You are correct: I did flip-flip on BB.
I do not want to see BB fail. Of course, I want what is best for professional pool, especially American professional pool. It's circling the drain right now, has been for years. The tournament payouts, as most know, are the same in 2013 as they were in 1973, yet the cost of living has quadrupled.
When attending tournaments in the '70s, gas was 35 cents a gallon. A decent hotel room was about 30 bucks. You could eat a full-course meal at McDonald's -- hamburger, French frieds, and a milkshake -- for less than a dollar. :grin-square:
Professional pool as an industry has not had a cost-of-living raise in its payouts at pool competitions.
Most money today made in pool, if there is any to be made, comes from gambling, one-on-one combat behind closed doors. But you will not read about these profits much on AzBilliards. Some of them remain private and for good reason. The average action player will make more money than a tournament soldier in 2013, mainly because of expenses.
With all of the above said, if Bonus Ball can effect a change for the better, I'm in like Flynn, but my loyalty, if you want to call it that, is to the players themselves. If they ain't getting paid, I think it's something to be concerned about. Been there and done that myself with my experience in the pool world. To illustrate, I told Keith if he didn't come home with his IPT check in Reno, then he better not come home and he could just stay in Reno. When he told me that they informed him at the players meeting that the checks weren't available, I didn't believe him. I thought he gambled his winnings away.
Poor Keith ended up selling his upcoming check, that didn't come until a year later, to another player for 10 percent, so he'd have money in his pocket when he got off the airplane. I didn't find out what he did until a week after he got back that nobody got paid. The IPT soon folded thereafter.
When they get funny with the money, somebody is wrong.
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