Microsoft already sort of did that.
Checking, including into the boards, permitted.
Oh yeah, that reminds me, ban virtual bowling games. Except for the arcade ones with the free-spinning ball built into the controls.
Giving fabulous prizes for bizarre events, like bowling a strike using a baseball, or for hitting pins in 2 different lanes with the same thrown ball.
In the 10th frame, one pin gets nailed down. You have to bowl around it to get a strike or spare.
Warp the lanes. Bowlers must “read” the lane like a golfer reads the green during a putt.
Putt Putt-style hazards, like a windmill, in front of the pins.
Speed bowling. Have all the lanes set up and the bowler has to bowl them all in quick succession. This will eliminate the out-of-shape bowlers.
I can’t endorse exploding balls enough.
I am so grateful that you’re not a urologist.
In Soviet Russia, balls bowl you!
Mandatory shots of tequila before each roll.
Wow, bowling in is trouble? Really? Huh. Guess that’s why the alleys are always full at night here in Nashville.
Interestingly, I live in the state with, IIRC, the second highest number of bowlers registered with the national organization (the new USBC, or is it USBA?). We get a lot of young bowlers around here; the game seems quite alive and well.
Bowling’s main problem is that you do it indoors. In states where you don’t want to be inside much, that creates a problem.
It doesn’t help that watching bowling is even more boring than watching golf on TV. Indeed, the difference between bowling and golf is instructive: they are both similar sports, they were at one time both popular at much the same level, and they share nothing in common any more, other than pricey equipment available for purchase by suckers. 
A hot chick (or guy, if you prefer) that removes an article of clothing for each strike you bowl.
Related:
Different bowling balls for men and women. The bowling balls for men have an additional hole drilled in them.
Or!
Put in a defense!
Find a couple of guys who auditioned for the local chapters of Jackass, and pay them to rush down the lane toward the person with the ball.
Replace the bowling balls with American Gladiator style tennis ball cannons. You get 3 shots per round to knock down as many pins as you can.
Or
Turn lanes into “Hot Wheels” style tracks with criss-crossing jumps, deadly curves, etc, so that every once and a while your ball will collide with another players ball or fly off the lanes. When that happens you’re immediately eliminated from play. The first person to knock down all ten pins in their lane wins.
As I recall, there is an alley in Chicagoland that has a “clothing optional” league. Having been [del]victim[/del]patron of bowling alleys far more than I’d like in my wee years I don’t think that’s going to be much of a draw for the general public, but the vinyl uppolstry should spray down more easily than, say, movie seats.
I can’t say that I’ve ever found bowling to be a particularly thrilling activity, even setting aside the aroma of stale cigarette smoke and greasy hamburgers. If I want to get drunk and throw something, I’ll stick with darts, which have a greater potential for hurting other patrons rather that injuring me.
Stranger
35 posts in, and while we have a tequilla reference, there is not one single mention of beer.
My suggestion is that whoever leaves an open frame buys a round for the group. Your goal as the freeloading bowler is to bowl strikes, or pick up all your spares.
In a perfect world, your average goes up, and you do not blow your beer budget every week.
Exploding balls, rubber lanes, overhand delivery…pfft. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.
35 posts in, and while we have a tequilla reference, there is not one single mention of beer.
My suggestion is that whoever leaves an open frame buys a round for the group. Your goal as the freeloading bowler is to bowl strikes, or pick up all your spares.
In a perfect world, your average goes up, and you do not blow your beer budget every week.
Exploding balls, rubber lanes, overhand delivery…pfft. Baby steps, people. Baby steps.
They did this on an episode of “Candid Camera,” way back when Allen Funt was the host. They went to some bowling alley and replaced the regular pins with pins made from Plaster of Paris, painted to look like the real thing; when the ball hit the pins, they’d explode in a cloud of white dust and shards.
The looks on the faces of the bowlers were priceless.
Any pins you miss with your first ball you get to shoot with a high-powered rifle.
Add Walter Sobchak as a referee.
Make it interactive and BIG!
Ten people from the audience volunteer to be the pins (they are bound so that they can’t move). The bowler gets into a giant transparent ball (kinda like a hamster ball on steroids). The bowler propels him/herself down the lane and tries to knock over the people.