The Canadians

I don't even want to get going on the ridiculous idea of having an amateur event at the canadians where some guy who has no clue gets to decide on what is and what is not an amateur.(like that doesn't open the door for some favoritism) Just feel fortunate that a bunch of guys from the west didn't show up and stick the guy with the job of trying to figure out what event a bunch of strangers(that he's never seen holding a cue before) should be allowed to play in.

It would have been almost as laughable as when the stan james tour came out here and someone from the east set up the odds payouts for the stan james website. Nothing finer than someone who doesn't know 50%+ of the field figuring out who the real players are. I'm sure stan james learned their lesson when one of the 67-1 shot delivered some dough home to the locals. :wink:

Not a big fan of the "Amatuer" 9-Ball event period.
What I saw this year with quite a few players with lots of game that should have been playing in the Open division....again, with all due respect to the CBSA, not a fan of the whole concept....don't get it myself!
 
We do not have a venue now in this province that could host the Canadians....The Q Club in Edmonton would have been the only place in Alberta that could have hosted it.

It's moot anyways. You'd have to be nuts to try and promote an event like the Canadians in the western provinces in the middle of summer. It would never work.

Actually, it probably wouldn't work anywhere. Why they won't come to their senses and host it in February or something I'll never know.
 
It's moot anyways. You'd have to be nuts to try and promote an event like the Canadians in the western provinces in the middle of summer. It would never work.

Actually, it probably wouldn't work anywhere. Why they won't come to their senses and host it in February or something I'll never know.

May would be best.
 
It's moot anyways. You'd have to be nuts to try and promote an event like the Canadians in the western provinces in the middle of summer. It would never work.

Just the other night a friend from the pool hall started talking about the poor timing of Canadians. He qualified this year out of our provincials (in April/May?), but had no desire to play in the summer. This is what usually happens around here, we get reasonable response to playdows, citys, and provincials then everyone goes and plays golf for the summer. Pool is a winter activity around here.

Dave
 
Just the other night a friend from the pool hall started talking about the poor timing of Canadians. He qualified this year out of our provincials (in April/May?), but had no desire to play in the summer. This is what usually happens around here, we get reasonable response to playdows, citys, and provincials then everyone goes and plays golf for the summer. Pool is a winter activity around here.

Dave



I think Nov or March would be cool dates for the Canadians. And getting to travel out West sure would be cool. Hopefully things will change.
 
As an Edmontonian player, I am tired of seeing the canadians in the east/maritimes EVERY year. I'm sure you would see a much better representation of western players if we had the event on our side of the country from time-to-time.

The other issue I have with the canadians is from an economical perspective. Sure we can win a spot through our local qualifiers but what does that really get us? A $500 entry fee, which is a small portion of the actual cost to get to an eastern/maritime event. As a player who foots the bill himself, I find it hard to justify spending that much to go to an event where I have to finish top 4 or better to maybe break even.

Would I like to play in the canadians? Sure, but if I'm going to spend that much to go to a pool event with little-to-no prize money I'd sooner go to the derby or the sands.

Just my $0.02

This above post basically covers my thoughts on it.

Does the CBSA even know that Western Canada exists? It sometimes seems a little doubtful.

We get ZERO advertisement or promotion (or even bloody word) of events here in Calgary. When were the Alberta qualifiers this year, where were they? Because in playing the Hideout tournament, Mikes, league, chatting with all the players in this city I did not see a single poster or hear a single peep about it.

It is NOT the players, most of the players don't have a clue what the CBSA is doing because the CBSA does not bother to pay attention to the West in the slightest.

The people in the West stick to Vegas, the Sands, the Reno Bar Box Championships, ect... because we actually know the bloody things are going on and we do not feel like outsiders coming to play in the Easts little boys club they have going over there.
 
Just have a look at the programs and facilities that are available in a country like Malaysia. http://www.geocities.com/raylim9/msbf.html
This is just one of example of how much better organized and funded the game is even in countries with a lot less resources than Canada.

Bottom line is we need...

MONEY, players need to be able to regionally qualify and have all there expenses covered to attend the national event and make it worth their while winning.

GRASS ROOTS, training, academies, junior programs, sponsorships.

PROMOTION, the image and profile must be raised to a level of respect to facilitate the above.

PEOPLE, who know how to secure funding and raise money. there is no reason why we cannot get government money, every other crackpot arty farty dance and drama troop manages to get money, why not snooker.

INDUSTRY, work with rooms and the billiards industry to advance and promote the game.

In a perfect world this is what the CBSA would be doing, instead they do pretty much nothing. We need people in there who truly want to put in the effort and time into the sport, creating all of the stuff you speak of. But IMO most of the people in the CBSA see their position more as a little hobby they have and they are not really that keen on putting the true hours of work each day into making the sport grow.
 
We do not have a venue now in this province that could host the Canadians....The Q Club in Edmonton would have been the only place in Alberta that could have hosted it.

The SML each year rents out the bloody Olymipic Oval for their league playoffs and ran a professional tournament in conjunction with it for a few years.

The people running the Canadian Championships cannot figure out how to do similar? Get a decent space, get some tables, get the tournament in the West. If you cannot figure out how it would be possible make way for someone that can.
 
How bout you!!

In a perfect world this is what the CBSA would be doing, instead they do pretty much nothing. We need people in there who truly want to put in the effort and time into the sport, creating all of the stuff you speak of. But IMO most of the people in the CBSA see their position more as a little hobby they have and they are not really that keen on putting the true hours of work each day into making the sport grow.[/QUO Wetern poolplayers,,,,,,,,,,,,,waaaaaaaaaaaa,waaaaaaaaaaaa,waaaaaaaaaaa, You could have had all the qualifiers you wanted, all you have to do is organize it ,wherever you want. As far as not knowing bout the Canadians, looks like your on the puter every day............dates, locations posted for months........not hard to find. If you want to change the higharchy, i don't think it's a problem. The guys in there now , are tired of doin an unpaid thankless job, sick of once a year whiners from out west, and I truly beleive they are not basing any decsion making on, How can I piss them all off? Seems to me no one else has even offered to step to the plate. Just wait till it's to late, and then..........WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!...........How come i didn,t get paid for being a laxy ass whining b+ pool player!
 
Listen

The fact he even said that... cripe, lets get the tourneys to conflict with the VNEA and BCA, smokin idea!

Go figure this sport is going nowhere.

The Hideout is a joke.....I fuking hate bar box leagues....thats the reason the CBSA is in a bad state.....bgrierson@msn.com and I will keep you informed!!!!!!!!!!
 
Oval

Why don't you rent the oval and have the Canadians there???............Oh ya!!............calgary can't even organize a qualifier!.........lmfao!!!!!
 
The Hideout is a joke.....I fuking hate bar box leagues....thats the reason the CBSA is in a bad state.....bgrierson@msn.com and I will keep you informed!!!!!!!!!!

It's not a league, it is a tourney on Saturday, and it is one of two tournaments that a player in Calgary has left at all to play in so one in your position if they had even the smallest amount of will to advertise your events would at least post a poster on the upcomming provincial tournament there.

Don't keep "me" informed, keep the community informed, and guess what, that crappy bar box ridden hideout with the POS cloth, crap balls, next to a bloody strip club is one of the few places the players have left in Calgary thanks to the state this sport is in atm so sadly enough that is where we are left to be contacted about these things.

Maybe one day the sport will see some gains via some people doing as was stated above and creating more interest in the sport via promotion, getting industry involved more, creating more avenues for young people to get interested in the sport, ect... but until then we are stuck in the bloody Hideout so now you know where to find us.

I WISH we still had the Black Wolf, Stix, The Great White, Unwinders in the early days. The sport has unfortunately taken a friggin nose dive in the last 10 years and stuff like in this thread really is not helping matters.
 
Why don't you rent the oval and have the Canadians there???............Oh ya!!............calgary can't even organize a qualifier!.........lmfao!!!!!

Laugh all you want chucklehead, the guy you want to be discussing that particular point with just posted right before you.

Calgary is a city, cities themselves don't organize qualifiers, people do. Barb at SML in calgary seems to have no issues running quality tournaments. Nor does Ted Harms and Players League, a guy who in fact also runs a high quality tournament in TO each year that gets more people out from the West then the CBSA manages due to his actually being able to organize things better then the people who are in charge of the provincial qualifiers and the friggin national championships.

Jim Wych can organize and run a quality professional level event in Alberta on his Stan James tour but the CBSA cannot manage to figure out how to run an event the same province, and this is supposed to be understandable? It is idiotic.
 
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A player who is serious about participating in the canadians will have no problem finding info about it. I'm sure a person with a computer and a lot of pool buddies can find info about qualifiers and events.

These people volunteer for these things and they're open to suggestions. Instead of giving them a hard time then help them out.If you don't want to help them, then organize your own tournament with qualifiers. Then after that you can swell with pride in showing the CBSA how to do business.

If money for food, plane tickets, entry fees, hotel rooms is a problem then seek sponsorship and split costs with other players.
 
It's not just about a few established players participating in the Canadians, it's about promoting and developing the game at all levels and garnering intrest.
The lack of intrest is bourne out in the balance of participants in this event. In fact it probably should have been called the "Ontario Open"

If people are going to volunteer to represent Canada as our governing body then they should be up to the task. Volunteer work is often thankless but you should already know that going in and if you signed up expecting lot's of appreciation and zero crtisizm then you are very misguided.

I can direct you to many other countries much less fortunate than Canada that have extremely well organized and active governing bodies that are moving the game forward at all levels.

This is not a simple rant by a few moaners from out west this is a statement of fact that if there is no progress made soon we will lose the game for good in this country and thats pretty sad considering at one time we had a current world champion two time world finalist and three players in the top eight in the world.
But the game has progressed to the point where we need a program for development to be competative on the world stage.
 
Pool in Cabnada

It's not just about a few established players participating in the Canadians, it's about promoting and developing the game at all levels and garnering intrest.
The lack of intrest is bourne out in the balance of participants in this event. In fact it probably should have been called the "Ontario Open"

If people are going to volunteer to represent Canada as our governing body then they should be up to the task. Volunteer work is often thankless but you should already know that going in and if you signed up expecting lot's of appreciation and zero crtisizm then you are very misguided.

I can direct you to many other countries much less fortunate than Canada that have extremely well organized and active governing bodies that are moving the game forward at all levels.

This is not a simple rant by a few moaners from out west this is a statement of fact that if there is no progress made soon we will lose the game for good in this country and thats pretty sad considering at one time we had a current world champion two time world finalist and three players in the top eight in the world.
But the game has progressed to the point where we need a program for development to be competative on the world stage.

Very well said, I for one have been involved for years with pool from leagues to tournaments and find there is something that needs to be done to keep pool up and current.
Maybe if someone takes it more serious, more people will help!
Be good all
 
With all the pool halls closing down its getting harder and harder to promote the game. If rent wasn't so ridiculous everywhere i'm sure there would be more pool halls available that were profitable.

Promoting pool now is like trying to promote surfing. You can supply the cues but the kids have no where to use em.
 
I could care less what a bunch of "shortstops" think of the qualifying process in Alberta or any other province. I love these guys talking game as big bar box specialists....lmfao...learn how to play.
You all have views that I respect and understand, now, how about donating some of YOUR time to promoting the game?
If your interested contact me...didn't think so!!!
And to be honest, I focus on promoting Snooker....thats my goal.
PS....Ask Buddy Hall what a shortstop is!!!!!!!
Celtic give you head a really good shake......
 
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