Multiple Winners of Tm/Ind Awards (end of season)

[Vickie Alltizer]

League members have chosen a payout for 1st, 2nd, & 3rd place for Team, Male, and Female game (Hdp & Scr) and series (Hdp & Scr). The intent being that 3 different score in each category would receive a payout.

A few years back we had multiple winners for 1st place scratch game and each bowler received about $3.00. The next season the league voted in the following..."In the event of a tie for any Team or Individual Game or Series, money will be taken from the prize fund to pay all ties full amount as determined by prize awards list." Last season we had multiple winners for several Individual categories and it more than doubled the anticipated payout (from $560 to $1300).

This season, they voted to eliminate the "In the event of a tie..." sentence, but never dealt with how to handle multiple winners when awarding more that 1 place.

If this season ends like last season did, I'll have the following for Male Scratch Game:
1st place - 300 game - 16 bowlers
2nd place - 299 game - 6 bowlers
3rd place - 289 game - 4 bowlers

The vocal league members have indicated two ways they would like to see the payouts done (no league motion/recommendation/rule was made or included in the rules):
1- Ensure that all 3 distinct scores receive money by dividing the approved payout by the number of bowlers that qualified (in the example all 26 bowlers would receive money)
2- Combine the money for the necessary places and divide by the number of qualified bowlers (using the example above only the 16 bowlers with the 300 game would receive any payout)

What do you folks feel is the fairest way to distribute the winnings??? Any suggestions or ideas will be greatly appreciated. By the way, 50/50 tickets, brackets, and sponsor fees added to the prize fund.

[Frank Goebel]

Essentially, if you were to have more than one 300, there would be a split of top money for as many places as budgeted. Anyone with a 299 or less would be out of the prizes.

When prize lists are drawn up for my league, we pay a fixed amount per 300, as we've had multiples. We budget for a large number for just such a reason. We just don't pay anything lower, although if a prize list were drawn that called for three places, and there were just two 300s bowled, any 299s would split third place, although the prize committee would have the option to "bump up" the third place split so each bowler would get the full amount.

Technically, if you have 16 distinct 300s (different bowlers), any 299 (multiples) would be tied for 17th place, even though one pin short. If you see a PGA tournament, and there'd be one distinct winner, but any golfer who finished one stroke behind in regulation would be in (a tie for) second. If you had a five-way tie for second, the payout would be to take the sum of the alloted prizes for second through sixth, combine, then divide by five and all would be paid equally. The would not all receive the second place amount.

Sponsor fees are (should be) fixed amounts and you can easily budget based on such figures. Other items, such as 50/50 and brackets, should be conservatively budgeted for. It's good to have a committee to decide what to do with extra money.

It does sound like you have a mixed league with individual prizes for both male and female. Whatever is done on the male side, must be done fairly to give the females the same opportunities. Sounds like last season, the high single paid out to a total of 26 men; how many women received some prize in that category? I'm wondering if it were just 3, and did it cause some concern there?

It's never an easy subject....