Age restrictions for league. APA, BCA, Etc

The practical minimum age is 21 because the vast majority of league teams play in bars, and most bar owners exclude those under 21 after a certain hour of the evening. I believe all of the leagues have junior divisions for younger players, but the venues are few and far between.

Dont know about Georgia...

In St. Louis there is a very large number of small townships and cities that make up the St. Louis metro area. All of them have different liquor requirments in addition to the state laws. Most of them cannot have anyone under 21 unless they are a restaurant too or a certain % of their revenue comes from sources other than alcohol. We dont have an alcohol license, which means under 21 can play there all the time...it also means we are not part of any local league. We only have an in-house league. If you have someone under 21 in some bars you can have a license suspension on your first offence, not to mention a nice little fine.


Hope you and your friends find a place. If not try working out something with a local pool hall that doesnt have alchol. Have small little tournys once a week on a night they arent busy. Maybe others will join. Good luck Smittie.

The APA rule book for 2005/2006 stated that all players must be 21, however, they did not follow that rule here in Central Florida. If the bar or pool hall allowed under 21 in then they were allowed to play on the team. But I don't think they were allowed to play in any money playoffs.

One bar here did not allow anyone under 21 in so they couldn't play there.

In today's paper the owner of Bankshot Billiards in Ocala wrote an open letter concerning his problems with the City Council members. Besides 16 tables he also has dancing on Friday and Saturday nights and the Council members are giving him a hard time trying to prevent him from allowing 18-21 in. So now he stated that he will not allow anyone in under 21. I wonder if that will apply just to dance night or the pool hall in general.

It is a shame because the owner and his wife really run a tight ship and make sure that the bartenders card everyone and make sure that no alcohol is given to a minor.

Today's paper also has an article about Rocket's Billiards in Jacksonville and said they were being investigated for serving alcohol to minors who were involved in a fatal auto accident.

Jake

I've heard scuttlebutt that the APA is considering dropping the age limit to 18. But that still doesn't get around any state/local restrictions on places serving al-kee-haul.

I don't think TAP requires that players be 21. The one time I did play in a TAP league last year, it was kinda being run by a guy I know, and he had his kid - couldn'tve been older than about ten - playing on his team. Kid shot pretty damn good for someone who was so short he didn't have to bend over the table *at all*. Now, again, that was the son of the guy kinda running the league, so he may have made an exception for... well... himself. I dunno.

I was told by my APA league operator that starting with this session, we could have players under 21 years old as long as they were 18+. The APA management in Las Vegas also said that this is a new rule when asked about it.

Send a PM to "thebestpoolroom" on here, that's John from The Pool Room. He can answer your questions probably.

I heard about that restriction when I first thought about signing up for the APA a couple of years ago. I was 18 at that point and gave up on it without going back and thinking about it. Apparently 18+ players can play APA in Miami since no poolhalls around here have any age restrictions.

Being born and raised in Miami, it weirds me out when I hear about poolhalls across the country that are 21+ just because they serve alcohol. I've been a semi-regular/everyday player at a couple of my favorite poolhalls since I was 15-16 years old and I couldn't imagine not being able to play.

Koopa said:

Being born and raised in Miami, it weirds me out when I hear about poolhalls across the country that are 21+ just because they serve alcohol.

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Many wet rooms in Denver will allow minors until the early evening, like 6 or even 10 pm, if they're accompanied by an adult. The cut-off time is a business decision here, not a law. When a place gets busy, the owner would rather be serving high-priced drinks and pizzas than sodas and nachos, and he doesn't want to worry about kids sneaking sips of beer while the adults are shooting pool.

For the 2006-2007 season in the APA the age has been lowered to 18.

Teams still have to abide by state and local laws as to whether the player is allowed in the locations.

I think this could be huge for the APA in college towns. If I were a league operator I would try to start college leagues especially a fraternity and sorority oriented leagues.