It’s Jordan Rodgers here, Chief Executive Officer of AMF Bowling. This is the first time I have posted on TotalBowling.com.au but feel compelled to give my view on the circumstances of AMF Bowling deciding to discontinue its sponsorship of the site and the chat that has occurred since then.
My decision to discontinue our sponsorship of TotalBowling.com.au was made with the expectation that it would cause the blogging stir that it has since the decision was announced on the site by Jason yesterday. We are always looking at expenses and revenue in the business to continue to operate more efficiently. Sponsorship of the site is not a large cost but it is one that I have looked at from time to time and questioned the value of, particularly as we are now able to fulfil tournament entries & squad listings through our own website.
For the past 2 years I have watched the site with particular interest in the chat space and how AMF Bowling is talked about. I have seen that AMF is held in very poor regard by the chat community, with a general perception that AMF Bowling is uninterested in the sport, only concerned with short term profits, only interested in the social bowler etc...
It was my hope that by sponsoring the TotalBowling site and displaying our brand as a “proud sponsor” that we might be able to engender some positive impressions of the AMF Bowling brand, and demonstrate our commitment to league bowling. Unfortunately the sponsorship did nothing to support this. My view is that our sponsorship did not seem to hold any value to the community chatting on the site so rather than continue to associate our brand with the negative content of chat about it, we should remove the brand association and continue our mission to improve the sport of tenpin bowling and its image elsewhere.
The notion that AMF is only interested in social bowlers, glow bowlers and birthday parties is really unfortunate. League bowling is our bread and butter. AMF Bowling operates traditional bowling centres to which league bowling is critical to their success. We are battling many social factors that are impacting the growth of league bowling in its traditional form. Much of our energy is focussed on growing leagues to counteract such factors and we remain committed to the league bowling segment that underpins our commercial success and comprises our most high value customers.
We also, unapologetically, value the social bowling market and are pleased with the growth that bowling is enjoying in this segment. My view is that the more people that get to experience the fun of tenpin bowling the better off we are. AMF Bowling are happy that revenue is being generated, the sport should be happy that it is attracting more participants and hopefully if the experience is compelling enough, some occasional bowlers will take bowling up as their sport and enjoy the competition and camaraderie that we all know it can offer.
On tournaments, AMF do not make any money in hosting the Super 6. However, we have continued to run tournaments in the hope that, if we can make the tournaments sufficiently attractive, the elite of the sport will be showcased in a light that will make the average league bowler aspire to compete at this level and therefore contribute to increased participation in the sport.
To date we have enjoyed generous sponsorship of our tournaments, most noticeably from Brunswick, Columbia, & Ebonite to name a few. Each year we go cap in hand and ask for sponsorship yet these great bowling brands see little value in the sponsorships but so far have continued to support us to keep the tournament scene alive. It was my hope that we could attract more sponsorship money from consumer brands that would see value in being associated with elite tenpin bowling tournaments so that we could reduce the entry fees, broaden the formats and attract more participants by offering better prize money for the winners and those that place deeper down the field. To this end we engaged a Sponsorship Manager to talk to large consumer brands to see if we could attract say $50,000 per tournament. Unfortunately we have not been successful. We do not have a compelling enough model and market to attract meaningful sponsorship from outside the industry.
The tournament scene is therefore in trouble because it doesn’t make sense for AMF Bowling and a handful of reluctant bowling product sponsors to prop up a model that isn’t satisfying its participants, isn’t inspiring new participants and isn’t attractive to new sponsors. I think the formation to a Tournament Players Association to manage major tournaments under the auspices of the TBA is an idea worth pursuing. If you can harness your passion for the sport productively to create a better tournament scene, AMF Bowling would be happy to be involved if and where appropriate.
I hope this blog posting has helped to clarify our recent decision and also reassure you that league bowling continues to be a focus for the business. If you have any feedback about our new website or about our tournaments or leagues please don’t hesitate to send it through to
league_enquiries@amfbowling.com.au.
Jordan Rodgers
Chief Executive Officer
AMF Bowling Centres Australia
