There is A LOT going on right now with the Midwest Scratch Bowling Series. It is becoming a major challenge just trying to keep up with it at this point. So let’s get right into it!
Open Tournament Updates
The 3rd Annual Royal Scot Lansing Open (Sep. 21, 2014) has officially BLOWN UP. At the time of writing this article, we have 90 bowlers on the roster. This is the longest running event for us since we started running this series two years and one month ago, and it is one of my personal longest hosting bowling centers since I started running sport tournaments over a decade ago. The goal for 2015 is already to get some added money to this event, so that we can open up the field to 180 bowlers and really pack the place!
We’ve got a long wait until our next open event, and Pampa Lanes in Warren, MI will be the host. With the Michigan/Michigan State game being the same day, we will have people running squares for the game leading up to the tournament. The goal is to raise a good amount of extra money for the tournament this way, as bowling balls will be given as prizes to the halftime and final score winners of each set of squares. Pampa Lanes will be a great place to watch the game as well!
November 22-23 weekend will certainly be a crazy one for us. Saturday will be the Crest Hill Open in Illinois with a limit of 48 bowlers. It will be our 2nd tournament ever in the state of Illinois, and we hope to fill that one up. Then the 2nd Annual Toledo War will be on Sunday at New Glass Bowl. With 46 bowlers last year at our first event in Ohio, I expect that we’ll get over 60 this year at the 2014 Toledo War!
Dec. 6-7 will be our 2nd trip also to Port Huron Lanes. With $1000 in added money, we will be guaranteeing $1500 for the top prize. We almost filled the event in 2013 with one squad, so we’ve decided to run a qualifying squad on Saturday, Dec. 6 as well as Sunday, Dec. 7. If we fill both squads, the top prize will be $2000 this year! This event is also the perfect complement to the JackieBowling.com Ladies Open which is Dec. 6 in Westland, MI. Many people are expected to travel for that event, which means they will likely visit Port Huron on the 7th to bowl in our Open event. We are encouraging and asking local bowlers to sign up for the Saturday squad, so that travelers can bowl the entire event in one day on the 7th.
Our final Open Tournament before the Championship will be yet another 2nd Annual event. Pro Bowl West in Fort Wayne will host our MSBS Fort Wayne Open on December 14. The center has 56 lanes, and we currently have 32 booked, but we can get more if needed. The important thing is that people let us know ahead of time if they plan on bowling. The center needs to know if they are allowed to book parties or other events on that day as well.
Championship at M-66 Bowl in Battle Creek, MI
We are still hammering out the details for this event, but here are a few certainties at this point.
- Bowlers only need to bowl in one of our open events in 2014 to qualify for the championship. Entry fee is $130 if you only bowled in one event; $120 if you bowled in 2 events; $110 if you bowled in 3 events; and $100 if you bowled in 4 or more events.
- Top prize will be guaranteed at $3000 and could pay more!
- We will have a minimum of $3000 added to this event, and it could be as much as $7000. This extra money comes from ball raffle and 50/50 money during our open events in 2014, $500 from the host center, and then also all of the extra entry fee money for bowlers who bowled in fewer than 4 events.
- We will have one qualifying squad for sure on Saturday, December 27. Bowlers will have to prepay for this event. If there is enough interest (which I imagine there might be), we will run another qualifying squad on Friday, December 26. The event will conclude on the 27th as well.
Our next season will kick off on that same weekend, as our Marshall Lanes tournament will be on Sunday, December 28. West Michigan Junior Gold Tour is also running an event on the 28th at Nottke’s in Battle Creek. This will be a great weekend of bowling for the entire family!
Metro Detroit Challenge
I am working on finding a way to tie this group of tournaments together somehow. I am thinking we need to create a point system for it and then invite the top bowlers to a championship or rolloff of sorts. One idea that I like so far would be to invite the top 12 bowlers to the rolloff, and then also invite the top 2 ladies and top 2 seniors outside of the top 12. This would give us 16 bowlers to compete for the final title. We would need to find a way to get some added money to the rolloff, however. If we do this, we may not start until 2015. I like having the season run from September through April or May for the Metro Detroit Challenge, so if we start in January, perhaps it will run from January 2015 through April or May of 2016 for the first season. Stay tuned.
Plans for 2015 (with a quick thank you first)
First off, it is kinda crazy that we’ve only been running MSBS for a little over two years now. It literally feels like we’ve been doing this for several years now. Secondly, it is amazing how much has changed and how much the series has evolved and continues to evolve. MSBS was basically born out of frustration. A lot of people complain and have conversations about other tournament organizations, about sanctioning bodies, etc. Well we started running tournaments which were later named MSBS tournaments because we chose to do something about it instead of talking about it. A lot of people fit into that word “ourselves” as well. Bowling center proprietors have mostly been AMAZING. We are given great deals on lineage for the most part. Proprietors and employees have helped to create a buzz about our events in their respective centers. Pro shop operators and employees have done the same. And of course the BOWLERS have taken it upon themselves to take ownership of the MSBS by telling their friends about the events, helping us to get sponsors and do fund raisers for some events, helped us actually book events, and of course the bowlers have BOWLED in our events. This kind of support…well, I’ve never seen anything like it. We receive a lot of praise for how well our tournaments are promoted and run, and it’s only fair to pass the praise back to all of the people who have had a hand in it. And chances are you are one of those people also. So THANK YOU!
That’s as quick of a thank you as I know how to do at this point. So here’s what we’re looking at for 2015.
Unless we are able to get a sponsor or a few sponsors to put money into a Bowler of the Year fund, we will likely be doing away with the Bowler of the Year in 2015. It seems like a lot of people didn’t really understand how it worked this year, and there was simply not much interest in it from what I can tell. Instead, it sounds like putting our ball raffle and 50/50 money toward prize funds of events is preferred by our bowlers. So that is what we will do.
To meet the demand of more bowlers, we will be adding another group of tournaments to the Challenge Tier of events. We will be running Small Town Challenge events at the same $65 entry fee as the Metro Detroit Challenge events. The prize ratios will remain at 1 in 5, and we will continue to give a minimum of one free entry to the highest non-qualifier, although it will likely be 2-3 free entries to the top 2 or 3 non-qualifiers. This makes the 1 in 5 ratio a lot closer to a 1 in 4 ratio by giving away the free entries. The goal of the last cash spots will still be $100. The Marshall event on Dec. 28, 2014 will be the first Small Town Challenge event.
We will be Wisconsin bound! Ok, that’s not 100% yet. But I am hoping to book an event in Wisconsin in 2015 to stretch our boundaries a little further. Wisconsin is a great bowling state, and hey it’s in the Midwest. We need to live up to our name!
That’s a Wrap
This is all of the news that we will be bringing you at this time about MSBS. Things seem to be changing on an almost daily basis, so I’ll keep writing these newsletters up to keep you all informed. Maybe we’ll try doing a video news show soon…or live streamed news!