Bowlers Journal International - April 2008 - (Page 56)

THE USBC MOVE this new strategic partnership." So what, exactly, will the BPAA- and USBC-occupied "international bowling campus" look like? Nobody knows for sure at present, although detailed planning has begun now that USBC is on board. Among the elements in play are: • BPAA's current headquarters building, which recently was expanded to accommodate additional storage. • A newly-purchased 103,000-squarefoot building on adjacent property, which would house a vast majority of the campus' office space. Part of the reason for the Atlanta meeting involved the need to exercise an option on that property by March 14, if USBC would be moving. • Another 1.2-acre parcel of land. • The possibility of constructing a third building. USBC and BPAA officials would like to have the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame — currently located in St. Louis, but in need of a new home due to redevelopment — as part of the campus. Until the museum's Board makes a decision in that regard, some of the campus planning has been put on hold. Also to be decided is where USBC's combined testing/research and training facility will be located. According to Schumacker, it could be housed in the existing BPAA headquarters building or in the newly-acquired building. "It's all conjecture at this point," he says, "but I will say that if the Hall of Fame moves to Arlington, we're probably going to need that third building. And I hope the Hall of Fame comes. It would be a great anchor for the campus." While the campus layout remains in the "To Be Determined" folder, one certainty is that the USBC staff — or, to be more precise, the integrated USBC and BPAA staff — will look much different than the Greendale crew of recent years. For one thing, there won't be as many of them. "We used to have about 230 in Greendale and we have about 32 in Arlington," Bojé says. "I don't know what the new number will be, but it will definitely be smaller than 230 plus 32. There's no question we're looking for better efficiencies." There's also no question that a good 56 bowlers journal international APRIL 2008 number of USBC employees will be looking for new jobs. "We have a number of different types of offers out there to the employees," Bojé says. "In situations like this, you have to consider tenure, skill sets and all sorts of things. And the truth is, this would be a big move for anybody to make; it's a particularly difficult decision for those with family ties in Milwaukee." Ultimately, how many of the Greendale employees will end up in Arlington? "That's impossible to say at this point," Bojé says. "But if I had to put a number on it, probably between 30 and 50." > A POSSIBLE HITCH? < At press time, there was one uncrossed "T" that, in Texas parlance, might be described as "a little hitch in the get-along." When the USBC Board voted to relocate the organization's headquarters to Arlington, the package it approved included a $675,000 grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund, a "deal-closing" fund established in 2003 to help lure businesses to the state. However, that grant had not yet been approved at the time of the USBC vote. So, what would happen if the TEF grant does not come through? Would the move to Arlington be called off? "The USBC Board would have to discuss it," USBC President Jeff Bojé says. "If the bureaucracy wanted to make [approval] take a couple more weeks, it could," he adds. "But the state knows that it's not in its best interests to take a long time on this." The decision to relocate USBC to Arlington came just weeks after USBC announced it was severely trimming its awards program, relegating a number of award items to "once-in-a-lifetime" availability. That prompted some USBC members to assume that, as one member put it, "The dumbing down of the awards is paying for the move." Not true, says Bojé: "It's just a matter of unfortunate timing. One has nothing to do with the other." Still, he says he anticipates having "some explaining to do," to delegates at next month's USBC Convention in Kansas City (see separate story in this issue.) Meanwhile, even with the creation of an "international bowling campus" and the integration of the USBC and BPAA staffs, Schumacker urges bowlers and bowling proprietors to be patient. "Things will get worse before they get better," he says. "Competitive bowling has been in decline for a long time; we're not going to change that overnight. We're probably looking at a five-year window for putting the pieces into place: the first year, relocation; the second year, rolling out the functional integration; the third year, introducing improved programs to attack the attrition; the fourth and fifth years, making those programs even better and, hopefully, starting to see some results." Success can be measured in any number of ways. So, how does Schumacker define success as far as this multi-million-dollar project is concerned? "We won't know for sure until 2033," he says. "If we're able to establish a long-term positive trend for competitive bowling by then, all of this angst and effort will have been worthwhile. For the USBC, it might be assessed in membership numbers, or it might not. For proprietors, it will be measured in paid games — will they be ringing up more games of competitive bowling then than they are now? I think that will happen in less than 25 years, and I think we have a chance to grow competitive bowling. But we have to save it first." From an historical perspective, Schumacker says that this process began when the ABC and WIBC decided to co-exist under one roof in Greendale back in 1972. He describes the merging of those organizations and the creation of USBC as "critical." But, he adds, "That happening alone wasn't enough. Now, this next step, allows for the realization of what USBC can be. Without this step, we couldn't stop the decline of competitive bowling. It would just gradually go away." Instead, Schumacker, Bojé, et al are attempting to re-write history in advance by integrating the operations and visions of USBC and BPAA. Asserts Schumacker: "If we achieve our goal of first protecting and then re-growing competitive bowling, then this will be viewed as a watershed event."

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Bowlers Journal International - April 2008

Bowlers Journal International - April 2008 Contents Leading Off Letters Bowlitically Incorrect Calendar Par Bowling The Coach Frame of Mind Inside Line The Truth Be Bowled Tournaments Pro Bowling PBA Bayer Classic PBA Pepsi Championship PBA Don Johnson Classic Regional Roundup Cover Story Up Close Senior Tour The USBC Move USBC Convention Pattern Play Anniversary Flashback Time Capsule Media Beat No Holes Barred Shop Talk Spotlight Marketplace Hall Marks Profit Prophet Advertisers' Index Classified Advertising Intelligencer Business Calendar Business People Strikes Me

Bowlers Journal International - April 2008

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