Having a bitch!!!!!!

[Ratty]

I have been bowling all weekend representing the ATBSO competing against Rachuig, Walter de Veer and the Youth Teams (total of 8 teams over 14 games) and have been absolutely disgusted and disillusioned with some of the things that have come to my attention.
With the Nationals beginning in two weeks, we are still in limbo to our question of whether stands will be erected in the bowl - even though TBA & ATBSO have offered to pay 1/3 of the cost each. AMF apparently want tables and chairs for patrons to eat at. I must say that we all believe that people will travel to Moonah to watch the bowling. If they want to eat, won't they use the stands, eat and watch the bowling?
As for food at the canteen, well good luck, for the last two days, some waited for 40 minutes plus, only to be told their orders were lost or still coming. Many received their hot drinks too cold to drink and toasted sandwiches were also cold. Many patrons got sick of this and went down the road.
If this is a prelude to what we are going to have to experience with all States competing then Moonah Bowl will just not cope! There is no point in saying one thing and meaning another.
Our Tasmanian Committee is putting in the hard yards to make things happen in the best way possible and to do our State proud, and now we are hitting a brick wall and having obstacles placed in our path by the Host Centre.
This has the potential of completely derailing our Nationals, and the bowlers are asking why?
Why did we receive a specific price with this Tournament run this weekend, and then expected to pay a completely altered price to that originally quoted? Why would the Centre not want to have stands when every year stands are placed for the spectators? Why would our bowlers be told that they cannot bring in food from outside when they cannot offer prices that are suitable and staff that can meet the demand? Why? Why? Why?
We have been constantly trying to contact the Regional Manager to ask these questions and he has seemingly "ducked" our representatives every time. This not professional, not fair and an absolute pain in the **** to be blunt. It would be nice to sit down together for a non heated discussion, why is this not possible??????
This has the potential to embarass our Clubs, our State and completly undermine our efforts to conduct a successful Nationals and should not be occurring. We have never experienced this sort of treatment by AMF ever in the past, and it has compelled us to write this letter, and that in itself is serious.
Something MUST be done, and if not, then on behalf of the ATBSO Tasmania we wish to apologise for any inconveniences that may occur due to these problems with AMF.

 

[Suzy-Bee]

Well Ratty, thank goodness someone has had the gumption to publicise this problem and unfortunately I must agree with you, the atmosphere in the bowling centre today was most disagreeable. I also agree with you that a meeting with AMF should overcome the problems, but to date it seems an impossiblity to nail down a meeting with upper management.
This is, as you have said, not good. Not good for bowling, not good for the competitors and certainly not looking good for the Nationals!
Why on earth this is even occuring beats the heck out of me??????? Surely everyone should be working together?????

 

[Tiger]

Just on that, there was a rumour floating around about 6 months back, that they were going to close the bowl about a fortnight out from the Nationals to do further renovations to the bowl.
This was supposed to include new carpets, filling in the settee area down on the lanes to make it level with the approaches, new bench seating to replace those hideous burnt orange eyesores, a new Sliders Bar and an extention to the cafe to make it bigger.
I take it that this will no longer be going ahead at the present time?

As we all know, the cafe is very small and will stand little or no chance of coping with large numbers of patrons attempting to purchase goods from the cafe whilst visiting the centre during the Nationals, it wouldn't matter if they were to put 15 people on in the cafe on the same shift, they wouldn't fit in there, so the preparation of meals, drinks etc is going to be very problematic to all concerned judging by the difficulties faced during Rachuig Trials and the State Team Challenge.

Back in the Nationals tournaments of 1983, 1990 & 1991 the centre received far more visitors than is likely to visit on this occasion, however there was a very large corporate marquee set up out in the carpark beside Lane 24 - known as Lane 25 Cafe - to help alleviate some of the pressure on cafe staff in-centre, and this was manned by a number of volunteers on those occasions, and proved very popular with the people.
Rather disappointingly, I understand that there will be no 'Lane 25 Cafe' at this Nationals.

In all seriousness, I'm very, very disappointed by a lot of things in regards to what should be a very big year in Tasmanian bowling, and in all reality, is our biggest chance to put bowling back on the map in this town and state after 15 long years in the wilderness.
We have had a Hobart Cup which received very little or no publicity in-house and out-of-house, and as a result, not many Tasmanians played in the tournament, and for a tournament of that status, it garnered very poor attendances on both days it was played.
To be brutally honest, I've seen larger crowds attend league nights at Moonah than the numbers that came in for the Hobart Cup.

To the centre's credit, they have been announcing the Nationals before each league session, but more publicity is definately needed.
I understand Peter Coburn was on ABC radio a couple of weeks ago talking about the tournament on air, and that's great.
Now, lets see some banners up in the centre, stick some banners up on the front railings outside and let the public know of the National Tournament on our doorstep!

Or would it be just easier to keep putting up pamphlets for gimmicky little AMF prizes for social bowlers that you can buy for a hell of a lot cheaper at Chickenfeed in the first place?

In 1991, when we last held this tournament we had around 1500 registered bowlers at Moonah and approximately 4000-5000 registered bowlers across the state.
In 2006 we would be lucky to have 400 registered bowlers at Moonah and probably lucky to have 1000 registered bowlers across the state - we need to get the SPORT of bowling back on track here by all means possible and work together to achieve that goal, and deliberately placing obstacles in the path to that, in my opinion, will eventually kill the sport in this state - and NONE OF US want that.

I feel that there is definate room for the social aspect of the game (social players) to work very well alongside the more serious aspect of the game (the tournament and league bowler) but in recent times I'm starting to feel like the serious bowler is becoming increasingly unwanted in our AMF centre at the expense of the bumper bowling and drunken open play bowler.
Take a look inside our centre - 20 x 300 games and there are only five of them displayed.
There are no honour boards anywhere, no league display boards - we somehow no longer fit into the equation despite spending our money week after week, year after year - and it is very wrong!

Sorry for the rant guys, but it has been boiling away inside me for some time now and I felt it needed to be said.

 

[strop]

AMF looks forward to hosting this year’s event and working with the ATBSO and
the TBA to make the 2006 Championships one of the most successful events
to date.

As quoted by Brett Smith from Lloyd Klaman Regional Manager AMF Southern Region.
There shouldn't be any simple problems after reading this quote from my other posts in the main forum "Food for the Nationals".
I like most of team members have family coming over to watch the bowling so I am quite sure there will be plenty of seating (stands) for this to happen because this is all part of the atmosphere, which is definately lacking in alot of tournaments in recent years.
Looking forward to my first ATBSO National Event.....................
Come-on AMF make me proud of you.............for the first time ever!
Cheers
Tony

 

[Suzy-Bee]

Well Strop, I sincerely hope you are correct and that we DO have stands for the spectators to watch the competition and the Cafe WILL be able to cope with the volume of people at any one time because the respective Tasmanian committees are working very hard to make their Nationals successful and something Tasmania can be proud of.
Unfortunately there is a definite breakdown in communication with AMF - Phone calls and emails requiring specific answers are falling on deaf ears and this in turn is causing issues that could adversely affect the outcome of their Challenge.

 

[CHIN]

Unfortunately with the current "It's our way or the highway policy AMF seems to have" it might be better if we look at independent centres for Nationals in future years. Get away from the AMF Machine for a while. I know a lot of independent centres that will bend over backwards to accomodate your requests.

I wouldnt get your hopes up about grandstands for Nationals, Seniors, De Veer or Rachuig as AMF dont outlay money unless there is a profit involved.

In the last 20 years, when is the last time the Nationals were not held in an AMF centre (if ever). I cant remember & this is my 17th Rachuig.
Why does TBA have such a hard on for running Nationals in AMF centres.

 

[K-C]

I don't think the centre we bowled Rachuig and Nationals in at Townsville was AMF...

That wasn't that long ago

 

[bm2]

Tuggeranong in 2001/2 (can't remember exactly what year we were there!) wasn't AMF back then, Townsville in 2003 wasn't an AMF centre and at least Altona in 2007 is not an AMF centre (at least I don't think it is )

Let us hope that common sense prevails in all this. It would be nice to have grandstands to sit on - with my little short legs, I can't see over the top of anyone standing in front of me, and I haven't paid big dollars to go to Tassie early and not be able to see my husband bowl in the Challenge!

 

[The Real Deal]

Didnt Illawarra get bought out by AMF after the Nationals had been given to that centre? So wasnt owned by AMF when the Centre was annouced as the Host, but was and AMF centre once Nationals were being held?

Im not sure...but thought that was the case..........

 

[strop]

Just a thought being in the team I may not get many games (10 at least)
I might need a stand to sit in to rest my A*SE as well and cheers the S.A. seniors.

Cheers

Tony

 

[Brenton_Davy]

In the last 20 years, when is the last time the Nationals were not held in an AMF centre (if ever). I cant remember & this is my 17th Rachuig.
Why does TBA have such a hard on for running Nationals in AMF centres.

Rob,

As I recall, one of the requirements to tender successfully for nationals is to be able to put up at least $10,000 in sponsorship. I saw this on a tender form a couple of years ago and I said then that this alone will preclude most independent centres from ever bidding for nationals. There are several other requirements as well, many of which tend to impinge on league schedules. Most independent centres are more league oriented and are not prepared to inconvenience leagues.

As a result only the larger independent chains and AMF are generally able to tender for nationals.

 

[CHIN]

Rob,
As I recall, one of the requirements to tender successfully for nationals is to be able to put up at least $10,000 in sponsorship. I saw this on a tender form a couple of years ago and I said then that this alone will preclude most independent centres from ever bidding for nationals. There are several other requirements as well, many of which tend to impinge on league schedules. Most independent centres are more league oriented and are not prepared to inconvenience leagues.
As a result only the larger independent chains and AMF are generally able to tender for nationals.

Fair enough, thought there would have been a few requirements, maybe there should be a few more written in.
Oh well looks like we've bowled in few Non AMF centre in the last few years

 

[Peter Coburn]

27th 1988 Moorabbin, Melbourne Vic
28th 1989 Mt Druitt Bowl, Sydney NSW
29th 1990 Kirwan Bowl, Townsville Qld
30th 1991 Moonah Bowl, Hobart Tas
31st 1992 Gosford, Central Coast NSW
32nd 1993 Woodville Bowl, Adelaide SA
33rd 1994 Clayfield Bowl, Brisbane Qld
34th 1995 Geelong Bowl, Geelong Vic
35th 1996 AMF Belconnen, Canberra ACT
36th 1997 AMF Cannington, Perth WA
37th 1998 Burleigh SuperBowl, Gold Coast Qld
38th 1999 AMF Cross Road Bowl, Adelaide SA
39th 2000 AMF Knox, Melbourne Vic
40th 2001 Canberra International Bowl, Canberra ACT
41st 2002 AMF Bankstown Bowl, Sydney NSW
42nd 2003 Kirwan Bowl, Townsville Qld
43rd 2004 AMF Forest Hill, Melbourne Vic
44th 2005 AMF Illawarra StrikeZone, Albion Park Rail NSW
45th 2006 AMF Moonah, Hobart Tas
46th 2007 Oztenpin Altona, Melbourne Vic

Illawarra was an independent centre when they were announced as the 2005 host. 45% of the last 20 years' venues are non-AMF.

 

[strop]

I suppose if you look at the trend the last 12 years there was 8 out of the last 12 years being 2/3 being at AMF centres from 1996.

Peter you being fairly efficient with stats, just out of curiousity when did TBAL take over from the ATBC.

Cheers

Tony

 

[The Real Deal]

8 out of the last 12 years being 2/3 being at AMF centres

Do AMF operate more centre in Australia than independants??

 

[strop]

If your talking Australia wide, I doubt that very much.

I take a guess at the ratio say AMF have at least 38%.

I worked on say 45 AMF to 118 Independant.

I am sure someone will give me the correct result.

 

[Peter Coburn]

Tony,

Technically, TBAL did not "take over" ATBC. ATBC for whatever reason fell into financial difficulty and folded.

I believe that TBAL's first Adult Nationals were in 1999.

 

[strop]

Sorry, peter I was only quoting a document I read from the AUSTRALIAN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS COMMISSION.....

TBAL was registered in December 1998. It operated from the headquarters of the ATBC and took over the functions and some assets of the ATBC.

But thanks for your input.

Cheers

Tony

 

[Suzy-Bee]

Well it is all very nice that AMF has hosted however many National Competitions, but the issue at hand is that Tasmania is concerned that obstacles may continue to be placed in our way that could have serious repercussions in 3 weeks. The issue at hand is that Tasmanian committees want a hassle free Nationals as far as possible - nothing more and are endeavouring to do all they can to ensure this.

 

[CHIN]

35th 1996 AMF Belconnen, Canberra ACT
36th 1997 AMF Cannington, Perth WA
37th 1998 Burleigh SuperBowl, Gold Coast Qld
38th 1999 AMF Cross Road Bowl, Adelaide SA
39th 2000 AMF Knox, Melbourne Vic
40th 2001 Canberra International Bowl, Canberra ACT
41st 2002 AMF Bankstown Bowl, Sydney NSW
42nd 2003 Kirwan Bowl, Townsville Qld
43rd 2004 AMF Forest Hill, Melbourne Vic
44th 2005 AMF Illawarra StrikeZone, Albion Park Rail NSW
45th 2006 AMF Moonah, Hobart Tas

Thats still 75% between 1996-2006.

And 75% AMF centres since TBA took over the Nationals. 6 out of the last 8 years including this year.

Technically, TBAL did not "take over" ATBC. ATBC for whatever reason fell into financial difficulty and folded.

I believe that TBAL's first Adult Nationals were in 1999.

Peter,

If 1999 was TBAL's 1st Adult Nationals should'nt this year be the TBAL's 8th Adult Nationals then not the 45th.

You seem to be aligning TBA with the now defunct ATBC.

Please correct me if i'm wrong (again) but when the old ATBC folded and TBA started did'nt we have a lot of the same people in charge of both. At the time it just seemed like a change of title.