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.
