The League’s bowlers – and everyone in crown green land – face paying a new annual fee to help the sport’s governing body try to halt the decline and then grow the game.
A proposal to introduce an ‘Annual Development Player Fee’ of £1 per bowler per club will be introduced next year if approved by a meeting on Saturday 18th January.
That’s when the British Crown Green Bowling Association’s rules revision meeting at Winnington Park in Northwich will vote on an idea put forward by the new BCGBA board and seconded by Derbyshire.
If it goes ahead, the fee would run for an initial three-year term with all the money ring-fenced by the BCGBA to be spent in line with the recently published National Development Strategy.
A BCGBA spokesperson said: “Our sport is at a cross-roads – we have seen decline in clubs for many years and we need to stop this from happening.
“By the introduction of an Annual Development Player Fee we can stop this decline and sow the seeds of progression.
“At present we lag behind almost every other sport in terms of development.
“To enable the necessary development to happen (in crown green bowls), we have to review the funding of our support and activities.
“We want to show that a £1 investment can produce significant results and increase participation in the sport – year one alone in the strategy has a potential expenditure of almost £110,000.
“The opportunity and direction of our sport will be decided with the vote in January.