• U.S. Bowling Congress plans to move from Milwaukee area to Arlington, Texas
• Organization represents 2.6 million bowlers nationwide
• Business leaders hope to keep the group here
• Sport attracts youth as traditional leagues have decreased over past 25 years

The pastime of bowling, reflecting Milwaukee's historical blue-collar image, often goes hand in hand with the city's other traditions of fish fries and beer.

One of the largest organizations representing bowlers across the United States has been located right here for just more than a century. Now, the bowling center may be relocated to Texas and Milwaukee is trying to avoid throwing a gutter ball.

Currently headquartered in suburban Greendale, the United States Bowling Congress wants to be more closely associated with the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America based in Arlington, Texas a group that represents bowling alley owners across the country. Though not a merger, a move by the USBC would allow the two groups to work more closely together on common projects, said Kevin Dornberger, the USBC's chief operating officer.

Business leaders hope the USBC, which represents 2.6 million bowlers nationwide, stays in the Milwaukee area. Discussions between the two sides have been ongoing, said Jim Paetsch, director of corporate relocation, expansion and attraction for the Milwaukee 7, a regional economic development group.

"They're a good fit here and we will do everything we can to keep them here," Paetsch said. "(Milwaukee is) the perfect place to run a bowling organization. They're dead center where the customers are."

The USBC's Milwaukee predecessor, the American Bowling Congress, came here in 1907 after its founding 12 years earlier in New York. The ABC and Women's International Bowling Congress reported about 9 million total nationwide members in 1979. During Milwaukee's bowling heyday in the early 1980s, there were 100,000 regular league participants at 83 bowling alleys, according to Doug Schmidt, a local bowling enthusiast.

Today, there are a little more than 38 bowling alleys with 18,000 members in Milwaukee, said Schmidt, author of "They Came to Bowl: How Milwaukee Became America's Tenpin Capital." That number doesn't include casual bowlers, including a number of high school and college students who took up bowling, he said.

In the past 25 years, the shape of bowling in Milwaukee has changed as traditional bowling leagues of the working class went away with a decline in the city's manufacturing base, Schmidt said. Some companies even sponsored leagues.

"People worked together, had a few beers together and bowled together," Schmidt said. "It was a form of their social expression."

Today, it's a fast-paced world. Few people have the time to commit to a full 33-week bowling season, typically from September through April, Schmidt said.

However, bowling's strong suit is its ability to attract youth participants. "Cosmic bowling" with music and lights can appeal to youth. And 20 states have officially sanctioned bowling as an interscholastic sport, according to the USBC. Bowling is a club sport in Wisconsin.

Tradition and the new age of bowling intersects around 9:15 every Friday night at Bluemound Bowl, 12935 W. Bluemound Rd., Brookfield, when members of Schmidt's league finish their last few frames and high school students start putting on their bowling shoes.

"They're waiting for us to get out of there so they can start bowling for fun," he said.

The USBC's move is not meant to have an impact on the average bowler, though Schmidt said it's "kind of a sad day for Milwaukee" since bowling had its center here since 1907.

Dornberger said the USBC's relocation primarily has to do with a desire to work under the same umbrella as the Bowling Proprietors' Association of America, whether in Milwaukee, Arlington or elsewhere.

But the cost of doing business in Milwaukee has increased because of higher health care and labor costs and the BPAA believes it is easier to do business in Arlington, Dornberger said.

And the BPAA's current headquarters is in prime location: It's near a Six Flags amusement park, the Texas Rangers' baseball stadium and the new Dallas Cowboys' football stadium. Plans call for the USBC to be located in a new office complex that would have a testing and training center.

The USBC had similar plans to build a training complex on its 10-acre property in Greendale, but those talks have been put on hold in light of a possible move to Arlington. Until a land deal is finalized in Arlington, the USBC's move is not official. Dornberger said he expects to know for sure by March 14, but said that a move will most likely happen this year.

The organization could remain in the Milwaukee area. One possibility is to build a training center at the Pettit Ice Center near State Fair Park. Dornberger said the USBC met with representatives of the business community Tuesday when that option was discussed.