The major thing that everyone must consider in any type of unification attempt, is fairness. I would like to go on record as saying that I would not attempt this endeavor without the UPA. I am not anti-UPA, nor am I anti Charlie Williams. I realize that the UPA is an entity, not a personality. Charlie has had the BB's to have his name and his mug up front, and he has taken some pretty good body blows over the years. My only concern with the current practices of the UPA, is that as they continue to sabotage events and cut the other tour promoters off at the knees, resentments and grudges will develop. We don't need anymore of that. We have to have a common goal. When all the separate tours realize that they all have exactly the same goal, and that united - we can do more and accomplish more than we can as individuals - then we can start to make this a reality. We need to put personalities aside and focus on the common goal, which is to expand our market base.
We need to stop buying into the myth that there is no money in pool. Take a trip to Asia (Taiwan,Japan, Philipines) and you will see that a lot of these companies are doing quite well in the overseas market. The money is there, the support for the players, the tour directors, the fans - ISN'T there. The tour directors, players and industry heads need to realize that until we start working with each other we will continue to have the professional level of our game floating in obscurity. We have to stop counting on ESPN to market our sport. We have to stop waiting for the next "The Color of Money" to hit the big screen. As an industry, we need to take control of our destiny. All of the energy that is directed at destroying each other (in relation to tours) can be redirected so that we can advance our market base. With a larger market base, our image campaign (which has gone absolutely NOWHERE in the last 15 years) will eventually be effective. The only way to destroy the stereotypes that our game has is to provide the public with a different view of our game. If we continue to provide the view of an industry that is not united, we will never gain the trust or support of sponsorship outside our industry. Outside entities will look at the current state of affairs and back away from us due to our past conduct. They won't trust any of us, and who could blame them? Yet, if we show that we are an industry united, interested in improving our public image, our fan base, and our market, they will be more than happy to join us. It won't happen overnight, but if there enough positive energy behind, who could stop us?
The Pro Bowlers Tour has a tournament in a different city every week. We can do the same thing with our tour. set up 48 dates a year, which is not as impossible as it sounds. I spoke with Mr. Higgins from The Fury Tour, and nationally they are promoting almost 120 events a year in various regional markets. In the southeast alone, there are 6 tours, all fighting to fill their brackets with the best players. Even if the variety of tours was cut in half, we would start to see progress. Divided, we constantly keep shooting each other in the foot. Until everybody starts taking this seriously, this will continue to happen.
As I said in a previous post, I am more than willing to put my name out there as well as my ideas. I am open to progress, not arguments or debating over who did what, or who is a bigger ass than the other guy. That is counterproductive and keeps us where we are at. I welcome any tour director (including ANYONE from the UPA especially Charlie Williams, Cindy Lee, Max Eberle), sponsors, players, to contact me in regards to setting up a meeting at a common location. It will be very difficult seeing that everybody is still very busy trying to sabaotage everybody else's weekends, but its not impossible. All I am asking is for them to listen. If only a few come to their senses and unite and take advantage of the benefits of forming marketing partnerships, at least that would be some progress.
