After completing the Million Dollar Challenge documentary I've been doing a great deal of thinking about what we could have done differently and why it wasn't the "right time" for Professional Billiards to make that epic leap into the spotlight of American Sports.
The one thing we didn't plan for was the 7.8 Million to 1 odds of Earl running those racks. In our interview Earl himself says "we could have made millions if I hadn't run those racks the first day"......I believe he was right, we had everything in place to achieve our Mission Statement with the PCA.
We had most of the key components that are necessary, such as:
1) A Professional Marketing and Advertising Team with several major clients that were already poised to invest in commercials, event presence and title sponsorship of the PCA....this, of course was contingent on the success of the first event in Dallas.
2) A Schedule of 12 Pro Events that made up the "Million Dollar Challenge Tour"
3) All Events were going to be televised (after Earl ran the racks we were only able to film the one in Olathe Kansas, and the one at the Hollywood Park Casino.
4) A Strategic Alliance with a National Grass Roots Tour (The McDermott Tour) that would feed the PCA (Our Professional CueSports Association) with winners from their tournaments that would be qualified to "Play WIth the Pros".
5) PCA Endorsed and Sanctioned the ESPN World Open Championships, and the Ultimate 9 Ball Championships. These ESPN Tournament matches were averaging over 1,000,000 Viewers per show, with 16 matches a tournament coming from the WPBA and PCA......we even did the "Battle of the Sexes" with price money of $100,000, the World Mixed Doubles and the Celebrity Billiards (with cheerleaders from the NFL).
6) PCA had an agreement to supply players to the Mosconi Cup and took the PCA Team to London in 96 and brought back the cup.
7) PCA had the BCA granting us $25,000 a year to run our PCA OFFICE.
8) PCA was made up of eager, young, athletic players that were working together for a common goal - to propel pocket billiards into the limelight 'THE NEW AGE OF POOL'
9) PCA had two of the best commentators in history, Joe Rogan and Jimmy Mataya and was also raising money for charities (Tony Hill of the Dallas Cowboys hosted the first charity event prior to the Million Dollar Challenge in Dallas).
10) Our Marketing Group had several clients that would have been the ideal match for the PCA and the entire plan revolved around creating a marketing vehicle to promote their products (through the PCA Players) ON TV.......except for one thing that no one ever thought could happen.......Earl Strickland running 11 Racks in a row to win the Million Dollar Annuity THE FIRST TOURNAMENT:
With one million dollars on the line, on April 10, 1996 Earl "the Pearl" Strickland did the unimaginable. He ran 11 racks of 9-ball at the inaugural event of the PCA Pro Pocket Billiards Tour. While it was a miraculous feat, it simultaneously dealt a fatal blow to the new Pro Pocket Billiards Tour and gave a death strike to what might have been the rise of televised table pool as a mainstream sport. CJ Wiley had spent years preparing a new tour to showcase the sport, using a million dollar prize as the main draw. His goal was to breakout pool as a mainstream sport.
Through an in depth interview you will hear how Earl trained to achieve this incredible level of performance, the legal battles that eventually vindicated CJ Wiley, and accounts of the following two-plus years to honor the prize through the accounts of CJ Wiley, Tournament Director Jay Helfert and many more. It is a tale of struggle for the game and a telling of the greatest achievement in the history of pool.
Directed by Mary Avina — The Million Dollar Challenge Documentary 'Billiard's Perfect Miss' is available now at www.cjwiley.com
The one thing we didn't plan for was the 7.8 Million to 1 odds of Earl running those racks. In our interview Earl himself says "we could have made millions if I hadn't run those racks the first day"......I believe he was right, we had everything in place to achieve our Mission Statement with the PCA.
We had most of the key components that are necessary, such as:
1) A Professional Marketing and Advertising Team with several major clients that were already poised to invest in commercials, event presence and title sponsorship of the PCA....this, of course was contingent on the success of the first event in Dallas.
2) A Schedule of 12 Pro Events that made up the "Million Dollar Challenge Tour"
3) All Events were going to be televised (after Earl ran the racks we were only able to film the one in Olathe Kansas, and the one at the Hollywood Park Casino.
4) A Strategic Alliance with a National Grass Roots Tour (The McDermott Tour) that would feed the PCA (Our Professional CueSports Association) with winners from their tournaments that would be qualified to "Play WIth the Pros".
5) PCA Endorsed and Sanctioned the ESPN World Open Championships, and the Ultimate 9 Ball Championships. These ESPN Tournament matches were averaging over 1,000,000 Viewers per show, with 16 matches a tournament coming from the WPBA and PCA......we even did the "Battle of the Sexes" with price money of $100,000, the World Mixed Doubles and the Celebrity Billiards (with cheerleaders from the NFL).
6) PCA had an agreement to supply players to the Mosconi Cup and took the PCA Team to London in 96 and brought back the cup.
7) PCA had the BCA granting us $25,000 a year to run our PCA OFFICE.
8) PCA was made up of eager, young, athletic players that were working together for a common goal - to propel pocket billiards into the limelight 'THE NEW AGE OF POOL'
9) PCA had two of the best commentators in history, Joe Rogan and Jimmy Mataya and was also raising money for charities (Tony Hill of the Dallas Cowboys hosted the first charity event prior to the Million Dollar Challenge in Dallas).
10) Our Marketing Group had several clients that would have been the ideal match for the PCA and the entire plan revolved around creating a marketing vehicle to promote their products (through the PCA Players) ON TV.......except for one thing that no one ever thought could happen.......Earl Strickland running 11 Racks in a row to win the Million Dollar Annuity THE FIRST TOURNAMENT:
With one million dollars on the line, on April 10, 1996 Earl "the Pearl" Strickland did the unimaginable. He ran 11 racks of 9-ball at the inaugural event of the PCA Pro Pocket Billiards Tour. While it was a miraculous feat, it simultaneously dealt a fatal blow to the new Pro Pocket Billiards Tour and gave a death strike to what might have been the rise of televised table pool as a mainstream sport. CJ Wiley had spent years preparing a new tour to showcase the sport, using a million dollar prize as the main draw. His goal was to breakout pool as a mainstream sport.
Through an in depth interview you will hear how Earl trained to achieve this incredible level of performance, the legal battles that eventually vindicated CJ Wiley, and accounts of the following two-plus years to honor the prize through the accounts of CJ Wiley, Tournament Director Jay Helfert and many more. It is a tale of struggle for the game and a telling of the greatest achievement in the history of pool.
Directed by Mary Avina — The Million Dollar Challenge Documentary 'Billiard's Perfect Miss' is available now at www.cjwiley.com
Joe was an incredibly "down to earth guy"....it would be impossible to tell he's not just a normal "working stiff". 
