How bowling is seen by the general public in Australia as a sport

[Jasonguru]

Bowling is mostly perceived by the public as a fun pastime or a social gathering or event. Simple as that! Below is an opinion why the sport has gotten to this point.

The problem in my opinion Phoebe is 2 fold.

1. Lack of self promotion by the NSO in attracting social bowlers to league, and promoting the sport to juniors as a fun, enjoyable and rewarding sport and hence wanting them to fulfil greater heights within the sport as the ability levels increase.

2. Centre managers and proprietors who have little or no industry experience, people skills, management skills, however you like to put it, cause even some who claim they have this experience just either go through the motions and try to push the bottom line, or they have the staff with the knowledge and sack them to get younger staff in that don't care, that get paid less, and just turn up for a paycheck and have no care factor about the sport in general.

In answer to your second question, yes of course we all want the perception to change and I most certainly want the public to see bowling as a leading sporting activity in this country. No question there if you asked every member of this site.

Finally, personally I most definately care how the public perceive the sport and no, it certainly doesn't sit well with me.

I think that Alan summed it all up in his earlier post as well as anybody could, but the above is my own perspective from (on and off) nearly 20 years being involved in one of the best sports ever invented.

Hope the insight helps your research.

Jason Scott

 

[Fitzy]

Im sorry, don't mean to sound pedantic or anything but bowls refers to lawn bowls ...
Thanks

Don't worry about sounding pedantic pheebs, no one else on here does!

Yes you are right with the distinctions, and in my post when I wrote bowling yes I referred to Tenpin, when I wrote bowls I referred to lawn/indoor bowls.

Was just comparing the perceived (by myself) public sentiment difference between the two sports, here in Australia.

Many you talk to see bowls as a sport though bowling as not, though, there are more commonalities between the two [sports] than there are differences (in my opinion). Others [in this thread] have more targeted explanations of why and many of the explanations have merit (especially the 'all left handers are average' part ).

Cheers,

Rhyss.

 

[MinusZero]

Bowling is a sport if you go off its definition of "Physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively" (freedictionary.com).
Myth busted.

In the last centre where i played once upon a time they filled the 14 lanes with 5 player teams, now there are singles leagues with only 4 teams and no more 5 player teams.
Being a bowler I see it as a sport, but i feel that the public in general see it as a fun thing to do occasionally on weekends with friends.
Its a relatively cheap sport to get into to buy the equipment (a few hundred can by the basics) compared to something like golf. The cost is the prohibitive factor which stops a lot of people taking up league bowling.

I dont know that its dying, but i havent seen much improvement in league numbers (if any) over the years where i have bowled.

Even social games are expensive and i think that puts off a lot of people when they realise you can bowl 2 games in half an hour and its cost 20 bucks. In these hard economic times, being costly isnt a good thing for improving numbers.

-my 2 cents-

 

[Easy Tiger]

The sport is dying, no doubt about it. The worst problem is the retention of juniors into adult ranks. Just some of the names I can think of from my junior days, who I haven't seen bowl competitively in a very long time:

Trent Scrivener
Trent Bourke
Wayne Perry
Nick Santy
Ben Brudenell
Derek Adams
Anthony Ambrosio
Brendan Heathwood
John Fry
Jason Twohill
Simon Strassburg
Bart Jefferey
Ian Phelan (edit Ian is down for K&K)

That's just the men from South Queensland from 2001-2004 and some of those guys were excellent bowlers. I know a couple of them still bowl a bit in league, but I can't remember seeing any of those names in a tournament for a long time. There is a large part of your problem.

 

[Andrew S.]

Tim I cant accept that Bowling is dying because Tournament entries by Youth Bowlers are down.

There has always been a problem retaining good Juniors which is why the Youth division was created.

Certainly the overall Tournament scene is largely a disaster however the promoters and to a minor extent the NSO are largely responsible for that.

Too many tournaments, too many ranked events, poor choices of ranking points for Major events and and greatest of all, appalling administration of some events where money is concerned all combine to turn off Tournament Bowlers in droves.

But all of the above doesnt necessarily mean Bowling is dying. Here in Queensland well run Tournaments are well supported. The Hammer Seniors, The Twin Tour, The K & K all enjoy good fields. Why? Because the fine print is not only spelt out, it is actually put into practice and the Tournament admins know what they are doing and know what the Bowlers want.

League-wise sure, some Centres are struggling and their proprietors might well imagine the sport is dying but the truth of the matter may well be that some of these proprietors might well need to examine their own operation first before blaming outside influences.
Tim I dont believe the sport is dying but I do believe we all need to do more to ensure its future.

Bowlers whether General Public or Competition want to walk into a clean modern Centre with good equipment and helpful staff. A great many Bowling Centres dont seem to share that philosophy and until they pick up their act their bowling may well be dying.

 

[KriDdLe]

I told a lady at work i was a tenpin bowler.. n she called me cute... lol i dont think thats a view that bowling is a real sport haha