PBA Plans A Summer Swing in Milwaukee

After a five-year absence, the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) will return to the Milwaukee area with a unique four-tournament, three bowling center Summer Swing in late May, PBA Commissioner Tom Clark announced today.

 
The PBA Summer Swing will include two-day tournaments at AMF Waukesha just west of Milwaukee, AMF West in Milwaukee proper and AMF Bowlero in suburban Wauwatosa. Each of the three events will produce a five-player stepladder final which will be televised on a tape-delayed basis, and the qualifying rounds of the three preliminary events will serve as a foundation for a fourth championship tournament which also will be conducted at Bowlero. Tournament names will be announced later.

“Milwaukee has been the home to some of the most important events in bowling history,” Clark said, “and we hope the PBA Summer Swing will add to that legacy. It’s a great bowling community with great bowling fans, and we couldn’t be happier to be coming back to town.”

The PBA Tour’s last Milwaukee appearance was in 2007 when qualifying and match play rounds for the United States Bowling Congress Masters were held at AMF Bowlero Lanes before the ESPN finals were conducted on specially-constructed lanes in Miller Park, the home of the Milwaukee Brewers, for the second time. That tournament was won by reigning PBA Player of the Year Sean Rash.

In October of 2004, the USBC and PBA made history when the Masters finals were conducted in Miller Park for the first time. That was the first time a championship bowling event had ever been staged in a major league baseball stadium. Danny Wiseman of Baltimore won that edition of the Masters. In between those historic events, USBC (which formerly made its home in suburban Greendale, WI) and the PBA conducted Masters finals in U.S. Cellular Arena in downtown Milwaukee in 2005 (won by Mike Scroggins) and the Wisconsin Exposition Center at Wisconsin State Fair Park in 2006 (won by Doug Kent).

 

Prior to those USBC Masters tournaments, Milwaukee had long been an annual stop on the PBA Tour, beginning in 1966 when USBC Hall of Famer Bill Lillard won his lone PBA Tour title in the Miller High Life Open.

The entry fee package for all four tournaments will be $600 for PBA members and $700 for non-members. The tournament field will be limited to 192 players. Entries open March 15. PBA Touring I and Touring II members will have first priority followed by non-touring members. Non-members will be confirmed on a first-come basis.

Tentatively called the Summer Classics I, II and III, each will offer a $50,000 prize fund. Classic IV will pay $100,000 in prize money. All four winners will earn berths in the 2014 PBA Tournament of Champions.

All four tournaments will be covered by PBA’s Xtra Frame online bowling channel (for subscription information, visit pba.com and look for the Xtra Frame logo).