Improve the MBA Tourney?

A discussion has begun regarding the MBA Tournament and how it could be improved. Now, I'm certainly not going to sit here and say that the MBA doesn't know what it's doing. But I've been kicking around an idea that might get more bowlers involved and create some more buzz about the tournament in different regions of Massachusetts.

The MBA, according to this list, has six different zones:

• Cape Cod
• Middlesex
• North Shore
• South Shore
• Worcester
• WNECA

But it seems that in MBA Tournament play, all bowlers from each zone are pretty much thrown into the same hat, bowling against each other regardless of home lanes. Why not have smaller, qualifying tournaments for each zone, crowning a qualifying champion in each. Upon completion of the qualifying tournaments, a ladder series could be rolled, with each zone rotating each year as the host (drawing lots to determine lanes hosting). This allows more bowlers to be recognized for their achievements on the lanes, and possibly will create a more lively competition set for the state.

As an added bonus, the houses in each zone who host the qualifying rounds could also call their local cable television public access channels, who I'm sure would gladly furnish equipment for the day to allow for the recording of the action. There would obviously be no charge for this. In fact, some public access channels will come in, film and provide play by play commentary similar to when I was doing it for a local high school football team. This would provide a FREE infomercial for candlepin bowling on many public access channels in the state. And free advertising is always a beautiful thing.

The finals could be filmed, again either by local public access or the house itself. That would then be either put out on the web for viewing worldwide, and/or distributed to the same public access stations for broadcast.

Now I understand this may not be possible for some of the tournaments. But I'd bet the men's tourney, the youth tourney, and maybe the women's tourney could be done in this manner.

Why not have a banquet associated with the tournament finals, too? Bringing bowlers together from all across the state for an evening of dinner, celebrations, dancing, etc., certainly wouldn't hurt. The MBA could celebrate high singles, averages, etc. for the season.

Do you have any ideas for the tournament? If so, click here to send them to me or leave a comment. I'm going to send them along to one of the tournament directors.