Bowlers Journal July 2001 The Schumacker Report The Evolution of The Bowling Business Where It's Been Where It's Now Where It's Going A Historic Convergence

Schumacker Report

The League Fatigue Syndrome

A common comment among bowling proprietors is that there are a lot more smiles in the center on Saturday night than on Tuesday night. The fact is that the casual customer is having a lot more fun than the typical league bowler. A malaise exists that can be described as Chronic League Bowling Fatigue Syndrome. CLBFS affects a significant number of current league bowlers, for whom bowling stopped being fun a long time ago. For them, coming to the center is more habit than enjoyment. There is a near-constant stream of criticism of the center and its staff. Scores are never high enough. The new carpet is always the wrong color. And who was the idiot who put fixed seating on the concourse?

The mantra, “All you care about is open bowling,” springs forth from their mouths in every discussion with center management. The bowlers suffering from CLBFS are looking for a reason to quit. When they find that reason, they tend to want to take as many other bowlers with them as possible. In many cases, the journey to their living room first goes through a competing bowling center. Until they reach their personal “tipping point,” they continue to bowl due to a sense of belonging rather than a real sense of enjoyment.

Chronic League Bowling Fatigue Syndrome is a very serious ailment for the bowling proprietor. Combating it is necessary in order to minimize the rate of decline in Gen 2 league bowling.

But the decline can be managed. Doing so will not only extend the tenure of Gen 2 bowlers, but also provide valuable lessons as to how Gen 3 leagues should be structured. There are several steps a proprietor can take to help limit Gen 2 league attrition.

•  Attempt to put fun back into league bowling.

The key: The customer-contact staff must plan for ways to inject fun into league bowling and resist the discouragement given to them by some league bowlers. This is more of a challenge than one might expect; mature league bowlers tend to resist efforts to inject fun into the center environment, such as the introduction of background music, an increase in the number of announced scores, or the introduction of new in-league events.

Existing Gen 2 leagues also need to be pushed toward restructuring their competitive formats. Dividing the season into thirds or quarters and implementing play-offs will increase the enjoyment many Gen 2 bowlers get from the activity.

•  Identify “dissatisfiers” and provide solutions.

A mature league bowler understands the product very well. There are aspects of a bowling center operation which create dissatisfaction. If the dissatisfiers are not addressed and corrected to the satisfaction of the league bowler, loss of that bowler and many of his/her group will result. Classic dissatisfiers are:

•  Machine operation

•  Lane conditions

•  Air quality

•  Casual bowling on lanes adjacent to league bowling

•  A lack of center cleanliness

•  Staff attitude and competence

•  Redesign in-house events.

Maintaining an interest in the basic activity of bowling is an important factor in reducing attrition in Gen 2 league bowlers. In many cases, the sense of competition felt by Gen 2 bowlers is not as strong as it had been in the past. The proprietor has the opportunity to develop new competitive events that work to bring the sense of competition to the forefront. These new events can be in-league or extra-play events. In-league events use the scores of existing league competition to create winners. Extra-play events require participants to bowl games in addition to their normal league activity. Extra-play events need to be structured so as to be able to be successful with relatively low turnouts. A key to developing both new in-league and extra-play events: the cost to the bowler must be low (free?) and the prize structure should be non-cash.

•  Identify and remove dissatisfiers.

To the degree that dissatisfiers exist in a center, they need to be corrected. Unfortunately, in some cases the removal of dissatisfiers does not placate the mature league bowler. A small percentage of current league bowlers are chronically dissatisfied, and no action taken by the center would please a chronically dissatisfied league bowler.

The best course of action when dealing with a chronically dissatisfied league bowler is for the highest-ranking staffer to suggest to the bowler that he/she may well find happiness bowling in another center. Offering to contact other centers to find an immediate opening should make the seriousness of the center's position evident. If a chronically dissatisfied league bowler is not removed, discontent will spread to other bowlers. The result will be the loss of a number of bowlers over a phantom issue.

Building the Gen 3 Contract

Developing the framework for Gen 3 leagues will require a large degree of experimentation. Proprietors must recognize that failure is a key aspect of the learning process. The most important point for the proprietor to remember is that the activity of bowling is fun for all who want it to be fun. The staff of the center must develop new products to test marketing and league operating concepts. There will be concepts that work well and concepts that fail to produce any activity. There is much to learn from both results.

Gen 3 leagues will have a set of characteristics which make them distinct from Gen 2 leagues. The exact nature of Gen 3 leagues will be developed over a period of time. However, it is possible to speculate how Gen 3 leagues will most likely function.

First, the definition of league bowling will change for Gen 3. The new definition will be that league bowling is “the joining together of a group of people over a period of time for the purpose of bowling competitively”. This definition allows for the maximum amount of flexibility in putting together new groups. The definition allows for classic Gen 2 groups – such as the Thursday night mixed league and the once-a-month restaurant challenge – to both be considered league bowling.

Though Gen 3 leagues will come in a wide variety of colors, shapes and sizes, there is a good likelihood that the typical Gen 3 league may have the following characteristics:

• The center will operate the league. There will not be a need for league officers. The development of computer-based league record services have made the job of operating a large number of leagues workable for the center's staff.
• The typical Gen 3 league will have less reason to be sanctioned. A recent survey of league bowlers indicated that the average sanctioned league bowler had no contact with the local association and could not identify a clear reason why their league should be sanctioned. In many cases, Gen 2 leagues continue to sanction more out of habit than perceived value. Thus, as Gen 3 leagues replace Gen 2 leagues, traditional sanctioning will disappear due to a lack of relevance.
• The length of season will be significantly shorter. The typical league season will run approximately seventeen weeks. This will allow for meaningful competition without the onset of boredom. Shorter seasons will allow the marketing-driven proprietor to restart leagues more frequently.
• The dependence on prize-fund generation will be greatly reduced. The concept that a bowling league is a substitute for a part-time job will disappear with the end of Gen 2 league dominance. Accordingly, proprietors will be forced to become adept at creating meaningful awards for Gen 3 leagues. Also, a league bowler's out-of-pocket expense will be significantly lower than that of the typical Gen 2 league bowler, who is currently paying to support top-heavy prize funds, high officer fees, and possibly brackets.
• The worthy goal set by the Sport Bowling advocates will be achieved by Gen 3 league operation. The Gen 3 league bowler can be introduced to bowling on a skill-based condition, giving bowling the opportunity to break the decades-old mindset that bowlers will quit if they do not have high scores.

(Unfortunately, fixing the scoring problem will require that a dual system of bowling conditions be maintained for a considerable amount of time. A soft (easy-scoring) condition will be needed to retain many Gen 2 bowlers. While a skill-based scoring condition would be an advantage in the development of Gen 3 leagues, forcing Gen 2 bowlers to confront the current gap between their skill level and today's scoring level would drive them out of bowling centers in droves.)

• The establishment of skill-based scoring creates the opportunity to reinvent skill-improvement programs and products, such as providing instruction on the fundamentals of bowling, which will replace skill in drilling high-tech bowling balls.
• The result of the last two items will be the ability to establish an awards and recognition program for legitimate bowling achievements.