top of that, we as bowlers don't have to spend as much for airfare, accomodation. Another thing is as the final is only 1 day, those who make the final don't have to pay for the accomodation either and the airfare (for those who need to travel) can be subsidized partially or totally from the prizefund.
About the regions, I am still not sure how you define them yet? It's easy for NSW, Victoria .. but for NT, Tasmania, ACT it's a bit hard. If you think about the Fifa world cup, the # of teams qualified still depend on the # of countries in that region. Up until last year, we Australia only had "half" a ticket and had to play an extra match against a Sth American team. By all means, I am not implying that we have to do the same here .. but something has to be done on how we define the regions or how a bowler can qualify locally.

Sorry, it's still a bit messy in my head I think we need to make it clear and start to plan if we want this to happen.

Anyone knows how they run it in the States or other country ?

Cheers,
G.

ps: not sure how the Sponsors like the idea of having 1 day final tho ? They don't get the attention as they would have if it is a 2 day tourney.

pps: we need to leave a few spots for the international bowlers too ..