I watched this and was really impressed. Can't wait till Sunday for the finish. I am not includeing any spoilers just in case some may have recorded this and will watch it later.

I agree!  It was very entertaining, and as you can't wait until tomorrow. 

I also enjoyed the show and hope the full page ad in U.S.A. Today will help with the ratings.  One thing I hoped to see but didn't was a much better intro to flesh out the sixteen participants, how they got there and the importance of  each event for men, women , juniors and collegians; would like to have heard Burton say more about each player when they made their brief appearances.

 

Don Gates

Don,

There were actually profile pieces on each player that were going to air on the first show. However, the show ran long and in the interest of showing more bowling, almost all of those pieces were cut. It's hard to fit 16 bowlers into an hour show. You can still view all of the player profile videos on the Clash web page... bowl.com/clash

Lucas

Well, I hope everyone that got a chance to watch the show enjoyed it.

Knowing the outcome put a damper on re-watching it.  I know the place was rackin' and rollin' when Jenny and Liz were stringing strikes... then, during the championship it was very exciting as both Sean and Lynda were bowling great scores...

Of course, there was plenty of grousing and complaining by some of the more knowledgable bowling fans in the audience concerning the delays and oiling of the lanes, and the amount of practice the bowlers were getting... not too terribly embarrassing having a bunch of people yelling, "let's bowl" and "they've had enough practice..." while a nationally televised show, touted as being a building block to grow the sport of bowling is being taped...   

 

 Dave,

It was a lot of fun being there live to watch the competition. I think the Jenny and Liz match was the best part. I just finished watching the TV version and I think you got more air time than all the competitors put together. You found the right seat to be in. It was nice meeting another dot commer I've conversed with here on these threads.

rvbowler:

It was a lot of fun being there live to watch the competition. I think the Jenny and Liz match was the best part. I just finished watching the TV version and I think you got more air time than all the competitors put together. You found the right seat to be in. It was nice meeting another dot commer I've conversed with here on these threads.

 

Ray ... for the low ball round, I agree with you.  Later on, I found Jenny to tell her how great she performed in her match.  She's one to watch over the years.

I finished watching the recording of the TV version ... did you catch the faux pax on the issue date of the check?  I was expecting them to have the air date on it.

Great catcing up with you out there ... looking forward to Reno.

 

cheers 

There were many positives in the Clash of Champions, one of the best holding the tournament during the national convention to get a big crowd of knowledgeable bowlers cheering and boosting the energy of the participants.

 

However, I gots to say I was disappointed in how little each of the events  the contestants won was mentioned.  I would think it would have been possible to get brief video from the archives to showcase the moment of victory for each of them along with a brief mention of the event and maybe even encourage eligible bowlers to  enter their event next year with a site and date mentioned;  talk a bit about the upcoming women's open, about the better than 1700 youth bowlers competing in Detroit for Junior Team USA and an all events title to earn them a spot on next year's show as examples

 

I would have preferred to see something like this occupying the USBC ads, bowling tips and commentator conversation.  All of them won important to bowling titles  and if it is to be more than an inaugural events the emphasis should have been on encouraging  youth bowlers to develop the skills needed to make that show some day  and more highly skilled adult bowlers to support the major events.

 

That is not to say USBC should not be complimented on all they have done to help grow the sport for women and bring all these great champions together. I'm hoping the women's shows that have been renewed and this one on a national network will enable Strike Ten salesman to bring in corporate support to pay the bills and enable the men and women to have more events on television and better prize funds.  I'm anxious to see the ratings and if there is anyway to measure the value of the full page age run on the weekend edition of USA Today.

 

Don Gates

prunenow:

There were many positives in the Clash of Champions, one of the best holding the tournament during the national convention to get a big crowd of knowledgeable bowlers cheering and boosting the energy of the participants.

 

However, I gots to say I was disappointed in how little each of the events  the contestants won was mentioned.  I would think it would have been possible to get brief video from the archives to showcase the moment of victory for each of them along with a brief mention of the event and maybe even encourage eligible bowlers to  enter their event next year with a site and date mentioned;  talk a bit about the upcoming women's open, about the better than 1700 youth bowlers competing in Detroit for Junior Team USA and an all events title to earn them a spot on next year's show as examples

 

I would have preferred to see something like this occupying the USBC ads, bowling tips and commentator conversation.  All of them won important to bowling titles  and if it is to be more than an inaugural events the emphasis should have been on encouraging  youth bowlers to develop the skills needed to make that show some day  and more highly skilled adult bowlers to support the major events.

 

That is not to say USBC should not be complimented on all they have done to help grow the sport for women and bring all these great champions together. I'm hoping the women's shows that have been renewed and this one on a national network will enable Strike Ten salesman to bring in corporate support to pay the bills and enable the men and women to have more events on television and better prize funds.  I'm anxious to see the ratings and if there is anyway to measure the value of the full page age run on the weekend edition of USA Today.

 

Don Gates

Don, who paid for that Advertisement, USBC, or CBS??????????

 DrD,

I don't know who paid for the paper ad, but USBC was the major contributor to this event. 

Don,

Mr Boje was asked by one of our delegates why there was no keynote speaker this year. His answer was because the money was spent on the Clash. Having attended many conventions I would rather they spend the money on this or similar events that wind up on national tv than have to listen to a key note speaker. It's better for promoting the sport and a lot more entertaining. I say that as a bowling traditionalist that usually does not like the gimmick bowling events but this one was more than I expected. 

This was an inaugural event. If it was received well CBS's programmers might be willing to put more bowling events on national tv. I was thinking after watching this that USBC could save a lot of money. Although not enthusiastic about the move to Texas, it's a done deal. Why not then include a convention center venue within the complex to host the convention every year. This would save money on holding it in venues that would cost a lot of money in renting a facility, moving personnel, and housing them in hotels, and using the training center for any kind of bowling promotion they decide to run. The costs would be minimal compared to what they spend now.

Ray/Doom, I would kind of agree that CBS did not pay for anything, including production and editing costs but there are media tradeoffs and it is possible CBS contributed the full page ad in USA Today out of their tradeoff bank. In addition to showcasing each event and their champions more I would have liked to see a group picture of USBC execs standing in front of the Greendale Headquarters and BPAA/USBC execs standing in front of the new site in Texas. I don't know why I thought what I did but my thought was that USBC would take the first hour of the two shows and turn it into an infomercial for distribution to bowling centers that could be shown on their scoring monitors, eliminating most of the comments on the actual bowling in favor of grow the sport commentary and the move to Texas. Ray, was there any negative comments on the convention flloor or at the Seminar on the spending of so much money on the women and the Clash of Champions? Did anyone get up and speak strongly about the benefits of allowing non certified senior leagues to partially sanction, as I would have if I was still a delegate? Don Gates

 Don,

Not even the proposer of the amendment to let non certified senior leagues allow some bowlers to certify spoke for the amendment. It was turned down almost unanimously. So even if you or anyone spoke I don't think it would have passed.

There were some complaints I heard about spending the money but not much. That could be because I just didn't hear it. I didn't get a chance to talk to all the delegates though. 

 

Lucas, I can appreciate trying to squeeze 1 12 hours into one hour, I had that problem when I had a weekly bowling tab and having to decide on going another four pages to include the copy I wanted to print when advertising did not justify it.  My point was not so much for myself as for the value of the shows in the future where showcasing the events themselves along with who won them could be used as a sales tool for grow the sport with tapes available to bowling centers.

 

Don Gates

Lucas, as a throw up against the wall and see if it will stick after thought, maybe the hour show could be turned into a 1 1'2 hour show to edit in those profiles, comments on  the events themselves, maybe even throw in a piece on the move to Texas and offer that to bowling centers to air on their scoring monitors as a grow the sport and support for those events infomercial.

 

Don Gates

prunenow:

Lucas, as a throw up against the wall and see if it will stick after thought, maybe the hour show could be turned into a 1 1'2 hour show to edit in those profiles, comments on  the events themselves, maybe even throw in a piece on the move to Texas and offer that to bowling centers to air on their scoring monitors as a grow the sport and support for those events infomercial.

Don Gates

i think that an "anyone can do it" infomercial-type thing to give to bowling alleys could help and might go over well....

even if they're showing it without sound (as most houses would), it could actually get people to come up and ask questions.

one of our former saturday night regulars (from when i worked saturday nights at the bowling alley, which was a couple years ago...) gave us a dvd that he recorded from espn classic of the columbia 300 open, which used to take place at our alley. it's from, like, '01 or so.

it never fails that at least one open bowler comes up and asks about some of the people in the background audience (managers who are still there and such)--it's an opportunity to get at least one person excited about bowling because of a pro tourney that used to happen at our house. it's kinda dorky, but if it works, it works.

*shrug* it's worth a try.