BCA -- On the Road to Nowhere

[vagabond]

(sarcasm) Is it really open to the general public?

No,it is not for general public.Only for the trade community members but I sneaked in.

 

[Holly]

[/URL], BCAPL seem to have Zero perk with Membership.

QUOTE]

The BCAPL has extensive discounts and perks for BCAPL league members and it's non league player members.

The link is on the BCAPL site unders leagues and can be found here: http://www.playbca.com/Leagues/MemberDiscounts.aspx

In addition to the discounts on this page which include with Billiards Digest and Diamond Billiard Products to name a couple, CSI signed a 5 year agreement last fall with Mueller Recreational Products, who is an amazing group.

In fact we are preparing a new BCAPL / Mueller member store which will have exclusive discounts to BCAPL league and player members.

I would also consider the following as perks:
Online event registration via the CueSports Tournament System (CTS)
The largest and most comprehensive online Tournament Bracket and Live Scoring capabilities via CTS
Texting and email notifications to players during events via CTS
Less barriers to compete on the state, regional and national level I too consider a perk

CSI and the BCAPL in every decision made poses questions to ourselves...is this good for our membership, is this good for pool, will it help to enrich the player's experience and opportunity to play, do the choices as an organization that we make work to further the sport we love in any possible way.

That too I'd like to think is also a perk.

 

[Holly]

UPA = Charlie Williams in 2001 (same month as the infamous 911 incident)

This is what I remember about the UPA;

Barry Berhman had just announced that because of the lack of gate money, the 2001 US Open 9 Ball tournament was going to lose money and that the players were not getting the full amount that had been promised.

Charlie Williams called for a player's meeting and discussed a 'union' or player Org. to prevent this type of promoter crap of promising one thing and delivering another. Escrows were talked about and 'garunteed' money was defined. Promoters were going to have to do it the UPA way or NO WAY.

Lots of Pros agreed and decided to pay up. Charlie decided to start his own tour and was immediately sanctioned by the UPA. Other promoters were trying to promote tournaments, but the UPA kept demanding the promoters abide by the UPA sanctioning requirements or no UPA players will play. Does Strong Arm sound familiar?

Charlie got out of the UPA and formed Dragon Promotions. The UPA had a board runing the show. Then Rodney Morris ran the UPA and now it is in Arizona as a League system run by Frankie Alverez.

I really would like the WPA to be successful, it has the making of a World Class Operation dedicated to the betterment of Billiards. All games of billiards (except One Pocket) 3 Cushion, Snooker and pocket Billiards are represented by the WPA. There is only ONE Standardized Rules set. All ball fouls are used in all tournaments. Referees are trained and used for all events.

Unsportsmanlike behavior stands out like a sore thumb. Only a very few players fall under this category.

Tom I thought the UPA was started before 2001. I remember being at Charlie's first tournament in Norfolk VA and thought that took place in 2000? But then again I may be having a pre-senior moment.

 

[JAM]

Tom I thought the UPA was started before 2001. I remember being at Charlie's first tournament in Norfolk VA and thought that took place in 2000? But then again I may be having a pre-senior moment.

Hi, Holly!

UPA actually may have been formed in 2001, but I believe it went public in 2002. I still carry the emotional scars dealing with the cronyism I witnessed.

 

[Dartman]

No,it is not for general public.Only for the trade community members but I sneaked in.

There's a lot of badge lending that goes on.

 

[chefjeff]

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.

— C. S. Lewis

Nice! That is now my new, precise definition of a Coercive Control Freak (CCF).

Jeff Livingston

 

[hunger strike]

History of billiard journalism has not changed

the big pool magazines operate using a pay-to-play dynamic. if you buy advertising space, they'll write a friendly article about your business. this is pretty much the complete opposite of basic journalism ethics!!!! this also explains why there's practically never any articles criticising anything in the pool world (although we all know there's plenty of problems). just filler articles that wrote good things about advertisers.

its about time one of the magazines grew some cohones and did some responsible editorial work. muchos kudos to them.

Going as far back at least as far as Billiards Magazine (1913-1934?) The magazines were less journalistic then the billiard public would have liked. In fact, Billiards Magazine's front cover almost NEVER featured a billiard champion but almost invariably showed a real photo of some industry exec or local dealer. My friend Mel Cheek had the best home billiard room in the country but was only given honorable mention in the best home billiard contest because the table companies (advertisers) were not going to like even a third place award going to a guy with antique pool tables instead of new ones. No, the top prize went to someone whose gameroom looked like a library without enough room to comfortably play. A classy, nice looking, new, but impractical photo-shoot room. In "The Structure and Dynamics of Organizations and Groups," famed psychiatrist Eric Berne postulated that if organizations are going to have goals then the primary goal must be survival. If the organization does not survive it will not exist, so all other goals become moot. Yes, we want more journalism. But if we want to get away from a survival motive, then let's first stop eating food if we truly believe that survival is cynical. We all feel a creepy tinge of cynicism when what purports to be journalism is skewed by commerce. But occasional departures from this pattern are evidence that folks like Panozzo, journalists, have other goals than survival. It's good to applaud that.