PBA Makes Big Announcements About 2010 – 2011 Season
The Professional Bowlers Association has made some big announcements about next season. The 2010 – 2011 season will have some big changes. As most already know, the PBA has had a pretty difficult year financially. They knew that they had to make some changes in order to save the future of our sport.
The biggest announcement is about the 2011 PBA Tournament of Champions. This event will feature a $1 Million prize fund, with first place being $250,000. This event will be open to any bowler who has won any PBA event (National, Regional, Senior, Women’s). The Tournament of Champions will air on ESPN on January 23, 2011.
The 2010 – 2011 ESPN schedule will include 23 original PBA programs, running from late November through April. ESPN will air PBA telecasts in HDTV. Several events will feature three consecutive days of coverage. The PBA World Championship and the U.S. Open will feature Friday, Saturday, Sunday presentations.
Lumber Liquidators has confirmed that it will remain the title sponsor through September 2011.
The PBA World Series of Bowling will return for the 2010 – 2011 season. This event will feature nine separate TV shows and will finish with the PBA World Championship.
The USBC Masters will take place in the Reno National Bowling Stadium and the TV finals will be aired live on ESPN.
A new PBA Playoffs series will conclude the season, taking up the final six weeks of TV shows. This series will have a separate prize fund and will be heavily weighted in the PBA Player of the Year standings.
A new “Xtra Frame Tour” will be created, having shows that only air on PBA Xtra Frame. These shows will not air on TV and will only be available to Xtra Frame subscribers.
Many people have mixed feelings about these announcements. The added prize money for the TOC is great, but the other side of the deal is that other tournaments will have a lowered prize fund. It will be interesting to see if bowlers are able to hang around with the lowered prize fund in other tournaments. Is this a step in the right direction for the PBA or is it the beginning of the end?
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