Three Bowlers Finalists for an ESPY

Wes Malott, Norm Duke and Chris Barnes are the finalists in ESPN’s annual ESPYs sports awards
competition which will conclude with the annual black-tie ESPYs Awards Show airing Sunday, July
19, in Los Angeles.

Malott, the 2008-09 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour Player of the Year points champion, won three
titles, won the Tour average title (222.98) and banked $174,680 in official earnings. The Pflugerville,
Texas, resident concluded the season by winning the King of Bowling powered by Amp Energy
special event series, bowling two nationally-televised 300 games in the process.

Duke, from Clermont, Fla., won three titles including the PBA World Championship on his way to a
Tour-best $199,630 in earnings. Barnes, from Double Oak, Texas, won a pair of Lumber Liquidators 
PBA Tour titles, was second in television appearances with eight (one behind Malott) and won the
USBC Clash of Champions to conclude his season.

Fan voting is underway on the ESPYs.tv web site and ends July 11. In addition to ESPN’s “Best
Bowler” category, voting is available in 36 other categories.

The ESPYs finale will take place at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles on Wednesday, July 15, and will be
taped to air on ESPN on Sunday, July 19, at 9 p.m. Eastern.

GEICO PBA Team Shootout

Team Bayer, featuring Lumber Liquidators Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) Tour stars
Rhino Page, Michael Fagan, Bill O’Neill, Sean Rash, two-hander Jason Belmonte and Tommy Jones,
took a 1-0 lead after the first day of GEICO PBA Team Shootout competition.

The GEICO PBA Team Shootout Hosted by Six Flags was conducted outdoors on specially
constructed lanes at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J., June 11-13. Round-robin team
matches air Sundays on ESPN through July 12.

Team Bayer won its first round-robin Baker format match by defeating Team GEICO (Brad Angelo,
Mike Wolfe, Chris Barnes, Mika Koivuniemi, Wes Malott and Patrick Allen), 231-210.

The Baker scoring format requires five members of the team to roll two frames in one game to
combine for one score, but the GEICO competition also includes a unique “Endless 10th Frame.” If the
team that is behind in the match strikes on its final ball in the 10th frame, it can continue throwing
shots as long as each is a strike. Each bonus strike is worth 10 points. If the opposing team loses its
lead, it can then try to rally in its own “Endless 10th Frame” only if its anchor bowler also has struck
on his final ball.

In the opening match, Team Bayer held the lead going into the final frame, but Team GEICO’s
Malott struck on his fill ball for a 210 and the right to continue. But Angelo, the team’s leadoff bowler,
failed to strike on his first “Endless 10th Frame” attempt.

In its second match, Team GEICO evened its record at 1-1 by defeating Team Lumber Liquidators
(Norm Duke, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Steve Jaros, Mike Scroggins, Parker Bohn III and Pete Weber),
208-198, when Team GEICO rallied in the bonus round. The regulation game ended with Lumber 
Liquidators leading, 198-188, thanks to Duke’s three strikes in the 10th frame.

Because Malott converted a 10 pin and struck on his second shot in the 10th frame, Team GEICO
still had a chance. Barnes, bowling in the leadoff position, and Allen, bowling second in the lineup,
threw bonus strikes to erase Lumber Liquidators’ 10-pin advantage and put their team into the
lead. Scroggins, Lumber Liquidators’ leadoff bowler, then had a chance to get his team back into 
contention, but he failed to strike.

During the GEICO PBA Shootout, all three teams will bowl 12 round-robin matches on a variety of
lane conditioning patterns leading up to a championship round. The top two teams based on match
play record will advance to a championship contest which include singles, doubles and Baker-style
team matches. The championship round will air on ESPN on Sunday, July 12.

GEICO PBA Team Shootout standings (as of June 21)
Team Bayer 1-0
Team GEICO 1-1
Team Lumber Liquidators 1-1

ESPN GEICO PBA Team Shootout Schedule (all times Eastern)

July 5 (five shows)
1-1:30 p.m. – Show 7
1:30-2 p.m. – Show 8
2-2:30 p.m. – Show 9
2:30-3 p.m. – Show 10
3-3:30 p.m. – Show 11

July 12 (four shows)
1-1:30 p.m. – Show 12
1:30-2 p.m. – Show 13
2–2:30 p.m. – Show 14
2:30-3 p.m. – Show 15

A Hot Time In The Old Bowling Center

When I ran a bowling center, I always tried to keep the temperature at 70 degrees in the spring and summer. It's much easier to do in the fall and winter and often it was a cooler. Target the winter temp to around 65. If customers remark about the temperature, their immanent exercise will change the temp. The combination of the outside air coming in with customers and cooler starting temp will be brisk initially but the body heat (from a full house) raises the temp.

Same thing happens in the spring/summer, but the AC typically can't keep up if the center's busy. Newer centers, or centers replacing air units should upgrade the units to be able to quickly respond to the changes in summer business. At least try to keep your customers comfortable.

Have you ever been in a movie theater that was warm? NEVER. Many theaters, years ago featured COOL AIR CONDITIONED COMFORT as a big selling point (prior to widespread air conditioning). This point shows my age but is VERY valid.

The dilemma, if you don't know what to expect, as far as the business for an evening, trying to save on energy costs is sometimes hit or miss. But, if the center gets busy, and customers get warm, they leave and won't soon be back, because of the bad experience. Sacrificing future business will only make tomorrow more challenging.

Trying to save a buck, will sometimes shot you in the foot. No one saves themselves to riches. Get out and get more business. Check with your heating and air guy about the advisability of keeping the temp predetermined, or does fluctuating the temp up and down cost more?

If you are a business owner and can't afford the expense of waiting for (sometimes more profitable) open play bowlers, then build some leagues and they will help you afford the AC and heat.

Experiencing the problem? Get some signatures from your fellow bowlers, request that the air be lowered about an hour to an hour and a half before league, and cranked to whatever temp about a half hour before league ends. A defined schedule should be doable for the center, and a reasonable compromise.

Many centers have multiple zones. Have the center manager or owner agree to keep one end of the center cooler for your league. It's not necessary to cool the entire place to a workable temp for the athletes bowling.

Proprietors, many centers in my experience whine about the difficulty of creating summer bowlers, or maintaining summer league play. Yet, when they do get people to commit to visiting the center for 10, 12, 14 weeks, the temp and facilities are less then comfortable and accommodating.

I sure would like to go golfing if it was guaranteed it would rain each and every time I played. Let's go watch a movie in a building about 80 degrees. What a great idea.

If your center is not comfortable, close in the summer. Or, cut your staff and work next to the remaining over stressed, over worked employees, experience what they go through, dealing with customer complaints and dissatisfaction. You won't wonder why no one visits you in the summer. You've driven them off.

GEICO PBA Team Shootout

Bowling fans will be able to watch three of the greatest bowling teams ever
assembled do battle when ESPN airs 15 tape-delayed shows of the GEICO PBA 
Team Shootout hosted by Six Flags beginning Sunday and continuing the next
three Sundays.

Eighteen of the Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour’s top competitors tested their
skills at “outdoor bowling” in a unique round-robin team competition contested
on lanes constructed at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, N.J., June 11-13.

Among the stars competing included 2008-09 Player of the Year Wes Malott,
two-handed Australian sensation and Rookie of the Year Jason Belmonte, and
Hall of Famers Parker Bohn III, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Pete Weber and
Norm Duke.

This Sunday ESPN will telecast two half hour shows - 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Eastern
- which will feature Baker Scoring System round-robin qualifying matches. The
Baker system requires each member of a five-player team to bowl two frames in
one game to combine for one score.

An innovation in televised bowling will also debut in Sunday’s matches. One
player on each team will have an earpiece giving announcers the ability to ask
the player questions during actual competition.

The players qualified for the event through their performances in PBA’s 2008-09 
Extreme Swing, Versatility Swing and Grand Slam point lists as well as five
wild card selections, and teams were assembled based upon the ages of players.
Team Bayer includes the six youngest players in the group – the “young guns”
of the PBA. Team Lumber Liquidators features the six oldest, most experienced
and most decorated players on Tour. Team GEICO is the “middle-aged” group,
and arguably the most competitive group of players in PBA Tour competition
today. Team rosters are:

Team Bayer – Jason Belmonte, Mike Fagan, Tommy Jones, Bill O’Neill, Rhino
Page and Sean Rash.

Team GEICO – Patrick Allen, Brad Angelo, Chris Barnes, Mika Koivuniemi, Wes
Malott and Mike Wolfe.

Team Lumber Liquidators – Parker Bohn III, Norm Duke, Steve Jaros, Mike
Scroggins, Pete Weber and Walter Ray Williams Jr.

USBC Developing New Red, White and Blue Lane Conditions

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) plans to introduce a new series of lane conditions for certified competition. The group of patterns is designed to provide bowlers a better description for the difficulty of traditional “house” conditions.

As part of the plan, leagues and tournaments will have the option of using oil patterns falling into USBC Red, White or Blue condition categories. USBC Red pattern will be the most forgiving condition, USBC White will be more challenging and USBC Blue will be the most difficult of the new “house” conditions. USBC Sport Bowling conditions will continue to be the most challenging level of oil patterns.

“We know that lane conditions have a tremendous impact on the sport,” USBC Vice President-National Governing Body Neil Stremmel said. “House shots can be very easy or reasonably challenging. Knowing the difficulty of the condition helps build credibility for the sport and adds a new fun element for bowlers.”

The new condition categories are scheduled for testing later this year in cooperation with the Bowling Proprietors’ Association of America (BPAA). The conditions should be available for tournament use in spring 2010 and for the fall 2010 league season.

“This program can provide proprietors an excellent marketing tool to attract and maintain league bowlers,” BPAA President Jim Sturm said. “Red, White and Blue can be used like stepping stones to progressively increase a bowler’s interest in the competitive side of the sport. We are eager to test the program and hear feedback from customers and proprietors.”

Use of the USBC Red, White and Blue conditions will be completely optional and the patterns will be available for download at no cost.

“A primary goal of the project is to make the USBC Red, White and Blue conditions easy for bowlers to understand and proprietors to utilize,” Stremmel said. “The industry’s lane machine manufacturers have been extremely supportive in making sure this program will work for nearly any center wanting to participate.”

As part of the effort to gain attention for the new condition categories, USBC is sponsoring a stop on next season’s Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour. The Red, White and Blue Open presented by USBC will be held at Northrock Lanes in Wichita, Kan., Dec. 7-13. The finals telecast will air Jan. 3 on ESPN.

PBA Partners With Goodwill Industries

The Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) has announced Goodwill
Industries of Greater Detroit as its official charity partner for the 2009 PBA
World Series of Bowling. The announcement was made at a press conference
today at Thunderbowl Lanes.

The Detroit area will host the inaugural World Series of Bowling (WSOB), a
revolutionary festival of world-class bowling, beginning Aug. 2 and running
through Sept. 6.

Goodwill Industries is the only organization solely dedicated to helping
unemployed metro Detroiters overcome barriers and find jobs.

“Hosting the first-ever World Series of Bowling right here in the Detroit area
will be an immense boost for our economy and our people,” said Lorna G. Utley,
president and CEO, Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit. “In naming 
Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit as its official charity partner, the PBA
will enable many metro Detroiters to overcome their barriers to employment and
become trained, trusted and ready to work.”

In just the past two years of the organization’s nearly 90-year history,
Goodwill Industries has placed more than 2,500 individuals from metro Detroit
into new jobs and provided career assistance to thousands more in Southeast
Michigan. For information about how Goodwill Industries battles unemployment
in the region, visit www.goodwilldetroit.org.

With $2 million in prize money and seven ESPN telecasts planned as part of the
WSOB, the event will focus the attention of the bowling world on the Detroit
area unlike any previous event in bowling history. After kicking off the program
with the Motor City Open at Taylor Lanes in Taylor, Mich., the WSOB will shift
to Thunderbowl Lanes in Allen Park for the duration. A complete schedule of
events is available at a new dedicated website, 
www.pbaworldseriesofbowling.com.

“For decades, Detroit has been the hub of bowling in the United States. It has
produced dozens of hall of fame players and has contributed significantly to the
history of our sport at all levels. For those reasons, it only made sense to
bring the new World Series of Bowling to the community that has given so much
to the sport,” said Tom Clark, Deputy Commissioner of the PBA. “Nothing like
the World Series of Bowling has ever been done before. Over a span of five
weeks, the PBA will bring the world’s best bowlers to the Detroit area to serve as
a catalyst for economic impact and a rally point for the communities and
businesses. It’s no secret that unemployment has hit the Detroit area as hard as
any other region in country.”

WSOB events are being planned for the entire family, including pro-am events
where amateur bowlers can roll with the pros. The pro-ams support Goodwill 
Industries’ mission of helping metro Detroiters overcome employment barriers
through education, training and career assistance.

Further updates and details will be posted regularly regarding the PBA World
Series of Bowling and the rest of the 2009-2010 Lumber Liquidators PBA Tour
season, including tournament entry and ticket information.