TBA Bowler Survey

[bm2]

Some of you may have received a bowlers survey via email from TBA to complete - for those of you who haven't, here is a short burst from the TBA webpage:


TBA is in the process of reviewing both the ranked events and the way we conduct our rankings system for 2010. A critical component of this involves asking you the competitive bowler about what’s important and the factors which influence your decision in choosing which tournaments to compete in.

Now is your chance to have your say and have an influence on the future direction of the sport. The survey should only take a few minutes of your time to complete however there is an option at the end of the survey to provide more detailed feedback should you so desire.

The board and management of TBA are committed to listening to you the bowler and giving you a voice to express your opinions. The survey will be opened for two weeks and importantly the results will be published on the TBA website once collated. Please take the opportunity to provide us your feedback so that we can continue to grow the sport of bowling in this country.

On the TBA home page there are links to the surveys, a separate one for youth, seniors and adult bowlers. Have a look, and if you want the national body to know what you think, complete it and send it in to them - have your say!

 

[Hooligan]

You must choose exactly five tournaments and why they should be ranked.
You are limited to their predifined choices. There is an "other" box but you still need to fill out the above. Well done, another nice fail from TBA.

 

[RobbieB]

Ok, I just got half way through this survey and then binned it. Anyone who thinks tournaments should be ranked according to location, lane conditions or who organised it and leaves out traditions, number of entries and quality of competitors is an idiot.

 

[steve jones]

..and Prize Fund Robbie..let's not forget the money....Steve

 

[RobbieB]

Prize fund was one of the listed options. I'm probably in the minority here but I don't think thatprize money should be particularly important in determining the status of a tournament. Any ranking system should take into account how many of the top 30 or so bowlers rock up, size of the field - basically how difficult the tournament is to win. Then you have unique events such as Rachuig and Masters to add into the mix.

 

[otty]

ok why dont we have for example , the atherton 300moaning frillingos handicap for scratch bowlers only,well theres a play on words ,hmmm lets make it realy realy hard to score but make sure there are 5000 ratings points up for grabs , i wonder how many will turn up to play i betcha the sponsor wont, geez louise when did this become so hard

 

[andrewbc]

Very interesting Survey.... will be interested to see what results they get..

I acually like the hosting site for the surveys..... surveymonkey.com

 

[AdrianS]

hmm tourneys with 60+ entries and 2500 for first should be ranked, certain other events that get about 20 entries prob shouldnt be!!!!!

Oh and td's being forced to pay only 1 in 3 instead of the 1 in 2 theyd done previously so they could still be ranked wasnt the greatest idea either, cant have too many of the 'hoi polloi' cashing in majors now can we

 

[Geoff300]

Pretty much the TBA have their heads collectively up their arse because they have no clue. Come on the sytem in the 80's worked just fine, change it a bit if you wish but there must be something to give the bowlers some kind of thing to gauge themselves and to be used for selection into state and national teams. Check out the old PIN ACTION magazines that Bob Cook did..... We need a new CEO who knows the game and knows what the game needs not one we have now, it is going backwards quickly.

 

[tonx]

Wow, for as long as I can remember, bowlers have screamed that they want their opinion. Now the TBA gives the bowling public a chance to voice their opinions, and they are blatantly slathered with abuse.

I see 2 options,

1. stop whinging about it, complete the damn survey and email Cara (who has done more for the sport of bowling in this country than anyone bar none) with your suggestions on how to make it better.

2. keep whinging about it, because you think that is helping the cause.

Choose wisely.

 

[$$Pricey$$]

Wow, for as long as I can remember, bowlers have screamed that they want their opinion. Now the TBA gives the bowling public a chance to voice their opinions, and they are blatantly slathered with abuse.

I see 2 options,

1. stop whinging about it, complete the damn survey and email Cara (who has done more for the sport of bowling in this country than anyone bar none) with your suggestions on how to make it better.

2. keep whinging about it, because you think that is helping the cause.

Choose wisely.

nicely put tonx.

 

[Sydpies]

Tonks is right we all need to answer the survey and see what results emerge.
TBA have to start somewhere and this is a start. Frankly if they dont do something like this than it is not worth having TBA in it's present form. Give them a go, we gave idiots like Bevan and Alex (what a joke) Popov a go and they crucified our National sport. We all need to move forward and that would mean every bowler needs to stand up & be counted. So what if your opinion does not run in line with everyone else, but at least you can express your ideas by doing the survey. (In some countries you cant express an opinion, we should lucky that we can) We all might be surprised with the results.

 

[AdrianS]

Hopefully it can be up to Cara as to what gets ranked in the future, and the criteria for this as well.

I'll stand by my opinion, since the demise of Pin Action magazine=no legit rankings

 

[Michael Little]

You must choose exactly five tournaments and why they should be ranked.
You are limited to their predifined choices. There is an "other" box but you still need to fill out the above. Well done, another nice fail from TBA.

I have completed this survey, not the worst but does have some flaws as per the above comment. It isnt exactly a fail from the TBA as they have to start somewhere and it may have been a restriction from the company that designed the survey, I personally would have left this section confined to be linked with the earlier choice of how many events there should be. If you thought that there should be 6 tournaments ranked in an earlier section, then you could chose those 6 later and the reasons why.

The predefined choices are those currently listed on the events calendar as being in line to receive ranking points for this year. Maybe checking this before posting would have been better? I personally think the curernt rankings system isnt the best, I honestly dont care too much about rankings, I dont believe in the rollover system and would prefer a year to year system.

I also believe as per another post, that events should also carry a percentage of rankings for each event, based upon entries and also based upon the percentage of bowlers that attend from say top 10 or 20 currently ranked or previous years ranked bowlers. Example - an event is based on 60 entries, but receives only 40, however every bowler in the top 10 rankings attend, therefore thereotically making this event harder to win, the event should still receive top rankings. Next example, an event is based on 60, gets the 60 entries required but only 4 out of top 10 attend, this event could be thereotically easier to win and might say only receive a percentage of 80% of max potential rankings. Might be too technical to work out, but is another line of thought.

As for Robbie, the choices with prize money, locations, travelling costs etc are reasonably relevant for todays tournaments and why people go. Sure they arent the only reason, but long gone are the days when people go to an event for the prestige, the history or how well the fields were filled a decade ago. Bowlers I would think, are more likely to attend an event based upon the value they get from it, whether it be, money, cost to attend or the feeling of being wanted by the tournament organisers or simply catching up with friends. You should have gone to a further few points before ditching the survery in the middle.

I chose that there should be 8 ranked tournaments for the year. However I would like to see it get to the stage where we have say 4 of these as majors and the others as still national events. This may help certain tournaments elevate again in prestige, different rankings points, elevated prize money. Then the next tier has a slight step down in the above. This could be for another post but I will try to explain quickly.

Four majors - open for debate but say, Australian Open, K n K, NSW Open and South Pacific or Brunswick Cup with the possibility of having South Pacific as a stand alone Megaevent if you like.
Other National events - SA Open, Joondaloop Cup, Melbourne Cup and maybe Townsville Open??

With these tournaments as they stand during the year, they will be reasonably spread out during the year.

Once these events are regularly established within each state and they begin receiving decent entries to make them viable, then develop around them another tier down of state based events which will give bowlers in each state their own competitive series to bowl in. As a start, say 4-5 events during the year, with the National state event as their major so to speak.

Not sure if it will ever work but you never know.