Tom Clark, commissioner of the Professional Bowlers Association, looked out across the quaint 12 bowling lanes of Bayside Bowl and nodded.

“I can visualize this place as an arena, loud and intimate,” Clark said.

That it will be. Clark came to Portland on Thursday to promote the PBA’s fledgling league championship competition, which will be held at Bayside Bowl in Portland’s Bayside neighborhood.

The 10-pin event will be held March 26-29 with a pro-am the first day and promotional festivities the second. The actual competition will be March 28-29, with the event tape-delayed on ESPN over four Sundays, March 29 through April 19. Bowlers will be competing for $250,000 in total prize money.

It’s the first time the PBA has held a national event in Maine.

The PBA has been around for 56 years and is known mainly for its tour events, featuring individual bowlers in a tournament.

The league championship, featuring eight teams of five bowlers apiece, is in its third year. The teams will be drafted Oct. 31. Each team has a celebrity owner, including former NFL player Terrell Owens and tennis great Billie Jean King.

All eight teams will play a quarterfinal round. Four will move on to the semifinals, with two reaching the finals.

“It will involve the 40 best bowlers in the world,” said Clark, ticking off names like Jason Belmonte of Australia, the top-ranked bowler on the PBA Tour; Osku Palermaa of Finland; Sean Rash of Montgomery, Illinois; and legendary veteran Pete Weber of St. Anne, Missouri.

“This would be the equivalent of (golfers) Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy playing at Riverside,” said Charlie Mitchell, owner of the Bayside Bowl, which opened in 2010.

Portland and the PBA came together through a mutual connection: Shamrock Sports & Entertainment, a marketing group based in Portland.

Among Shamrock’s clients are the Portland Pirates, the Beach to Beacon 10K road race and the PBA.

“It turned from a quick brainstorm to a reality,” Mitchell said.

The Shamrock owner, Brian Corcoran, said a national PBA event could be held at Bayside because “unlike the Super Bowl that needs a (gigantic) stadium, the unique nature of the PBA is that you can take it anywhere.”

Only two lanes will be used and most of the remaining space will be devoted to the needs of television and spectator seating. Mitchell said ticket information will become available when he knows the number of seats and standing-room spots.

Ticket revenue won’t cover the cost of the event. “We don’t make a lot of money on the gate,” Clark said. Shamrock will enlist national sponsors like Geico Insurance and local sponsors to cover the costs of the prize money and television production.

Bayside Bowl is one of the sponsors. Mitchell said it was an easy decision.

“If you had a small first-class gym and had a chance to get the Celtics, you would,” he said. “This is something special. It’s having the pinnacle of the sport right here.”

This story was updated at 8:19 on Friday, October 3, 2014 to correct the name of the owner of Bayside Bowl.

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