Article by Badi Nazhat

Optimisim

JoeyA said:

Billiard Congress of America (BCA)

[2] as a non-profit trade organization

JoeyA

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BCA, a trade organization??? Who knew?

"I guess anybody who was around real pool!"

This Sport, pool, has been "on it's last breathe" for as long as anyone can remember. And yet it still clings to life, despite the failures of promoters and players alike, for years and years; "must be something incredible about the very nature of this game for it to have lived in this still-born state for so long!" Witnessed by the fact that those who proclaim love and devotion for it (like Mr. Badi Nazhat) as they walk "OUT THE DOOR!!!"
Seems to me, it's a perfect time for a serious financial benefactor (what about you, Mr. Badi Nazhat?) to solve the player/ promoter organizational problems, NOW!!! (When a sport is in this kind of state of disarray, very little money and vision can take control and own it all! Witnessed by the fact that Bonus Ball, could buy all the top players for promises and a pittance in coin.oke:

stevelomako said:

I don't get it...if HE was in charge of everything....how is he blameless for his own failure?


He could have said AHEAD of time, "If this tournament goes off like this (insert however he wants it to go), I am going to invest big $$ into actually making a tour, or at least several more big events".


If his tournament was a "test the waters" thing, then he blew it by keeping his intentions secret.

Even now, who knows exactly what he wanted??

Hell he had a full field of women and 2/3rds full for the men.



Its a hard thing in life to blame yourself.



Go to his Ultimate 10 ball website, he took all info down from it except his last statement,

http://www.ultimate10ball.com/2014/

he couldn't even leave all the results up...like he's a big baby, "its my ball and I'm going home".

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They are all still there Steve just click the other years they pop up no problem. Entry list etc still appear to all be working to me.

I been reading this and thought the statement was an excellent write-up and very informative.

I want to say thanks for trying to do something for pool Badi.

Bigtruck said:

All the result are still there. Here maybe this will help.

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JoeyA said:

Steve,
No need for your disrespectful remarks. The information you seek is on his website.
JoeyA

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elvicash said:

They are all still there Steve just click the other years they pop up no problem. Entry list etc still appear to all be working to me.

I been reading this and thought the statement was an excellent write-up and very informative.

I want to say thanks for trying to do something for pool Badi.

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They definately weren't working before I posted what I did.

I'm still going to stand by what I wrote. The only thing wrong might be the "baby" comment but thats how it feels to me.

He blamed everything and everyone else instead of himself.



Can anyone tell me what he was looking to accomplish...he hasn't said what it was.

Well I went and read his statement again for the umpteenth time and can see he is pissed off at Johnny Archer big time.

Other than stating what most of us on here have been saying for years and complaining about the organizations all over world he doesn't add anything.

Again...what did he expect at Tunica??

What did he expect at Dallas??

Did he think they were two of the biggest pool cities in the United States. :shrug:


He adds the "I would have sunk $1,000,000 a year for 5 years in pool if things would have been different".

How did they need to be different??


Hell, my good friend John Mars would be willing to sink $2,000,000 a year for 10 years if things were different.

I would bet with anyone on the planet that given one year in advance I could fill any professional tournament with a waiting list one month before the event was to take place. I don't care what the event is, what other events were going on, etc...I am positive that I could get 128 paid spots filled in 11 months and have a field of players who were happy to be there.

I honestly don't know anymore what people really want? DCC as wonderful as it is is also kind of pool run amok with not only the three main divisions, there is the 10 ball tournament, the one pocket runout tournament, 3 cushion, amateur events, 14.1 tournament. People can't physically take all that in. Not to mention all the action.

Is this really just all about the state of PROFESSIONAL pool in America? Amateur tournaments seem to be able to get full fields. The big events in Vegas seem to be growing and not shrinking.

Poolrooms have been closing but also people are still opening new ones.

I don't blame guys like Badi and Mark being burnt out but as I stated they should take a harder line and simply buy the sport and make their way or the highway as far as pro pool goes if they don't want to deal with the status quo.

Amateur pool seems to be doing just fine.

JB Cases said:

I don't blame guys like Badi and Mark being burnt out but as I stated they should take a harder line and simply buy the sport and make their way or the highway as far as pro pool goes...

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This sounds about right to me.

Bigtruck said:

Here's how the Industry covered the event:

I believe THIS is very telling as to how the "Industry" is divided right now. Everyone ONLY covers events that advertise with them or are friendly to their clique.

BIGGEST event on American Soil in several decades:

Here is how the Industry covered the event


AZBilliards

http://www.azbilliards.com/tours_an...ball-championship-2013-mens-division/stories/

http://www.azbilliards.com/news/stories/10196-big-names-will-help-ultimate-10-ball-support-the-bef/

Inside Pool Magazine - March 2013

http://www.insidepoolmag.com/201303/billiard-news/ultimate-ten-ball-championships-announced.html

Billiard Digest

buried on their calendar

http://www.billiardsdigest.com/calendar/

Pool & Billiard Magazine

No coverage found

Kazoom -

http://www.kozoom.com/en/pool-billi...es-added-money-in-name-of-billiard-unity.html

NYC Grind

http://www.nycgrind.com/the-latest/3rd-edition-ultimate-10-ball-championships-set-tunica-june-17-20/

Stroke Magazine

No coverage found

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That's very interesting.

Any ideas why so little support and/or fanfare?

J

Did someone say Snooker is boring?

If you're bored you're boring!

Snooker is the best damn game in the Shire!

stevelomako said:

Can anyone tell me what he was looking to accomplish...he hasn't said what it was.

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I know what he wanted. He wanted just a little (and I mean just a sliver) of cooperation from the unifying bodies and a healthy heaping of respect AND appreciation from the players. Instead, for his troubles, he couldn't get the players to even dress properly. And to add insult to injury, the players got "pied pipered" into following the wrong "savior".

I've been around the block Steve. Mr Nazhat didn't pull out because monetary success wasn't achieved. I'd bet my whole stack that he never had any financial goals to achieve, even. At least not yet, anyway. He wanted to see PROGRESS. He got repaid with scorn, disrespect and he went unappreciated.

This is my last post in this thread. It's rather unbelievable that so many read his statement and hardly anyone understands it.

NYC cue dude said:

I know what he wanted. He wanted just a little (and I mean just a sliver) of cooperation from the unifying bodies and a healthy heaping of respect AND appreciation from the players. Instead, for his troubles, he couldn't get the players to even dress properly. And to add insult to injury, the players got "pied pipered" into following the wrong "savior".

I've been around the block Steve. Mr Nazhat didn't pull out because monetary success wasn't achieved. I'd bet my whole stack that he never had any financial goals to achieve, even. At least not yet, anyway. He wanted to see PROGRESS. He got repaid with scorn, disrespect and he went unappreciated.

This is my last post in this thread. It's rather unbelievable that so many read his statement and hardly anyone understands it.

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Green to you sir.......

There are a lot of incredible marketing minds that would........

kvinbrwr said:

CJ talks about marketing pool like its a concert or similar event. Hey people WANT to go to concerts, marketing for them is just about getting the word out. Pool is a bit trickier to market. First you have to make people want the product.

Kevin

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There are a lot of incredible marketing minds that would have no problem using their creative ingenuity to make a pool promotion "Sizzle". They would have showered the magazines, newspapers, Tv Stations, Radio Stations, etc with press releases.....especially about a PRO AM with a local charity.

We had a Marketing Agency, a Public Relations Team and advertised in magazines, did ESPN Commercials and put our semi finals AND finals on TV......we also tied in to TONY HILL's Charity here in Dallas and did a PRO AM the night before the tournament (this was a regular thing with Jay Helfert's events as well in L.A. and the Bicycle Club.

The Tunica Event had no TV, no radio, no charity tie in, no PRO AM, and had no appearance that anyone wanted to showcase the event in any way, shape or form.

I was at BOTH Tunica events and played in all Greg Sullivan's events this year as well, including the BIG FOOT CHALLENGE.....admittingly I played way under par and disappointed all 15 people in the audience.....oh, well, such is life.

Someone could have had the ROLLING STONES in Tunica and if the promotion would have been the same - the turnout would have been just as unfavorable (relatively speaking).

No one should have a problem with JOHNNY ARCHER....he was there and played in the event along with over 70 other top professionals.....the lack of turn out had absolutely nothing to do with the amount of professional player talent, the league players across the street didn't even know who was there.....it was VERY DEEP with talent.....the problem was simple......there was no promotional plan in place and it was painfully obvious to anyone that's done promotional work before.

If ESPN would have been filming the scenario would have been different because at least the league players would have been buzzing with "world of mouth"....when ESPN is at a pool event it becomes "larger than life" - that's a fact, I've seen it many times.

The venue's demographic location was also WAY off the beaten path with the closest major city (MEMPHIS) thirty minutes away. Memphis is a nice city, but not in the top 40 cities in the United States for pool activity, and certainly not the target demographic.

Dallas, LA, Ft. Worth Tx, New York, and Atlanta would have been my top 5 recommendations for the venue location. The last one was in Frisco Texas, which is a suburb of Dallas, but still NOT near as good as the city of Dallas.

jimmyg said:

That's very interesting.

Any ideas why so little support and/or fanfare?

J

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Sure do. Because there is no one reporting on pool. No one goes out and gets the story and writes about it. All pool has is copy and paste magazines that only post stories that the events themselves or the players themselves send in.Someone sends in a story to an entity that doesn't like the person who sent it and it never gets published.

Why anyone would support any news media outlet that only reported on certain parts of a sport and ignored the rest is beyond me.

Can you imagine if ABC, NBC, CBS or ESPN ignored the Super Bowl because it was on Fox?

This is one of the reason that AZ Billiards is the place to be. They will put their personal differences aside for the greater good of the sport.

Ray

CJ brings up a very good point.

As a live streamer, I have always made it my job to use whatever resources I can to promote the event as much as possible and from every angle.

I can't stress how often I've had to chase down tournament directors and promotors to tell me how many spots are open, the flyer, all the details about the venue including local hotels and other aids which help players to get around and find the resources they need to attend an event. I've even made over a dozen flyers because promoters aren't even prepared with one. Even guys like Griffin have not considered some of the pre promotional power that streaming has and he's been working with TAR and myself for several years now.

I would like to think that people have actually chosen to work with me because they know I'm going to not only stream the event but also to get the word out about the tournament. Like ESPN, it is an assumed responsibility of mine to keep as many people informed, right down to the time of the players meeting and the size of the pockets.

Communication of this by the tournament directors and venue owners has been difficult in the past, but I've learned to groom most of my clients into realizing that they should utilize me as a promotional engine for their events.

Someone made a good point that AZB and Facebook are not the only ways to promote something and this is 100% correct. I have an email list of players that I notify of events. I send press to billiard publications and I use other billiard promoters to distribute related ads and other media. All in all, it's a ton of work, I do it anyway and ironically it turns out to be MOST of the work.

Good point again, CJ.

Bigtruck said:

Sure do. Because there is no one reporting on pool. No one goes out and gets the story and writes about it. All pool has is copy and paste magazines that only post stories that the events themselves or the players themselves send in.Someone sends in a story to an entity that doesn't like the person who sent it and it never gets published.

Why anyone would support any news media outlet that only reported on certain parts of a sport and ignored the rest is beyond me.

Can you imagine if ABC, NBC, CBS or ESPN ignored the Super Bowl because it was on Fox?

This is one of the reason that AZ Billiards is the place to be. They will put their personal differences aside for the greater good of the sport.

Ray

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Well put, Ray.
Once again, it's another ton of work, but once in awhile I try to write editorials as well. The simple fact is though is, the publishers should be taking this on. Not that I expect them to come to my 1st sunday tournaments, but sometimes our events are big enough.

Rum Runner
Hard Times 10-Ball
West Coast Challenge
etc...

NYC cue dude said:

I know what he wanted. He wanted just a little (and I mean just a sliver) of cooperation from the unifying bodies and a healthy heaping of respect AND appreciation from the players. Instead, for his troubles, he couldn't get the players to even dress properly. And to add insult to injury, the players got "pied pipered" into following the wrong "savior".

I've been around the block Steve. Mr Nazhat didn't pull out because monetary success wasn't achieved. I'd bet my whole stack that he never had any financial goals to achieve, even. At least not yet, anyway. He wanted to see PROGRESS. He got repaid with scorn, disrespect and he went unappreciated.

This is my last post in this thread. It's rather unbelievable that so many read his statement and hardly anyone understands it.

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Ahhhhhhh....I get it now.

You're saying he wanted them to take him out back and give him a "hum job". I heard the mosquitos were too bad (seriously) and no one wanted to go outside.


Its easy to just say "they didn't cooperate"...but how didn't they cooperate? He didn't ask anyone to do anything specific.

You say he wanted "a healthy heaping of respect and appreciation"...he could have required that with the entry fee...such as...Ultimate 10 ball entry fee is: $500.00 and you have to show respect to the promoter by kissing his ring finger while saying "Thank you Don Nazhat, for inviting me to your home on the day of your daughters wedding." Oops, wrong movie but you get the idea.

If they had a dress code that wasn't followed...who's fault is that? Just start enforcing it.



A lot of us have been "around the block" NYC cue dude (I'm sorry I don't know your name)...all of us that have ran and promoted tournaments, added money to them (this includes you, NYC cue dude), do it for one of two reasons...for money...or for egotistical reasons.

I did it for money and whether I made or lost money (and I lost plenty of times) I didn't expect anything from anyone. I knew my chances and took the risk. If someone came up to me (and plenty did) and said "Thank you Steve" I would reply "You're welcome...but Thank YOU". Then I tried to figure out how I could do better next time.

If I did it for ego, I'd either have to get my head examined or blow my brains out.



As I said in a different post, he had plenty of players, 64 out of 64 for the women...83 out of 128 for the men so it really wasn't a failure on a player attendance standpoint.

He wanted 192 total and got 147, thats not bad for a $500 entry with no advertising situated in the middle of nothing at a horrible time of year for the area.

It seemed like he was piggy backing it with the Southern Classic to hopefully boost it spectator and player wise but we all know how that was going to go.



I understand his statement. He was doing it more for ego and he feels like he's been kicked in the balls.



I guess for the big picture:

What would someone learn from this?

NYC cue dude said:

I know what he wanted. He wanted just a little (and I mean just a sliver) of cooperation from the unifying bodies and a healthy heaping of respect AND appreciation from the players. Instead, for his troubles, he couldn't get the players to even dress properly. And to add insult to injury, the players got "pied pipered" into following the wrong "savior".

I've been around the block Steve. Mr Nazhat didn't pull out because monetary success wasn't achieved. I'd bet my whole stack that he never had any financial goals to achieve, even. At least not yet, anyway. He wanted to see PROGRESS. He got repaid with scorn, disrespect and he went unappreciated.

This is my last post in this thread. It's rather unbelievable that so many read his statement and hardly anyone understands it.

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Well said.

Accu-Stats sent out thousands of emails regarding the Southern Classic dates and events.... That is part of what you do as a streamer.... What also needs to happen is to have a face for the sport that can goto the media and keep them informed and fed with stories... Surely the BCA hasn't spent all their trade show money on a few salaries and could maybe at least devote a secretary to take calls and transcribe reports from events for distribution.. Likely not..
CHRIS

stevelomako said:

I guess for the big picture:

What would someone learn from this?

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The ignore function on AZ???

----> Removed post.

................ =)