One of my ardent readers, Tom Hebbe of Blue River Bowl, sent me a quick response to my blog "What We Can learn About Marketing From A Four Year Old." here it is in its entirety
"Hell yes we are missing something...THE INDUSTRY and the people still remember HOW IT USED TO BE.
I currently have less than fifty sanctioned youth bowlers-(never have had more that 144)...
Locally Soccer Spring and Fall has between 600 and 800 kids participating!!
Babe Ruth Baseball has nearly 300 boys playing summer leagues!
Basketball...EVEN Larger numbers than Soccer.
ALL have defined age groups. All have UNIFORMS! All have COACHES and Practices and SHORT SEASONS 12 weeks or less! All have a STRUCTURE from the top down...an actual WORKABLE plan to get kids into the sport, learning the fundamentals, and graduating to the next level as part of the structure.
Bowling is a great game. Bowling is truly a Lifetime Sport! But the LEADERSHIP needs to get a workable plan to get the sport re-built from the ground up!
It is so frustrating when you know what could be with this industry...and year after year.season after season...people still just come bowl...but they do not get involved! but then again, why would they?
40 YEARS of watching an industry crumble, I am saddened, frustrated, worried and just so tired of it all..."
Sincerely,
Tom Hebbe
Blue River Bowl
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While I agree with Mr. Hebbe's assessment of the current state of youth bowling, I disagree with his assertion that Leadership is doing nothing. I would even offer that it isn't leadership's quest nor fault that we, the proprietors, tend to sit back and not keep up on current trends. We want to ride the wave as long as we can, sometimes flogging a very dead horse in the hopes of getting one more mile from it.
ReplyDeleteThe YES initiative, plus the USA Bowling 12 and Under competition program put forth by USBC and BPAA exemplify just the sort of program that can compete with organized soccer, t-ball, et al.
Check it out on Bowl.com
Someone in Leadership has heard our cries for help.
Now, has anyone stopped whining long enough to listen?