The Professional Bowlers Association’s GEICO PBA Team Shootout Hosted by Six Flags, a special made-for-television summer series which aired on ESPN, has demonstrated that bowling fans love to watch their sport, regardless of the season, and whether it’s played indoors or under the summer sun.
The recently-concluded four-week, 15-episode series, conducted on
specially-constructed lanes at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J.,
posted a .41 Nielsen ratings average, a 14 percent increase over the series’
ratings a year earlier. The ratings numbers convert to an audience of more than
450,000 viewers per half hour. Including re-runs, the telecasts were watched by
an average of nearly one million bowling fans.
“The GEICO PBA Team Shootout is a unique showcase for our players,” said PBA Commissioner Fred Schreyer. “During the traditional Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour season, these players battle each other, head-to-head, every week. It’s an intense individual competition. Giving these same players a chance to bowl as teammates really demonstrates the level of camaraderie and sportsmanship that exists in PBA competition. And it’s an event that really promotes what team bowling is all about.”
The GEICO PBA Team Shootout included 18 top PBA stars who were divided into three six-man teams and bowled a round-robin series of Baker format team matches leading into a championship round of singles, doubles and team matches. Team GEICO (reigning Player of the Year Wes Malott, Mike Wolfe, Mika Koivuniemi, Brad Angelo, Patrick Allen and Chris Barnes) won the event over Team Bayer (Rhino Page, Tommy Jones, Michael Fagan, Bill O’Neill, Sean Rash and Jason Belmonte). Team Lumber Liquidators (Parker Bohn III, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Pete Weber, Norm Duke, Steve Jaros and Mike Scroggins) finished third.
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