No doubt Kaci is a stud that we will be reading about for years.
Wouldn’t it stand to reason that we would have more American champions if we don’t have any international competitors? What did BCA and WPA do to keep them out?
The BCA, in particular, is the Billiards Congress of America. They are supposed to be the so-called "governing body of pool" in North America.
At one time, they used to have a once-a-year tournament called the BCA Open, which was really more of an invitational. You had to be invited by the those in charge behind the curtain. There was no transparency, I might add. Kid Delicious was left out of the BCA Open in 2004, the best year of his career when he was winning everything, because it was told to to him that nobody knew how to get in touch with him. Movies and books were being tossed around to be written about him, as well as he was a member of Charlie Williams' UPA club, and he was backed by Pittsburgh Steel. But I digress.
The BCA, consisting of industry members, decided that there was no money to be made in professional pool, I guess, and sold the BCA league to Mark Griffin, ceased having the BCA Open invitational tournaments anymore, and concentrated on what can put money in the pockets of the industry members.
Well, if the BCA is the governing body of professional pool, supposed to be reporting directly to WPA so we could get a shot at the future Olympics, what happened? Why isn't the WPA asking this question to the BCA? What happened to professional pool in the United States?
The existing lot of professional players in America started to dwindle. Look at an Accu-Stats' player rosters of the 1980s and see how many champions, American champions' names are on the list. Not so today.
Professional players are treated like pariahs, banned from regional events or forced to give ridiculous, impossible handicaps if they want to compete. I remember the time Keith, who hadn't played for a decade, wanted to compete in a one-hole tournament, and the handicap he had to spot was 12 to 3, Keith having to go to 12. This is just an example. Some regional tournaments will not let pro players compete.
So the American players, unlike the their European and Asian counterparts, have no professional organization. The BCA dropped them like a hot potato when it comes to support and guidance and direction, and the majority of them scramble around like sparrows searching for crumbs of the BCA apple pie.
Oh, yes, Shane, Sky, and one or two other Americans are the golden boys who put money in the pockets of these industry members, so they are the exception, of course. But if one of these golden boys quits running racks or gets sick, they have no future because pool is not a sport. It's a recreational game in USA, like croquet and badminton.
The WPA should be doing more to promote professional pool around the world, especially in places like the United States where it is suffering, instead of jet-setting to Qatar for banquets of filet mignon and caviar.
If the WPA wants to help pool get into the Olympic Games, they might think about trying to help the professional players flourish instead of collecting sanctioning fees.
My hope is that Barry Hearn will put pool on the map and put money in the players' pockets. If the industry gets fat on this, that's fine. That's what brings the money in, advertisements of industry members, and when pool hits the big time, I hope Barry Hearn, et al., charges those greedy industry members up the ying-yang as payback for all these years the industry members are getting fat while the professional players are treated like pariahs.
