As winter relaxes its icy grip on the nation’s midsection, one question burns as hot as the summer sun: Will the Midwest’s brightest bowling tournament see the light of day again?

This much is certain: There is no Hoinke Classic this year, and long-time host Western Bowl will close its doors for good on May 1, unless a white knight steps in to save it from oblivion. Russ Hoinke, who has run the 10-month-long tournament for years, in an interview held the slimmest of hopes that the 52-year-old center might remain open, but with new owners. And he said he’s certain his namesake event would be back, somewhere, in 2010.

Since word of Western’s imminent demise hit the Cincinnati bowling scene like a Robert Smith strike ball, two potential buyers have thrown hats into the ring, at least preliminarily. “One is a well-known buyer and seller of centers,” Hoinke said, declining to name the firm. The other is not currently in the bowling business. But Hoinke said he doubts either of the two suitors would find financing before May 1.

Plus, since the Hoinke family announced in January that the tournament would not be contested this year, “we’ve had several people ask about buying the Classic.” He’s also had calls from as far away as Indianapolis about hosting the tournament.

The Hoinke family decided to call it quits shortly after Ohio banned smoking in all public places in December of 2006 (family patriarch Erv Hoinke says the ban cost Western as much as 10% of its business). The Hoinkes then discreetly put the center up for sale, and a Tennessee developer took an option, drawing up plans for an 88,000-square-foot, two-story, high-end retail center. However, “after the downturn [in the economy], they did a study and found that they might not be able to fill it,” Russ said. The option has expired, but the developer is still a player, he added.

If a buyer can’t be found, workers will begin removing lanes and other capital equipment in early May. “We’ve had numerous offers for the equipment,” Hoinke said. And if a developer doesn’t buy it, the building would stand vacant for the time being.

Closing Western Bowl will leave a major hole in the rich Cincinnati bowling scene, not only for the loss of the Classic, but the many smaller tournaments that had found a home on the center’s 56 lanes. High school bowling also will be affected, as three schools base their boys’ and girls’ teams there (tenpins is a high school varsity sport in the Buckeye State). Those schools have been talking to other centers, but with no other establishment on the west side, the kids will have to travel to practice.

The Hoinke Classic began in 1943, with prizes paid in War Bonds. It soon became one of the nation’s premier events, attracting bowlers from all 50 states and several countries, paying nearly $65 million in prize money over the years. To capitalize on the megabucks craze, the family also staged the Super Hoinke over the Thanksgiving weekend, an event that in its prime offered a $100,000 first-place check. But entries dwindled to the point that in 2007 the Super was scaled back to a “scratch classic,” with a top prize of $6,000.

Russ Hoinke spent part of early February talking to promoters, and is convinced that the Classic that bears his name will be back in 2010. But just where, and in what format?

That is the burning question.