DATE: Thursday, November 6, 1997            TAG: 9711060666

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: TOM ROBINSON

DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                    LENGTH:   63 lines

FUTURE OF PRO BOWLING WAS ON DISPLAY AT THE PAVILION

It could have been arena football for all the vicious hitting that took place, the way the athletes played to the people, the way the people screamed, whooped and begged for more.

What it really was something rare called arena bowling. And you wouldn't think it if you didn't feel it, but the Virginia Beach Pavilion on Wednesday night, well, rocked.

What can I say, except this is not your father's bowling.

It isn't a few hundred people crammed into an alley, polite applause for the strikes, hushed ``ahhs'' for the splits, a middle-aged aura hanging over the whole thing.

Arena bowling is pro bowling for the future, turn-of-the-millennium, made-for-TV, 90 minutes over-and-out, from the prematch pyrotechnics and swirling lights till the last fuchsia-colored ball rolls and the final pin falls. Or the last drained bowler drops, whichever comes first.

``The emotion is 100 times better than in a regular bowling center,'' said Amleto Monacelli, a 15-year pro who played in, and won, his first arena final Wednesday, live on ESPN to boot. ``I'd love to do it again. Anytime.''

It was the climax of the Professional Bowlers Association's Ebonite Challenge, moved to the Pavilion after three preliminary days at the AMF Western Branch lanes. And with the added contribution of two dramatic conclusions, it was gripping good fun.

``Usually, everything is too close. The people are right there behind you,'' Monacelli said after pocketing the $25,000 grand prize, but losing the special, three-way, $10,000 winner-take-all match that followed. ``This is very open. You feel like you can breathe. It's better.''

Nearly 2,000 people paid $15 to watch three matches Wednesday. A great draw for a bowling-center final is about 350, not because of lack of interest. Lack of space.

At the Pavilion, the people piled into risers set up behind the four, elevated lanes trucked in and constructed for the occasion. They sat in the bleachers and chairs that lined the sides of the lanes.

They yelled for their favorite guys, and their guys answered back - Monacelli blowing kisses; Steve Hoskins, the runner-up in both events, requesting more volume when the mantra, ``Steve, Steve, Steve,'' went up; Walter Ray Williams flashing sheepish faces after his stunning 148 game that included - take heart, Mr. and Mrs. League Bowler - a big, fat, glorious gutter ball.

``Our whole goal is to have all-arena finals,'' said Mark Gerberich, the PBA commissioner. ``But their cost is pretty prohibitive.''

In fact, this was only the PBA Tour's third arena final this year. The first ever was held in Erie, Pa. in 1994. And as rousingly successful as this one was, it has miles to go before it matches the electricity the sport generates in Erie.

``They roast pigs in the parking lot in Erie,'' PBA media director Allen Wilhelm said. ``It's like a football game.''

Alas, the Pavilion was pigless. But otherwise promoter Gary Beck, judging from the smile he wore all night, seemed in hog-heaven.

``I'm sorry, regular bowling is boring,'' said Beck, who hopes the event returns to the Pavilion in '98. ``It doesn't work like this. I think people get intimidated by TV. Here it's so much bigger, you can get lost in the crowd. It gives people the freedom to open up.''

Ah, freedom. A wonderful thing, and particularly appealing to the PBA as it angles for a secure place in the arena of 21st century sports.

``This,'' Wilhelm said, ``is how it should be every week.''

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