I noticed that Sunday
night football reached 26.4 million viewers, a 54% increase over last year’s
same Sunday’s audience. Now, of course
this was the Denver Broncos with Payton Manning returning to play his old team,
the Indy Colts. The hype built around this
event was huge and it worked. Over 26 million people watched the game.
So strong was the
appeal of the star, Payton Manning, that some fans wore football jerseys to the
game that had half a Denver Bronco side and half a Colts side stitched
together. Some fans cried when he was
introduced proclaiming that “he put Indianapolis on the map”). Gee, I always thought it was there already. The city of Indy was out in full force.
Record numbers of people in bars and restaurants watching the game were reported. It was shockingly amazing, but not
unexpected, especially when the majority of a city rallies around ITS team.
So why doesn’t bowling
have city teams from NY to LA and as many points in between as possible. Isn’t this the next step for the PBA? Real teams, mascots, naming rights.
divisional series, championship series and of course our very own “Super Bowling
Champion Game.” (The photo on this page was from the 1954 Pfeiffer Bowling Team out of Detroit, Photo courtesy of Jimmy Carter)
Franchises could
be sold to high net worth individuals; TV rights obtained and players drafted
to play on a team with a schedule of X# of “Baker format” games so sponsorships
could be sold locally and nationally.
Fan loyalty for their city’s team would grow and people would show up to
watch the games. Heck, proprietors could even sell peanuts, popcorn and cracker
jacks!
Why not?
