PBA Finals Stepladder format is.....

Well, lets just say we can do better.

Heading into the Tournament of Champions finals this weekend, EJ Tacket was on fire. The guy didn't average under 225 going into the finals matchup on Sunday, March 2023.

I appreciate the amount of time we get to see each bowler move through the finals that was aired, HALF HOUR after it was supposed to be on, but you all know! We love bowling so we stick around to watch. But, at least its on a major tv network. Getting to know each of the bowlers going against each other in the head to head is nice and all, but I think we can accomplish the same and more!

I think stepladder finals should be something for a special event and not the default for bowling finals. I look to this weekends Tournament of Champions as an example of why I don't think it should be the default. No one should average over 225 the whole time and lose to someone who struggled to average over 210 the whole time. It's understandable to lose to someone who consistently averages lower than you, but to lose to someone who averaged lower than you throughout the whole tournament, is... not great.

I'm ok with the last few games coming down to the wire for the top 5 to 10 bowlers, but you don't need a stepladder for that. I hate to say it, cuz Bowling is different than Golf, but look at Golf. Its the best player at the end of the weekend who has made the large cuts at the end of the days. The exact same thing can be accomplished in bowling and highlight a couple of the bowlers who are just blowing away the rest of the field, but you could still cut to people who have a nice background story or someone is shooting a 300 or picked up a big split. I don't care the story, but you have a lot more potential for there to be a fun story if there are more people.

I would also be willing to bet that you could have more people in the qualifying rounds too for higher purses. What does more entries mean? Potential for more sponsors willing to invest in a tournament to get the eyes on their product/brand.

I'm sure there is a lot more than can be done beyond that, but I truly think that is a great step forward for the bowling that is on TV. We don't need all 3 days of bowling on just the last day that has the last cut of bowlers and then you can condense some footage from the 2 previous days of the current bowlers / other bowlers who bowled in the previous cut.

Just want to see more eyes on bowling!