Bowling Often Comes at a Cost

There’s nothing but bad news for New South Wales lawn bowling clubs, and many of them are up in arms about it. The RNSWBA, Royal New South Wales Bowling Association, made the announcement this week that all clubs in the region will need to pay a $5,000 fee in order to be able to host state pennant finals. $5,000 may not seem like a lot of money, especially when you’re talking about lawn bowling clubs that get monthly or yearly revenue from their members. But when you consider that the fee for hosting the finals used to be $500, you can easily see why so many club organizers are irate over the substantially increased fee. So why the spike in price, and is it really as unfair as the clubs are claiming?

The hike in the finals fee is ultimately to benefit all members, according to the RNSWBA. This money will be placed into a pool so that other clubs, as well as the hosting club, can withdraw from it whenever their club needs it, such as when they need to travel and cover expenses for it. With current travel expenses for one club being $7,000, one can see why a better solution is necessary. But because of the enormous cost already, will a pool of $5,000 really be enough to solve the problem; especially when that price alone isn’t enough to cover the costs of one club’s travel expenses?

The other side of it, says the RNSWBA, is that smaller clubs need not worry about being able to pay the new price of $5,000. It’s the smaller clubs, especially those in Zone 8, that are especially worried about not being able to meet the new fees. But, the association comes back at those remarks saying that small clubs would never be able to put on that kind of tournament anyway. With state pennant finals so huge and encompassing so many different players, the association says that smaller clubs wouldn’t be able to afford it, with our without the hefty cost just to host it. But, that’s also not the case, says arguers against the increase. Small clubs did in fact host these finals before, and there’s no reason they should be cut out from hosting eligibility because of ridiculous costs.

So who’s right? It’s really hard to say. It is hard to argue that lawn bowlers don’t need help with traveling expenses when they clearly do. But should smaller clubs really be the ones to pay the price? Is $5,000 really a reasonable price to expect clubs to pay, when it’s so much more costly than it once was? It doesn’t really seem so.