KIRK VON KREUGER, PBA TOUR DIRECTOR
Flo: How long have you been the Tour Director?
Kirk: Almost eleven years.
Flo: And what did you do before?
Kirk: I bowled on Tour for 2½ years. Before that crew military of traffic control.
Flo: What do you think of the format now as it used to be?
Kirk: I think it’s a very good format when you compare these two formats. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. They’re both bowling formats but they are distinctly different. And, I think they appeal to different people and different bowlers as well. Some of the bowlers like it and some of the bowlers don’t like. The analogy I like to use is like the old format I like to compare to a marathon in running. You bowl lots of games, it’s cumulative and then the last guy standing in the end wins the event. I like to compare our single elimination format to a sprint. It addresses a whole different line set for the player. You gotta get off to a good start. Puts a premium on winning your matches. The best sprinter in the world is not necessarily the best marathon runner and vice-versa and some are good at both. And that’s what we’re seeing out here. But we found over the course of time is that the great players always figure it out and it really doesn’t matter what the format is. The great players usually rise to the top and statistically we are continuing to see that.
Flo: How many full-time people are working behind the scenes getting the Tour running from week to week?
Kirk: I staff three full-time player services people, a tour logistics coordinator. We usually travel with two personal relations people; we’re down on now. I travel an events coordinator, an assistant tour director, myself as well as a one-lane maintenance person.
Flo: Do you have truck drivers?
Kirk: No, we subcontract that out. We own the trailers and then subcontract that out to a company named Trailer Transit. We give them our schedule and they come pick up and deliver our trailers to the event. We have trailers; two to support player services and then the trailer in front carries everything we need to support the TV show.
Flo: When the TV show is done on Sunday, how long will it take you to go to your next stop?
Kirk: We usually designate Monday as our travel day. Sunday after the show is over, we’ll be completely out of here within four hours. It takes a little longer to set and is a lot easier to tear things down and put ‘em away. The trailers are usually picked up on Sunday evening. We give Trailer Transit about a day and a half to get the trailers to the next stop depending upon where it is. Our standard delivery day is Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. The PBA staff travels on Monday and we arrive on Tuesday at 9:00 a.m. and get ready to set up for the next show.
Flo: So, it’s non stop.
Kirk: It’s non stop, basically. And, that’s between standard events. When you throw in a major like the U.S. Open, then they overlap. I’ve got to split staff and trucks. Like when we were doing the show in Parkersburg, for example, we were conducting ProAms in New Brunswick for the U.S. Open.
Flo: Where do you see the Tour in ten years?
Kirk: I see the Tour continuing to appeal to our core bowling audience but also branching out and trying to embrace the general sports enthusiast as well. I think that’s been our focus for the last four or five years – is to create a forum that not only a bowler could understand but a general sports enthusiast could understand. We continue to reach out to those people and broaden our sponsorship base. As we do that we continue to increase prize funds and probably increase our presence in arena events. And as we continue to gain sponsorships, we would also increase our schedule as well.
Flo: Is there anything you would like add?
Kirk: I have a message to the fans, and obviously our bowling fans know this, but bowling is a great sport. And it’s a great sport to watch. And, I can say without reservation that anybody that comes and watches one of our events on site or comes to one of our telecasts goes away happy. They come, they’re surprised if this is something they haven’t watched in the past or if they’re not big bowling enthusiasts and they’re generally entertained because it’s a real sporting event. It has all the elements of a sporting event – the drama, the excitement. And, they go away happy. I just encourage anybody who hasn’t had a chance to come out either on site to watch an event or to bowl in a ProAm to do so and, of course, I strongly urge everybody to watch our show because it’s a great show.
ROSIE LEUTZINGER, PBA PUBLICIST
Flo: How long have you been doing your job at this capacity?
Rosie: This is my second season. I started October 2004 and a week later, I was out on the road. It’s been fun.
Flo: What did you do before?
Rosie: I worked in Personal Relations at the University of Washington when I was a student there. I did that for a couple years. Then I got an internship with the Seattle Mariner for one season. That’s actually where I met Jason Carr who was the other PR person here. So, after I worked with the Mariners, I worked for a couple years and went to grad school up in Syracuse for
journalism. I realized I wanted to do PR instead of journalism and then when I came back, I heard that Jason had opening and that he was hiring. It just all worked out and I’m very lucky.
Flo: I want you to give me a day in the life of Rosie.
Rosie: It depends on the day. When we’re on the road, we will fly in on Sunday night and Monday is our off day but you end up not really taking the day off because there’s so much to catch up on with e-mails from the week before. Usually I end up working for a few hours Monday. And, then once the tournament starts, everyday is pretty much 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 or 11:00 at night. Friday nights are really long and then Saturdays are prime day. So, it’s pretty relaxing on Saturdays. Sunday’s the fun day; the show day. You don’t have a ton to do, the show just happens.
Flo: What are your primary duties?
Rosie: I deal with the media. I set up interviews with the players. We’re just the liaison, the go-between, the players and the media so they have a little preparation for the interviews. So, we work with the local media and the national media to try to pitch everything to both local and national and hope that they cover bowling. It’s very hard work getting people to respect bowling. National media is very hard. It’s a challenge but it’s rewarding.
Flo: Do you enjoy what you do?
Rosie: I do, I love it. I think to be out here traveling six months out of your life. It’s hard. I’d love to have a family but I’m lucky that I don’t because it would be very hard. I love the staff. It’s like family out here. It’s like that with the bowlers too.
Flo: You should be able to answer this, what do you think of the tour format versus the old format, like the format last week?
Rosie: When I first got here I was real quick to be defensive of what the PBA does, but I think I learned a lot about bowling. Some of the bowlers get frustrated with a lot of the things we do and it’s hard for them to see the reasons why we do those things. But, at the same time, I try to really listen to them and take what they say as learning from their side. Because I don’t know, I came into this not knowing anything about bowling. So, I definitely grown to appreciate that format. I think it’s hard from a working standpoint and it’s a very hard format. It’s just really long hours for them too. They’re bowling a lot of games and I think that it’s not necessarily boring but it’s just game after game after game. I think for the fans, it’s very exciting. Even some of the early matches, you see a lot of great match-ups. But, I also see the side of it that when you come in on Friday night, there’s only four matches. When it’s round robin, there’s twelve matches going on or however many there are. There’s a lot of matches. Everybody bowls everybody. So, I think I see the benefits of every side. I think if you have a few events of each, I think that’s the best way to do it. And, I think that’s what we’re aiming toward.
Flo: Where do you see the tour in ten years?
Rosie: Ten years, wow. It’s tough because I feel like we’re really close to breaking through and getting the national publicity that we deserve. You see bowling in commercials and I think people are definitely starting respect it and understand it more. Then there’s days I think it’s not a lost cause but there’s only so much you can do to get people’s attention. Maybe bowling’s a sport that will never get the level that baseball or football gets. But then again, you look at sports like bass fishing and poker, all these sports that have all the sudden taken off so it gives you hope that bowling can one day get there. So, I think in ten years, if it the PBA keeps taking risks and marketing it in the right way, I think bowling can be right up there. And, I think that something else that will help is the guys like Tommy Jones, the young guys, help. Guys like Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhart are good for their sport. It’s take something to click with the fans to make them pay attention whether it’s our younger guys or commercials but I think we’re heading in the right direction.
Flo: Do you have any comments for the fans? If staff receives e-mails from fans, do they pay attention to e-mails coming into the site?
Rosie: I think so. I think that sometimes most people are venting their frustrations. We definitely read them. I think the most important thing is for people to be patient and realize that the PBA has been around for a long time but success doesn’t just happen overnight. I think people see a lot of changes in the PBA and say that “they don’t know what they’re doing”. You just have to be patient and we want it to succeed as much as the fans do. We’re on the side of the bowlers and the fans. We’re all in this together.
Flo: We’re glad to see you back here because it’s been too long. We really missed. I think everybody here’s missed this. It shows.
Rosie: Yes, it’s definitely packed. We get good crowds for the evening sessions but for fans to be here wall-to-wall, it’s amazing. We weren’t totally surprised because we knew this is a good bowling town, but it is very exciting to see all of the support.
PLAYERS’ SERVICES TRAILER
With R.J. Broege and Mike McManman
Flo: What’s the percentage of ball weight that you drill up?
R.J./Mike: Probably 70% 15 pounds and 30% 16 pounds.
Flo: How many balls do you drill per stop?
R.J./Mike: We average anywhere from 150 a stop now. It seems to be going down as the season goes on ‘cause everybody’s stocked. Yeah, it’s 150 or so.
Flo: When the format goes back to “old format”, does that change the amount of balls you drill?
R.J./Mike: Yeah, it pretty much doubles the amount that we drill.
Flo: How long have you been doing this?
R.J.: This is my first year.
Mike: This is my third.
Flo: What did you do before?
R.J.: I worked on the ABC Columbia booth. I ran the booth for ABC tournaments.
Mike: I was at the Bowling Stadium for 7½ years. I was a mechanic there.
Flo: How did you get involved in this?
Mike: The way I got involved is the guy who’s actually the boss of the truck, him and I are from the same town in Oregon. I’ve known him for about 30 years. We both ended up in Reno. I got laid off from the Stadium and he needed somebody out here. I didn’t really qualify for the job but he knew I was reliable and could probably pick it up. So, he had the opening and asked me if I wanted to do it. I said, “Yeah, I’ll give it a try.”
R.J.: Most of the time when you come and work out here it’s by reputation or you need to know somebody. I knew Jeff Mark and Jeff Mark was moving out of the truck and I was a good friend of his since I was 15 years old. He knew I drilled balls for the ABC tournaments. We drilled a high volume of bowling balls and that would qualify me to come here and do this. It was an honor to come and drill for the pros.
Flo: So what do you think of it now that you’re doing this full-time? Do you like it?
R.J.: Yeah, I like it. It’s a lot of work.
Mike: Yeah, it’s like a lot of hours. We’re usually about sixty hours a week. A lot of it is days like today where we have to be here while they’re bowling. We’re not doing much but we have to man the truck. But, for me it turned out to be sort of a semi-retirement. I wasn’t doing anything after I got laid off from the Stadium. And, now I’m working half a year. I got the rest of the year off. I make enough money to get buy. I get to do a little traveling. Get to see bits and pieces of the country.
Flo: Do you see yourself doing this for awhile?
R.J.: Yes, I’ll be doing this for a few years.
Flo: What do you do during the off-season?
R.J.: Well it’s my first year so. I’m not sure. I used to live in Vegas and I would have a pro shop at the Castaways before they tore it down. I worked there for 4 years. Now, I live in Connecticut. I’m gonna try to maybe open a shop up.
Mike: Well, right now, I’m not doing much. I’ll probably work a couple senior stops this summer and I just moved back to Oregon last year and bought a condo. So, I’ll probably spend the immediate future getting that set up the way I want.
Flo: Where do you see the tour ten years from now? Do you think they’re going in the right direction?
R.J.: Yeah, I think they’re trying to make it more of a prestigious thing to be a part of now. They don’t want just any joe-schmo to come and bowl. They have an exempt field and that’s make it a little better to be here. It’s an honor; we want you here; you qualified to be here; you get to be here every week and that’s better than just having anybody come in. The TQRs are the way to go.
Mike: I don’t know whether you agree with it or not, the changes they’ve made. They had to do something. The PBA was almost dead in the water. And, they had to do something to get people interested; kind-of invigorated. The bad thing like we say, is every year we see guys who not end up being exempt and it’s like a forced retirement. We hate seeing some of these guys go. But it’s kind-of the nature of the beast right now and that’s the way it is. Everybody has to play by the same rules, I guess.