Today’s Vision is Tomorrow’s Future
USBC continues to build …. “A Future for the Sport”
USBC continues to build …. “A Future for the Sport”
By Chad Murphy
USBC Executive Director
2015 proved to be a fantastic year for USBC. Operationally, we continue to evolve in creating efficiencies and providing top-notch benefits and services to bowling. In 2015, our USBC family at all levels talked about A Future for the Sport. It’s more than just a catchy slogan. A Future for the Sport is quite simply the reason for USBC as a national governing body to exist.
USBC continues to deliver on our commitment to be a leader for bowling as the National Governing Body, but also a partner to the industry that includes our state and local USBC associations. A year ago we announced USBC would focus on five priorities in 2015. Let’s look back to see how we did and also how each area will move forward in 2016.
Youth Development
Junior Gold participation is at an all-time high. The same can be said for high school and collegiate bowling, which surpassed 200 member schools for the first time. More kids than ever are funding their education with bowling scholarships.
The Bowler’s Ed program is also growing, delivering over 5,000 curriculums to schools across the country. USA Bowling expanded from 8 to 16 tournaments, with the largest tournament to date conducted in Birmingham, Alabama. Perhaps most importantly, our field staff of youth development specialists had individual visits to more than 2,000 centers, training and educating youth directors and proprietors on how to improve their youth programs.
For 2016, Junior Gold is on track towards 5-8% growth. USA Bowling will crown a national champion for the first time and do so with the excitement of a national television broadcast. The youth development specialists will continue their outreach to more centers, providing training and education to new markets.
Competitive Bowling/Championship Tournaments
A new PWBA Tour re-launched with tremendous success. The tour surpassed entry projections by 73%! The public responded with over 330,000 views for our stepladder finals and the new tour generated over 26 million (that’s not a typo … 26 million!) media impressions for bowling during the 2015 season. Nearly every event sold out with bowling fans filling host centers as spectators.
We announced exciting enhancements for the USBC Open Championships for the 2017 event, including a new third division to broaden the appeal of the event to a new audience. Both the Women’s and Men’s U.S. Opens returned on national television in 2015 after a one-year hiatus. We also announced plans to bring back the United States Amateur Championship in 2016.
The word growth returns to the tournament area in 2016. The Open Championships in Reno and the Women’s Championships in Las Vegas will both grow in participation from 2015. The PWBA tour expands from 11 to 14 events. We talked last year about the return of a familiar “team” tournament series and while we decided 2015 was not the right time to launch, you can look for this new offering from USBC in 2016.
Marketing
The success of our youth and PWBA programs opened the door to an amazing television partnership. CBS Sports Network and ESPN televised 12 USBC managed events equaling more than 30 hours of bowling on national television in 2015. The USBC Bowling Academy has expanded its reach to over 100,000 people. A new structure and focus within the marketing team has worked hard to deliver growth for the USBC Open and Women’s Championships for the first time in several years. Content programs for our members such as the Bowler’s Source and Welcome 2 Bowling continue to grow as well.
In 2016, our marketing team will continue to support the needs of the association by telling the USBC story through all of our channels. The story spans many products, benefits and services with one common theme … Bowling!
Technology
USBC now has a mobile app for members to access their card, look up averages and see news on their phones. Perhaps most importantly, work is nearing completion to deliver USBC associations a modern version of WinLABS software. This investment of more than a million dollars will provide associations a current tool to manage association business.
For 2016, the new version of WinLABS will be available for USBC associations and a new mobile-friendly redesign of BOWL.com is on the way!
Membership Value
Our membership services teams supported our members by answering 67,000 phone calls in 2015. Our regional managers visited 649 associations, servicing bowling at the highest levels. We also listened to our members concerns about membership cards. USBC made a larger investment on cards this year and dramatically improved the quality of the cards with a new ink process. Whether it is rules experts just a phone call away, regional managers visiting local associations, a great tournament experience, videos on BowlTV or answering a question on Facebook, your dues allow for a quality staff with a customer service focus.
2016 will see us continue the work to serve the needs of our state and local associations and their leaders in a quality way. This includes quality customer service for the association, the member, leagues and tournaments. Of course, all tied together with a certified average for all bowling members. Additionally, rules support, bonding, and settling membership disputes continues to be a critical USBC service to bowling. Ensuring the future success for the local and state associations is critical so bowling can best serve the customer at the local level with meaningful local awards, tournaments and recognition programs.
Before I close, I’d like to talk about the 2016 USBC Convention
The past couple of years, the USBC staff, our board, along with association delegates changed the convention experience. We talked about the importance of working together to create a USBC we can all be proud of. We also celebrated our shared successes. USBC association leaders then took home the message of A Future for the Sport back to their community.
The 2016 USBC Convention will mark an important crossroads. A proposal came from an association leader in the field that would allow USBC National to increase dues in the future, if needed. If approved, it would be the first dues increase in the history of USBC. Many people don’t realize that USBC national dues have been $10 since 2005. The proposers correctly realize that without additional financial support, USBC and our associations will soon face some uncomfortable changes.
Today’s Vision/Tomorrow’s Future
The theme for this year’s convention is so fitting. Sharing a vision that becomes tomorrow’s future is something we must do together. A look at the past gives us some perspective on tomorrow.
Comparing financial reports in 2006 to 2014, USBC has seen a 33% decline in membership revenue. The primary reason for this is very simple – there are fewer lanes in the United States. Meanwhile, inflation has driven prices up about 20% in the past 10 years. This combination of revenue declining with inflation rising led USBC to make big cuts.
Some of the cuts were products such as the member magazine and awards. In addition, staff has set out to become more efficient in all areas. In 2006, USBC had over 200 employees. Today we have less than 90. We are striving to be a lean and efficient organization without reducing services to our associations and members. However, continuing to simply cut will soon become unsustainable and has already in some areas.
The question a delegate needs to ask themselves is, “Do I want a smaller USBC with less services in the future or do I want to ensure tomorrow for the organization which includes a healthy local, state and national together?” It’s not a question about staff members. It’s about the services association and members need and then corresponding staff needed to provide it. Delegates will have to ask themselves, “Where does it end? Can we afford not to ensure tomorrow and have the services we need go away?
The answer to these questions will come in the form of a vote on amendment B3, which gives USBC the option of raising dues up to $5 if needed. Option is a key word here. It’s a cap increase as opposed to a dues increase. USBC doesn’t necessarily need a dues increase for the 2016-2017 season, possibly even 2017-2018, but soon after that we risk consistent deficit budgets and eroding our financial reserves. Without a dues increase, at that point, additional service cuts would need to be looked at. As a responsible business, USBC plans with a multi-year budget which is why knowing funding will be there down the road is so vital.
Where would the additional money go?
The funding will go directly towards ensuring tomorrow for USBC. This includes support for all our associations that are protected by USBC’s singular non-profit designation. Many people don’t realize that the majority of USBC’s membership dollars fund resources used to benefit state and local associations. In fact, almost all the membership revenue goes directly or indirectly to that support. Here is a simple list of examples:
- Continue investment in the field for USBC Association Services and membership support. Expanded training and education could be funded in the future.
- Continued investment in dedicated, knowledgeable staff members a phone call or email away to help with rules, association services, tournament support and more
- Improving key technology such as WinLABS, BOWL.com, the mobile app and more
- Keep the USBC Convention as a free event to benefit our delegates and members
- Continue USBC investment in IBC Youth, where we have seen growth and all-time highs in Junior Gold, high school, and collegiate program
- Competitive bowling events including the Masters, Queens, U.S. Opens, PWBA Tour, and Open and Women’s Championships that provide amazing experiences for our members, help retain bowlers and showcase our sport
- Televise our outstanding events to keep bowling top of mind and relevant for the next generation of consumers
- Evolve, as the science related to equipment certifications and specifications currently is changing and requires support with modern tools and a trained staff
- Have the strongest Team USA program so we can compete with the best on the world stage
So much of what we do here (as well as the answer to where the money goes) at USBC is being there with services and solutions when our associations, leagues, members or the bowling industry needs it. More information will be shared at convention, but for now just remember an approval to raise the dues cap of any kind is an approval towards ensuring tomorrow. It’s an approval of continuing the effort towards building a better USBC we can all be proud of and a brighter Future for the sport.
We hope you will look back at the past couple of years and see the vision for USBC’s future taking shape. Together we are building more opportunities across all of bowling. From little kids, to college players, professionals to seniors, USBC provides service every step of the way. We are celebrating our successes more than ever before while investing in new tools for tomorrow.
Certainly, USBC is not perfect. We make plenty of mistakes, but you may have noticed our staff’s commitment to being available and responsive when something does go wrong. Whether it is tournament formats, host city preference or membership cards, we are making improvements by listening to our bowlers.
We hope you see the progress and the value provided by having USBC serve bowling as a quality National Governing Body. Bowling has a lot to be excited about in 2016. Thank you for being a part of it.
To close, I’d like to again remind you of our mission and promise. Everything we have talked about circles back to it.
USBC is the National Governing Body for the sport.
Our mission is to provide benefits and services, resources and standards for the sport.
Our promise is to celebrate the past, be mindful of the present and ensure bowling’s future through thoughtful research, planning and delivery. We will protect and nurture the sport with a mutual admiration and respect for all who enjoy bowling.
Have a great 2016!
Chad Murphy
USBC Executive Director