BCA -- On the Road to Nowhere
- Thread starter JAM
- Start date
Quote:
Originally Posted by JAM
(snip)I believe, if given a chance, the leagues and recreational pool model is the platform to build on. (snip)!
Yep, it all starts at the bottom and works its way up. No different than HS basketball, then college BB then pro BB.
Pool has no foundation like this and will not be accepted into the public eye till this tiered system is created.
Pool will be a dead end sport for 99% or all pro pool players till its structured.
It would be no different than going through school, getting your degree in being an architect then moving to an island with limited building materials, what a waste, pro pool players parallel this type of venture.
When I see the front page picture of an American winning the US Open to me its sad why, because its the end of line, can't go any higher.
SVB, because of his upbringing may be the exception, because of his roots.
Originally Posted by JAM
(snip)I believe, if given a chance, the leagues and recreational pool model is the platform to build on. (snip)!
Yep, it all starts at the bottom and works its way up. No different than HS basketball, then college BB then pro BB.
Pool has no foundation like this and will not be accepted into the public eye till this tiered system is created.
Pool will be a dead end sport for 99% or all pro pool players till its structured.
It would be no different than going through school, getting your degree in being an architect then moving to an island with limited building materials, what a waste, pro pool players parallel this type of venture.
When I see the front page picture of an American winning the US Open to me its sad why, because its the end of line, can't go any higher.
SVB, because of his upbringing may be the exception, because of his roots.
I felt the need to chime in on this thread since I have had some very strong opinions about the actions of the BCA for a number of years, and my frustration only grows. Please bear with me as this may be a little long.
Let me start by saying that the company I work for, Sterling Gaming, was founded and is comprised of non-pool playing folks. Since we started, many of us have played league and learned a little about playing, but we are not the hardcore players that many readers of this forum are. We began with a single product selling on ebay, and grew into an entity that now distributes and sells over 1500 billiards related items. Not a schill, just a disclaimer so you know where I am coming from as I write this.
When I first joined the company in 2002, it was, in our minds, CRITICAL to attend the tradeshow and support the BCA as manufacturer/distributor level members. This was OUR organization, not only for the players (they still had the league system then), but also for manufacturers,retailers, players, leagues, and fans. I viewed the BCA as THE vehicle to bring together all these different elements of our sport and promote it to the population at-large. Since we offer such a wide variety of items, our company had the unique perspective of recognizing that there are a number of elements to our market...league players, recreational players, home table owners, region competitive tours, and pro level tours. All of the segments of the market are a little different, but they all have the common thread of billiards. It was the BCA's job to bring cohesion to these elements, to generally promote the visibility of the sport so that ALL those involved would see a higher level of prosperity, in my opinion. If I have the quote right (and its been said on this forum before) "A rising tide lifts all boats".
After my first few tradeshows and BCA tournaments, I began to take issue with some of what I saw going on.
First, there was little to no promotion of the sport to the general public. The BCA Open was held in conjunction with the league nationals, which made sense because of the built in core audience to draw from, however actually drawing that audience is a different story. Many of league players were there to play, not watch a tournament. If they had to play matches, they could little afford time to go watch the pro event. Also, Vegas has an insane level of entertainment competition, and let us not forget that spectating a billiards event is entertainment. Our company even tried to reach beyond the norm one year, and ran a promotion on a nationally syndicated morning radio show giving away an all-expense paid trip to Vegas to see the BCA Open. We had to pay for the BCA tickets ourselves. If you ask me, this is an example of the type of promotion the BCA SHOULD have been doing all along to help promote their event. The hotels rooms were available, the tickets were available, and running promotions like this would expose the pro level game to millions of potential consumers who were otherwise ignorant that professional billiards events even take place. That is what I would call the first failure of the BCA...not doing anything to reach out to the millions of people that could consume our product at a recreational level.
Second, I saw the tradeshow adding more and more non-billiards related vendors. This was especially troubling to us as a small company whose focus is billiards items, trying to work up the ranks and build a customer base. The rationale behind adding poker, jukebox, home theater, swimming pool and spa, massage chair, and various other types of "Home Recreation" was to try and draw their customers to our show and hopefully expand the interest in billiards. Theoretically suspect thinking in my opinion, and probably just the "party line" that I was fed when I complained about this the first time. If you REALLY wanted to expose the buyers of these various lines that have nothing to do with billiards, and in many cases compete directly with them, then go to THIER shows and buy a booth. Extol the benefits of billiards to these consumers on their ground, rather than introduce competition to billiards at what should have been a show focused specifically on our industry. I know for a fact that the addition of these various non-billairds related vendors has done more harm than good to our industry by enticing show attendees to spend their money on non-billiards related inventory. We have NOT seen an increase in attendance by adding these vendors. Here we have the Second failure of the BCA...introducing competition for billiards at their own tradeshow, thus detracting from the sales of billiards related items. Brilliant.
Third, the BCA has offered little to no value to our industry by way of providing benefits for their members, and more specifically, the lifeblood of our industry...our pool rooms. This is where the majority of league play takes place. This is where people who don't play in leagues are exposed to the deeper world of pool, which includes leagues, tours and tournaments. This is where people congregate on Friday and Sat nights for fun and relaxation, and where our industry can truly look to grow participation. Vending tables are everywhere too, but the emphasis is only on the coin drop, and not necessarily bringing those folks back to the room BECAUSE of billiards. Third failure of the BCA - by offering little to no value to these small business owners, the BCA divested themselves from a crucial part of our industry.
Fourth - this is one is debatable but I include it because of the fragmentation effect it has had - the selling of the league system. It was touched on in earlier threads that this lead to a disconnect between the BCA and one its core elements, league players. I include it as a failure because there has been no obvious movement to replace that lifeline to the league players. Jam, I could not agree more than if there is little or no player attention and participation, either at a pro or amateur level, then the BCA is truly worthless (which they just about are now to anyone other than 10 or so vendors that benefit the most at the tradeshow). By selling the league, not only did the BCA lose touch with a critical element of our industry, they also cost themselves significant income from the portion of the dues from the league players, AND they further fragmented our industry by spawning the ACS/BCAPL dilemma. In addition, they wasted money trying to sue Mark Griffin over the name. Brilliant!
In my opinion, the BCA has failed to bring any cohesion to the elements of our sport, they have failed to promote the sport to the general public, they have failed to provide value to being a BCA member at virtually any level. These are some of the reasons that Sterling Gaming did NOT renew its BCA membership this year.
Now, you may say its easy to complain, but much harder to offer solutions. This is very true, and I was asked a few years ago to be part of multiple BCA committees. I accepted these invitations thinking that it would be easier to affect change from the inside of the organization than to rail against it from outside. Besides, I said to myself, the board is comprised of some of the most successful people in our industry...they MUST be able to see what's happening and make positive changes that can save a sinking ship. However, I honestly felt like I was banging my head against a wall in our committee meetings. I brought up most of the aforementioned points, as did others on the committees, and still it seemed that it fell on deaf ears.
Some things I would like to see change -
More efforts to standardize rules. This is a major impediment to greater cohesion within our industry, and the efforts to push it forward. Every pro tournament, every league, every in house tournament, and every regional tournament has a different set of rules. While I am sure each thinks this gives them a competitive advantage, they fail to recognize that EVERY competitive sport that thrives has ONE set of rules that everyone can understand (mostly) and translate to their own play. Keeping with this effort, I think it would be beneficial to establish a uniformed handicapping system. i know, its an uphill battle, for both of these initiatives, but until it happens, there will be too much fragmentation to take the sport to the next level. Generally speaking, in a free market system, the best methods win out, but the division of opinion is too evenly spread in my opinion, for any one league's handicapping system to trump another in the long run.
Find a way to bring together leagues and offer something of value to league player members, no matter which league they are in. Maybe develop a national league championship, use a membership fee to send league members an instructional video...there are numerous ways to attack this, but until there can be some level of cooperation (that includes healthy business competition) all these leagues are going to continue to fight over the same little slices of our billiards pie. THE BCA could enact plans that could increase membership of ALL the leagues by increasing general participation. They could be the unbiased lobby to each of the leagues to bring them together in a cooperative, but still competitive, fashion.
Greater emphasis on the promotion of billiards. Maybe its time the BCA start to find avenues of spending on increasing the visibility of the sport, rather than spending hundreds of thousands on a dying tradeshow. They did a GREAT commercial a few years ago, one that I think makes the game very appealing, but they FAILED to place it properly in the right media streams. Not an entire solution, but a start. Increase participation, which should lead to increase revenues for those involved in the sport, making them more willing to pay BCA dues to continue to fund such efforts.
Bring value to members. There a variety of ways to bring value to a BCA membership at various levels. They BCA has already fleshed out numerous ideas, and failed to act on them. Contact some board members and they should be able to tell you all the ideas that were hatched in committee that fell by the wayside. Some included group insurance, more group discounts and a variety of needs for small business owners, advertising co-ops and PR help.
Provide support for pro players. Again, divert some funds to assist with these guys representing the US in international competition, lay out rules for and sanction pro level tournaments and/or regional tours. This could be the basis of an eventual pro tour, for either men or women, or both. The BCA could spearhead the effort and still give individual promoters plenty of room to develop successful and profitable events, for both promoters and players.
There could also be more general PR and Ad help for any member. By being the representative body of American Billiards, the BCA is in a prime position to help promote the sport to the general public, and could provide assistance to rooms owners, retailers, and players through opportunities that arise, including free press releases, assistance with ad placements, and promotions to those that BCA the BCa for help with private and public billiards related events.
Spend a little on exhibiting at other recreational tradeshows. Don't just send a couple of reps to the BAR show in NY...buy a booth and tout the benefits of adding billiards to bar owners in attendance.
That's my 2 cents on our representative organization. AZbilliards is home to to some of the most dedicated fans our sport has, and many times they are unaware of what folks in positions like myself are thinking and feeling about our chosen industry, and your chosen passion. Since my frustration has festered over the course of a number of years, I felt it necessary to express some of my views in this thread.
Matt Carter
General Manager
Sterling Gaming
Let me start by saying that the company I work for, Sterling Gaming, was founded and is comprised of non-pool playing folks. Since we started, many of us have played league and learned a little about playing, but we are not the hardcore players that many readers of this forum are. We began with a single product selling on ebay, and grew into an entity that now distributes and sells over 1500 billiards related items. Not a schill, just a disclaimer so you know where I am coming from as I write this.
When I first joined the company in 2002, it was, in our minds, CRITICAL to attend the tradeshow and support the BCA as manufacturer/distributor level members. This was OUR organization, not only for the players (they still had the league system then), but also for manufacturers,retailers, players, leagues, and fans. I viewed the BCA as THE vehicle to bring together all these different elements of our sport and promote it to the population at-large. Since we offer such a wide variety of items, our company had the unique perspective of recognizing that there are a number of elements to our market...league players, recreational players, home table owners, region competitive tours, and pro level tours. All of the segments of the market are a little different, but they all have the common thread of billiards. It was the BCA's job to bring cohesion to these elements, to generally promote the visibility of the sport so that ALL those involved would see a higher level of prosperity, in my opinion. If I have the quote right (and its been said on this forum before) "A rising tide lifts all boats".
After my first few tradeshows and BCA tournaments, I began to take issue with some of what I saw going on.
First, there was little to no promotion of the sport to the general public. The BCA Open was held in conjunction with the league nationals, which made sense because of the built in core audience to draw from, however actually drawing that audience is a different story. Many of league players were there to play, not watch a tournament. If they had to play matches, they could little afford time to go watch the pro event. Also, Vegas has an insane level of entertainment competition, and let us not forget that spectating a billiards event is entertainment. Our company even tried to reach beyond the norm one year, and ran a promotion on a nationally syndicated morning radio show giving away an all-expense paid trip to Vegas to see the BCA Open. We had to pay for the BCA tickets ourselves. If you ask me, this is an example of the type of promotion the BCA SHOULD have been doing all along to help promote their event. The hotels rooms were available, the tickets were available, and running promotions like this would expose the pro level game to millions of potential consumers who were otherwise ignorant that professional billiards events even take place. That is what I would call the first failure of the BCA...not doing anything to reach out to the millions of people that could consume our product at a recreational level.
Second, I saw the tradeshow adding more and more non-billiards related vendors. This was especially troubling to us as a small company whose focus is billiards items, trying to work up the ranks and build a customer base. The rationale behind adding poker, jukebox, home theater, swimming pool and spa, massage chair, and various other types of "Home Recreation" was to try and draw their customers to our show and hopefully expand the interest in billiards. Theoretically suspect thinking in my opinion, and probably just the "party line" that I was fed when I complained about this the first time. If you REALLY wanted to expose the buyers of these various lines that have nothing to do with billiards, and in many cases compete directly with them, then go to THIER shows and buy a booth. Extol the benefits of billiards to these consumers on their ground, rather than introduce competition to billiards at what should have been a show focused specifically on our industry. I know for a fact that the addition of these various non-billairds related vendors has done more harm than good to our industry by enticing show attendees to spend their money on non-billiards related inventory. We have NOT seen an increase in attendance by adding these vendors. Here we have the Second failure of the BCA...introducing competition for billiards at their own tradeshow, thus detracting from the sales of billiards related items. Brilliant.
Third, the BCA has offered little to no value to our industry by way of providing benefits for their members, and more specifically, the lifeblood of our industry...our pool rooms. This is where the majority of league play takes place. This is where people who don't play in leagues are exposed to the deeper world of pool, which includes leagues, tours and tournaments. This is where people congregate on Friday and Sat nights for fun and relaxation, and where our industry can truly look to grow participation. Vending tables are everywhere too, but the emphasis is only on the coin drop, and not necessarily bringing those folks back to the room BECAUSE of billiards. Third failure of the BCA - by offering little to no value to these small business owners, the BCA divested themselves from a crucial part of our industry.
Fourth - this is one is debatable but I include it because of the fragmentation effect it has had - the selling of the league system. It was touched on in earlier threads that this lead to a disconnect between the BCA and one its core elements, league players. I include it as a failure because there has been no obvious movement to replace that lifeline to the league players. Jam, I could not agree more than if there is little or no player attention and participation, either at a pro or amateur level, then the BCA is truly worthless (which they just about are now to anyone other than 10 or so vendors that benefit the most at the tradeshow). By selling the league, not only did the BCA lose touch with a critical element of our industry, they also cost themselves significant income from the portion of the dues from the league players, AND they further fragmented our industry by spawning the ACS/BCAPL dilemma. In addition, they wasted money trying to sue Mark Griffin over the name. Brilliant!
In my opinion, the BCA has failed to bring any cohesion to the elements of our sport, they have failed to promote the sport to the general public, they have failed to provide value to being a BCA member at virtually any level. These are some of the reasons that Sterling Gaming did NOT renew its BCA membership this year.
Now, you may say its easy to complain, but much harder to offer solutions. This is very true, and I was asked a few years ago to be part of multiple BCA committees. I accepted these invitations thinking that it would be easier to affect change from the inside of the organization than to rail against it from outside. Besides, I said to myself, the board is comprised of some of the most successful people in our industry...they MUST be able to see what's happening and make positive changes that can save a sinking ship. However, I honestly felt like I was banging my head against a wall in our committee meetings. I brought up most of the aforementioned points, as did others on the committees, and still it seemed that it fell on deaf ears.
Some things I would like to see change -
More efforts to standardize rules. This is a major impediment to greater cohesion within our industry, and the efforts to push it forward. Every pro tournament, every league, every in house tournament, and every regional tournament has a different set of rules. While I am sure each thinks this gives them a competitive advantage, they fail to recognize that EVERY competitive sport that thrives has ONE set of rules that everyone can understand (mostly) and translate to their own play. Keeping with this effort, I think it would be beneficial to establish a uniformed handicapping system. i know, its an uphill battle, for both of these initiatives, but until it happens, there will be too much fragmentation to take the sport to the next level. Generally speaking, in a free market system, the best methods win out, but the division of opinion is too evenly spread in my opinion, for any one league's handicapping system to trump another in the long run.
Find a way to bring together leagues and offer something of value to league player members, no matter which league they are in. Maybe develop a national league championship, use a membership fee to send league members an instructional video...there are numerous ways to attack this, but until there can be some level of cooperation (that includes healthy business competition) all these leagues are going to continue to fight over the same little slices of our billiards pie. THE BCA could enact plans that could increase membership of ALL the leagues by increasing general participation. They could be the unbiased lobby to each of the leagues to bring them together in a cooperative, but still competitive, fashion.
Greater emphasis on the promotion of billiards. Maybe its time the BCA start to find avenues of spending on increasing the visibility of the sport, rather than spending hundreds of thousands on a dying tradeshow. They did a GREAT commercial a few years ago, one that I think makes the game very appealing, but they FAILED to place it properly in the right media streams. Not an entire solution, but a start. Increase participation, which should lead to increase revenues for those involved in the sport, making them more willing to pay BCA dues to continue to fund such efforts.
Bring value to members. There a variety of ways to bring value to a BCA membership at various levels. They BCA has already fleshed out numerous ideas, and failed to act on them. Contact some board members and they should be able to tell you all the ideas that were hatched in committee that fell by the wayside. Some included group insurance, more group discounts and a variety of needs for small business owners, advertising co-ops and PR help.
Provide support for pro players. Again, divert some funds to assist with these guys representing the US in international competition, lay out rules for and sanction pro level tournaments and/or regional tours. This could be the basis of an eventual pro tour, for either men or women, or both. The BCA could spearhead the effort and still give individual promoters plenty of room to develop successful and profitable events, for both promoters and players.
There could also be more general PR and Ad help for any member. By being the representative body of American Billiards, the BCA is in a prime position to help promote the sport to the general public, and could provide assistance to rooms owners, retailers, and players through opportunities that arise, including free press releases, assistance with ad placements, and promotions to those that BCA the BCa for help with private and public billiards related events.
Spend a little on exhibiting at other recreational tradeshows. Don't just send a couple of reps to the BAR show in NY...buy a booth and tout the benefits of adding billiards to bar owners in attendance.
That's my 2 cents on our representative organization. AZbilliards is home to to some of the most dedicated fans our sport has, and many times they are unaware of what folks in positions like myself are thinking and feeling about our chosen industry, and your chosen passion. Since my frustration has festered over the course of a number of years, I felt it necessary to express some of my views in this thread.
Matt Carter
General Manager
Sterling Gaming
I have no official connection to the WPA and I never thought that I would come on this forum vigorously defending them but here I go again.
The WPA is not some conglomerate with flash offices and multi layers of backroom staff ready to dash off Press Releases at a whim. They are not the PGA or the LTA but a few individuals banded together by a common cause.
I have seen the PGA HQ in West Palm Beach and they probably have cleaner's cupboards bigger than the office space used by the WPA.
There are currently only two people who are hands on in the set up. Our own Jerry Forsyth whose workload embraces a whole lot of other activities, is one.
The other is the much maligned Ian Anderson. Now Ian will be the first to admit that he has not done a perfect job but he has pulled together a package of events this year that will not break any banks but is a solid foundation for the immediate future.
Of course that is what he is there to do but it means that half his life is spent away from his home and family. But there is no truth in the assertion that he (or any other WPA Board Member look down on players. It took him a bit of time but he is very approachable and will sit with players who have issues. He was a professional player himself for over 20 years so he understands the competitive psyche of players.
I don't wear rose tinted spectacles over the WPA. There ARE things that need to be addressed and in time they will be. But for now the patient is in recovery.
To paraphrase Fran Crimi - be careful to decide what you want because you might get it - and it might not be the answer that you want.
As this thread seems to be training it's guns primarily on the BCA I will will bow out of that scenario.
But not before I congratulate Matt Carter of Sterling Gaming for a fabulous posting re the BCA
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Matt,
One of the absolute best posts I've ever read on AZ. Great post written in words and concepts all of us can understand!!!! Thanks so much for your input and the effort required.
Thanks also for the tee shirt. You guys are the "bomb" (probably out of date already but you get the idea!). Hope to support your efforts again next year.
Lyn
One of the absolute best posts I've ever read on AZ. Great post written in words and concepts all of us can understand!!!! Thanks so much for your input and the effort required.
Thanks also for the tee shirt. You guys are the "bomb" (probably out of date already but you get the idea!). Hope to support your efforts again next year.
Lyn
I too, have been saying this for years. Pros need to play the game that everyone understands, on equipment that everyone knows. Instead of the pros trying to move to center, they keep moving further and further away from something the normal person can relate to. Gambling matches, dedicated streams and trick tables can always be used to thrill the sport purists. Give the base what they understand.
The foundation IS the league entities. They are all good as they get people playing. The BCA trade organization is not the base or in anyway representative of players in the US.
One of the many reasons that SVB is so popular is that he came through the league system, the same with Jesse Bowman. Is it any wonder that they are known as the two of the best bar box 8-ball players?
In my dream world, every league entity would produce one or two professional (open) events a year. They have the experience, the venue contacts and the sponsorship to make it happen without losing money. I for one think that they would do better than break even.
I'll stop. I don't want to hijack the thread. This is a good thread with many reasoned responses. I still don't think that I have heard any that enthusiastically support the BCA being the WPA representative.
Definitely agree. Thanks, Matt, for sharing your thoughts on this thread. It is refreshing to read words coming from somebody who has, indeed, a good deal of knowledge on this subject matter. Sterling Gaming has always been one of the good guys in pool. As it pertains to professional pool, I remember many instances of their contributions to help.
Everybody comes at this topic from a different vantage point.
I'm not a promoter. I'm not an industry member. I'm not a member of pool's fourth estate. I'm not a professional pool player. I'm a member of the pool public who did invest a chunk of my life to the professional pool arena.
My opinons may not be met with joy by industry members, promoters, fourth estate, and organizational entities, but I am expressing them all the same on this pool forum, and I have tried to do so respectfully.
I just thank the good Lord above that I never quit my day job. I made a decision several years ago not to get beaten up by pool anymore.
I hope Matt gets paid back a thousand-fold for all that he's done for pool. His contributions were not so much to make a profit as much as they were for his passion and desire for the sport to succeed. Pool could use a few more just like this gentleman. He "gets it," too, just like Mike Panozzo of Billiards Digest.
I may get dismissed by defenders of the WPA and BCA as my opinion not being worthy, but when somebody like Sterling Gamling speaks up, maybe somebody will listen to them and give them the respect they so rightfully deserve.
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Don't understand the reason for this post. Nowhere is the WPA mentioned as a bad guy. We are discussing the Billiard Congress of America and what that organization does NOT do for American players. Both professional and amateur. Regardless of your country of residence, your opinions and ideas are welcome here. Please continue to give us your input. Both positive and negative. Only way to learn.
Lyn
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This is exactly why many room owners didn't renew their membership and quit going to the tradeshow. The BCA never did much for the RO. A token advertising template campaign and the room owners seminar (which really didn't help owners much) were all they did. The reason most RO's had membership was because of leagues and tradeshow. The tradeshow kept getting bastardized and then the league sale finally cut the ties.
The BCA is trying to renew room membership by trying to do things they should have been doing all along (i.e. national contracts with Coke). It is just too little and too late for me.
Thank you Matt. Your thoughts are well written, concise and show the reasons for the slow demise and lack of respect for the BCA. When they owned the league system and WERE the main organization and actually had a billiard trade show, very few would have even thought about writing negatively about the BCA.
Matt, nice post, spot on, I went in office when they moved to CO and then left office two yrs laters because of most everything you stated above.
As I've said for yrs, the industry will gladly pick the apples but will not tend to the fields.
As one of the few defenders of the WPA on this thread, I certainly don't think your opinions are UNWORTHY - quite the opposite. But I would like you to recognise that there are two sides (or perspectives) to every story.
I am privileged to be able to see both for myself and am happy to share this knowledge..
From what I remember about the details that Steve Dudacoff (sp?) explained a the BCA League operators meeting at the BCA event the year the league was sold.
The BCA board decided to sell the leagues, no reason was given. Certain board members excused themself because of the conflict of interest. Some were interested in purchasing the league and some were league owners themself.
The board hired a firm to sell the league. The firm took bids from potential buyers. Mark Griffin was awarded the purchase. This was all done in private.
League Operators were pissed they were'nt involved.
Some League Operators took BCA League money and started ACS.
John Lewis was the BCA head League director and his Wife was his league secretary.
John Lewis was outspoken about the sale of the leage system... John was fired.
John Lewis and the pissed off LOs started the ACS. The ACS has about 20,000 members. (guessing) The ACS still dreams and uses this dream to promote the ACS that pool belongs in the Olympics. The ACS also touts that it is a Non-profit org. What that means is it is exempt from paying a lot of taxes.
Mark started BCAPL and CSI. Mark's league is a 'for profit' org. The more money the league makes, the larger the prizes are.
The BCA board decided to sell the leagues, no reason was given. Certain board members excused themself because of the conflict of interest. Some were interested in purchasing the league and some were league owners themself.
The board hired a firm to sell the league. The firm took bids from potential buyers. Mark Griffin was awarded the purchase. This was all done in private.
League Operators were pissed they were'nt involved.
Some League Operators took BCA League money and started ACS.
John Lewis was the BCA head League director and his Wife was his league secretary.
John Lewis was outspoken about the sale of the leage system... John was fired.
John Lewis and the pissed off LOs started the ACS. The ACS has about 20,000 members. (guessing) The ACS still dreams and uses this dream to promote the ACS that pool belongs in the Olympics. The ACS also touts that it is a Non-profit org. What that means is it is exempt from paying a lot of taxes.
Mark started BCAPL and CSI. Mark's league is a 'for profit' org. The more money the league makes, the larger the prizes are.
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Cancelled Membership
Just got back from my am jog and was thinking about what
Matt Carter, General Manager of Sterling Gaming had said and his reasons for disgust and cancelling his BCA membership.
What a great and inexpensive way it would of been for the BCA to, go out of there way and call each and every member (sterling gaming) that had cancelled to find out why they left and what they might do to resolve their issues. Could of saved allot of money instead of going to some marketing firm and coming up with a new idea that was most likely their idea.
Just got back from my am jog and was thinking about what
Matt Carter, General Manager of Sterling Gaming had said and his reasons for disgust and cancelling his BCA membership.
What a great and inexpensive way it would of been for the BCA to, go out of there way and call each and every member (sterling gaming) that had cancelled to find out why they left and what they might do to resolve their issues. Could of saved allot of money instead of going to some marketing firm and coming up with a new idea that was most likely their idea.
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Wags, see my comments in BLUE below
and thanks for your opinions. I appreciate your views.
and thanks for your opinions. I appreciate your views.
It is true that there are uncertainties about the best way to move forward. This was also true in past American pool eras. Unfortunately, we do not have the luxury of waiting until we have all the answers. We must not let the best be the enemy of the good.
IOW, selecting one configuration platform that we are absolutely certain is the optimum configuration is not as important as expeditiously selecting one of the many workable configuration platforms, such as CSI (Mark Griffin) and Matchroom Sports, so that we can move forward.
The time for industry and professional pool players to work together as a team to define a future equitable policy is now. I do not believe the current BCA affords this opportunity.
We must establish an overarching policy that recognizes a synergy among all professional players to determine the right sustainable industry involvement and have it funded accordingly. The need to move on with clear velocity is imperative if we are to sustain our endangered American professional pool player base.
The clock is ticking.
IOW, selecting one configuration platform that we are absolutely certain is the optimum configuration is not as important as expeditiously selecting one of the many workable configuration platforms, such as CSI (Mark Griffin) and Matchroom Sports, so that we can move forward.
The time for industry and professional pool players to work together as a team to define a future equitable policy is now. I do not believe the current BCA affords this opportunity.
We must establish an overarching policy that recognizes a synergy among all professional players to determine the right sustainable industry involvement and have it funded accordingly. The need to move on with clear velocity is imperative if we are to sustain our endangered American professional pool player base.
The clock is ticking.
Hey Matt - nice post. I see by your sig you moved up the food chain so congrats. Picked up on 2 points above from your post -
Over the years stores that only sold tables, cues and some accessories faced increasing competition from the likes of outfits like Watsons and the Great Escape where you could purchase many more home entertainment items. Ping pong, shuffleboard and massage recliners are definitly not billiard related but these non-billiards vendors give the store owner (tradeshow buyer) the opportunity to explore ways to diversify their product mix and offer additional home entertainment items to their customers. The way I see it as a tradeshow buyer, if not interested in massage recliners then keep on walking. In the meantime these sort of vendors are helping keep the show going while some of the prominent billiards vendors are cutting back on booth space.
As for reaching out to the millions - think one needs to consider that there are a great many people with a table in their house that could care less about pro tournaments, leagues, pool rooms, playing at the local bar, billiards on tv, the latest cue shaft or the brand of chalk they use. These are the same people that never heard of the BCA but a lot of them know about that hot chick that plays pool on tv sometimes (JL). Many people have a table simply for home entertainment the same way they have a bigscreen tv and the latest in gas grills. The guy that "always wanted a table" or the one that "now" has room for one doesn't need to be motivated by the BCA. I think the point is that the vast majority are not as fanatical about pool as many of the members here and I seriously doubt the BCA can change that.
Not arguing with your post nor defending the BCA as they could be doing more for the industry and players at the professional level. JMO's
Rick, I think you forgot one thing. The BCA is supposed to be the trade organization for the billiards industry, not the home entertainment and furnishings industry.
