Bowling’s Back in the Arena: The Night It Finally Felt Like a Real Sport Again
- Erikas Jansonas
- 16 hours ago
- 3 min read
The 2025 PWBA Anniversary Open was a massive occasion for bowling. Everyone was talking about it. With so many photos and videos flooding social media, even those who weren’t at the Resch Center on Sunday night could feel like they were part of it. It was a breath of fresh air - just what bowling needed.
After WBA, USBC, and BPAA did the math, 6,559 spectators packed the Resch Center - a venue that holds up to 10,200 fans in its standard configuration for basketball, hockey, or indoor football events. That’s over 64% of the seats filled - not too shabby for an event where sitting on the other side of the pin deck (meaning one sector remains unseated) isn’t an option.
Of course, the organizers were intentionally aiming for a big crowd: it was an anniversary event, entry was free, several tournaments were merged into one, and thousands of youth bowlers (plus their families) were already in town. It worked. I do wonder what attendance would’ve looked like if it had been a regular PWBA title event. But this piece isn’t about that.
This time, let’s take a look back through history - looking at the most attendance-wise successful events, the ones that failed, and reflect on what bowling in arena can mean for the sport.
Bowling’s All-Time Attendance Record
6,559 spectators is a lot for bowling - no doubt about that. But it’s not the record.
The current attendance record belongs to the other women's bowling event - 2011 U.S. Women’s Open, where 8,017 fans watched the finals inside AT&T Stadium, home of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.
Built in 2009, the stadium was a perfect fit for bowling. With seating for 80,000, cutting-edge tech, and that “stadium feel,” it gave bowling something it rarely gets - true center-stage energy. Traditional bowling venues typically only fit a few hundred spectators around the lanes and don’t surround players with big-time atmosphere - AT&T Stadium was completely different.
The 2011 U.S. Women's Open was a huge success. It smashed the previous record of 7,212 fans, set at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit in 1995 during the BPAA U.S. Open - the most-attended PBA Tour event to this day.
So, if I’ve done my math right, the 2025 PWBA Anniversary Open ranks as the third most-attended bowling event in history. Well, at least in modern bowling. It’s followed by the 2004 USBC Masters at Miller Park, which had 4,303 spectators.
The BPAA All-Star Tournaments of the 1950s and 60s may have drawn similar numbers - venues like the National Guard Armory in Minneapolis had capacities over 8,000, but without verified public attendance records, those numbers are just speculation.
Not Every Bowling In Arena Attempt Worked
Stadium-sized bowling events come with big risks. And sometimes, they don’t pay off.
After the success of the 2004 Masters at Miller Park, expectations were high. But due to financial limitations and poor turnout in later years, the Masters quickly returned to smaller venues. But in 2007, the organizers took one last shot - bringing the event back to Miller Park.
On paper, the timing looked great. The local footbal team played the day after, meaning no sports competition that Sunday. Two lanes were built, four finalists were ready, and 12,000 seats were opened for fans. Everything was in place. Except the crowd. Only 2,712 people showed up, despite tickets ranging from $10 to $75, to watch 25-year-old future Hall-of-Famer Sean Rash win the title and $50,000 top prize.
That disappointment left a lasting mark.
Since then, no PBA Tour event has returned to a stadium venue - and with Bowlero not focused on arena-style events, there’s little indication that will change soon. But maybe the success in Green Bay will spark some discussions, hope, and courage to change that.
Bowling may be a small sport compared to football, basketball, or hockey - sports that fill stadiums every weekend - but it’s big enough to say that the vast majority of people have tried knocking down pins at least once.
Big events like the PWBA Anniversary Open are important - not just for fan excitement, but for the sport’s image, growth, and the players themselves. They show what bowling could look like if we all put in just a little more effort. After all, who really wants to sit in a poorly ventilated, rusty bowling alley under a shopping mall for three hours watching bowling without proper seating for fans?
We may be small, but we have big hearts. Big enough to fill stadiums. We just need a little more courage to open the big doors - and let the fans walk in.
