My reading comprehension is just fine, thank you. To the uninitiated or those with no history here the way you wrote your first post implied you were warning people about the IPT. You defended their silliness until the end and no they did not last a year because they did not complete the events they had scheduled but instead did a couple of "exhibition type events" to kind of imply the whole sham was not over.
It was a fantasy from the beginning from a spin master who had good history fleecing the ignorant and those who needed help or were helpless (sick or broke). The BS could be smelt from the moon. Why do you think he had a bunch of bottom dwelling players who had zero business being there? Simply answer to keep the dreamers thinking that maybe I to can join the IPT. I forget the dreamer who used to post here (with the toothpick in his mouth) who had an average game winning average of 12% and had ZERO business being there and he wasn't the only one.
John you got this wrong. Not kind of wrong. Completely wrong and you pestered all off us (in your usual fashion) who weren't drinking the cool aid with two hands.
Nonsense, and who cares anyway? The IPT is ten years behind us.
Bottom dwelling? Please. he put out a call to apply and chose 150 players from thousands of applications, players who had next to zero expense for the first year of play. Some of course had no shot at retaining a tour card but IF the tour had actually continued then there would have been hundreds of qualifying tournaments around the country to get into the bigger tournaments and then into the main events. That would have been a clear path to becoming a touring pro for ANYONE wanting to try.
We all laughed at $2000 entry qualifiers but they all filled up. Now ten years laters high entry fee tournaments are becoming normal. We held a $100 entry fee qualifier for a spot in one of the $2000 qualifiers and it filled in less than one hour.
I don't care how much you think you were "right", the fact is that Kevin dumped a lot of money INTO the IPT in that first year. He paid out a lot of money, much more than he took in. Yes, he stiffed some players in the end, yes he stiffed most of the vendors, but the fact is for a year the players actually had a glimpse of what pool COULD BE.
The negative nellies were not helpful in the least. Some of us looked on the bright side and hoped for the best and tried to be supportive. 150 players in year one got to play on the big stage with relatively small expenses in comparison to what they could win. For the "dead money" players they got a great pool vacation.
Trudeau even invited a bunch of senior pro hall of famers to the first event and paid each one of them $30,000 just for showing up. So again, yay, you were right that Trudeau didn't hold up his end and keep it going for the promised three years. You're incredibly awesome Nick...most prescient person on Earth and honestly one of the people I'd least like to be like. I hoped for Trudeau to be finally doing something honest and many others did as well. It hurt no one to be positive and hopeful. Something that the negative people of the world don't get.
For those of us who were more involved, it was something we won't forget as a chance for pool to turn into a mainstream pro sport.