THINGS TO KNOW (FAQ)

Here's some details about the Main Event that may answer some of your questions about how it all works, as well as some helpful travel information.  If you can think of anything else that might be helpful to be on this page, let us know and we'll add it on!

Some things to take note of:

1)   As in previous years, we will not pre-announce the exact lane conditions for the event.  We will tell you, however, that the goal is to have a very challenging and fair, but not impossible, lane condition for the Singles event, and a typically much easier ‘house’ condition for the Doubles.  In order to stay on time, there won’t be re-oiling of the Doubles lanes between the two doubles squads.  Doubles is only 3 games, so the condition will hold up just fine.  If you like the fresh, bowl Doubles early.  If you like them a little drier, bowl Doubles later!  Singles will of course have fresh oil at the start of every squad.  Also, last year we used a lane pattern very similar to what a college tournament bowled on the previous week.  That event won’t be at Texas Station this year, but even so we’re going to make sure that the two conditions won’t be the same, so our college-aged Main Event bowlers won’t get any perceived extra advantage.  The bottom line is that lane conditions are an inexact science, as most of you know, and we’ll strive for a fair, fun, and challenging condition for all—so bowl on what’s out there, heh heh!!!

2)   Texas Station is offering significantly lower lodging rates this year- $49 for all tournament nights, including Christmas night.  That’s a very good deal.  Call Texas Station at 1-800-654-8888 to book these rooms by Dec. 4 at the latest.  They’re under the group name “Junior Bowlers Tour Southwest”. 

3)   Probably the most polarizing question regarding our tournament is the issue of re-entries.  Some of you love the fact that you could re-enter as much as you wanted last year (which generates a lot of extra prize fund), and some of you hated that fact. Our compromise was that for 2006, you may re-enter ONCE ONLY in the Singles tournament.  Moreover, you can for the first time PREPAY for your re-entry when you sign up for the Main Event (goodbye, lottery!!).  In the Doubles, however, you can re-enter as much as you want (or switch partners), space permitting. 

4)   That ‘space permitting’ thing I just wrote is a pretty big deal.  With the 6 singles and 4 doubles squads, that allows for approximately 1,000 singles entries, and 400 doubles team entries.  If entries continue to increase at the rate they have been (we’re cautiously optimistic they will), we should be able to sell this event out.  So, what I’m telling you is, the only way to guarantee your second singles squad is to prepay for it when you sign up.  You can always withdraw from the re-entry on-site if you want.  Secondly, for the Doubles, while unlimited re-entries will be allowed, if everyone who enters singles also enters doubles, there won’t be room for ANY re-entries, so bowl with the partner you really want to bowl with first!  The Doubles is an experiment, but we think it might be really popular- we’ll see!

5)   The infamous “Last Chance Squad”- and the even more infamous line forming for it at 2 AM- is going, going, GONE!  I can see the celebrations beginning already.  After the 1 PM squad on the 28^th, we’ll know our complete semifinalist field.

Some highlights and changes about the 2006 Main Event, and why we made those changes, include:  

1)   The Open Scratch Division first place scholarship is now guaranteed at a minimum $5,000!  Not bad, huh?  Part of the raised scholarships come from a projected increase in total entries, and part of it comes from the increase in the scratch entry fee to $100.  This came from feedback from the scratch bowlers themselves, who overwhelmingly said they’d be willing to pay a little bit more to play for a lot more.  We think you’ll agree $5,000 for first (not to mention $100 for 24^th) is a pretty amazing prize fund, and let’s face it, you’re spending quite a bit just to be in Vegas for the week, so an extra $20 on the entry fee to play for that much more is a pretty fair trade, we think.

2)   We will also be running an optional Doubles tournament at the same time as the Main Event Singles!  There’s no other junior doubles tournament in Vegas over the holidays, and many bowlers asked if we could do anything about that, so here you go!  The Singles tournament, as in past years, will be conducted on a challenging lane condition.  But, the Doubles will be on an easy, ‘house’ lane condition, so it’s meant to be a much more fun-type event.  That said, we’re still guaranteeing $1,000 for first place in both Scratch Doubles and Handicap Doubles on just a $40 team entry fee, so we hope you’ll fit in some doubles fun into your holiday schedule!

3)   To fit in both singles and doubles, we’ve added a third day of qualifying, which will hopefully also make your scheduling as flexible as possible.  As far as we know, there are still the other side tournaments going on at Sam’s Town and The Orleans, and between our Singles and Doubles, and their events, there should be plenty of time to do everything!   You can bowl doubles first or singles first as well- we want to be as flexible as possible for you!

4)   We’ve secured some great new sponsorship, including Ebonite, our new title sponsor!  Ebonite reps will be at the tournament all week long, including some pretty darned big names in the bowling world (stay tuned!)  We’re also working on finalizing plans for a special clinic-demo day type thing with the Ebonite folks which should be very special, so stay tuned for that as well!   Our previous sponsors were great, but Ebonite will be much more hands-on, adding another great angle to the Main Event experience!

5)   To give more bowlers a chance for continued bowling, we’ll be taking more bowlers than last year (a total of 154) into the semifinal round!  And, to give those semifinalists more to shoot for, we’ve developed an exciting 16-person stepladder finals (it only takes five rounds) for the Open Scratch and Handicap divisions!

6)   All the other neat details of our event will remain the same: the optional brackets, the squad leader bonuses, the “Under 18” prize for younger scratch bowlers, the videotaped finals, the oodles of stats, my sultry microphone voice (hee hee), and all the other little things that we hope make this tournament stand out as truly special!

Whew!  As you can see, we’re working our butts off to make the 2006 Main Event as good as it can be and then some!  As always, please feel free to contact me any time for questions, answers, or just to shoot the bowling breeze- we want to be the most interactive tournament out there.  Most of the changes above came directly from bowlers’ input, so your voice is being heard, even if we didn’t make every change that every individual mentioned.