E-dition No. 1,096 • Friday, February 14, 2020
Editor: Bob Johnson (bjibob@aol.com)
Retired Ebonite Executive Bob Reid Passes Away
Bob Reid, who served as Vice President of Marketing for Ebonite International for several years, passed away on Thursday, a month shy of his 70th birthday.
Bill Vint, media representative for the PBA, described Reid as “something of a lightning rod, loving to stir controversy.” He was known for challenging many of the established norms in bowling as he sought to reverse the industry’s declining participation numbers.
Of his management style, Reid once told BJI: “Even though I make it clear we’re all on the same team, I like to create some competition [among] our brand managers. It motivates them all, and we all benefit when everyone goes above and beyond.”
Added Vint: “Bowling lost a generational thinker when Bob left Ebonite.”
In a Facebook post, Hall of Fame bowler and collegiate/Team USA coach Kim Kearney said of Reid: “He was, for much of my career, my boss. But more so, he was my friend. He championed women’s bowling. He elevated our superstars. He celebrated my heroes. He believed in me. He gave me a chance to chase my dreams. This sport is better because of him.”
PBA’s Impressive Ratings on FOX Continue
FOX Sports has announced that last Sunday’s live coverage of the PBA Tournament of Champions finals on FOX was the most-watched non-NFL adjacent telecast since 2010 with 1,464,000 viewers.
The “non-NFL adjacent” reference means a stand-alone telecast that neither preceded nor followed an NFL game on FOX.
With that exceptional audience, FOX Sports telecasts (FOX and FS1) are up 29 percent over 2019, and through five events, including the PBA Clash to kick off the season, viewership is up 45 percent over the 2019 season, which also experienced a significant ratings increase.
More Than 75 Events Set for Streaming on BowlTV
BowlTV, the website and video streaming service of the United States Bowling Congress, will expand its reach in 2020 with a livestream schedule of more than 75 events.
The 2020 schedule, which kicked off Jan. 3 with the USBC Team USA Trials and U.S. Amateur National Championships, will grow in 2020 as BowlTV has partnered with The National Bowling Association and the Underground Bowling Association to livestream major events of each organization.
BowlTV currently plans to livestream six TNBA events, kicking off with the Reed-Hawthorne Memorial Singles Classic in Louisville, Ky., today through Sunday. Other tournaments scheduled to be livestreamed are the HBCU Invitational, each of the four Rhodman tournaments (Western, Southern, Central and Eastern), the Anthony J. Roberts Championship Roll-off, and the Veronica L. Green Junior Singles Scratch Tournament. Visit TNBAinc.org to learn more about TNBA.
The first UBA livestream took place Feb. 8-9 with the Northeast Unholy Alliance Mixed Triples event in Brooklawn, N.J. BowlTV has scheduled 14 UBA events for livestream on BowlTV. To learn more about the UBA, visit UndergroundBowling.com.
As part of the partnerships, both TNBA and UBA members will receive exclusive membership discounts to BowlTV, and select events will have promotional incentives for bowlers who purchase annual subscriptions.
BowlTV also has a new video player for 2020, which will provide an improved mobile experience for users, including the ability to cast to other devices and to play content with the browser closed.
Additional new features include the ability to personalize one’s BowlTV profile to match the bowler’s persona, and new chat icons will be uploaded monthly. Also, the delay time between the action and livestream now is negligible.
PWBA, collegiate and youth tournaments also will return to BowlTV this year. Events including the USBC Convention, the hall of fame ceremonies of both USBC and PWBA, and the Junior Gold Trade Show and opening ceremony will not require a subscription, but users will need to create a login to watch the livestreams.
Kim Kearney Rejoins Team USA Coaching Staff
Kim Kearney, the women’s bowling coach at North Carolina A&T, once again will be part of the Team USA program as an assistant coach.
A USBC Silver coach, she first joined the Team USA staff in 2004 as a Junior Team USA assistant coach under Rod Ross. She became a collegiate coach in 2007, though she remained on the Junior Team USA staff, and then joined Ross on the International Training and Research Center staff in 2009. She was named a Team USA assistant coach the following year.
In her latest role, her main focus will be to work with the adult team at training camps and during international competitions, as needed.
“Team USA has been a part of my life for 30 years,” Kearney said. “I’m appreciative of the opportunity to work with the best coaches in the world and certainly the best athletes.”
She added that she is excited to join a coaching staff that added seven assistant coaches in 2017.
“I love the idea that we have expanded the coaching staff, getting more people involved,” Kearney said. “There are so many great coaches in the country, and the chance to learn from different people, different styles, is best for all of us.”
Kearney will remain as the head coach of the North Carolina A&T women’s program, which she has overseen since 2016. In 2018, the Aggies won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference title for the first time in 14 years and earned a spot in the NCAA tournament.
Prior to joining the ITRC staff in 2009, Kearney was the head coach of the Delaware State women’s bowling team, where she was named the 2009 National Tenpin Coaches Association Coach of the Year. She led the Hornets to their first NCAA tournament appearance that year.
Kearney is a USBC Hall of Fame member who won 10 professional titles in her career, including three majors. She was a two-time All-American at San Jose State and joined the PWBA Tour in 1989, earning Rookie of the Year honors.
As a three-time Team USA member, she won gold medals in the 2009 Pan American Bowling Confederation Championships Masters and Team events, and a silver medal in the 2009 World Bowling Women’s Championships Team event.
Boardwalk Bowl Adds Brunswick’s Sync
Boardwalk Bowl recently upgraded its facility to offer the new Brunswick Sync experience.
“At Boardwalk Bowl, we strive to bring in the latest technology to give our guests entertaining experiences they’ve never had before,” said Keith Baldwin, Regional Manager of Aloma Bowling Centers. “We also strive to give them the best service. The Sync system allows us to do both.”
Sync offers games and activities to enhance the bowling experience for everyone from kids rolling their first ball to competitive league bowlers.
Boardwalk Bowl spans more than 100,000 square feet of entertainment space. The center has 80 lanes, a large arcade, the Brooklyn South LIVE entertainment venue, a full-service restaurant and bar, and billiards tables.
Specials and events are held weekly at the center, including Fiesta Mondays, trivia on Wednesdays and Thursday Knights college night.
TrainerTainment Adds 2 Sales Specialists to Staff
TrainerTainment has announced that Krista Estes and Sonya Terry have joined the company as sales specialists.
Estes comes to TrainerTainment after eight years with Walmart as a talent manager and trainer in its Academy Operations training center. She is a third-generation amusement industry veteran, having started her career as a teenager working in her family’s Cowtown Bowling Palace in Fort Worth, Texas Her father, Jay Trietley, is a 40-year veteran of the bowling industry who taught her the essentials of customer service and quarterbacks the “BEC Hot List” department in BCM and BEC magazines.
Estes was a competitive youth bowler and began her college studies on a scholarship from the Young American Bowling Alliance. She earned a B.S. in fashion merchandising from Texas Women’s University and an M.S. in organizational leadership from Northwood University.
Terry joins TrainerTainment after more than 16 years in the laser tag industry as a trainer, general manager and area manager in Texas for Leisure Entertainment Corporation of Canada. The company’s Laser Quest is one of the first manufacturers and operators of laser tag arenas. Terry has extensive experience in training and motivating young, first-time workers in the amusement industry, which is one of TrainerTainment’s specialties.
Prior to Laser Quest, Terry worked for more than ten years in fashion retail, where her responsibilities included developing policies, procedures and best practices for Boot Town, a chain of 17 western wear stores.
“Krista and Sonya know from experience the training and operating practices that lead to the success of an amusement center,” said Beth Standlee, CEO of TrainerTainment and a columnist for BEC magazine. “They are also accomplished sales professionals who are ideally suited to helping our customers grow their sales and service teams and make their businesses thrive.”
A Week Is Added to USBC Open Championships
As the USBC Open Championships prepares for its return to Reno, competitors have filled nearly 92 percent of the originally scheduled competition days.
More than 9,400 teams already have registered for the event, and with nearly all squads sold out from May through the end of the tournament, USBC has added another week of squads in July.
The 2020 USBC Open Championships has been extended to July 12 (the last team date being July 11), making room for teams still interested in competing and seeing what the newly renovated National Bowling Stadium has to offer.
The event is returning to Reno for the first time since 2016 and was scheduled to run for 108 consecutive days from March 21 until July 6. The extra week will allow an additional 600 teams to experience the world’s largest participatory sporting event and iconic 78-lane NBS.
The entry deadline for the event has been extended until May 15 to allow bowlers and captains to form teams and take advantage of added inventory. For more information, visit BOWL.com/OpenChamp.
Other News You Can Use…
* After the highest-scoring title match streak in PBA history through the first four tournaments of the 2020 Go Bowling PBA Tour season, the natural question is: Is the “Million Dollar 300 Bonus” the next milestone on the horizon? Will that historic incentive be collected in Saturday’s final match of the PBA Players Championship, airing live on FS1 from Wayne Webb’s Columbus Bowl at 5:30 p.m. Eastern? It’s a question worth pondering after four consecutive championship matches in which the lowest winning score has been 280, rolled by Kris Prather in winning last Sunday’s PBA Tournament of Champions, live on FOX, in which his only flaw was leaving a 10-pin in the 2nd frame of his 280-205 win over top seed Bill O’Neill. The average score to win a title thus far in 2020 is 289.75.
* Sherri Herndon Troup, wife of PBA Tour champion Guppy Troup and mother of PBA Tour titlist Kyle Troup, died on Feb. 9 at the family’s home in Taylorsville, N.C., after a lengthy battle with bone cancer. She was 56. She is survived by her husband of 29 years, sons Kyle and Tyler, her father Frank Herndon, and brother Bryan Herndon and his wife, Cindy.
* Spartan Lanes, which has been located in the basement of Michigan State’s Student Union for more than 50 years, is scheduled to close on May 1, at the end of the spring 2020 semester. Kat Cooper, a MSU spokesperson, said officials decided to close the center due to a lack of patrons, difficulties finding replacement parts for the machines, and challenges meeting federal standards for people with disabilities. “It’s not accessible to all Spartans, which is not consistent with our values,” Cooper said.
* Malco Theatres Inc. has asked the city of Madison, Miss., for the green light to transform two of the auditoriums at its Grandview Cinema complex to a bowling boutique with nine lanes. At present, according to the company, the city is against the proposal.
* BJI Editor Gianmarc Manzione steps into the contestant’s chair this week as the trivia contest continues on Phantom Radio. To listen, and to test your own knowledge, go to: http://www.kegel.net/phantomblog/2020/2/12/gianmarc-manzione-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. Please remember that the Cyber Report is a B-to-B publication and not intended for consumers.
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