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Week of Thursday, February 26, 2004PBA bringing By PETE HEYN If you have some spare time the weekend of March 20 and March 21 you might want to strike out for the Professional Bowlers Association World Championship tournament finishing rounds to be held at the Eastern Michigan Convocation Center. The tournament attracts about 300 bowlers to the qualifying rounds and is considered one of the premier events in the sport. According to Erin Dobbins of Taylor Lanes, the hosting facility for the tournament, the PBA conducted a search of area arenas to determine which southeastern Michigan venue would be the best to host such an event. Taylor Lanes hosted the event last year and the arena finale was held at the Taylor Sportsplex. Because of growth in the event the Sportsplex was deemed inadequate for this year’s tourney. Jason Carr, a publicist for the PBA in Seattle, said the association chose the Convocation Center because it was the right size for the event. "The Convocation Center is a great platform," he said. "It just lends itself to the atmosphere we’re looking for. "This is kind of like our Super Bowl" He said the Convocation Center is large enough to accommodate the crowd the PBA wants, but small enough that fans will be able to see the competition well and make their presence known to the competitors on the four lanes that will be set up for the finals. The PBA hopes to sell 4,600 tickets for each of the two days of bowling in Ypsilanti. The tournament begins on March 13 and runs through March 19 at Taylor Lanes. The highest 8 qualifiers will move on to the final two days at the Convocation Center. On March 20 the tournament moves to the Convocation Center where four specially constructed arena lanes will be used for the remainder of the event. When the event moves to the arena setting the top 8 qualifiers will be matched with the top eight bowlers on the PBA tour who have byes into the round of 16. Carr said competition will go on throughout the day Saturday at EMU. The Saturday competition will consist of best of 5 elimination matches. At the end of bowling on Saturday there will be four qualifiers for play on Sunday. The final day of the Tournament, Sunday, March 21, the semi-final matches will begin at 12:30 p.m. and be immediately followed by the championship match. The semi-finals and finals will be televised live on ESPN. |
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