June 18, 2010

Dear ABT Member,

Over the last few years we have tried several ideas that have come from our members in our ongoing quest to improve your club. Some have been well received, others not so much. The point here is that we want to do whatever we can to give you a club that you can be a proud member and participant of. We believe that we have pretty much reached that point but several sources have recently indicated that there is still one more area of concern that needs to be addressed. We are hearing that many bowlers are not participating because they are unhappy with our prize fund distribution saying that too much emphasis is placed at the top of the prize fund and not enough at the bottom. Following are our solutions to address this concern.

Lets start with the Bonus Bucks program. Right now Bonus Bucks pays just two places with 80% going to first and 20% going to second. This creates a large disparity between the top 2 spots. Starting with our June 27th event at Manor Lanes II Bonus Bucks will be spread out over three places with 60% going to first, 30% to second and 10% to third. This will keep a 2-1 ratio between first and second place. That is the ratio we use for our prize fund without Bonus Bucks and is the same ratio used by most tournaments. This will also allow a better return for the third place finisher in stepladder events and in match play or eliminator formats four bowlers could share in the Bonus Bucks.

Also starting with our June 27th event the $500.00 minimum first prize will be based on 55 entries instead of the current 50 entries. This is a very minor change but it will be a big help in providing a better balance in our prize funds. Last but not least starting June 27th the entry fee for regular events will be $48.00 prepaid and $50.00 on site. The entire $2.00 increase will be added directly to the prize fund and used to augment the lower cashing positions. In most cases this will allow us to pay $65.00 or more for last place even in our smaller entry events. A 55 entry tournament prize fund with 12 bowlers cashing will now look like this: 1st $500, 2nd $250, 3rd $150, 4th $100, 5th $70, 6th $70, 7th $69, 8th $68, 9th $67, 10th $66, 11th $65, 12th $65. That is without Bonus Bucks. With a $600 Bonus Bucks pot you would be looking at $860 1st, $430 2nd and $210 3rd. As you can see this is a much better balanced prize fund. It is our belief that these better balanced prize funds will result in stronger participation that will result in even better prize funds that will result in, well, I’m sure you get the idea. Of course nothing we do makes any difference unless we have your support.

Enclosed is your new schedule ^[PDF] for the next few months. Please note that the Firecracker Singles event at AMF Thruway has been switched from July 4th to July 11th. In keeping with our theme of better balanced prize funds, first place for the Firecracker Singles will be guaranteed at $1,200. This is a minimum guarantee and could go up with a strong turnout.

We have some new centers coming on board for the upcoming season. Island Lanes and Spare Time Bowling Center has been added to our schedule and we are looking for more. Sept. 3-6 is the weekend we are planning to “Blow Into the Windy City” to visit our friends in the Chicagoland branch. We are encouraging everyone who can make the trip to join us for the Labor Day Open at AMF Rolling Meadows. We don’t have all the particulars yet but we will update our schedule at the web site as soon as we get them. Anyone who does plan on going will have to pre-register at the Chicagoland web site, the link for you to do that will be up some time next month.