(Reno, NV, October 3, 2005) --- Faced with trying to overcome a slowdown in entries and growing cancellations, the management of the Kingpin Million Dollar Challenge announced today the need to postpone the highly anticipated tournament.

Dave Woodruff, spokesperson for the Kingpin continued, "The recent natural disasters along America's Gulf Coast, which displaced more than one million people, along with surging gas prices and major corporate layoffs, have directly and indirectly impacted the Kingpin Million Dollar Challenge and has left us no other alternative but to postpone the event until 2006."

Woodruff added, "We apologize profusely for the inconvenience this is going to cause those bowlers who have already committed." All contestants will be offered a full refund of any and all funds they have paid the Kingpin organizers. Entrants will be notified via email and regular mail over the next two to four weeks with updated details for the 2006 event.

Again, the timing of this announcement only reflects the lengths to which we have gone to try to implement the event as scheduled.

Kingpin organizers will keep you informed and updates will be posted as it becomes available.

Till then scroll down this page to read some comments on the cancellation.

From the heartland, for what it's worth . . . by Jim Goodwin

A few years ago, the National Bowling Stadium in Reno announced the $1,000,000 Stadium Classic, designed to bring traffic to Reno during the off years of ABC/WIBC events. - CANCELLED

At Bowl Expo 2001, the Dubai World Challenge was announced with a $1 million first place. Talk about bad timing! After 9-11-01, no one wanted to travel anywhere. - CANCELLED

In the summer of 2003, the Professional Women's Bowling Association cancelled their tour in midseason. Shortly after, WIBC acquired PWBA's assets and announced they would bring the women's tour back in late 2003 or 2004. - IT DIDN'T HAPPEN

In June 2005, USBC announced that the return of the PWBA, which it now owns, has been delayed indefinitely unless a "manufacturer or entrepreneur step up to offer sponsorship" - PWBA RETURN POSTPONED INDEFINITELY

The Kegel's Million Team Tournament, with international teams from around the world, a 2004 event offering a $1,000,000 bonus to any team breaking the 4000 barrier. - CANCELLED

October 3rd - The Kingpin Million Dollar Challenge, bowling's first event to "GUARANTEE" a million dollar first prize with the endorsement and backing of the USBC, Bowlers Journal International Magazine, and nine bowling industry manufacturing companies - POSTPONED (or cancelled?)

We were hoping we would never have to write this essay . . .

The postponement and likely future cancellation of the Kingpin event is especially hard to take because of its high profile and wide range of endorsement within the industry. In Orlando, Florida, at Bowl Expo in late June, the Kingpin owners and principles stood up at a press conference with about 30 people from the media and sponsors, and promised the event would be held October 22-30 "no matter what".

Not only did they promise to have the event, they said they were committed to "a 3-5 year plan". "We have way too much invested for this to be a one-time event," said Kingpin partner Dave Woodruff. They also acknowledged that they knew they would lose money the first year, but said they were willing to take the loss for future gain. They said they had "over 700 entries" at that time.

At that press conference, one of bowling's most respected journalist, Chuck Pezzano, stood up and over a period of 5-10 minutes, asked the partners every tough question they should have been asked. Pezzano expressed reasons for skepticism based on past events that had made promises and not delivered. They answered every question from Pezzano and others, saying that "the event would be held", "we know we'll lose money," "we're in this for the long run", "our goal is to excite and unite the industry".

Jack Mordini, USBC's Chief Operating Officer, sat at the head table that day with the Kingpin partners and expressed pride that USBC had changed its rules to certify the event. He also announced that the Kingpin would bond the event under the USBC bonding program. He said in its entire 110 year history, the American Bowling Congress had never bonded a tournament, but USBC would bond this one.

When asked exactly what bonding this event meant, Mordini said the details would be "forthcoming". Maybe we missed it, but we never saw those details. Did they bond entry fees only, or the entire $2.2 million guaranteed prize fund? What about bowlers losses for airline and hotel cancellations, not to mention the inconvenience of taking a vacation to bowl in this event, buying new equipment to get ready for the competition, or spending countless hours practicing in anticipation of bowling for a cool million.

We were told by KMDC publicist Joan Romeo within the past two weeks that "entries were close to 1000", but she said the KMDC group was not happy with that number. Romeo also shared that bowlers from 10 different countries were entered in the event.

When KMDC Tournament Director Frank Ellenburg first told us about this event about 18 months ago, he asked us and several others in our group how many entries we thought it would get. We were skeptical and said 'about 300'. We remained skeptical until we met the partners at Bowl Expo and witnessed their apparent sincerity. Only then did we think it had a chance to succeed, but it still depended on the owners willingness to take a loss the first year or two. Most of us believed their promise to do that.

After a conversation in late August with Kingpin owner John Gumas, we also felt good about the event's chances, because he said NBC Sports had committed to promote the event's television show and shared that NBC was excited about it. The television component of the event had the most potential to make money in the future.

The official statement issued by KMDC on October 3 said the event was postponed due to the impact of "the recent national disasters" "surging gas prices" and "major corporate layoffs". The Bowlers Journal Special Cybereport of October 3 said the same thing and added that, "NBC television was contacted in regard to staging the event at another time, and reportedly thought it was a reasonable idea considering all the problems created by Katrina and Rita".

Please - give us a break! We suspect that very few of those entered in the KMDC came from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama and Rita had very little if any affect on the Texas entries. Gas prices? Maybe a few California bowlers were affected, but most were flying in for the event, and a few bucks at the pump was not going to stop somebody from spending $2000-$3000 to bowl in this event. And corporate layoffs? Are they blaming this on Enron?

Maybe lack of publicity might have been a contributing factor? We only received two press releases after Bowl Expo between July 1 and October 1, and nothing was written about the great international players and Team USA players who would be competing, or about the details of the television production, or about who the TV announcers would be. The bowling world should have been inundated with publicity about this event in the past few months. The KMDC had some momentum at Bowl Expo, but with very little information coming from their headquarters, it soon evaporated.

On the USBC website, bowl.com, October 3, communications staffer Lucas Wiseman wrote "sources at the Kingpin Challenge say entries were not high enough to sustain the tournament's guaranteed prize fund." This post was later removed from bowl.com, and on October 4, it was replaced by a new statement with a quote from Jack Mordini:

"Obviously, USBC is disappointed the event is not going forward, but we understand the reasons behind the postponement. USBC initially became involved in this event to protect the interest of our members, and we have received assurances that complete refunds will be offered to bowlers."

Wiseman's explanation for the cancellation may be the most accurate. Did they really have 1000 entries as some said?

Mordini's statement is very politically correct, but there was a little more at stake here than protecting USBC members interest. Reputations are damaged. Credibility is now in question. Integrity is compromised. Promises were made and broken. Bowling has suffered another black eye. And what are the details of that bond USBC had on this event?

Isn't this the nightmare scenario some anticipated? If USBC bonded this event, wasn't it at least implied that it would in fact happen? What good is a bond or USBC certification other than to insure entry fees are not lost? Obviously, it doesn't prevent the entire event from being lost, which was everyone's reason for concern and skepticism.

We told the KMDC partners at Bowl Expo that to have a chance for success, they really needed to find a way to get BPAA involved, and the PBA. John Gumas told us they made a very good offer this year to the PBA that was rejected. After that, we thought they would get through this first event and go after BPAA and PBA again for next year. Now, next year may never come.

Postponed? If the KMDC comes back after this, it will be a miracle, and based on the history of this type of thing in this industry, it's becoming very difficult to believe in miracles.

Republished courtesy of BJI Cyber Report
October 16, 2005

The bowling community is still reeling over the postponement of the Kingpin Million Dollar Challenge three weeks before the event was to be held. The news had to be especially disappointing to the 13 companies which lent their support to the event … yes, including Bowlers Journal International.

"If the same opportunity came again with some other credible entity, I'd probably do the same thing," said Keith Hamilton, President of Luby Publishing, BJI's parent company. "I looked into the owners' backgrounds, and also into those involved in the event, and found them to be credible.

Therefore, I felt it was worth getting involved. I certainly hope this incident won't deter others who wish to venture into our sport, and I can only encourage those sponsors who got involved with the Kingpin to get involved with other such new ventures. Otherwise, we will never grow as an industry and nothing new will happen at the bowler level.

But I do feel terrible for all those people who lost money on airline tickets, etc. It was a real shame. But as far as the current Kingpin moving forward? ... Well, let's just say that it's in the bowlers' hands now."


Steve Sanders, head of Pinacle Events, had a different take on the Kingpin postponement. "People in the industry knew there was a risk, so to them, what happened is not a surprise. But the megabuck promoters have been put in a very precarious position.

When Buddy Finkelberg backed out of his big [American Dream] event years ago, Sam's Town and I sat down and said, 'OK, we're going to make good.'

I can't do that this time because they have just postponed it, not cancelled."