Mike Howerton and I have been talking for several months on how AZB could assist the pros. The area where we see the greatest weakness is that many of our top pros do not have the funds to travel overseas for World Championships. This is why you sometimes see players who are well down in the rankings representing the USA overseas. The players above them simply cannot afford to make the trip. The idea that the top players have sponsors to cover their expenses is simply (except in less than a handful of cases) a myth.
The BCA provides a travel stipend for World Events that helps somewhat. But they are not a bottomless fountain of money. Their GenerationPool.com tournament cost the BCA more than $200,000 each year and that is a big slug of cash. They also pay $10,000 each year to be the North American member of the WPA and they pay out more than $20,000 per year in these travel stipends.
But the economy has not been kind to the members of the BCA. You have seen pool rooms close all over the country and sales of discretionary expense items like cues and tables is down as the economy rots on the vine. Looking to the BCA to increase their budget for the pros is simply unrealistic. So it may be time for the fans (and we at AZB are fans) to get involved in helping America get the best players into international events. What Mike and I have talked about is:
1) Accepting donations from our thousands of readers to go into a pro player travel fund.
2) Accepting merchandise from manufacturers (cues, tables, instruction, etc) that would be auctioned off on AZB (raffles are illegal, sorry) and all proceeds placed into the fund.
3) Then using these funds to assist in sending our best players overseas. For instance, the BCA provides $1,300 to each player who goes to the WPC. But hotel and air actually runs about $2,500. If AZB and its readers could create a large enough fund to provide the players with another $1,200 then their travel costs (except for food) would then be covered and we could send the best we have overseas.
Problems: There are three overseas events that come to my mind immediately where we need greater US representation. These are the World 8-Ball, the World 9-BAll and the World 10-Ball. To sponsor an average of 10 players to each of these events would run about $75,000 per year. That's a big chunk o' change and it may prove difficult to raise that much. It is actually more than that as the stipend from the BCA is $600 and it still costs $2500 to go there. Do not hammer the BCA for this. When they first established the stipend the only overseas championship was the WPC and they allotted enough of their budget to assist that event. Since the other events have come about the economy has not allowed the BCA to fund them as much as they would like.
Some players DO have sponsors to cover their costs. What do we do about these players? Do we not include them? That does not seem fair. Perhaps we ask their sponsors to voluntarily opt their players out of the plan and rely on honor to solve this problem. I cannot think of a single sponsor who is not honorable.
One more thing: We would keep an open set of books on this plan that anyone could see at anytime. No hoodoo. Quickbooks. (The computer accounting program.) And a large decision has to be made. Do we try to raise this money year after year or do we raise a lot of money first and then invest it and disburse the profits from the investments each year so that the fund never eats into the initial principle and therefor funds itself forevermore? Realize that even if we invest it in something like the Canadian oil Trust that pays a 10% dividend then we would need $1,000,000 in the fund to generate the $100,000 or so we would need each year to fund the pro travel.
Give us your ideas and thoughts, please.
