Aggressive bowlers all over the world each year set their sights every couple of years on the National Bowling Stadium, a 363,000 square-foot ten-pin bowling stadium in Reno, Nevada.

Nicknamed the "Taj Mahal of tenpins," the 78-lane stadium opened on February 3, 1995, cost $47.5 million, and took three years to build.

The owner of this bowling stadium is the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority.

The stadium was constructed as part of a renovation effort of downtown Reno and the concept for construction was in part to capture tourism dollars and as part of an agreement with the United States Bowling Congress that they would ensure their return to Reno every third year.

The project was funded by a room tax lobbied by the City of Reno in the Nevada Legislature based on commitments from the United States Bowling Congress (USBC) and the Women's International Bowling Congress which itself merged with the USBC in 2005.

The original construction of the stadium had 80 lanes, but since an architectural error resulted in the stadium not having a center aisle for bowlers to march out for the team event, the center lanes had to be converted to an aisle.

When it opened in 1995, it was just in time to welcome 100,000 members of the American Bowling Congress for their 100th anniversary meeting. In 2009 the National Bowling Stadium broke the record for most USBC championships hosted.

The stadium also hosts an extension of the International Bowling Museum and Hall of Fame. The museum displays Hall-of-Fame portraits as well as artifacts collected and preserved by the IBM/HF.

Additionally the stadium has been the filming location for several feature films including being the location of the grand finale between Bill Murray and Woody Harrelson's characters in the 1996 bowling film Kingpin.

Nevada will be a bowling hot spot again in 2023, as the Silver State plays host to both the USBC Open (men's) Championships and the USBC Women's Championships.

The USBC Open (men's) Championships will return to the Reno stadium for the first time since 2016 and the Women's Championships will own the spotlight, also returning after seven years away.

Registration for both events will get underway in the coming weeks with 2023 Open Championships to current Captain's Club members now taking place and the portal to the general public opening on March 10 at 1 p.m. The online portal for the Women's Championships will open to the public April 21.

For information on the championships go to Bowl.com

Ed’s Outlook

Senior Women’s Singles Championship in August

The 41st New York State Women's Senior Singles Championship runs on August 19-21 and 26-28 at the Lighthouse Lanes in Oswego.

The six-game singles event entry fee is $40. There are six age divisions.

Entry forms available at bowlnysusbc@gmail.com

For more information, call 845-363-1374.

Bowling Tip by Mike Luongo

Bowling is an ever-learning sport. Whether you are a beginner, an intermediate player, an advanced or a professional bowler, there is always something that you can learn about bowling better and more effectively.

Let me start with the basics of bowling.

If you are a complete beginner and you are looking for a bit of guidance on the incredible sport that bowling is, do not worry because in the bowling community, we do not judge anyone.

If we talk about the basics of bowling that every beginner must know, the most important is the structure of the game and the scoring.

Let's look at the structure first. The game of bowling between two or more players consists of 10 frames per player. Each frame consists of two individual shots. The score of the bowler will be equal to the total score of all the shots in all the frames.

Now, the structure of the game goes like this. If you knock all the pins down on your first shot that is called a strike.

If you are not able to knock all the pins down and you then bowl your second shot and get all the pins down that is called a spare.

However, if you are unable to knock all the pins in either shot, the score of that particular frame is equal to the number of pins knocked down.

Added scores of all frames equal the total score of a bowler in a game.

If you are new to bowling, learning how to bowl would be the best way to start your bowling journey.

In future columns we will address the topic of learning how to bowl and how to choose your bowling ball.