PBA Offers Enhanced Programming On-Line

Looking to capitalize on an historic field and compelling action expected at the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling Nov. 2-11, the PBA is partnering with Powerhouse, the official locker room supplier of the PBA, to provide an enhanced programming coverage schedule on the PBA's Online Bowing Channel Xtra Frame.
Xtra Frame will provide fans with more than 80 hours of live coverage of all
World Series of Bowling qualifying and match play rounds of the four animal
pattern championships – Alka Seltzer Plus Cold Cheetah, Viper, Chameleon, Bowlers Journal Scorpion – and the PBA World Championship.  Coverage begins Friday Nov. 2 at 9 p.m. ET with a free GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling preview show available at http://www.pba.com.  In addition, Xtra Frame will carry exclusive live coverage of the PBA League Draft Lottery on Friday Nov. 2 at 3 p.m. ET and the PBA League Draft on Friday Nov. 9 at 1 p.m. ET.  A detailed Xtra Frame coverage schedule can be found at http://www.pba.com/Live/.

The multi-event international competition will showcase a full field of 240 of
the world’s greatest players representing a record 17 countries. The final
rounds of each event will be conducted in South Point’s Exhibition Hall complex
Nov. 10 and 11 on two specially-installed lanes and taped by ESPN for airing
beginning with the Bayer Advanced Aspirin World Bowling Tour finals Dec. 9 at 1 p.m. ET.

Xtra Frame will produce PBA:39X60 pregame and postgame shows for each
ESPN-televised final round including the Bayer Advanced Aspirin World Bowling Tour finals. Xtra Frame subscribers will get an inside look at strategies and equipment selection during warmup sessions pregame and exclusive interviews with players postgame.

To further prepare for World Series of Bowling coverage fans can still join the
PBA Super Fan Club (deadline Nov. 1) which provides a package of benefits
including Xtra Frame subscription for the expanded 2012-13 season, exclusive
communications from PBA, and PBA merchandise for $99.99. Additional Super Fan Club purchase information can be obtained by visitinghttp://pbasuperfan.eventbrite.com/#>

“Getting this PBA Super Fan package is the easiest, clearest, best way fans can support the PBA”, said PBA Commissioner Tom Clark.  “This is the PBA fan’s chance to truly be a part of the PBA.”

Powerhouse will add former TEAM USA member and collegiate bowling standout Ashly Galante as Xtra Frame on-air sideline reporter who will team with play-by-play announcer Mike Jakubowski, with producers Jason Thomas and Mike Flanagan to call the action during the GEICO World Series of Bowling at South Point Bowling Center.

“We are thrilled to have Ashly Galante represent Ebonite’s Powerhouse Brand, she is a great personality and an outstanding bowler”, said Jim Cormier, Ebonite’s Vice President of Marketing. “Ashly brings a wealth of experience as a world class competitor, her knowledge will add that perspective to Xtra Frame’s productions.”

Galante was a member of Team USA in 2007 and was a member of the Intercollegiate Bowling Championships winning women’s team in 2008 (Pikeville College), earning Most Valuable Player honors and 2010 (Webber International University). She was also the Teen Masters girl’s winner in 2007 and finished seventh in the 2009 USBC Queens.

Fans can also get prepped for this season’s World Series of Bowling by visiting PBA’s Youtube channel for a special WSOB highlight series,  http://www.youtube.com/user/PBAProBowlersAssn?feature=watch 
Fans can also keep abreast of the action through live scoring of qualifying and
match play rounds on http://www.pba.com.

GEICO World Bowling Tour Finals Kicks Off Bowling Coveage

An international journey that began in Helsinki, Finland, in January 2011 and ended 10 months later in Las Vegas will kick off the Professional Bowlers Association (PBA)’s 2011-12 television season Sunday when the men’s and women’s finals of the inaugural GEICO World Bowling Tour (WBT) Finals presented by the Professional Bowlers Association airs at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.

The men’s field will feature reigning PBA Player of the Year Mika Koivuniemi, a resident of Hartland, MI, who returned to his native Finland to win the Brunswick Ballmaster Open and take a lead in the WBT points race that he never gave up. The World Tenpin Bowling Association’s inaugural World Bowling Tour series included stops in France, Kuwait, Thailand, Korea and Australia, plus the U.S. Open and United States Bowling Congress Masters. 

 

In Sunday’s WBT men’s final, Koivuniemi will meet the winner of a one-game match between No. 2 qualifier Sean Rash of Suburban Chicago (Montgomery, IL), and No. 3 Jason Belmonte of Australia. Rash and Belmonte made news over the summer after a confrontation over distractions Belmonte allegedly made with his plastic water bottle during the PBA’s GEICO Team Shootout series in Chicago.

In the one-hour women’s finals which immediately follows the men’s finals on ESPN, Carolyn Dorin-Ballard of Keller, Texas, a PBA Women’s Series champion and 20-time Professional Women’s Bowling Association title winner, will meet the winner of a match between veteran Swedish star Nina Flack and her Team Sweden teammate, 20-year-old Sandra Andersson.

The winner in each division will receive $10,000. Second place will pay $6,000 and third will receive $4,000.

The GEICO World Bowling Tour Finals are the first shows in an 18-event PBA Tour series that will air on Sundays on ESPN, concluding with the live PBA Tournament of Champions telecast from Red Rock Lanes in Las Vegas on April 15. In addition to the ESPN telecasts, the PBA will produce four Xtra Frame Tour events which will be webcast exclusively on the PBA’s online bowling channel.

Xtra Frame also will air a World Bowling Tour Finals pre-game show starting Wednesday and will immediately follow the ESPN telecast with a post-game show. To subscribe to Xtra Frame, visit pba.com and click on the Xtra Frame logo.