Clash of the titans this weekend

[jayboybriz]

Unfortunately I think advertising and promotion of this event as Doug said were beyond terrible. That and it was only confirmed a month beforehand that it was actually running. Also most women pulled out when the female division was canned.

 

[Dougy]

My two pence....

I think the issue is money... National tournament with a first prize of $3,000 means interstate bowlers have to win to cover costs. As for the local bowlers, entry fees of between $250-$300 for these types of events can be a bit daunting when they won't cash if a dozen good bowlers do make it to the tournament.

The most supported/ highly attended tournaments will be those with big prizefunds. That means sponsorship.

Bowling alleys aren't non-profit organisations and expect the tournament organisers to get the prize money (almost exclusively from bowling entry fees), and they support tournaments by giving good game rates..

Two suggestions for increasing prize funds:
1. Obtain sponsorship
2. Cheaper entry fees to tournaments (encouraging far more entries)

While option 2 seems like it will decrease prize funds, this won't necessarily be the case as you could run a tournament that has qualified in 3 game blocks for weeks or even months before the tournament.

League bowlers could be charged an extra $10 on their league, 100% going into prize funds. Other bowlers could have as many $35 entry attempts as.they want. Anyone who makes the top 24 (just for example) then pay $100 to play in stage 2. cut to top 10 or 12 (after 6 games) for stage 3 - top 5 stepladder.

Just some figures thrown in for example. But point being if you can get more people having a go it will increase prize funds.

As for sponsorship. When is the last time any of us (me included) actively sought sponsorship?

All of the great Aussie tourneys of old had sponsors, right back to the TAA South Pacific Classic! Lol...

Any other ideas?

There is a lot of tournaments with sponorship I have 4 for my tournament. Yes it's not easy to get the. But it takes work to do it and many people don't the time or have tryed so many times and came up with nothing so have given up.

 

[jayboybriz]

There is a lot of tournaments with sponorship I have 4 for my tournament. Yes it's not easy to get the. But it takes work to do it and many people don't the time or have tryed so many times and came up with nothing so have given up.

I also have tournaments with sponsorship (7) and the series itself is sponsored. It takes a lot of work and people just aren't motivated to do it as there is no reward for them.

 

[Geoff300]

Serious Question then...what was the cause of such a low number of entries?

Was it scheduling?
The fee to enter?
The format?
The calibre of the field scaring bowlers off?

Thoughts...

AMF poor advertising and promotion full stop !!!

I can tell you the NSW TBA asked if they could help promote
it so would not be such a terrible number of entries

AMF don't care about our sport

 

[kmac]

I sadly tend to agree with the latter.

The event seemed to be hastily put together, was poorly promoted and did not appeal widely enough to "regular" bowlers who know full well they are not competitive against the best in Australia. Couple that with the reality that by not cutting to day 2, they would have paid a bargain price of just $28 per game plus some sort of accomodation fee if travelling!

Whilst I applaud AMF for the efforts in running this particular event, their actions prior to this have disrepected those who have supported them in the past. They will need to do ALOT more for a sustained period if time to win back the trust of the serious and semi-competetive bowler. In the meantime, these bowlers will continue to seek out the independent centres and the tournaments which are run by people who are actually bowlers and understand bowlers' situations and viewpoints.