MAN OF THE DECADE (pool)

JoeyA

JoeyA

Efren's Mini-Tourn BACKER
Silver Member
The front page of AZ Billiards was decorated with this title. Ivan Lee seems to be one of multi-talented guys. As president of Simonis North America and Chairman of the Board Billiard Congress of America and someone who has managed to gain the respect of the entire billiard community, you hope that people will recognize him for his contributions.

MAN OF THE DECADE sounds real good!

Congratulations Ivan!
 
Ivan is great person to talk to and he is certainly a veteran of the industry. He deserves however zero credit for anything related to the BCA as the BCA has completely FAILED the sport of billiards in this past decade.

If anyone should be person of the decade for their contributions to the sport and the industry then I nominate Greg Sullivan along with Mark Griffin for their combined accomplishments.
 
It seems to me that Ivan Lee has done quite well by the BCA. He has straightened out the Trade Show date fiascos that resulted in trade shows with no attendance and he has kept an organization alive that could have died. Now if he can get them to pay some attention to the pro game again the BCA may regain some relevance. His focus on attracting revenue to the organization may allow him to do just that.
 
If I had a vote, it would have gone to Pat Fleming for his work at Accu-Stats. Think of what he's done to preserve the history of our great sport!

Congrats to Mr Simonis nonetheless. His electric blue 860 is the only type of cloth that covers my beloved Brunswick! :smile:
 
man of decade

JB Cases said:
Ivan is great person to talk to and he is certainly a veteran of the industry. He deserves however zero credit for anything related to the BCA as the BCA has completely FAILED the sport of billiards in this past decade.

If anyone should be person of the decade for their contributions to the sport and the industry then I nominate Greg Sullivan along with Mark Griffin for their combined accomplishments.
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Would be my choices also.:thumbup:
 
JoeyA said:
The front page of AZ Billiards was decorated with this title. Ivan Lee seems to be one of multi-talented guys. As president of Simonis North America and Chairman of the Board Billiard Congress of America and someone who has managed to gain the respect of the entire billiard community, you hope that people will recognize him for his contributions.

MAN OF THE DECADE sounds real good!

Congratulations Ivan!
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Ivan Lee I think is a great choice,He is a constant supporter of our sport,and has been known to step in when others have left us hanging .Thank you Ivan and congratulations
Peteypooldude
 
Carolina Blue said:
It seems to me that Ivan Lee has done quite well by the BCA. He has straightened out the Trade Show date fiascos that resulted in trade shows with no attendance and he has kept an organization alive that could have died. Now if he can get them to pay some attention to the pro game again the BCA may regain some relevance. His focus on attracting revenue to the organization may allow him to do just that.
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Really? What was the attendance the past three years? You are saying that Ivan Lee all by himself kept the BCA alive?

The BCA show is dead. It gets little attendance and they allow ANYONE to buy a booth including competitors to the billiard industry. That's right they allow other sports/activities to exhibit at the BILLIARD industry expo. Now I have head that they are even selling booth space to exhibitors who don't even have to purchase a BCA membership.

Ivan is definitely committed and while things he plans to do MAY pan out he has so far not delivered in my eyes. He is handicapped by being the president of a completely dysfunctional organization which exhibits good-old-boy tendencies along with incredibly poor choices.

Perhaps he deserves recognition for being the Sisyphus in the room by taking on the task of leading the board of such a poorly run "industry" organization but not for anything that this organization has done under his involvement.

Want the perfect example:

Last year at the BCA booth they had a WII set up on the big flat screen and every day there were several children playing WII games (not pool on the WII).

So let's get this straight. We are at the annual BILLIARD INDUSTRY gathering and at the booth of the BILLIARD INDUSTRY's promotional entity they are showcasing the playing of a video game which has nothing to do with pool.

When blatant disrespect for our industry is shown like that ON TOP of allowing makers of video games, ping pong, virtual golf, shuffleboard, board games, foosball, and poker to exhibit at the BILLIARD industry show then to me no one associated with the BCA deserves any sort of award for service to the billiard industry.
 
Pat Fleming, Greg Sullivan, and Mark Griffin have my votes, I cannot really pick one over the other but they all seem to be good people who really care about the game, God bless them all. :smile:
 
Agree 100%

JB Cases said:
Really? What was the attendance the past three years? You are saying that Ivan Lee all by himself kept the BCA alive?

The BCA show is dead. It gets little attendance and they allow ANYONE to buy a booth including competitors to the billiard industry. That's right they allow other sports/activities to exhibit at the BILLIARD industry expo. Now I have head that they are even selling booth space to exhibitors who don't even have to purchase a BCA membership.

Ivan is definitely committed and while things he plans to do MAY pan out he has so far not delivered in my eyes. He is handicapped by being the president of a completely dysfunctional organization which exhibits good-old-boy tendencies along with incredibly poor choices.

Perhaps he deserves recognition for being the Sisyphus in the room by taking on the task of leading the board of such a poorly run "industry" organization but not for anything that this organization has done under his involvement.

Want the perfect example:

Last year at the BCA booth they had a WII set up on the big flat screen and every day there were several children playing WII games (not pool on the WII).

So let's get this straight. We are at the annual BILLIARD INDUSTRY gathering and at the booth of the BILLIARD INDUSTRY's promotional entity they are showcasing the playing of a video game which has nothing to do with pool.

When blatant disrespect for our industry is shown like that ON TOP of allowing makers of video games, ping pong, virtual golf, shuffleboard, board games, foosball, and poker to exhibit at the BILLIARD industry show then to me no one associated with the BCA deserves any sort of award for service to the billiard industry.
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Super post John.

And what about NO Hall of Fame induction to "cut costs"??? What is that about??? There is NO literal hall ala the Boxing H.O.F. or the NFL H.O.F. or the NASCAR H.O.F. What did it save the BCA to not induct a great champion? The paper they would have sent to the recipeant? It was a political H.O.F. anyway. They passed out ballots to venders who wouldn't know Allen Hopkins from Allen (Albert) Einstein. Remember how many years Strickland was passed over? They have some very weakly credentialed people already enshrined. I could say more but better not.

And what about the now defunct BCA Open 9 Ball Championship? Or was that the Enjoypool.com 9 Ball Championship? Either way, what does the BCA do for the American Professional Pool Player? Our nation's governing pool body can't sponsor ONE Men's Pro tournament???

To be proper, it should be the Billiard Congress of Amateurs because it seems to me that catering to amaeur players is the ONLY consideration the BCA has towards American players.

Just curious, did all the suits at the BCA take pay cuts, since they're cutting back costs and all?

PS-No offense meant to JoeyA, who is one of my very closest friends on this forum.
 
I'm assuming nothing will happen in the next 7 months to change the choice but I still think it could have waited until the decade is over.

The calendar went from 1 BC to 1 AD with no year zero so the end of the first year AD was at the end of year 1 and the end of the first decade AD was at the end of year 10 therefore the end of this decade is at the end of 2010.

Sorry, this decade thing is a small pet peeve of mine.

Of course, if they are going to start giving out a man of the decade award at the end of every year based on the previous ten years then please disregard this post, lol.
 
In no particular order:

Tom Shaw, Mark Griffin, Pat Fleming, and Victor Maduro from Panama (the premier promotor and coach of pool & billiards in Central/South America).
 
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Ivan is a great guy. Forcefollow would have died 3 years ago if not for him. I am now over 4 million views, it wouldn't have happened without him. He has also been instrumental in the formation of my school program for billiards. Its good to see that good people get recognition. All the best to Ivan and all he does for our sport.

Regards,
Marcus
 
JB Cases said:
Ivan is great person to talk to and he is certainly a veteran of the industry. He deserves however zero credit for anything related to the BCA as the BCA has completely FAILED the sport of billiards in this past decade.

If anyone should be person of the decade for their contributions to the sport and the industry then I nominate Greg Sullivan along with Mark Griffin for their combined accomplishments.
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Greg or Mark would get my vote.
 
We're all here every day, so don't forget about Mike Howerton. I can't think of many people who have done more to promote the game in the last decade.
 
Blackjack said:
We're all here every day, so don't forget about Mike Howerton. I can't think of many people who have done more to promote the game in the last decade.
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Well Mike couldn't very well be in the running for an award that he and Jerry probably made up. He certainly would deserve to be on any list of people being considered for an award honoring service to the sport.

But I think that the idea should be that we, the community of AZ billiards, should nominate and vote on our own awards.

Why not? As a group we represent billiards enthusiasts worldwide. We have people from across the spectrum of life as members all united by our love of the billiard games.

What could be more democratic and not sullied by any alliances, or advertising/sponsorships?

How about it? We set up our own categories, accept nominations with a criteria of getting on the ballot being something like three nominations or something like that, and then we vote.

On behalf of Sterling Gaming I will donate the physical awards which will be laser engraved in a great way for the winners.
 
Hall of Fame.

While we are at it why don't we make our own virtual Hall of Fame? Why do we fans need to accept the BCA's choices as the only ones worthy of lasting recognition.

We can make our own website which lists our Hall of Famers and gives them the credit they deserve.

I nominate Terry Ardeno to be the first curator of the AZB Forum's Hall of Fame.
 
Well, I can think of several reasons that a Hall of Fame vote would not be left to the forum posters. Such as their lack of proximity to the actual working of the billiard industry. One of them just came on here and lambasted the BCA for not inducting a player into the Hall of Fame. This is false. Last year Johnny Archer and Allison Fisher were inducted.

So, if you guys want to do this, go ahead, but leave AZB out of it. We took a lot of time, did a lot of study, and came up with the right guy. Yes, Mark and Greg and Pat were all on the short list. But none of them step outside of their own business interests to serve the game the way that Ivan does. His spare time is non-existent due to the demands that the BCA puts on him. And all of you who wish to slam the guy who directs sponsorship money into more corners of the game than anyone else, go ahead, but you are shooting arrows into the golden goose. This criticism looks downright petty and exhibits the negativity that has helped the sport get to the low level that it enjoys today.

Instead of slamming the leaders of the game with opinions that sprout from a lack of knowing what is going on it might be better to jump on the ship and help steer. But first, read the charts and know where the reefs are.

Now, I have no intention of defending this honor any further. We did the homework, we got the right guy. If you disagree, fine, but some of the opinions expressed thus far are obviously from those who are not close to the real world of pool.
 
Terry Ardeno said:
Super post John.

And what about NO Hall of Fame induction to "cut costs"??? What is that about??? There is NO literal hall ala the Boxing H.O.F. or the NFL H.O.F. or the NASCAR H.O.F. What did it save the BCA to not induct a great champion? The paper they would have sent to the recipeant? It was a political H.O.F. anyway. They passed out ballots to venders who wouldn't know Allen Hopkins from Allen (Albert) Einstein. Remember how many years Strickland was passed over? They have some very weakly credentialed people already enshrined. I could say more but better not.

And what about the now defunct BCA Open 9 Ball Championship? Or was that the Enjoypool.com 9 Ball Championship? Either way, what does the BCA do for the American Professional Pool Player? Our nation's governing pool body can't sponsor ONE Men's Pro tournament???

To be proper, it should be the Billiard Congress of Amateurs because it seems to me that catering to amaeur players is the ONLY consideration the BCA has towards American players.

Just curious, did all the suits at the BCA take pay cuts, since they're cutting back costs and all?

PS-No offense meant to JoeyA, who is one of my very closest friends on this forum.
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You could never offend me Terry, no matter what you said. You bring up some great points about the Billiard Congress of America, which is a different entity than the BCA Pool League.(jsut for the record)

This thread is about Ivan Lee, not the BCA but all the discussion is appreciated.

JoeyA
 
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