This is re-post from an earlier conversation regarding the BCA, but I felt it was very relevant to the current conversation -
I have had some very strong opinions about the actions of the BCA for a number of years, and my frustration only grows. Please bear with me as this may be a little long.
Let me start by saying that the company I work for, Sterling Gaming, was founded and is comprised of non-pool playing folks. Since we started, many of us have played league and learned a little about playing, but we are not hardcore players. We began with a single product selling on ebay, and grew into an entity that now distributes and sells over 1500 billiards related items.
When I first joined the company in 2002, it was, in our minds, CRITICAL to attend the tradeshow and support the BCA as manufacturer/distributor level members. This was OUR organization, not only for the players (they still had the league system then), but also for manufacturers,retailers, leagues, and fans. I viewed the BCA as THE vehicle to bring together all these different elements of our sport and promote it to the population at-large. Since we offer such a wide variety of items, our company had the unique perspective of recognizing that there are a number of elements to our market...league players, recreational players, home table owners, region competitive tours, and pro level tours. All of the segments of the market are a little different, but they all have the common thread of billiards. It was the BCA's job to bring cohesion to these elements, to generally promote the visibility of the sport so that ALL those involved would see a higher level of prosperity. If I have the quote right "A rising tide lifts all boats".
After my first few tradeshows and BCA tournaments, I began to take issue with some of what I saw going on.
First, there was little to no promotion of the sport to the general public. The BCA Open was held in conjunction with the league nationals, which made sense because of the built-in core audience to draw from, however actually drawing that audience is a different story. Many of league players were there to play, not watch a tournament. If they had to play matches, they could little afford time to go watch the pro event. Also, Vegas has an insane level of entertainment competition, and let us not forget that spectating a billiards event is entertainment. Our company even tried to reach beyond the norm one year, and ran a promotion on a nationally syndicated morning radio show giving away an all-expense paid trip to Vegas to see the BCA Open. We had to pay for the BCA tickets ourselves. If you ask me, this is an example of the type of promotion the BCA SHOULD have been doing all along to help promote their event. The hotels rooms were available, the tickets were available, and running promotions like this would expose the pro game to millions of potential consumers who were otherwise ignorant that professional billiards events even take place. That is what I would call the first failure of the BCA...not doing anything to reach out to the millions of people that could consume our product at a recreational level.
Second, I saw the tradeshow adding more and more non-billiards related vendors. This was especially troubling to us as a small company whose focus is billiards items, trying to work up the ranks and build a customer base. The rationale behind adding poker, jukebox, home theater, swimming pool and spa, massage chair, and various other types of "Home Recreation" was to try and draw their customers to our show and hopefully expand the interest in billiards. Theoretically suspect thinking in my opinion, and probably just the "party line" that I was fed when I complained about this the first time. If you REALLY wanted to expose the buyers of these various products that have nothing to do with billiards, and in many cases compete directly with them, then go to THIER shows and buy a booth. Extol the benefits of billiards to these consumers on their ground, rather than introduce competition to billiards at what should have been a show focused specifically on our industry. I know for a fact that the addition of these various non-billiards related vendors has done more harm than good to our industry by enticing show attendees to spend their money on non-billiards related inventory. We have NOT seen an increase in attendance by adding these vendors. Here we have the Second failure of the BCA...introducing competition for billiards at their own tradeshow, thus detracting from the sales of billiards related items. Brilliant.
Third, the BCA has offered little to no value to our industry by way of providing benefits for their members, and more specifically, the lifeblood of our industry...our pool rooms. This is where the majority of league play takes place. This is where people who don't play in leagues are exposed to the deeper world of pool, which includes leagues, tours and tournaments. This is where people congregate on Friday and Sat nights for fun and relaxation, and where our industry can truly look to grow participation. Vending tables are everywhere too, but the emphasis is only on the coin drop, and not necessarily bringing those folks back to the room BECAUSE of billiards. Third failure of the BCA - by offering little to no value to these small business owners, the BCA divested themselves from a crucial part of our industry.
Fourth - this is one is debatable but I include it because of the fragmentation effect it has had - the selling of the league system. This lead to a disconnect between the BCA and one its core elements, league players. I include it as a failure because there has been no obvious movement to replace that lifeline to the league players. By selling the league, not only did the BCA lose touch with a critical element of our industry, they also cost themselves the significant income from the dues of the league players, AND they further fragmented our industry by spawning the ACS/BCAPL dilemma. In addition, they wasted money trying to sue Mark Griffin over the name. Brilliant!
In my opinion, the BCA has failed to bring any cohesion to the elements of our sport, they have failed to promote the sport to the general public, they have failed to provide value to being a BCA member at virtually any level. These are some of the reasons that Sterling Gaming is no longer a BCA member.
Now, you may say its easy to complain, but much harder to offer solutions. This is very true, and I was asked a few years ago to be part of multiple BCA committees. I accepted these invitations thinking that it would be easier to affect change from the inside of the organization than to rail against it from outside. Besides, I said to myself, the board is comprised of some of the most successful people in our industry...they MUST be able to see what's happening and make positive changes. However, I honestly felt like I was banging my head against a wall in our committee meetings. I brought up most of the aforementioned points, as did others on the committees, and still it seemed that it fell on deaf ears.
With that being said, here are some things I would like to see change -
More efforts to standardize rules. This is a major impediment to greater cohesion within the game, and the efforts to push it forward. Every pro tournament, every league, every in house tournament, and every regional tournament has a different set of rules. While I am sure each thinks this gives them a competitive advantage, they fail to recognize that EVERY competitive sport that thrives has ONE set of rules that everyone can understand (mostly) and translate to their own play. Keeping with this effort, I think it would be beneficial to establish a uniformed handicapping system. I know, its an uphill battle, for both of these initiatives, but until it happens, there will be too much fragmentation to take the sport to the next level. Generally speaking, in a free market system, the best methods win out, but the division of opinion is too evenly spread in my opinion, for any one league's handicapping system to trump another in the long run.
Find a way to bring together leagues and offer something of value to league player members, no matter which league they are in. Maybe develop a national league championship, use a membership fee to send league members an instructional video...there are numerous ways to attack this, but until there can be some level of cooperation (that includes healthy business competition) all these leagues are going to continue to fight over the same little slices of our billiards pie. THE BCA could enact plans that could increase membership of ALL the leagues by increasing general participation. They could be the unbiased lobby to each of the leagues to bring them together in a cooperative, but still competitive, fashion.
Greater emphasis on the promotion of billiards. Maybe its time the BCA start to find avenues of spending that increase the visibility of the sport, rather than spending hundreds of thousands on a dying tradeshow. They did a GREAT commercial a few years ago, one that I think makes the game very appealing, but they FAILED to place it properly in the right media streams. Not an entire solution, but a start. Increase participation, which should lead to increase revenues for those involved in the sport, making them more willing to pay BCA dues to continue to fund such efforts.
Bring value to members. There a variety of ways to bring value to a BCA membership at various levels. They BCA has already fleshed out numerous ideas, and failed to act on them. Some included group insurance, more group discounts addressing a variety of needs for small business owners, advertising co-ops and PR help.
Provide support for pro players. Again, divert some funds to assist with these guys representing the US in international competition, lay out rules for and sanction pro level tournaments and/or region tours. This could be the basis of an eventual pro tour, for either men or women, or both.
There could also be more general PR and Ad help for any member. By being the representative body of American Billiards, the BCA is in a prime position to help promote the sport to the general public, and could provide assistance to rooms owners, retailers, and players through opportunities that arise, including free press releases, assistance with ad placements, and promotions to those that contact the BCA for help with private and public billiards related events.
Spend a little money on exhibiting at other recreational tradeshows. Don't just send a couple of reps to the BAR show in NY...buy a booth and tout the benefits of adding billiards to bar owners in attendance.
That's my 2 cents on our representative organization. Since my frustration has festered over the course of a number of years, I felt it necessary to express some of my views.
Matt Carter
General Manager
Sterling Gaming
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