Bowling and The Economy

By Steve T. Gorches, Gary Post-Tribune deputy sports editor

Everywhere you look the economy is giving somebody or something the high, hard one, to use a baseball phrase -- from the auto industry to the housing market to the banking industry to retail outlets to you and me.

Pro sports is no exception, though the New York Yankees haven't gotten the memo since they've spent half a billion dollars in contracts in two weeks.

The Arena Football League canceled its 2009 season due to franchises going under. NASCAR has laid off employees and is losing sponsors faster than Jimmie Johnson wins titles. The NFL has also laid off some employees.

And then you have the Professional Bowlers Association.

You know them ... the former not-for-profit that was sold to three former Microsoft executives in 1999, making it for-profit with the goal of being in the black financially.

That finally happened last year, just before the economy started tanking. So has the spiralling economic downturn affected the PBA?

Not yet, according to Tom Clark, the PBA's chief operating officer. In fact, it could be a blessing in disguise.

"As far as sponsorships go, I think we can turn the downturn of the economy into a positive," Clark said. "First of all, it hasn't affected us ... not to say it won't. We're always trying to get more sponsors and that could be a factor. But the way I think it can be a positive is that we're less expensive than most nationally-televised sports."

That's a novel concept -- lower prices for the same exposure. I wish more companies would go that direction.

"To become a title sponsor, to advertise on our shows, to advertise on our players' shirts, all these different avenues that corporate sponsors have been priced out of in some major sports now, it may allow them to take a second look at bowling," Clark added, sounding like a real good salesman.

Hey, I buy it, though I don't have any money to actually make a difference.

"(The PBA) is great exposure for any company. We have good ratings on ESPN for 20 weeks, it's been around for 50 years, everybody's familiar with (bowling)," Clark the convincing salesmen added. "We've been getting more and better media coverage, so the dollar's going a little bit further for our sponsors in my opinion."

So companies get more bang for their buck with the PBA, but what about the ordinary Joe?

"The other thing about the economy is that people in general aren't spending as much, but if they're looking for a fairly inexpensive, fun family time out, bowling is there," Clark said. "Maybe people will start to gravitate toward bowling a little more. The more people bowl, the more they'll want to watch it on TV. So I'm taking the attitude the downturn in the economy can actually work for us."

Clark used to be the sports editor of several newspapers, from a smaller 15,000 circulation publication up to the big daddy of them all, USAToday. He was the vice president of the United States Bowling Congress. But now he sounds like an economic analyst on CNBC, and his advice is to buy in the PBA.