Have Yale heard the WPA nonsense and the US Open?

BmoreMoney · Oct 12, 2016

So a week before the Open the WPA dropped a mandatory Co tract on all players wishing to play in ANY WPA event. It's a joke. Has to get permission to play in non WPA events. Will be suspended if playing in any World Championship ( other than WPA ). They are forced to do public appearences when ever told to ( unpaid ). Code of customers duct which includes gambling. Anti doping rules along with random drug testing. Don't know how this is all gonna go down but it should
do be interesting. While this contract is nonsense I think it is gonna be the catalyst for something big, something brewing for a long time - player unity. I think it's really cruddy dropping this on everyone a week before the open, everyone's paid, most are here or in the air already on their way. It's blowing up on FB, Charlie Williams has copies of the actual Co tracts up.

couldnthinkof01 · Oct 12, 2016

Seems to be a step in the right direction.

Also sounds like it should come with a regular monetary compensation.

If this is what they want they should pay for it.

The execution of such a contract is very poorly planned if this is the case.

BmoreMoney · Oct 12, 2016

couldnthinkof01 said:
Seems to be a step in the right direction.

Also sounds like it should come with a regular monetary compensation.

If this is what they want they should pay for it.

The execution of such a contract is very poorly planned if this is the case.

Not only are they not paying they are severely limiting players chance to earn money elseware.

jtaylor996 · Oct 12, 2016

The timing is unethical (unless players get full refunds when they refuse to sign, plus expenses incurred), and the contract is likely illegal since the players aren't compensated in any way.

I hope nobody is dumb enough to sign it.

zpele · Oct 12, 2016

jtaylor996 said:
The timing is unethical (unless players get full refunds when they refuse to sign, plus expenses incurred), and the contract is likely illegal since the players aren't compensated in any way.

I hope nobody is dumb enough to sign it.

It probably isn't legally binding and any good lawyer would tear them apart in court if they ever decide to try and enforce it.

Dockter · Oct 12, 2016

This is one of the pages

BmoreMoney · Oct 12, 2016

Let's not forget the sponsorship thing. Any players wanting to wear something for their own sponsor must get approval 30 days prior to an event and can not be deemed offensive. Broad interpretation there but this next part will help it make sense. All players are required to wear stuff from the WPA's sponsors lol. This whole thing really stinks for the players but sure sounds do good for the WPA. TO me, it sounds do like WPA is trying to tie up all the players and be in complete Controll of the little bit of money the players make now.

BmoreMoney · Oct 12, 2016

Here's the rest of the Co tract -

couldnthinkof01 · Oct 12, 2016

BmoreMoney said:
Let's not forget the sponsorship thing. Any players wanting to wear something for their own sponsor must get approval 30 days prior to an event and can not be deemed offensive. Broad interpretation there but this next part will help it make sense. All players are required to wear stuff from the WPA's sponsors lol. This whole thing really stinks for the players but sure sounds do good for the WPA. TO me, it sounds do like WPA is trying to tie up all the players and be in complete Controll of the little bit of money the players make now.

Sounds kind of like the ufc.
With less $$$

AtLarge · Oct 12, 2016

BmoreMoney said:
... Has to get permission to play in non WPA events. ...

The document in post #6 doesn't say that. It says "I will not participate in any pool event that is not sanctioned by the WPA if the conditions of the event meet the WPA sanctioning criteria ..."

So no permission would be needed for most events, because most events do not meet WPA sanctioning criteria.

Dockter · Oct 12, 2016

couldnthinkof01 said:
Sounds kind of like the ufc.
With less $$$

Kind of but not really. UFC you get paid win, lose or draw. By being a member of the WPA you get to battle your way through some of the toughest fields of players on your own dime and if you don't get top 10 you go home out money.

Blackjack · Oct 12, 2016

SMH.

I wouldn't wipe my a$$ with that, never mind signing it.

Until the WPA can guarantee the players that they can make a living doing this (on the same scale that the WPA people are getting paid) - then they have no right to dictate when and where players compete. That is how players make money - they compete. Signing anything that even remotely endangers that is way out of line and they know that. This is just a power move on their part - and a poor one at that. Sign it or else - no time to think or get a second opinion - if you don't sign - you can't play in next week's event. What if the players banded together - told them all to stick it and just stayed home? I doubt it will ever happen - but this is what SHOULD happen.

Players get bullied with his nonsense because they have no way to defend against it. They need the money - they need the points - so they feel obligated to just go along with it and not rock the boat. The players should not sign anything while they still are without legal representation provided by an organized players association/union. Until the players get their $hit together, they will continue to get garbage like this shoved in their faces.

Straightpool_99 · Oct 13, 2016

I'm not going to make one of my trademark long rants here (I could). I'll say this: This contract is excrement and so is the WPA. I can't wait for them to be replaced by someone competent.

BeiberLvr · Oct 13, 2016

AtLarge said:
The document in post #6 doesn't say that. It says "I will not participate in any pool event that is not sanctioned by the WPA if the conditions of the event meet the WPA sanctioning criteria ..."

So no permission would be needed for most events, because most events do not meet WPA sanctioning criteria.

It also states it would only be valid until Dec 31 of the year it's signed.

BeiberLvr · Oct 13, 2016

BmoreMoney said:
So a week before the Open the WPA dropped a mandatory Co tract on all players wishing to play in ANY WPA event. It's a joke. Has to get permission to play in non WPA events. Will be suspended if playing in any World Championship ( other than WPA ). They are forced to do public appearences when ever told to ( unpaid ). Code of customers duct which includes gambling. Anti doping rules along with random drug testing. Don't know how this is all gonna go down but it should
do be interesting. While this contract is nonsense I think it is gonna be the catalyst for something big, something brewing for a long time - player unity. I think it's really cruddy dropping this on everyone a week before the open, everyone's paid, most are here or in the air already on their way. It's blowing up on FB, Charlie Williams has copies of the actual Co tracts up.

They aren't forced to do public appearances whenever told. They will have to do them during an event however, and that works fine for snooker. It forces the players to be available for the fans/media.

Anti-doping rules is a given in any sport. If pool wants to get big, then welcome to the real world.

And the only reason Charlie cares is now international players can't play in his fake World 14.1

HawaiianEye · Oct 13, 2016

BeiberLvr said:
They aren't forced to do public appearances whenever told. They will have to do them during an event however, and that works fine for snooker. It forces the players to be available for the fans/media.

Anti-doping rules is a given in any sport. If pool wants to get big, then welcome to the real world.

And the only reason Charlie cares is now international players can't play in his fake World 14.1

What fans and media?

Maybe the fans and media need to make themselves available to the players. When there are more players than fans and media, something is wrong.

BeiberLvr · Oct 13, 2016

HawaiianEye said:
What fans and media?

Maybe the fans and media need to make themselves available to the players. When there are more players than fans and media, something is wrong.

I get your point, but it shouldn't matter if it's 1 fan or 500 fans. During a professional event, a professional player should be available (during certain times). The media doesn't have to be a major source. It could be something like a writer from Billiards Digest, or even someone that does the tournament write ups on the AZ front page.

The biggest issue as mentioned is the lack of compensation for the player signing the contract. There's a few things I like, but overall I wouldn't sign it if I were a professional.

Colormegone2002 · Oct 13, 2016

I think it's junk but I'm very interested in seeing who and how many go ahead and sign.

It sounds like they want to tie the players down,but only time will tell how this plays out.

Best of luckk to anyone that's faced with having to make this decision.

336Robin · Oct 13, 2016

How many

BeiberLvr said:
I get your point, but it shouldn't matter if it's 1 fan or 500 fans. During a professional event, a professional player should be available (during certain times). The media doesn't have to be a major source. It could be something like a writer from Billiards Digest, or even someone that does the tournament write ups on the AZ front page.

The biggest issue as mentioned is the lack of compensation for the player signing the contract. There's a few things I like, but overall I wouldn't sign it if I were a professional.

There probably arent that many if any WPA events that would matter between now and Christmas "Dec 31st". The only reason the contracts showed up is with the amount of money added it becomes a World Class Event and therefore subject ot the world body of Pool. The dress code and the appearance requirement are small prices to pay for a few months to be able to compete for 70k added. I'd do it and give it no thought unless I was planning on playing an event that would be disallowed by the contract. Question is here, who is more affected by that part of the contract?

JAM · Oct 13, 2016

Charlie Williams and contracts. Reminds me of the UPA.

Just curious, but is the Mosconi Cup a WPA-sanctioned event?

Have Yale heard the WPA nonsense and the US Open?

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