E-dition No. 989 • Thursday, February 15, 2018
Editor: Bob Johnson (bjibob@aol.com)
3 Events for FEC/BEC Operators Just Days Away
Three major educational gatherings for operators of family entertainment centers and bowling entertainment centers are just around the corner.
They are:
* F2FEC, to be held Feb. 20-22 at The Broadmoor Resort in Colorado Springs, Colo.
* Amusement Expo International 2018, to be held Feb. 27-March 1 at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
* Foundations Entertainment University, piggybacking with the Amusement Expo, Feb. 25-26.
F2FEC is organized by “The Three Amigos” — Rick Iceberg, Ben Jones and George Smith — to fill a gap in direction and leadership for the family entertainment center industry. It brings together FEC and BEC professionals for face-to-face sessions at which peers share information that contributes to effective planning and enhanced profitability.
The Amusement Expo International is a production of the Amusement and Music Operators Association and the American Amusement Machine Association, and combines a trade show with an enhanced educational component. The Laser Tag Convention returns with seminars for operators adding laser tag or wishing to increase laser tag revenues at their locations.
New this year, there will be a special emphasis on virtual reality, along with sessions focused on legal and human resource concerns, big-box conversions, mobile marketing, designing space to create the best-possible group experience, and more.
Preceding the AMOA event in Las Vegas will be the 16th edition of Foundations Entertainment University. Led by Frank Seninsky and a panel of experts, the University’s topics will include market assessment, design, attractions/experiences, staffing, operations, financial assessment, food service, performance monitoring, contractor selection, IT integration, marketing and more.
Top 10 PBA ‘Moments’ to Be Revealed Sunday
For the past six months, the Professional Bowlers Association has engaged in an extensive research project to try to identify “The 60 Most Memorable Moments in PBA History.”
The list began with twice as many contending memories, and has been culled down to the 60 most memorable moments with the help of past players, veteran bowling writers, industry representatives, etc.
The top 10 will be revealed to the viewing public during this Sunday’s live ESPN coverage of the Go Bowling! PBA 60th Anniversary Classic. Xtra Frame viewers will get a sneak peak at the top 10 during coverage of Saturday night’s PBA 60th Anniversary Celebration dinner.
The remaining 50 moments will be revealed systematically in the weeks ahead, as part of the PBA’s year-long celebration of its first 60 years.
“It isn’t a list of the best moments, or the most historic,” said PBA Vice President of Marketing Janay Haggerty, who coordinated the project. “It boils down to the moments that made for the greatest memories, and as any PBA fan knows, there are hundreds of great memories to choose from. It’ll be fun to hear the reaction of fans as we reveal the moments our panel of experts selected.”
The 60 Most Memorable Moments in PBA History will be revealed on all of the PBA Network’s media platforms — Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, pba.com, etc. in the weeks ahead. To make sure you don’t miss out, follow the PBA on Facebook (www.facebook.com/ProfessionalBowlersAssociation) or Instagram (pbatour), subscribe to the PBA channel on YouTube (PBABowling) and tweet along on Twitter (@pbatour).
PWBA Adds BowlerX.com as Tour Sponsor
BowlerX.com has partnered with the Professional Women’s Bowling Association for the 2018 season, and will be the title sponsor of a PWBA Tour stop this summer. The BowlerX.com PWBA Twin Cities Open will take place Aug. 9-11 at Cedarvale Lanes in Eagan, Minn. The stepladder finals of the event will be televised live on CBS Sports Network on Aug. 11 at 5 p.m. Eastern. “All of us at BowlerX are super excited to partner with the PWBA Tour and to add the BowlerX.com name to a PWBA Tour event,” said Lee Sandt, who opened BowlerX Pro Shop in 2006 and launched its online store in 2010. “The PWBA Tour not only gives the world’s best women bowlers a place to compete but provides an aspirational goal for young female bowlers. To be able to give back to the sport we love and support these athletes is extremely rewarding for myself and our staff.”
More: https://www.bowl.com/News/NewsDetails.aspx?id=23622330703.
Trainertainment Announces Education Schedule
Trainertainment, a training company that services the family entertainment center market and other hospitality-driven markets, has announced a schedule of three webinars and three conferences for 2018.
The sessions offer business owners opportunities to learn more about effective training methods for their staff members and managers.
Here’s the schedule:
* Thursday, March 8 — Webinar: Learn How to Coach Your Team from Good to Extraordinary.
* Thursday and Friday, April 12-13 — Train the Trainer Conference.
* Thursday, May 10 — Webinar: Insider Tips to Grow Your Sales and Sales Team.
* Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 22-23 — Advanced Sales Conference.
* Thursday, Sept. 13 — Webinar: How Core Values Can Help Improve Company Performance and Alignment.
* Thursday and Friday, Oct. 11-12 — Business Coaching Conference.
For further information, visit the company’s website at trainertainment.net.
A Few ‘Numbers’ from PyeongChang
Everyone knows that the Olympic Games are big — in pretty much every way. That’s why bowling leaders through the years have been so invested in trying to get our sport into the Games.
Executives of major television networks understand that it’s impossible to compete with the Olympics, so they give their regular programming a few weeks off so as not to damage their overall season ratings.
Here’s a look at a few of the numbers associated with the Games now underway in South Korea:
* $13 billion — Estimated cost of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, four times less than the record-setting 2014 Sochi Games.
* $19.6 million — Amount spent on cybersecurity and X-ray screening for the PyeongChang Games.
* $4,683 — Average price of a week-long trip to PyeongChang for the Olympics.
* 242 — Number of athletes on the U.S. team, a record for any country in the Winter Olympics.
* 169 — Number of Russian athletes who received a special exemption to compete after Russia was banned from the 2018 Olympics due to a doping scandal.
Oregon Proprietors to Be Honored by USBC
Betty Kingsley of Rochester, N.Y.; Lowell Lovgren of Kelso, Wash., and Natalie Cardoza Clark and Butch Cardoza of Cottage Grove, Ore., have been selected to receive National Recognition Awards by the United States Bowling Congress Board of Directors.
The awards annually honor outstanding bowling leaders for their contributions to the sport.
Kingsley was selected to receive the Helen Baker Award for Outstanding Association Service, Lovgren is the Joyce Deitch Unity Award recipient, and the father-daughter team of Butch Cardoza and Natalie Cardoza Clark were named USBC Proprietor(s) of the Year.
The Cardozas opened the 12-lane Cottage Bowl in 2009 to provide a fun experience for bowlers of all skill levels. The center has served as host for the Oregon State USBC Senior Mixed, Senior Qualifier and State 600 tournaments, and for several events for the Emerald Valley USBC. The duo was named 2017 Proprietor(s) of the Year at the Oregon State USBC Jamboree last July.
Natalie has served on the Emerald Valley USBC board since its merger in 2006 and will become the association’s President starting with the 2018-19 season. She has served as Tournament Committee Chairman and as Tournament Director.
Cottage Bowl has provided Emerald Valley USBC free use of its center for learn-to-bowl clinics. Butch and a fellow bowler worked to develop a training class that included videos and personal instruction for bowlers.
“This award is symbolic of the support we receive from our bowlers and friends,” Natalie said. “This extraordinary honor would not be possible without them.”
Butch added: “I am honored and excited that all our hard work has touched so many of our bowling families’ lives.”
The National Recognition Awards will be presented during the 2018 USBC Convention and Annual Meeting, April 23-26, at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nevada. More: http://www.bowlersjournal.com/usbc-selects-national-recognition-awards-recipients/.
7-Tournament Xtra Frame Schedule Announced
PBA players will have seven opportunities to win PBA Tour titles in a series of Xtra Frame PBA Tour tournaments during 2018, all of which will be live streamed from start to finish exclusively on PBA’s online bowling channel.
The Xtra Frame series will begin with the PBA Xtra Frame Maine Shootout at Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, April 16-18, leading into the PBA League Elias Cup competition, which is set for April 20-22.
Each of the tournaments will offer a PBA Tour title if the winner is a PBA member. Each will conclude with a stepladder final round. Specific tournament schedules and entry information will soon be available on pba.com.
The full schedule:
* April 16-18 — PBA Xtra Frame Maine Shootout, Bayside Bowl, Portland, Maine.
* May 18-20 — PBA Xtra Frame Wilmington Open, Tenpin Alley, Wilmington, N.C.
* June 1-3 — PBA Xtra Frame Jonesboro Open, Hijinx, Jonesboro, Ark.
* June 29-July 2 — PBA Xtra Frame Parkside Open, Parkside Lanes, Aurora, Ill.
* July 26-July 29 — Storm Xtra Frame PBA/PWBA Striking Against Breast Cancer Mixed Doubles, Copperfield Bowl, Houston, Texas.
* Aug. 17-19 — PBA Xtra Frame Gene Carter’s Pro Shop Classic, Mid-County Lanes, Middletown, Del.
* Aug. 24-26 — PBA Xtra Frame Kenn-Feld Group Classic, Pla-Mor Lanes, Coldwater, Ohio.
Business Briefs…
* A grand opening event has been scheduled on Feb. 24 for the newly transformed Bowlero in Chula Vista, Calif. The former Brunswick Zone has 48 lanes, now outfitted with black lights and high-definition video walls. The remodel also produced two new bars with flat-screen TVs, as well as an upgraded arcade with an array of games and billiards.
* A new outpost of Punch Bowl Social will be included in Washington, D.C.’s Ballston Quarter, a major revamping of the Ballston Common mall. Ballston Quarter is slated to include a 406-unit apartment complex and office space in addition to shopping. Nearly 40 percent of the 850,000-sq.-ft. development now will be devoted to “experiential” offerings, including the existing cinema and fitness center. Punch Bowl Social will add bowling, bocce and other games to the “experiential” lineup, and a cooking school also is planned.
* Plans call for an historic bowling center in Nashville, Tenn., to be brought back to life by one of the city’s leading musifocused companies. Chark Kinsolving and Jamie Rubin, operators of several music venues and bars in the city, reportedly are in negotiations to lease the building that houses Madison Bowling — which opened in the 1950s and closed in 2012 — and transform it into a venue that would include multiple bars, a performance stage, room for dancing and bowling lanes. More: http://theeastnashvillian.com/blog/ENblogs/east-size-buzz-madison-bowl-slow-hand-coffee-pelican–pig-spacemax-and-more?utm_content=buffer9c562&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer.
Other News You Can Use…
* It hadn’t been a good February for Rob Gronkowski, star tight end for the New England Patriots. First, his team lost the Super Bowl. Next, his home got burglarized. So he decided to have some guaranteed fun by visiting Kings Seaport in Boston, where he reportedly enjoyed some BBQ chicken pizza, buffalo wontons, mac and cheese bites and Southwestern spring rolls. He also was “extremely generous to the staff,” according to The Blast.
* The guest this week on Phantom Radio is Don Angel. To listen to the conversation, go to: http://www.kegel.net/phantomblog/2018/2/14/don-agent-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.
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