Cyber Report #975

E-dition No. 975 • Thursday, October 26, 2017

Editor: Bob Johnson (bjibob@aol.com)

 

 

More Live Finals, More Streaming for PWBA in 2018

 

CBS Sports Network will remain the home of numerous bowling events in 2018 and 2019 after a new agreement was reached between the network and the United States Bowling Congress.

 

The stepladder finals of the U.S. Open and the four PWBA Tour majors — the USBC Queens, U.S. Women’s Open, PWBA Players Championship and PWBA Tour Championship — will be televised live in 2018.

 

In addition, the PWBA Tour will have expanded live coverage next year. The finals of three standard events will be shown live as part of the agreement, which features live television coverage of the final six events of the PWBA Tour season, including three of the aforementioned majors. Coverage of tournaments early in the season will switch to live streaming exclusively.

 

The CBS Sports Network schedule will kick off with the women’s finals of the Intercollegiate Singles Championships on April 24, and will be followed in successive weeks by the ISC men’s finals, Intercollegiate Team Championships women’s finals and the ITC men’s finals. The TV schedule will conclude with the live finals of the U.S. Open on Oct. 31.

 

The title matches of the Junior Gold Championships Presented by the Brands of Ebonite will be televised for the fourth consecutive year. Each division — Under 12, Under 15 and Under 20 — will have a TV show dedicated to the boys’ and girls’ title matches.

 

The USA Bowling National Championships Presented by Sixlets once again will have TV shows for the Under 12 and Under 15 title matches. The national tournament for four-member youth teams has been part of the CBS Sports Network television package since its inaugural event in 2016.

 

The 2018 television schedule will show five Saturday finals live and additional events in prime time. Eight of the 17 events on the 2018 television schedule will be televised live.

 

The complete 2018 CBS Sports Network bowling schedule (all times Eastern):

 

• Tuesday, April 24 — Intercollegiate Singles (women), Sun Valley Lanes, Lincoln, Neb., 8 p.m.

 

• Tuesday, May 1 — Intercollegiate Singles (men), Sun Valley Lanes, 8 p.m.

 

• Tuesday, May 8 — Intercollegiate Team (women), Sun Valley Lanes, 8 p.m.

 

• Tuesday, May 15 — Intercollegiate Team (men), Sun Valley Lanes, 8 p.m.

 

• Tuesday, May 22 — USBC Queens, National Bowling Stadium, Reno, Nev., 8 p.m. (live).

 

• Saturday, June 30 — U.S. Women’s Open, Boardwalk Bowl, Orlando, Fla., 5 p.m. (live).

 

• Tuesday, July 24 — Junior Gold (U12), International Training and Research Center, Arlington, Texas, 8 p.m.

 

• Tuesday, July 31 — Junior Gold (U15), ITRC, Texas, 8 p.m.

 

• Saturday, Aug. 4 — PWBA St. Petersburg-Clearwater Open, Seminole Lanes, Seminole, Fla., 5 p.m. (live).

 

• Tuesday, Aug. 7 — Junior Gold (U20), ITRC, 8 p.m.

 

• Saturday, Aug. 11 — PWBA Twin Cities Open, Cedarvale Lanes, Eagan, Minn., 5 p.m. (live).

 

• Tuesday, Aug. 14 — USA Bowling (U12), ITRC, 8 p.m.

 

• Saturday, Aug. 18 — PWBA Columbus Open, Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl, Columbus, Ohio, 5 p.m. (live).

 

• Tuesday, Aug. 21 — USA Bowling (U15), ITRC, 8 p.m.

 

• Saturday, Aug. 25 — PWBA Players Championship, Plano Super Bowl, Plano, Texas, 5 p.m. (live).

 

• Tuesday, Sept. 4 — PWBA Tour Championship, site to be determined, 8 p.m. (live).

 

• Wednesday, Oct. 31 — U.S. Open, Northrock Lanes, Wichita, Kan., 8 p.m. (live).

 

The finals of six PWBA tournaments in 2018 will not air on CBS Sports Network, but rather will be streamed live. They are:

 

• PWBA Las Vegas Open, South Point Bowling Plaza, April 26-28.

 

• PWBA Sonoma County Open, Double Decker Lanes, Rohnert Park, Calif., May 3-5.

 

• PWBA Fountain Valley Open, Fountain Bowl, Fountain Valley, Calif., May 10-12.

 

• PWBA East Hartford Open, Silver Lanes, East Hartford, Conn., May 31-June 2.

 

• PWBA Louisville Open, Fern Valley Strike and Spare, Louisville, Ky., June 7-9.

 

• PWBA Greater Harrisburg Open, Mechanicsburg, Pa., June 14-16.

 

To read more about plans and amended formats for the 2018 PWBA season, click here: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/2018-pwba-schedule-adjusted-to-add-live-events-tv-finals-in-host-centers/.

 

 

Washington Proprietor Nancy Frederick Passes Away

 

Nancy Frederick, co-owner (with her husband, Reggie) of Chalet Bowl in Tacoma, Wash., since 1984, passed away unexpectedly on Monday.

 

Chalet Bowl is Washington’s oldest continuously operating bowling center, having celebrated its 75th anniversary last year. The center and the family that operates it — including the Fredericks’s son and daughter-in-law — were featured in the September issue of Bowling Center Management (BCM).

 

In a Wednesday Facebook post, Alyson Frederick shared the news with the center’s customers and the bowling community:

 

“For those of you who don’t know, Chalet Bowl is Family Owned and Operated, the epitome of a Small Business. This last Monday, my Wonderful Mother-In-Law and one of Chalet Bowl’s Owners for the last 35+ years, Nancy Frederick, suddenly passed away. She was also an integral part of Proctor District Association and Proctor Arts Fest. We want to thank you all for your support during this difficult time, as it has not been easy. No words can express how she will be dearly missed. We want to give a huge thank you to our extended Family of Staff Members: Shaun, Joey, Mike and Nate, for taking care of all the daily operations at the alley while Reggie Frederick, her Husband of 44 years and longtime Owner at Chalet, Billy and I are away. Hug your loved ones; life is short.”

 

In case you missed it, we have posted the BCM story about the Frederick family on the BCM website. You can find it here: https://bcmmag.com/2017/10/26/chalet-bowl-the-little-bowling-house-that-could/.

 

 

Ground Broken for Iowa Theater-and-Bowling Complex

 

As first reported in Cyber Report No. 954, Kansas City-based B&B Theatres is bringing a 12-screen theater complex, a 12-lane bowling center and a take-out restaurant to the Prairie Trail residential and commercial community in Ankeny, Iowa, about seven miles north of downtown Des Moines.

 

Another important step in the project was taken on Oct. 3 with an official groundbreaking ceremony, attended by company officials, Ankeny Mayor Gary Lorenz and other local dignitaries.

 

About 10 days earlier, B&B Theatres said it would buy the Springwood 9 theater complex about two miles away, and then close it once its new theater-and-bowling complex opened.

 

B&B’s history is pretty interesting, and is not unlike many multi-generation stories in the bowling business. You can read about it on the company’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/bbankeny/.

 

The Prairie Trail development is replacing a farm formerly operated by Iowa State University. A November 2018 opening is planned.

 

 

Fort Wayne Bowling Mainstay Sockrider Passes Away

 

Long-time Fort Wayne, Ind., center operator Vic Sockrider passed away on Oct. 17. He was 67.

 

Sockrider served as General Manager of Georgetown Bowl from its opening in 1976, and later became its proprietor. He was responsible for bringing a highly-thought-of PBA regional tournament to Fort Wayne in 1985, and that tradition continues today at Pro Bowl West. He received the PBA Central Region’s Pat Patterson Award in 1999.

 

Sockrider was a founding member of the Fort Wayne Bowling Council — a group that brought proprietors and local bowling association officials together to work on common goals — and became an owner of Crazy Pinz in 2007.

 

Numerous members of the bowling fraternity have posted remembrances on Sockrider’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/vic.sockrider.

 

 

Impact of Oil Patterns Will Be on Display at WSOB

 

A shuffle in the order the “animal pattern” events will be conducted during the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling IX, combined with a different mix in the type of lane conditioners, will add certain elements of intrigue to the 9th annual event when it gets underway at the National Bowling Stadium in Reno, Nev., on Nov. 7.

 

Looking back at WSOB history, the multi-event tournament has historically bowled a schedule starting with the shortest animal pattern (the Cheetah), followed by progressively longer oiling patterns (Chameleon and Scorpion), leading to the longest (the Shark). Variations over the years have included the Viper, Carmen Salvino and a handful of other patterns.

 

But the goal has always been the same: provide the world’s premier players with a variety of challenges leading into the crown jewel, the PBA World Championship. It has been similar in concept to cycling’s Tour de France, in which stages along the way include mountain legs, sprints, flatlands, etc., and the best rider overall wins the grand prize.

 

The GEICO WSOB IX, Presented by Eldorado Reno Properties, is yet another fine-tuning of the ultimate challenge as the PBA rolls into its new 2017-18 Go Bowling! PBA Tour schedule. The order of qualifying stages for the PBA World Championship will begin with the Chameleon 39 (meaning a 39-ft. oiling pattern), followed by the Shark 45, Cheetah 33 and then the Scorpion 42.

 

Different lane conditioning oils will be added into the mix (Logic for Chameleon and Scorpion, Defy 30 for Shark and Cheetah), further revising the challenges players will face in trying to bowl consistently and earn spots in the PBA World Championship finals.

 

“Our goal is to provide our players with a different set of challenges, but with the same ultimate purpose,” said PBA Deputy Commissioner Kirk von Krueger. “To give all players a better opportunity to acclimate themselves to the new sequence of events, we also have adjusted our practice schedule to allow players to focus on the challenges they’ll face.”

 

In previous years, von Krueger noted, the “official” tournament practice session involved applying all four animal patterns on selected lanes for a single practice session. Players had to move around to experience each. This year, there will be two practice sessions dedicated to the four animal patterns.

 

All players will practice on the Chameleon 39 and the Shark 45 from 10 a.m. until noon (Reno time) on Nov. 7. Chameleon qualifying (two five-game rounds) will take place on Nov. 8 and Shark qualifying on Nov. 9.

 

Working in concert with the PBA Players Committee, a second day of practice on Nov. 10 from noon until 2 p.m. has been scheduled, giving players a chance to re-group and re-focus. Half of the lanes will be conditioned with the Cheetah 33 pattern and the other half with the Scorpion 42 pattern. Players will then bowl their Cheetah 33 qualifying rounds on Nov. 11 and their Scorpion 42 qualifying on Nov. 12.

 

In all cases, qualifying on each animal pattern will involve two five-game squads including all players bowling at the same time, eliminating the previous “split squad” scheduling.

 

The combined 40-game pinfall totals for the four animal pattern stages (which will award PBA Tour titles on their own merits) will determine the top 25 percent of the field that will advance to the PBA World Championships, in which all qualifiers will bowl another five-game session on each of the four patterns.

 

The top qualifier for the World Championship will then earn the right to select the oil pattern that will be used for the ESPN stepladder finals.

 

• Mongolia’s planned debut in the WSOB will not take place as planned due to the inability of its two players, Tumendelger Dangaasuren and Munkhgerel Samdan, to obtain visas to visit the U.S.

 

 

NEO-TAC Prepares to Celebrate 20th Anniversary

 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a division within the Department of Labor, fewer than 50% of small businesses make it past four years of operation.

 

So when a business celebrates its 20th anniversary, as NEO-TAC Inc. will in November, it’s cause for celebration.

 

NEO-TAC was founded by Frank Bernabei and Richard Vicari in 1997. Both brought experience in sales to the business, and Bernabei had a talent for formulating chemicals.

 

“I was a bowler, but not a serious one,” Bernabei recalls. But he did notice that some balls would pick up oil from the lane surface, while others would push the oil down the lane. That’s when he came up with the idea to produce a line of cleaners and polishes for bowling balls.

 

Vicari passed away in 2003, and Bernabei purchased Vicari’s half of the business from his estate. Today, the company’s offerings include six products for ball reaction, plus lane conditioners and cleaners, among other products. Its best-known product remains the Hook-It bowling ball cleaner.

 

 

Business Briefs…

 

* A hostage situation at a bowling center in the Bermuda Park shopping center in central England ended peacefully on Sunday. Two bowling center employees were held captive for approximately four hours, but customers were able to evacuate safely while police moved in. The employees reportedly sustained no injuries, and the incident was not terrorist related, police said. The full report is here: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/police-warn-public-central-england-shopping-center-50643956.

 

* The 2017 East Coast Bowling Centers Convention took place earlier this week at the Kalahari Resort and Convention Center in Pocono Manor, Pa. The African-themed waterpark-resort provided a unique backdrop for a variety of educational sessions and networking opportunities.

 

* On Tuesday, Oct. 31, all Main Event centers are hosting a costume contest beginning at 6 p.m. The centers are inviting guests to come decked out in their spookiest costume and enter for a chance to win a free $25 Main Event Bonus Card. Every partygoer dressed in costume will receive a free $5 Bonus FUNcard, and even those who prefer to dress in their everyday attire for Halloween will head home with a handful of free treats. Main Event also will be offering its FUNbination special all day long. Guests can experience all-you-can-play activities — bowling, billiards, laser tag and more — for $7 each, all day Tuesday. The centers also will offer FUNhour from 10 p.m. to close, featuring half-price games and a variety of handcrafted cocktails.

 

* A soft opening for The Grand has been planned for Nov. 13 in downtown Columbia, S.C. The boutique center will feature seven bowling lanes, classic arcade games such as “Battleship” and “Jenga,” a restaurant, a taproom and an outdoor plaza. It’s one of a number of businesses bringing new life to the 1600 block of Columbia’s historic Main Street. Read more here: http://www.thestate.com/news/local/article181044691.html.

 

* Ronald Teekell, the owner of Jewel Lake Bowl in Anchorage, Alaska, has been arrested on federal charges of distributing child pornography. Prosecutors say that the bowling center’s wireless internet was used by Teekell to access child pornography. KFQD’s report is here: http://www.kfqd.com/bowling-alley-owner-charged-distributing-child-porn/.

 

* New lanes, gutters and ball returns for eight lanes have been installed at the Student Center of Georgia Tech. Rather than close down the campus lanes, as recently happened at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire, the Georgia Tech Student government Association voted to fund modernization of the lane components, which were showing wear due to long-time use. Read more here: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2017/10/24/bowling-lane-refresh-tech-rec.

 

 

Other News You Can Use…

 

* Francois Lavoie, the PBA’s 2016 Rookie of the Year, begins defense of his 2016 U.S. Open title live on Xtra Frame tomorrow at Flamingo Bowl in Liverpool, N.Y. Exclusive Xtra Frame coverage of the U.S. Open, a part of the 2017-18 Go Bowling! PBA Tour, will include qualifying rounds at 8 a.m., 1:15 and 6:30 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday; the cashers round at 10 a.m. on Monday, and match play rounds Monday at 6 p.m. and Tuesday at 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. The stepladder finals will air live on CBS Sports Network on Wednesday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m. All times are Eastern. For a tournament preview, click here: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/15477-2/.

 

* PBA Hall of Famer Danny Wiseman’s 6th annual Youth Scholarship Tournament in Baltimore was the largest yet, fielding 306 entries and paying a prize fund of $28,300 in scholarships. Donations of bowling equipment, PBA jerseys, as well as NASCAR, Baltimore Ravens and Baltimore Orioles memorabilia raised another $3,600 that was added to the youth bowlers’ prize fund, Wiseman noted. Read more on this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/702244146642225/.

 

* Les Zikes for years held the PBA record for most years between his first and second titles — 14 years and six days between the only two PBA Tour titles he won, both in Waukegan, Ill. Recent research has unveiled another oddity in Zikes’s career: He also won two PBA Regional titles — the first in 1981 and the second, a PBA50 title, 20 years later in 2001. Both are consistent with the USBC Hall of Famer’s bowling skills over a lengthy career. Now 82, Zikes was the first bowler to win USBC Open Championships titles in three consecutive years (1962-64). Earlier this year, he became the 11th player to bowl in at least 65 Open Championships. Zikes is the father of BJI “Pro Bowling Insider” columnist long-time correspondent, Lyle Zikes.

 

* Bowling’s Team USA program has finalized both the men’s and women’s rosters for the combined men’s and women’s 2017 World Bowling World Championships, which will be held Nov. 24-Dec. 4 at South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas. The event previously had been scheduled to be held in Kuwait City in December but had to be relocated due to unforeseen delays with the construction of the Kuwait Bowling Center, which now will host the 2021 event. Learn who got selected here: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/team-usas-mens-and-womens-rosters-set-for-world-championships/.

 

* Joe Novara of East Patchogue, N.Y., has become the 33rd bowler to roll a USBC-certified 900 series. More: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/new-york-bowler-fires-900-series/.

 

* The guest this week on Phantom Radio is newly elected PBA Hall of Fame member, Ron Mohr. Mohr discusses his multiple-tournament event for seniors, set for Nov. 13-17 at the South Point Bowling Plaza in Las Vegas. To listen to the interview, click here: http://www.kegel.net/phantomblog/2017/10/25/ron-mohr-phantom-radio.

 

* CONTACT: Please send business news, event information, etc. to Bob Johnson at bjibob@aol.com. For breaking business news, visit bcmmag.com or bowlersjournal.com, and “Like” Bowling Center Management and Bowlers Journal International on Facebook. BJI Cyber Reports are now archived at bcmmag.com.