I would love to see the growth of all cue sports in Alberta and Canada.
I disagree with the notion that I show a lack of respect for the players as it is quite the opposite. As for Snooker, nobody in the west in the past few years has made an attempt to do anything for the players so I took the idea on (it really is not that involved).
Celtic, you should put your name on the comments you make.
Shane Lyons.
My cue in my sig usually idetifies me to a large portion of people who know me. I don't sign all of my posts but I have posted quite afew times who I am on AZB. Not trying to be Mr. Anon.
I like snooker man but the game is dead. The only time players in Calgary get onto a snooker table these days is to play golf.
IMO Alberta should just be proactive, skip 9-ball and go straight to 10-ball and 8-ball. That goes for the CBSA as well, 9-ball is on the way out and some of the proactive organizations all over the world are switching over. We might as well take that lead and switch to 10-ball as the rotational game as well instead of holding to 9-ball through some sense of tradition until it is completely irrelevent. It will only hurt Canadian pool and Canadian pool players further to be the last people to figure out to switch over and hold onto a game clearly on its way out.
Not totally sure but people like John Morra, Edwin Montal, Jason Klatt, ect... I imagine they would want to compete on the national level in a game that the professional ranks of the world are switching to.
And IMO playing a game like 9-ball which is becomming less and less common and popular is doing the opposite of promoting the growth of the sport in Canada, it instead makes Canadian Billliards look out of touch with the current international scene. And that sucks on alot of levels.
<edit> PS: I am not sure how much you have looked but IMO alot of gains can be made in the sport by joint efforts with other people. Case in point the SML "used" to have the SML open tournament with the pro's that took up a portion of the Olympic Oval during the city SML playoffs. This was a win/win in alot of ways because it brought the pro's to a great location to play and it had a captive pool playing audience that were there to play their playoffs anyhow and thus often went and watched the pros when they had time.
Now the pro event is gone, likely due to the costs which were largely the added money. The space formerly used for the pro event just sits there. If one was to contact Barb who runs the SML she might be open to thoughts on running an event in conjunction with the SML playoffs, such as an Alberta 10-ball Championship in the oval at the same time. The space is there, the costs of the lease/rent on the oval are already shutting down the whole thing so if you needed to pay extra to put 8 or so gold crowns into an area with some of the already present arena seating. While Calgary might be hurting on the pool hall front there are few places in the world that are better for a pro event then the Oval, Archer supposedly thought it was awesome, and subsequently shot phenomenally well. A place like the Oval could easily hold the Canadians as well if the CBSA were to be willing to adjust dates, and few people seem to be impressed with the summer dating of the events as it is already. Early April would be far better timing for a Canadian Championship event as most of the players in this country are far more focused on their games at that time of year already because of upcomming Vegas events, pro and amature alike.
If something like that were to be set up the SML could advertise it in the league books, on posters, and in a form of synergy the SML event would gain a new and exiting event associated with it's playoffs making its league more desirable and the Alberta billiards sanctioning body all of the sudden has a great location for its event, a phenomenal source of advertising the event, and alot of possibilities for coordinated sponsership and advertising to go along with the league tournament.
