USBC Urethane Survey Results: Majority Support Change

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) logo

The United States Bowling Congress (USBC) has released results from its public survey on urethane bowling balls, revealing that a majority of respondents support some form of change to how urethane is used in certified competition.

The one-question survey, distributed via email and social media, collected 20,943 responses. USBC used multiple channels to segment responses by audience group, including tournament participants, league bowlers, and the general bowling public.

According to USBC urethane survey, 57.32% of respondents supported some kind of change regarding urethane governance. Among them, 36.61% favored a full ban on urethane balls in all USBC-certified competitions. 17.63% preferred tighter specifications such as a minimum hardness of 78D, while 3.08% supported restricting urethane only in national tournaments.

By contrast, 38.67% of respondents preferred to keep current rules, and 4% said the issue did not concern them.

While no final decision has been made, USBC stated that the results point toward the need for new governance. The Equipment Specifications Committee will now review all feedback and determine a recommendation, that may include changes to national tournament rules - such as removing certain high-performance urethane balls from national events - or increasing the manufacturing hardness standard for urethane balls going forward.

In the USBC urethane survey results, USBC made it clear that no changes are currently being considered for local leagues or tournaments that choose to allow urethane. USBC is also not considering any changes that would justify a return or refund for any bowling ball.

For clarification, USBC referenced existing definitions in the Equipment Specifications Manual. Only high-performance urethane bowling balls would be considered for removal from national tournaments. Non-high-performance balls are not expected to be affected by any changes under discussion.

Examples of potentially impacted high-performance urethane balls include:

• Storm Pitch Black

• Storm IQ Tour 78/U

• Hammer Purple Pearl

• Hammer Black Hammer 78D

Examples of high-performance balls not under consideration:

• NU Blue Hammer

• Storm Level

• Motiv Tank Yellowjacket

Non-high-performance balls not affected:

• Storm Mix

• Hammer Axe

• Motiv Sniper

USBC emphasized that this list is not exhaustive but meant to illustrate the types of urethane equipment currently under review.

Full USBC Urethane Survey Results

The Equipment Specifications Committee is expected to meet in late August or early September 2025.

As a reminder, on July 23, USBC released an official statement expressing increasing concerns about the ongoing use of urethane bowling balls in certified competition.