Who said stats weren't important?

This is for The Friday Cactus Miller Lite Men's league 2014-15.

This Open letter to the Miller Lite Friday Men's league at Cactus Bowl. Even though this letter didn't help the league continue due to several teams dropping the season before, no one can say I didn't try to make this league better. 

Making your league better for bowlers, secretaries and sponsors.

By Alan “Mr. Stats” Brizee (Stats Plus) (c) 2014  Author of The Path to Excellence and

      From Excellence to Success

     Now that I have been given another opportunity as League Secretary and Treasurer and in the position to promote the sport I love, I decided to write this letter to let others understand why I go the extra distance. Stats Plus is more than statistics. The plus is publicizing and promoting scores as well as providing prizes from my salary to make the league more interesting and appealing to all bowlers.

      I have on my website, a Mission Statement: To keep the league I'm secretary of, the most exciting league by publicizing and promoting bowling, by all avenues possible, for all the MEMBERS as well as all the SPONSORS of our league. This helps sponsors in coming back because if the league doesn't thank, support and publicize it sponsors, why would they want to keep putting extra cash in our pockets? I go the extra mile because bowling is on a slight down slide and I hope the little extras keep bowlers and sponsors coming back to see what else can be offered. Since I was elected Secretary/ Treasurer of the Traveling Masters, I have always done things in the best interest of the league. I always felt my job was to promote the league to create excitement and make it better.

     I was secretary of the Traveling Masters, a scratch league for 9 1/3 seasons before taking a job in northern Arizona where traveling between the job and bowling wouldn’t work out. The league grew from 12 to 24 teams four seasons later. The sweeper went from $1600 to over $8400 seven seasons later. Almost everything in this article is something that I have tried at one time or another with most being successful. It could work for handicap leagues as the principles are the same. To let most of you know what you already know, the person responsible uses their time to help the league. I have spent hours designing flyers, asking bowlers opinions on new optional events that I will try and getting forms ready to be printed. Just one more thing that NEEDS to happen, the secretary promoting the league and the person running optional events needs the support of the league as well as the league officers. The league needs to work together to make their league better for the current members, as well as attracting new or returning members for upcoming seasons. 

     And now for the answers to two important questions. How does the league keep bowlers coming back for more? How does the league attract new bowlers? What the league offers now and what the league can offer in the future are up to the members that can change how the league is viewed by everyone. Obviously scratch and handicap leagues are different but the same. Most handicap leagues will have bowlers over 200 and some under 200. Scratch leagues will have over 210 and under 210.  Both sides of the leagues mean average needs to be looked at. Mean average is not the average of all averages bowling, it is halfway between the highest and lowest average bowler. Mean average for scratch leagues might be 205, so the under events could be 205 and under. Some higher average bowlers will not spend extra money for brackets, eliminators and 50/50 ticket sales. Entry fees for brackets can attract bowlers. Some don’t have a lot of extra money for optional events. If running $3 brackets, a bowler can get in two for $6 with 2 shots at cashing for just $1 more as opposed to one $5 bracket. Bowlers have shot 279 and been bounced because of the onslaught of all the 300’s thrown today. Cactus Bowl offered reverse brackets so a low first game could make you money. 2nd chance brackets are offered at nationals and could be offered to a big league as well. Brackets should also be computer generated so bowlers will not face the same bowler the opening game. This creates fairness for those getting in two or three brackets each week. Handicap leagues can offer scratch and handicap brackets and eliminators. If enough seniors, have 50 & over brackets and eliminators. Brackets and eliminators can be done over weeks using match play with winning 2 of the 3 games to advance, with everyone in the league for a single night or rounds bowled at different centers. I have had and will be having a 2nd chance for the eliminator where bowler can earn their entry back after missing a cut. Now that I have covered different formats for brackets and eliminators, I will go into two areas that could make a HUGE difference in your league, the regular season and sweeper. Both will require a little extra time and are worth it.

     If your league is better because of the extra work you put into it, it is possible that your league could grow slowly and a few seasons later, fill the center you bowl at. 

During the long regular season, some suggestions are quick and easy while some planning, time and designing entry forms.

     The following has over 10 ideas to make our league better: 

      A. To promote the league without much work, put the league sponsor(s) logo on the

          standings sheet, recaps, flyers and league board. I have not seen too many leagues

          do this. The league board will have league sponsors and their logos on it, standings,

          newsletter, optional events, statistics, league information and the league’s website

          address on it. Miller Lite appreciates their logo being out there so bowlers and

          spectators will see it to help promote their product. I already let Miller Lite know I

          was the new secretary and told them about the league’s website and they

          appreciated their logos on the site and sent me several designs and logos to use

          this season. You can put logo(s) on recaps as I will be doing this season as I did in

          the past. Instead of buying preprinted recaps, design your own and print them on

          3 part paper, using 4 teams on one sheet.

      B. Put your league on a flyer during the summer to help create interest in the league.

           Let new bowlers know why they should bowl in your league. You should have any

           League sponsorship money listed and all league sponsors to promote the extra

           money added to the prize fund. The logos and their name on flyers will help secure

           continued sponsorship for seasons to come.

      C. I write articles to Desert Bowler every month with high scores and a sponsor’s   

           corner thanking all the sponsors for helping the league out. If your bowling

           newspaper will let you do it, it will add to the excitement the league offers.

      D. I write a weekly newsletter promoting scores, sponsors, optional events, team

           standings, upcoming tournaments, city & state tournament deadlines, league fee

           deadlines and write a short article on the mental side of sports. I have only seen

           one other secretary do a week’s review in my 40 years of bowling. I have most

           seasons gave every bowler in the league a write up and keep a list of when they

           appeared. Most bowlers like the fact that if they shoot the scores, they get their

           name bolded and caps for article heading. A newsletter can take a half hour to

           write and most bowlers appreciate the extra time.

       E. Most leagues have a normal split season. Two segments or halves, three

           segments or thirds or bowl four quarters where the 4 winners make up the 4

           Roll-Off teams. The scratch Traveling Masters had the most unique format

           designed by Steve Hiscox and Paul Colwell. All teams bowl each team once

           during qualifying and then split into divisions based on where your team finished

           in qualifying. Divisions should be at least six teams. ‘A’ division which had the top

           teams from qualifying would pay better than ‘B’ division and even better than ‘C’

           and ‘D’ divisions. Qualifying could be divided into 2 to 3 conferences based on

           entering averages with divisions being top teams from each conference. The

           scratch leagues are better suited for a ‘divisions’ type format. Randy Corn in his

           handicapped league had 4 eight team conferences based on the number each

           team drew and I think, each conference winner plus 2 wild card teams were in the

           Roll-Offs. Another idea is having a playoff of 4 quarter winners of the 4

           conferences bowl an extra week where each conference would have the 4 teams

           bowl the 1st game and cut to 2 teams. Those two teams would then have a 2

           game totals to get into the league Championship Roll-Offs. So the league could

           have an unique format that would make your league different and fun to bowl.

       F. Some leagues have 50/50 pots where half of sales goes into the prize fund and

            the other half back to the bowlers. I started a strike pot where there would be$25

            pots with $50 being the maximum and remaining money went into sweeper fund

            Average sales the first season per week were $40, so $495 was added to a

            sweeper where after even 25% of the bowlers participated in the previous season

            to over 75%. The second season in week 32, we had almost $300 carried over and

            league officers decided to raise pots to $100.

       G. BLS, a bowling league program has a mystery score app and won’t duplicate

            scores. Have bowlers pay $1 each week and have number generated after

            everyone is done with 2nd game. I will have 170 to 250 as acceptable scores which

            should attract almost everyone. Only 2 bowlers average under 170. Bowlers need

            to feel like they can shoot a score if they are to keep paying each week. You

            should have more than just a long drawn-out pot. Have at least 2 winners or one

            per third. As the pot builds, more bowlers will spend a buck for a shot at over $100.

        H. A Stats Plus exclusive for this is for bowlers that participate in any optional event.

             Every week they enter any optional, they will be assigned a number and with BLS,

             the program picks a number and one winner per third will win a FREE ENTRY into

             the league’s sweeper.

          I. Another Stats Plus exclusive, I have had and always will have the Top 20

             individuals and Top 8 teams scores posted on the league board. The top 20 is

             not just high game, but high 1st, high 2nd and high 3rd game as well as series.

             This gives most bowlers and teams a chance to make the board and see their

             name for more than maybe one or two weeks. I’ll be doing both scratch and

             handicap.

         J. Another Stats Plus exclusive is statistics for the regular members of the league. I

             have tele scores printed and do statistics for the members of the league. Opens

             and strikes per game tell me about a bowler more than just their average. Also

             clean games, four baggers, no taps per game, single pin spare percentage and

             no-tap 300’s will be kept. I had a lot more stats for the scratch league.

        K. I ran a high game pot for $1 starting at 300 and dropping 2 pins per week until hit.

             A clean set pot could be hit every week in a scratch league, so I did a clean 2

             weeks in a row pot that the bowler didn’t like as much.

         L. Since the scratch league traveled to 5 different centers, we couldn’t enter their

             “Money Madness”. That’s the correct 10 strikes in 3 games to win the pot. So I

             created the league’s own “Bowling for Bucks” with 12 strikes, where bowlers had 3

             chances of cashing. They were the correct strikes the first two games, having 11 of

             the 12 strikes needed and all 12 correct. If the pot was large enough, bowlers just

             missing all 12 would get a percentage for more cash in their pocket.

       M. Usually when a drops in the middle of the season, it will remain vacant to rest of

             the season. I was able to fill a team that quit using the above incentives. Each of

             the 5 centers had a 3 foot by 4 foot board that had standings, stats, the weekly

             newsletter, center highs and a notice that the league was looking for a

             replacement team. So, promoting the league and getting a new team about 4

             weeks later was worth it.

         N. If the league has 16 teams and the league wants to make a statement, go to a

              trophy company and work a deal where you buy the sponsor’s Championship

              trophy and get reduced or even free plaques for the members of the team

              winning the Roll-Offs. I was able to obtain 4 free plaques because of going to

              different companies and finding one that wanted our business each and every

              year. Only the sponsor’s trophy was part of the prize fund. I surprised the whole

              league when I presented the Champions with individual plaques that only the

              league president knew.

         O. Another first in Tucson for Stats Plus, run optional leagues within the league.

              Offer singles, doubles or trios league for $5. There is no lineage since the regular

              league is paying it. 100% payback to members getting in. The optional doubles

              league had 50% of the league participate. You will need rules separate from

              league rules. It doesn’t take much time to punch in scores and possibly the

              program may be able to handle both leagues. If the Friday league grows, I will

              look into it. A league up in Phoenix offered singles and trios with their 5 man

              league.

          P. A lot of teams are now using cards to make their league better. There are many

              different ways to have the best 5 cards at the end of the game. Adding jokers

              makes for higher hands and possibly the higher averages winning more hands.

              One card for any mark. If all 5 members did not open during the game two cards

              will be left in the deck. My team in Vegas did this and two pair won some hands

              (no jokers). Two cards for a strike and one for a spare, keeping all cards. You

              could also keep best 7 after drawing. The card game really makes the league fun

              and even more fun after you win.

         Q. During March, I had a March Madness bracket contest where I threw in $20 and

              had bowlers fill brackets and paid $50 for the best bracket. There are bracket

              apps out there that can tell players who is leading and what must happen for

              them to win after the first weekend. (This works only for leagues Monday thru

              Wednesday.) I paid back 100% of entry fees, added $20 and paid 1 of every 5 that

              entered. Note: I didn’t do March Madness when the Wildcats went all the way.

          R. Design and print business cards for the league. Have the League’s name, day

               and time the league starts, secretary’s phone number, league’s website, league

               sponsors and brief statement about the league. Since the league has four league

               sponsors, I put ‘One of Tucson’s best sponsored leagues with over $3000 added

               and biggest websites of any league in Tucson’.

           S. And finally, the best suggestion and most time consuming is getting the league

               online with its very own website. I have 12 pages online now and will grow in the

               future. The website will have some old stuff on it as well as pages that will not be

               passed out every week such as the stats sheet. The Traveling Masters had

               rosters online over the summer and bowlers interested in bowling the upcoming

               season. Two bowlers were picked up being listed on the website as interested in

               bowling. I’m sure that not many leagues have filled rosters from a website. Just

               shows you that promoting your league BY ALL AVENUES possibly makes the

               league as a whole better all around.

     And now after all that if that wasn’t enough, the question that remains is, why don’t more bowlers bowl an optional sweeper? Some will bowl only if there is enough money in it, others will bowl regardless of the money and maybe to be part of their team. Some high average bowlers won’t bowl a handicap singles sweeper, one bad game and no money.

       The following ideas WILL make a difference in our league:

          A. A Stats Plus exclusive, offer Prize Fund reductions. I pass out a sweeper entry with

               6 weeks left to bowl. Bowlers then can write in amount of brackets, eliminator,

               ‘Pick your Partner’ Doubles  and Sponsored brackets. The total amount entered

               will be deducted from the bowler’s winnings. It’s not as easy on the treasurer, but

               bowlers will spend a little more than if they had to pay before getting their

               winnings. I had close to 10 bowlers spending over $150 in the sweeper and

               helped get 95% participation. If you offer what they want at a reasonable price

               and won’t have to pay up front, bowlers will participate, even in a handicap

               league.

          B. Brackets are now everywhere. City and state tournaments have them. For your

               league to have some success, they should be offered. Different entry fees could

               even be offered. Different divisions MUST be offered to create interest from all

               bowlers. You should limit the number of brackets for each division and the limit

               could be different. This keeps it fair for the majority of the league bowlers.

          C. More money usually means more entries. Put 50/50 sales into the sweeper fund,

               it worked my scratch league that paid $5 more a week than handicap leagues,

               so our scratch league had more prize money than handicap leagues and the

               scratch league had $9200 in league sponsor’s money so it created a win-win

               situation for the scratch league.

          D. Offer strike pots or double cross pots. I’m one of the few secretaries that puts

               back into the league. It creates excitement and offers all bowlers something for

               just participating. Very few leagues do this.

           E. Another Stats Plus exclusive,offering FREE ENTRIES to bowlers participating in

               brackets and eliminator. You could reward them with entering 2/3rds the

               season, by wins or on a point system. Free entries offers incentives to enter

               every week which should help in generating more entries every week. It also

               creates excitement when bowlers start climbing spots getting close to winning

               one of those free entries. If only a few free entries are offered, paid entries will

               generate a decent prize fund depending on the cash ratio.

           F. The person running brackets making money could reinvest some of the money

               made and increase the prize fund with 25% of what they deducted. If they made

               $10 each week and gave back $2.50 each week, at 30 weeks there would be $75

               in prizes to shoot for.

          G. And one of the best Stats Plus exclusives, only the Champions got to bowl in a

               FREE ENTRY $500 Tournaments of Champions on sweeper night in the Traveling

               Masters. All you had to do was win just 1 bracket during the season. The T of C

               had two sponsors over the 9 years. The first sponsor put $50 into the prize fund.

               Our last sponsor added $300, I added $100 and the person running brackets put

               up $100. We always had more than 16 champions so the seedings were based

               on number of wins then the number of finals a bowler made. The week before

               the sweeper was the play in matches where winners advanced to a 4 game

               tournament. I was the first to have 4 game events in a sweeper and the reason

               was that all the bowlers would be standing around the people getting the final

               results of the sweeper ready so they could pay the 25% that cashed. Instead of

               bothering those getting scores together, they could watch a match where the

               winner takes home an extra $100. Soon there was three events that had four

               games, a regular 16 bowler $10 bracket sponsored by Andy Clark’s Pro Shop and

               the $5 Eliminator that also had a sponsor. Some years, a bowler was in all three

               finals and I was one of them, a great way to finish the season.

          H. To make the sweeper more enjoyable (or not), is to offer door prizes. During the

               $8400 sweeper, I spent a lot of hours taking to business owners to secure gift

               cards, gift certificates and prizes. About 25% of the sweeper bowlers would be

               drawn and after their ticket was called, they would pick their prize based on what

               was left. 19 prizes for over 80 bowlers. ONLY 3 door prize winners said thank you

               after all the work to make this sweeper the best ever. I can only guess that some

               didn’t think about what it took to create the door prizes, and I know that some will

               never say thanks. The last person drawn won a book on the mental side of sports.

               His comment was, ’Is this all there is?’. This bowler could improve his mental

               game if he would read the book, because his mental game could be improved.

               That is why the ‘or not’ was added after more enjoyable. I had gift certificates

               from three pro shops, restaurants and stores. Only the bowler responses will

               determine if the extra work was worth it. I already have 1 door prize for the

               upcoming season.

            I. Something new while writing this article, is having a poker hand based on your

               first counts. First 5 frames and 2nd 5 frames. Five of a kind being the best, 5

               strikes to open a game beats strikes in 6th thru 10thframe. First game beats 2nd

               game as well, since it was done first. Next best hand is a straight, strike, 9, 8, 7, 6.

               A little luck is needed for a straight. Then 4 of a kind, full house and 3 of a kind. I’ll

               reward a free entry to the winner.

           J. A lot of sweepers I hear about, have a High-Low Doubles and maybe with

               singles. This actually limits entries. If the sweeper is optional, there could be a

               bowler doubling his score. I use a Pick your Partner Doubles. It’s a singles event

               that uses six games to determine the cashers. The bowlers pick who they think

               will help them the most to cash. The top bowlers that participate in the sweeper

               should be picked the most and have been. You should limit entries that bowlers

               participate in so he is not the only casher in the event. One sweeper, a bowler

               had eight partners and took the six of the top 10 cash spots. One handicapped

               league offered doubles and he collected 90% of the envelopes by shooting high

               600 and getting a lot of handicap. Limiting entries keeps it fair for majority of the

               bowlers.

     Now my novel is almost done. Secretaries promoting their league and persons running brackets can make their league more exciting and fun. The league members would help promote the league among other bowlers after talking to others about what the league offers. There are over 25 suggestions for improving your league. I can only hope that most leagues try to create a little more excitement for their bowlers and help attract new members and have the members support it. Promotions work better when there are those around who support what is being offered.

     I can say that bowling has been pretty good to me and I don’t mind giving some back if it helps keep bowling fun. When it stops being fun is when its time to get off the ride. I can hope you learned something from this article and the league you’re in goes down new avenues where bowling continues to be fun. The final word is to enjoy it while you can and is the main reason why I wrote this, where others get ideas for keeping bowling fun and making changes for the better.