Two tournaments cancelled, one postponed, 2010 Masters moved to Denmark
03/03/10
Within in a week, the 2010 European Bowling Tour lost two of its tournaments and was reduced to 19 events as the Austria Challenge (EBT Silver) in Vienna and the Ankara Open (EBT Gold) in Turkey have been cancelled by the organizers.
The EBT also announced that the tournament in Torneo Internazionale di Roma, Italy was postponed from September to November and the 2010 EBT Masters will be moved from Vienna to Aalborg, Denmark.
The good news for the players, who have already registered for Vienna and/or Ankara is that non refundable flight tickets will be refunded by the organizers.
The inaugural Austria Challenge was a newcomer on the EBT and created as a side tournament to the 2010 European Masters, the season ending event of the 2009 EBT in which the top 16 men and top 16 women determine the top-ranked players in Europe.
Wolfgang Lohschmid (pictured right), organizer of the Austria Challenge, cited the low number of entries as the reason for the cancellation. With less than two months before the tournament (April 28 - May 5), Lohschmid was facing a loss of 20.000 Euro.
"I have done everything to keep this event alive," Lohschmid told Bowlingdigital. "A minor loss would have been ok for me as I had the support of the host center, Plus Bowling, and the Austrian Federation. I've sent out an email blast last week in which I explained the situation and asked not to wait any longer to register if someone is planning to bowl in the Austria Challenge but the outcome was practically zero."
Due to a clash with national leagues in Austria's neighbor countries and another tournament in Bratislava, Slovakia, Lohschmid has received less than 20 entries from Austria's border countries.
"I had only 5 German entries, 5 from Hungary, 4 from the Czech republic, 2 from Poland, one from Slovenia and none from Slovakia," Lohschmid stated. "I am very sad that I had to cancel the tournament but I promise the players will not have any financial loss through the cancellation. This is not Maribor."
The Maribor Open in Maribor, Slovenia, was founded in the year 2007 (review our Live Coverage) and Lohschmid and his tournament crew were hired by the organizer to run this event. The event which paid out 73.600 Euro (!!), more than most of the tournaments on the EBT at that time, drew only 93 players and just 25 from the host country. Maribor Open was terminated before it could get off the ground as an EBT event the following year. Sadly, neither Lohschmid and the players nor any other involved were refunded by the organizer.
Lohschmid is known as the organizer of the EBT "Gold" Columbia 300 Vienna Open emphasizes that the cancellation of the Austria Challenge will not affect the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open at all. Furthermore he announced that Vienna Open will continue in the coming years.
As usual Bowlingdigital will cover the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open (Sept. 28 - Oct. 3, 2010) live from Plus Bowling in Vienna with results and updates after each round including our much-anticipated high definition videos produced by Flavio Cuva
However, as the Austria Challenge was created to become the host of the 2010 EBT Masters, the European Tenpin Bowling Federation presidium decided to move the Masters to Aalborg, Denmark, where ETBF VP and EBT Director, Kim Thorsgaard Jensen is the manager of Lovvang Bowling Center. The Masters will now be conducted May 31st and June first immediately following Jensen's Bowltech Aalborg International 2010, an EBT "Gold" tournament.
The organizers of the Ankara Open originally scheduled from Sept. 18 through 26 at Rollhouse Bowling Center in Ankara, Turkey cited the "financial situation" as the reason for the cancellation of the EBT "Gold" tournament. The Ankara Open was the first EBT "Premier" (now Platinum) event (100.000 Euro prize fund required) but reduced the prize money in the following year in which it was contested as an EBT "Major".
According to the EBT, the Ankara Open organizers will not only cancel the tournament for 2010 but will not to continue to run the tournament in the coming years. With more than half of a year before the tournament should start, the EBT does "not expect any players to be damaged financially because of non refundable flight tickets". All fees to the ETBF are also paid.
On another note, the organizer of the first Torneo Internazionale di Roma in Rome, Italy, got the permission to postpone its tournament from Sept. 11-19 to Nov. 6-14 "due to a late scheduled reconstruction of the host Brunswick Bowling Rome.
The 2010 European Bowling Tour now features 19 tournaments in 17 countries and consists of 2 Platinum tournaments (formerly Premier), 6 Gold (formerly Major), 7 Silver (formerly Challenger) and 4 Satellite tournaments (new).
To view the revised 2010 EBT schedule including the champions thus far click here
EBT News
2010 European Bowling Tour now features 19 tournaments
Within in a week, the 2010 European Bowling Tour lost two of its tournaments and was reduced to 19 events as the Austria Challenge (EBT Silver) in Vienna and the Ankara Open (EBT Gold) in Turkey have been cancelled by the organizers.The EBT also announced that the tournament in Torneo Internazionale di Roma, Italy was postponed from September to November and the 2010 EBT Masters will be moved from Vienna to Aalborg, Denmark.
The good news for the players, who have already registered for Vienna and/or Ankara is that non refundable flight tickets will be refunded by the organizers.
The inaugural Austria Challenge was a newcomer on the EBT and created as a side tournament to the 2010 European Masters, the season ending event of the 2009 EBT in which the top 16 men and top 16 women determine the top-ranked players in Europe.
Wolfgang Lohschmid (pictured right), organizer of the Austria Challenge, cited the low number of entries as the reason for the cancellation. With less than two months before the tournament (April 28 - May 5), Lohschmid was facing a loss of 20.000 Euro."I have done everything to keep this event alive," Lohschmid told Bowlingdigital. "A minor loss would have been ok for me as I had the support of the host center, Plus Bowling, and the Austrian Federation. I've sent out an email blast last week in which I explained the situation and asked not to wait any longer to register if someone is planning to bowl in the Austria Challenge but the outcome was practically zero."
Due to a clash with national leagues in Austria's neighbor countries and another tournament in Bratislava, Slovakia, Lohschmid has received less than 20 entries from Austria's border countries.
"I had only 5 German entries, 5 from Hungary, 4 from the Czech republic, 2 from Poland, one from Slovenia and none from Slovakia," Lohschmid stated. "I am very sad that I had to cancel the tournament but I promise the players will not have any financial loss through the cancellation. This is not Maribor."
The Maribor Open in Maribor, Slovenia, was founded in the year 2007 (review our Live Coverage) and Lohschmid and his tournament crew were hired by the organizer to run this event. The event which paid out 73.600 Euro (!!), more than most of the tournaments on the EBT at that time, drew only 93 players and just 25 from the host country. Maribor Open was terminated before it could get off the ground as an EBT event the following year. Sadly, neither Lohschmid and the players nor any other involved were refunded by the organizer.
Lohschmid is known as the organizer of the EBT "Gold" Columbia 300 Vienna Open emphasizes that the cancellation of the Austria Challenge will not affect the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open at all. Furthermore he announced that Vienna Open will continue in the coming years.
As usual Bowlingdigital will cover the 8th Columbia 300 Vienna Open (Sept. 28 - Oct. 3, 2010) live from Plus Bowling in Vienna with results and updates after each round including our much-anticipated high definition videos produced by Flavio Cuva However, as the Austria Challenge was created to become the host of the 2010 EBT Masters, the European Tenpin Bowling Federation presidium decided to move the Masters to Aalborg, Denmark, where ETBF VP and EBT Director, Kim Thorsgaard Jensen is the manager of Lovvang Bowling Center. The Masters will now be conducted May 31st and June first immediately following Jensen's Bowltech Aalborg International 2010, an EBT "Gold" tournament.
The organizers of the Ankara Open originally scheduled from Sept. 18 through 26 at Rollhouse Bowling Center in Ankara, Turkey cited the "financial situation" as the reason for the cancellation of the EBT "Gold" tournament. The Ankara Open was the first EBT "Premier" (now Platinum) event (100.000 Euro prize fund required) but reduced the prize money in the following year in which it was contested as an EBT "Major".According to the EBT, the Ankara Open organizers will not only cancel the tournament for 2010 but will not to continue to run the tournament in the coming years. With more than half of a year before the tournament should start, the EBT does "not expect any players to be damaged financially because of non refundable flight tickets". All fees to the ETBF are also paid.
On another note, the organizer of the first Torneo Internazionale di Roma in Rome, Italy, got the permission to postpone its tournament from Sept. 11-19 to Nov. 6-14 "due to a late scheduled reconstruction of the host Brunswick Bowling Rome.
The 2010 European Bowling Tour now features 19 tournaments in 17 countries and consists of 2 Platinum tournaments (formerly Premier), 6 Gold (formerly Major), 7 Silver (formerly Challenger) and 4 Satellite tournaments (new).
To view the revised 2010 EBT schedule including the champions thus far click here
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