Pretty soon we will be at full schedule, and the tournament lanes will be running nearly non-stop from 7 a.m. until 2 a.m. We did get a taste of it during the first two weekends, but luckily, there are a few slow days early on to ease into it and take some time to catch our breath.
Today, we had just three doubles and singles squads, and while they were eventful with John Gaines taking the all-events lead, I was able to escape from the venue early to share a tasty sushi dinner with my brother and some good friends. Then we made a spontaneous trip out to the Santa Ana Star Casino, one of our major sponsors for 2008. We had the opportunity to unwind a little and meet some of the nice folks at the casino. One of the pit bosses turned out to be a bowler and even had his very own PBA Experience 300 ring on.
Tomorrow, the only squad is the 2:30 p.m. team event , which gives me some time to run some errands and see something besides the tournament venue and my apartment. Actually, yesterday I made it to the gym, and tomorrow I get to bowl league at Mike Miller and Dana Miller-Mackie's center in Rio Rancho. As much as I enjoy being at the tournament and being around the bowlers, I do occasionally enjoy a chance to see some of the host city. Albuquerque has a lot to offer and a brand new culture to experience, and some day soon, I'll make it up in a hot air balloon.
Back to business now....
So far, we've enjoyed regular lead changes at the tournament, and we've been averaging two stories a day for USBCopen.com and the bowlers' hometown media. The best part has been the variety of bowlers from Regular to Classified, novice to experienced, local to well-traveled, first-timers to long-time participants, etc. I honestly believe that beyond just high scores, each of our 63,000 bowlers has a story to tell, and I wish I had time to hear them all.
Each day at the tournament has been like a reunion. I get to see people I've written about in the past, old friends, bowlers I competed against in college (I bowled for the University of Florida), people I met during my two years as a PBA member in the South Region or on the lanes in Milwaukee and even people who know me only from the message boards or this blog and just want to say hello. You never know who you're going to run into.
Back in the office, my two local Media Relations co-workers John and David, are quickly picking up on the ins and outs of the sport and the tournament. Sometimes I take for granted how much I've learned and experienced in my 21 years on the lanes, but it is rewarding to see them learn or understand something new. And I do believe David has become addicted to the webcams. With all that said, it's time for some much-needed rest.
For those of you about to leave for Albuquerque, please travel safely.
Wow, has it been a crazy week.
While working feverishly to put the finishing touches on the tournament venue, we hosted the New Mexico Activities Association High School Bowling State Championships, the Special Olympics National Unified Tournament, USBC Bowlfest and a tournament for more than 200 local USBC Youth members. All of the events went well and gave so many bowlers a chance to enjoy the Open Championships experience when they otherwise wouldn't be able to compete on the tournament lanes.
Bowlfest was the highlight of the opening-week festivities and featured PBA Hall of Famer Brian Voss, USBC Hall of Famer Bill Lillard, Team USA member Stefanie Nation, former PBA standouts Bob Learn Jr. and Rudy Kasamakis, local favorite Dana Miller-Mackie and Jim Cripps, the Backwards Bowlers. The group participated in an autograph session, some exhibition matches and a trick shot showdown. Even though I work with these folks regularly, I still get a little bit starstruck. Within the next week, the event should available for viewing on BowlTV.
On Saturday, we had our traditional opening ceremonies and the first two team squads of the year. Although we are still working out some kinks in general and there might be a few stumbles early on, we'll hit our stride soon and everything will run like clockwork. The opening ceremonies, Mass Ball Shots, crowning of Joe Bowler and the entertainment were excellent as always and also will be available on BowlTV.
Just walking around the venue you can feel the excitement. You can see it in the bowlers' eyes while walking the lanes. There's $5.5 million and a convocation of eagles up for grabs, and every bowler wants a piece of the action.
All around the city there are signs welcoming the bowlers. The people of Albuquerque have been great. The media attention has been great, too. During this week, we've had visits from Channel 4, 7 and 13 as well as the Albuquerque Journal and Albuquerque Tribune. In fact, I was at a store buying something, and the guy at the counter said he recognized me from the news the day before. The word is really getting out about the 63,000 bowlers and their 30,000+ guests coming to town. Overall, we expect to have a $75-100 million economic impact in New Mexico.
Although the days are long now, it's rewarding to see how excited the bowlers get after they've bowled well and we approach them for a picture and an interview. Typically, we meet them on the lanes as soon as they get done. We immediately take a picture and escort them back to the new Media interview room. Within a day, the story appears on bowl.com and gets sent out as a press release. It goes to thousands of bowling writers, newspaper editors and the person's hometown media.
Scores have been high so far today. We had our first honor score (a 290), the Regular Doubles mark has been set at 1,328, Regular Singles is at 729 and Regular All-Events is 1,937.
As I write this, I have my eye on a Classified team that has 1,905 after two games. There's also two Regular teams battling for the first 3,000 of the year.
This is what it's all about.
Time to get back to work. A few potential stories on the lanes, and Channel 13 on the way to do an economic impact story.
Sometime tomorrow, the Kegel lane machines will make the first of more than 425 trips down the Open Championships lanes at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Lane Maintenance Manager Eric Pierson, his staff and some folks from Kegel in Florida will begin the week-long task of testing a variety of patterns in search of the one that will be put out three times each day until July 7.
This year's event will be Sport certified for the first time. Despite the new designation, though, bowlers must understand that the conditions in many recent events also have fallen into the 3:1 (oil in the middle of the lane compared to oil on the outside of the lane) Sport parameters, so the conditions will seem familiar to Open Championships veterans.
Since this year features a familiar lane surface, the same types of lane machines and the same kind of oil, Eric has some pretty good starting points and good plans for how he wants the pattern to look.
Ideally, he would like a pattern with a fair amount of oil to start with and enough in the right places to hold up for the required number of games between oilings. The lanes also have to be fair and playable on the left and the right and challenging enough to make sure the winners truly have earned their eagles on bowling's biggest stage.
Once the pattern is finalized, about two days before the Open Championships begins,it will be the only one programmed into the machines, which are rotated in and out and used on different areas of the house each squad.
Eric and his crew then will repeat the process for the Roto Grip Sport Bowling Challenge located adjacent to the main tournament lanes and the nearby USBC/Storm Bowlers Journal Championships, which is being held just down the road at Holiday Bowl.
In order to test the brand new Brunswick lanes, pinsetters and the tournament's own scoring system, a series of events have been scheduled to take place on the tournament lanes in the coming week.
On Sunday, invited local bowlers will participate in simulated team and doubles/singles events to test the features mentioned above as well as help train scale room folks, lane monitors and Tournament Services staff members who will be working on check-in, brackets and scoresheets. It is this type of training that helps our staff become as efficient as it has.
On Tuesday, mid to high average bowlers will return for some special sweeper squads and help continue the testing and training with the potential of making some money as incentive to come out.
On Wednesday, more than 350 high school bowlers will be on the tournament lanes with their sights set on becoming state champions at the 2008 New Mexico High School State Championships. During the 2005-06 season, New Mexico became the 17th state to offer bowling as a varsity sport, and the program continues to grow each year. This time, 22 schools in two classifications will be represented, just the second time that a high school event will take place on the championship lanes (2005). This will be the first official state championship event on the tournament lanes.
On Thursday and Friday, the Special Olympics National Unified Tournament will be held on the tournament lanes for the 18th time. To see these bowlers compete each year is inspirational, while the competition is as fierce as any other event around. To have them on our lanes each year means a lot, and there aren't words to describe the enthusiasm and pride the bowler exhibit during the two days.
And on Friday evening, we will host our second USBC Bowlfest on the tournament lanes. While Bowlfest originated as part of the USBC Masters celebration in Milwaukee a few years back, we've adapted the event to make it a part of our opening-week festivities. This time, Stefanie Nation, Brian Voss, Bill Lillard, Bob Learn Jr. and Jim Cripps (the Backwards Bowler) will be on hand for a series of exhibition, challenge matches, a trick-shot showdown and autograph session, which will be followed by our annual youth tournament, which gives local youth bowlers a chance to experience the Open Championships even though they aren't yet old enough to bowl in the actual tournament.
With only nine days until Opening Day, crews are putting the final touches on the venue and the vendor areas are nearly complete. Once all of the artwork is up, there won't be a white wall in the building.
And as I might have mentioned before, I held a beginning-of-construction press conference on Dec. 16 to show off the empty convention center to local media and sponsors. Yesterday, I invited them back for a near-the-end-of-construction open house to see how far we've come in our transformation. Channel 4, 7, 13, Eagle 98.7 (radio), the Albuquerque Journal and Rio Rancho Observer all took advantage of the opportunity. It's so hard to describe what we do. It's so much better to let them see it for themselves and see the look of disbelief on their faces when they don't recognize the venue. I truly believe that this particular moment is our greatest selling point.
With that said, I believe that we will see many members of the local media in the coming months to help share our story with the people of Albuquerque. Not only are we a sporting event, but we also impact the local hotels, airports, restaurants, shops, tourist attractions, etc, so there are so many possible story angles. And I can't wait to share them all.
Super Bowl Sunday is always an important day for us here at the USBC Open Championships because it means that everyone is in town and Opening Day is right around the corner.
Today, all 42 travelers, the leadership team and a few folks from USBC Headquarters in Greendale, Wis., got together for the first of three days of team building/orientation. After so much traveling and unpacking, it was nice to see everyone together and enthusiastic about getting down to business. Today's agenda included some introductions and updates, followed by a social function/Super Bowl party at JC's New York Pizza Department, just a short walk from the convention center.
The next two days will be spent discussing any changes to the event, like the creation of Tournament Services, which was formerly Registration, Brackets and Bowler Services. We also will be discussing bowler and employee surveys from the 2007 event to see what people said before we strategize about how to make this event better. Some of the time will be spent refreshing everyone about the tournament rules, procedures and policies, while some will be set aside for setting goals for 2008.
During the orientation today, one of the new travelers, Brian Whitman, mentioned that he's been reading my blog and thought it was interesting to hear about some of the behind the scenes stuff that he was about to experience while traveling across the country. Hopefully others are reading along and enjoying the chance to see what it takes to make this tournament happen. It truly is an amazing process and experience.
By Wednesday, we will be in our respective departments to finish setting up and further train any new travelers.
While this is going on, our on-site HR folks from Employment Source have been taking applications and interviewing candidates, hoping to hire 60 locals to help us while we are here. One positive thing I've heard is that a lot of the local bowlers and association members have shown an interest in being part of the 2008 Open Championships and soon will become a valuable part of our tournament staff.
Each day we look more and more forward to the start of the event. Each day the venue looks a little different and a little more complete. The pins will be crashing in no time.
