Tom Clark began his career in journalism, starting his own newspaper, The Syracuse Sporting Times, in Syracuse, N.Y., after graduating from Buffalo State College with dual degrees in journalism and bowling, he told the Buffalo News in August 2020.
From there through a few different stops in various newspaper positions, he ended up at USA Today in 2000, where he was the sports assignment editor for golf and tennis when Tiger Woods and Serena Williams ruled the course and court, respectively.
But he never lost his love of bowling, eventually doing a weekly bowling column during the early stages of USAToday.com.
He finally left USA Today in 2005 and became the United States Bowling Congress’ chief marketing officer. But the PBA also had come calling at the time and, eventually, Clark joined up with the new ownership in 2008, becoming deputy commissioner.
Clark now has served as PBA commissioner since 2011, and was on site when the KIA PBA Tournament of Champions returned to AMF Riviera Lanes in Fairlawn recently.
Snier on Bowling sat down with Clark to discuss the PBA and what fans can look for in the future. Our talk preceded the PBA’s recent ban on urethane bowling balls that are more than two years old.
SOB: How has the return to Akron been?
CLARK: It’s been fantastic, the place was packed every day, the pro-am was sold out, the TV show has been sold out for weeks. It feels great for the PBA and the players because there is so much history here. When we first brought it back in 2018 it was one of the great moments of my career. We do everything on the same pair of lanes where the first 300 was bowled on TV.
SOB: How have things been going this season?
CLARK: Really well. It’s our first year back after the pandemic with fans, and we’ve had packed houses for the U.S Open in Indianapolis and in Texas for the Players Championship. We’ve also had great crowds at our Tier events like in Kokomo. Great players are all rising to occasion.
SOB: It’s a different PBA now than years before at Riviera. I know you are trying to get new demographic now. But how do you try to keep both sides happy?
CLARK: I think we’ve added a lot more entertainment, instructional and social media to surround all of the things that we’re doing. FOX Bet has gotten involved. Players have always been youthful, young and exciting. Guys like (Player of the Year) Kyle Troup are attracting younger fans. We have different locations like Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine, that has a young fan base that is loud and excitable. We had the high school teams here this week to cheer for players. Players have been great with keeping kids involved. The youth bowling in America has been strong, college and high school, and all those kids are really in tune with the PBA. We just need them to tell their friends.
SOB: Speaking of trying to get new bowlers. You know league bowlers are going to be there. High school bowling has gotten huge. How do you get them to look at the PBA as maybe I can do that someday?
CLARK: We have to be inspirational. For decades we were really only on cable TV. With our FOX deal, we have more exposure, more replays, more national broadcasts and live shows. The kids are more tied into that and have more opportunities to see bowlers become stars and winning $100,000 for first place today and Kyle Troup winning $250,000 in one event, $500,00 for the year. When the players are making good money and they are on national TV becoming stars, they are aspirational and inspirational, and that’s when kids want to know how they can be the next guys out here.
SOB: How have the ball companies been to work with?
CLARK: There are less of them now, of course with consolidation, but all have been great.
SOB: Any changes under Bolero Corp. ownership (company took over Tour in September 2019)?
CLARK: It’s ended up running similar, but there has been more opportunities to have hosts that own the bowling centers that help from a scheduling standpoint. We’ve had more support from the bowling centers promoting the PBA. We’ve had from a sponsorship standpoints, been able to sell sponsorships in conjunction with bowling centers. In all those areas, it makes things a lot easier.
SOB: Sponsors, how have they reacted to the PBA?
CLARK: Growing that is the name of the game. KIA really enjoyed it last year and came on big this year. Guaranteed Rate is the title sponsor of the tour and came back. They all had options to come back and they did. They liked what we had done for them last year. Pabst came on as a trial and they re-upped and went bigger. These are intertwined in the shows and those are blue-chip type brands.
SOB: Has Bowlero helped with sponsorships?
CLARK: Absolutely. They have combined the sales proposition for potential sponsors by utilizing the reach that they have.
SOB: We know you are trying to limit travel for players. Are the days of the full-time Tour gone?
CLARK: I don’t think anything is ever gone. We do the best we can. If it was up to us, we would bowl all the time and give out $1 million a week and have everything on TV. That’s what you continue to build for by creating better media partnerships with FOX and the potential of combining with Bowlero to team up. There is definitely the right momentum to have more and more (stops). Bowlers want to bowl.
SOB: There is always strength in numbers. Do you feel you are where you want to be with stops right now?
CLARK: Coming out of the pandemic there were a lot of unknowns to start this year. We were worried that we could get shut down again. It’s hard to do exactly what you want. So we’ve been doing bigger events with multiple programs like we did with the Players Championship. If that continues, if the world becomes a more confident place where we know we can invest more in individual stops, we can do that. But I like the Players Championship the way it is. Sometimes some cool things come out of necessity, because of something like a pandemic. I think we learned a lot, and hopefully, we can use it to move forward.
SOB: There has been one controversy with Sean Rash situation (concerning use of urethane equipment). Was it a surprise that it bubbled over?
CLARK: I’m not surprised. I think that he would probably take it back if he could. Love Sean Rash and his passion for the game. It was a tough situation for me personally, but we handled it and moved on.
SOB: Tour has gone to testing for more ball hardness this year, which has been lax the past several years. Is this why, the urethane vs. resin controversy?
CLARK: It’s not really that. The USBC did some studies at the U.S. Open a couple of years ago that exposed a pheonomenon where some bowling balls were getting softer. It was no fault of anyone, neither the players nor manufaacturers. Everything is completely by the book, by the rules. We just decided this year to start implementing durometer testing on random equipment, and not just on one ball or type of ball. We’re ust collecting data and going that way.
SOB: Right now it’s just the top five in each event being tested. Do you see that expanding?
CLARK: What I really hope is that we have enough information from this year to have more of a full-proof rule in 2023 that eliminates the need to be random or test a lot on site. That’s my hope.
SOB: How long is the FOX TV contract?
CLARK: We are on through 2023, and will be able to renegotiate this year. Hopefully, it will go on.
SOB: Is FOX showing interest in continuing the partnership?
CLARK: Absolutely. They re-upped for 2023 already.