• By KENT LOWE
• Special to The Advocate
• Published: Jun 23, 2009

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LAS VEGAS — It’s called “Bowl Expo” and in this city of lights and excess, this is bowling’s chance to put its best foot forward to its core group.

The proprietors, coaches, movers and shakers of the sport, along with a group of us bowling writers are all here for a five-day seminar/trade show/party that features bowling celebrities and others like Dale Earnhardt, Jr., who was part of Monday night’s welcome reception and comedian Bill Engvall, who will be the star of Club Expo to conclude the event Thursday night.

Along the way are seminars regarding the many changes in youth bowling (I do like the jerseys and t-shirts that can come with their membership this year), coaching and how to make more profit in your center by selling the right things at your snack bar. Obviously, a lot of seminars dealt with moving business through the turbulent waters of the present economy.

The word of Bowling Proprietors Association President Jim Sturm to the membership Monday was “change.” The BPAA and USBC are now working together at the International Bowling Campus in Arlington, Texas, that will have its grand opening on Jan. 25, 2010.

But Sturm really tried to stir the emotions of the group about youth bowling by saying the numbers are “past critical,” and it was time to stop worrying about the numbers of adults leaving and to find a way to get the youth to bowl and to stay in the sport when they become adults. Sturm also sounded the message that has been sounded for several years that it’s time for everyone to “grow” the sport.

It was an honor and privilege also to be able to accept for our Advocate bowling coverage the “BPAA Media Award” that has gone to such entities as ESPN and Good Morning America in past years. Past President Joe Schumacker presented me with the award, along with current president Sturm. I’m very honored and flattered and certainly thank all the folks at Don Carter’s who nominated me for this prestigious award.

It will be interesting later this afternoon as the Bowling Writers have their own seminar with the proprietors entitled, “Getting to know your Bowling Writers.” Or if you don’t want to talk to us, in another room is “Controlling Bar Costs in a Bowling Center.” I know it’s a tough choice.

I did get a chance to see Marc Pater and Allen Cope from the Malco family, and former Baton Rouge bowler Page Dew was at the morning session.

No Bowling At Bowl Expo

Amazingly, Bowl Expo is being held at a casino that doesn’t have a bowling center, Mandalay Bay. But there is no doubt, one of the prerequisites for a casino bowling center here is that it be very large. Of the 10 I checked out here, Sam’s Town is the smallest with 56 lanes. The Castaways, which used to be, I believe the Showboat Lanes, where the many PBA tournaments were bowled has 106 lanes.

The PBA Tournament of Champions is held at the 72-lane Red Rock casino in January of 2010.

Ready for 2012

Once I walked into the Cashman Center and heard the sound and saw the 60 lanes — count ’em 60 lanes of bowling — in the United States Bowling Congress Open Tournament here, I dreamed of when we will see it again in Baton Rouge in 2012. It’s that sound I remembered from 2005, that constant sound of the ball and the pins crashing.