FUI secures naming rights for PBA event

BY CHRIS AARHUS, NDFU

Jay Fettig of Bismarck and Marshall Kent of Yakima, Wash., were relaxing after competing in a Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) event in Las Vegas, when a hunting conversation turned into how to make bowling more exciting for casual fans.

“We talked about how boring bowling tournaments are, and the idea was born from there,” Fettig said.

The duo formed J-Mar Entertainment, a company that hopes to turn professional bowling tournaments into a party atmosphere complete with outdoor music, food vendors, yard games, inflatables, arts and crafts, and opportunities to meet bowling professionals.

The dream is about to become a reality, as the two are successfully bringing the PBA to the Upper Midwest. The Farmers Union Insurance PBA Midwest Open Championships are set for June 13-14 at Sunset Lanes in Moorhead, Minn., and June 16-18 at Midway Lanes in Mandan.

“We’ll have right around 20 bowlers who are touring professionally, including some of the top money winners,” Fettig said. “We’ll have bowlers from Massachusetts, St. Louis, Colorado — all over. We’ll have Team Canada’s captains bowling in it. We’ll have some of the best the world has to offer.”

Getting this far wasn’t easy. Fettig had to contact former acquaintance John Weber of the PBA to convince the professional organization to associate their brand with this startup idea.

“He gave me the laundry list of things that I needed to do,” Fettig said. “Then it was just selling the concept and the idea.”

Typically, a bowling center pays the PBA to host a tour event, which Fettig said means the host of the event can have a hard time making money.

“We decided to make this like a PGA (golf) event,” Fettig said. “Give us the contract to host the event, and we’ll contract with the bowling centers. And we’ll do it so the centers make money. We’ll bring in big stars and turn it into a big event.”

It could be the start of something big, Fettig said.

“These are the first two,” he said. “We were given this chance from PBA as a test run. The PBA has not been (to North Dakota) since 1976. It’s not a market for them. If this goes wrong, what are they losing? We’ve got everything dialed in and buttoned up.”

J. Mar is selling sponsorships of multiple items at the venues including the bowling lanes themselves. However, the naming rights belong to Farmers Union Insurance.

“Without (Farmers Union), we couldn’t do this,” Fettig said. “This would have stopped dead in its tracks without (them).”

To learn more about attending or sponsoring the event, go to jmarentertainment.com