2011 Canadian Cue Sports Championships

Philthepockets said:

I have no issue with private promoters, I played in many of these types of events in the UK. If you can make money at it and attract the players more power to you.
Business is business and everyone has a right to make a living.
No one begrudges Barry Hearn making loads, because he puts cash in the pockets of the sportsman and assumes the risks.
I have a bigger issue with volunteers pretending and failing miserably, they feel they are not open to any scrutiny and often will not take any constructive advice.
When we the players speak our mind we are labelled whiners and simply told to do it ourselves if we think it can be done better, well I'm not a pretender.
If you assume the role of governing body do the damn job right or move on.

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Hi Phil,

Why dont you contact Mike Jaffe or Michael Ma in BC and get involved with their association. Send me a message and I can forward you some contact information.

Brad Grierson

Brad, I know these fellows and have had discussion with them in the past. I offered many suggestions for improving turn out and possible sponsors all to no avail, god knows I have tried but they are all lame ducks that do not listen and have no business running an association.
I am very passionate about this sport having played for almost 40 years and it pains me to see the state it is in especially in Canada. I mean who else spends $35000 building a home room? I also run a cue shop as a hobby and an income that I have invested thousands in so I have a very personal stake in local cuesports.
The sport is flourishing in many other countries and the standards are being pushed all the while, currently we can't even provide an amateur candidate let alone a pro, where will we be in ten years.

Philthepockets said:

Brad, I know these fellows and have had discussion with them in the past. I offered many suggestions for improving turn out and possible sponsors all to no avail, god knows I have tried but they are all lame ducks that do not listen and have no business running an association.
I am very passionate about this sport having played for almost 40 years and it pains me to see the state it is in especially in Canada. I mean who else spends $35000 building a home room? I also run a cue shop as a hobby and an income that I have invested thousands in so I have a very personal stake in local cuesports.
The sport is flourishing in many other countries and the standards are being pushed all the while, currently we can't even provide an amateur candidate let alone a pro, where will we be in ten years.

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I can appreciate where you are coming from Phil as I as well have the same passion and hope for the game. It is true that BC has not been sending many players the past few years…Brady is there this year and that is great for the game, hopefully by Brady going this year it will create interest and some sort or organization out there for you guys. I am part of a team here in Alberta that runs some events and if there is anything we can do here please let me know.

sly said:

that pretty well sums it up my friend!
it a shame for the western provinces that they get kinda shut out,it is a big country but there is a way,this aint it.
every year entrys go down and the calibre is lesser,
its always held in the same place , middle of summer(never understood that one)
i could go on but what phil says seems right

got to get back to the ont-nb challenge

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I'd like to give Shooters a little credit here.
The game has fallen on hard times and it hit Shooters just as bad.
At least one of the years the Canadian was held here was to bail out
CBSA 'cause the western venue deal fell through.
If it hadn't been held at Shooters for the last few years, the championships may have been discontinued.A few years ago when
no-smoking became law this room's income dropped 40/50% like every
one else but they held on and turned it around.
Peter Chin and John White have always supported anyone trying to do the
game some good.The pool hall venue for the championships is quite a
bit cheaper than many other sites so it allows the national championships
to hang on.
Canada is the second biggest country in the world with a relatively small
population so traveling to anything is a big problem.

I feel the only way it can turn around is if the provincial associations
become stronger.

just my opinion, of course

pt109 said:

At least one of the years the Canadian was held here was to bail out
CBSA 'cause the western venue deal fell through.
If it hadn't been held at Shooters for the last few years, the championships may have been discontinued.A few years ago when

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i remember this too. they were supposed to go out west and that fell thru cuz of a venue problem. dunno if it was money related or if the place closed down etc. dunno the details but i do know it was originally supposed to be out west and shooters took it at the last minute just so we could even have a canadian championship.

i dunno where everyone who is involved with the cbsa is from but i am under the impression that they're all from the east. i know grace for example is in toronto. so it'd be hard for them to head out west for 2 weeks. like u said, if it costs u 2500 to come to toronto play, it'll cost each of them around that much to head out west to host it. and if they're volunteers it's going to be hard to find that much money for each of them. no one seems to realize that they would have to shoulder a lot of expenses too if the championship were to head out west. and yes they can get some local talent to help run it but the fact remains that at least 2 or 3 of them would have to be there and thats 5000-7500. where is that money going to come from? u cant have a national cbsa event without at least some of the governing members there.

theres not much they can do unless they get some sponsors. and i mean sponsors who contribute money, not just a set of balls or something. shooters has done a lot, they rearranged part of the room, set up a decent internet connection to provide streaming of the event, kept most tables open for the players etc. they've also added some money to the event. and while it may not be a whole lot when split between 6 events, the 6000 added is nothing to laugh at either considering they dont have actual sponsors.

also, guys from new brunswick etc are coming. some of them are coming just for the amateur event so i dont see why guys from out west are complaining. new brunswick might be closer than calgary for example but the difference in the price of a plane ticket is about 100 dollars or less so i dont think thats enough to make that much of a difference. obviously most of the expense comes from lodging and food, but that applies to the new brunswick guys too yet they're still coming and those that dont havent complained or said anything.

i realize that it seems like the westerners are being neglected but given the resources they have, what can the cbsa do? they cant move the venue to the west for the time being. they've tried that and it ended up in flames to the point where shooters had to take it in on short notice. the ottawa location that the championship was at before produced very little interest. and i dont think heading out east to the maritimes would work very well since they, from my knowledge, have less players overall. part of the problem too is that most of the pro event is on during weekdays, as was the amateur event, i know at least a few guys couldnt play because of that since they have work so this is what happens. it sounds good in theory to move it to other places but if u think about it, i think u'll realize that the turn out probably wont be as big as u anticipate because there will be guys that dont want to miss work for it. u may be getting huge turnouts for local events that occur on the weekends, but we get that too. some 404 events get like 90+ players. but that's because it's on a weekend.