March 17, 1985 – The Journal Times – This Day in Bowling History
TONAWANDA. NY. (AP) -Kathy Coburn quit the Ladies Pro Bowlers Tour to become a teacher because, her sister Cindy explained, “She didn’t want to work for less than minimum wage.”
Cindy Coburn, who enters her sixth year on the LPBT this month in Florida, has been one of the top (ive tour money winners over the past several years. Still, her earnings come nowhere near qualifying her for the big-money lists in sports, and that’s the big problem on the women’s bowling tour.
“I’ve been making some decent money, but it’s nothing you’re going to be able to retire off.” said Coburn, who made about $133,000 in 23 tournaments last year and finished fourth on the earnings list. That’s before expenses, however. Figure about $12,000 a year in hotel, transportation and entry fees, and a more accurate picture of her income emerges.
“I figured it out.” she said. “In order to have a good year, you have to average about $1,000 a tournament. And right now. fifth place is about $1.000. To me. that means five girls on the tour are making a living at it.”
Coburn, who does not have any outside sponsorship, estimated about 60 percent of the bowlers on the tour are sponsored, but even those bowlers “are just getting by.”
Why are women bowlers paid so poorly in comparison with their counterparts in tennis and golf? The answers, according to LPBT President John Falzone. are intertwined.
“We’re in a chicken-and-egg situation.” he said. “Which comes first? If we had television we’d have corporate sponsorship. If we had corporate sponsorship, we’d probably have TV.”
Falzone said the women’s pro bowlers tour, which has neither a major corporate sponsor nor a television package this year, is looking for “that one magic thing” that will attract one or the other. One thing that hurts attempts to market the game, according to Coburn, is the less than flattering image television gives of the recreational bowler. “When you see a bowler on television, they always make you look like a clown”, she said. “The people fall down and their form is terrible. It’s like Laverne and Shirley”.
“In order to be successful,” she said, “Our image has to be changed. It’s like people think of us like we’re truck drivers. They don’t think a feminine individual can be a professional bowler”.