Dr. Dissent said:
Colin, I sure hope the ban is lifted in Asia. In the past years, the WPA had issued "advice" to the Continental Federations about non-sanctioned events in the U.S. but a ban was never imposed to the players. This time, after discussion at the WPA General Assembly, the APBU went public and took the first step to impose a ban on any non-sanctioned event. They were not specific about the IPT but you could "see through it."
The South American Confederation (CPB) forwarded the APBU message to their member countries, saying they would also follow the APBU and impose a ban to their players. CPB players hardly go to Asia, except for the World Pool Championships (Morro Paez, and Ernesto Dominguez being the exception since they live in the West Coast of U.S.A) therefore, the ban must have been imposed because of the IPT.
The CPB has about six players in the IPT list.
Roland Acosta - Aruba
Alejandro Carvajal - Chile
Aaron Franken - Aruba
Rafael Gonzalez - Venezuela
Gunnar Leonardo - Aruba
Jerry Calderon - Venezuela
The APBU has a few players in the IPT Roster, mainly top guns of member countries (Bustamante, Reyes, Manalo, Parica, to name a few). I guess it would not be fitting to ban these players from APBU Tournaments; therefore, it is possible that the APBU may be "thinking" about the IPT ban, and since no specific reference was made, they could "come out clean" and say that there was no intention to ban their players from the IPT.
We will have to wait and see what happens after the first IPT event...in the meantime, I just hope the ban is lifted altogether.
I'm thinking the same way regarding the lifting of the ban by the APBU.
The two main tourneys that the IPT players, and perhaps those who want to attend the qualifier, and 2 open event entrants would be the WPC and the San Miguel Asian Open. I'm pretty sure the decision is mainly in the hands of Matchroom and ESPN Star Sports who really control these events. If the APBU, or Chinese Taiwan Billiards Association (CTBA) or WPA demands too much they may be dropped from any official involvement.
Frankly I think Taiwan, much of the efforts coming through Mr.Tu, have been tremendous to the sport. Taiwan has become a model of professional pool success that many countries' associations would love to replicate.
Perhaps I don't understand all the forces at play behind the scenes, but it does seem to me the WPA and APBU and other associations would be all better served by a more positive, compromising approach. Dare I say an approach that offers benefits to the IPT rather than threatens sanctions. No point complaining that they would spend the money to further the sport via x and y programs. Offer something the IPT could clearly see the benefit in supporting. Show a willingness to be flexible. No-one who's putting 40 mill into a business strategy wants to invite in a bureacracy who's raison detre' seems ony to be threat of sanctions and promises to spend their money as benefactors to irrelevant interests. Remember with sanctioning comes the necessity for approval of many operational procedures. Who would want to add such complexity and delays to an already very challenging task in developing a new sports/entertainment/ marketing business.
The IPT is really a dream come true for the WPA, if only they were prepared to offer their services in a way that appeared attracting. It seems instead their attitude was "Hey, who do you think you are running an event without seeking our approval, don't you know you better pay up or else will do all we can to put you out of business?"
As I sell sponsorships for pool as my job, I know if I talked to partners and potential sponsors this way I'd be out of business in the blink of an eye.
Using force or coercion requires that one has great political or financial strength. Thankfully the WPA does not have that strength I believe. I say thankfully because I believe the use of force or coercion to be against the best interests of positive development.
Anyway, this is a plenty long enough rant, to conclude I hope the WPA and affiliated associations concerned can work toward offering benefits, rather than threats, but maybe they can't and this battle will go head to head for a good while longer.
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