I was thinking the other day of another sport that offers as much opportunity as billiards with so much activity, I came up with none. Many sports groups have leagues, but they clearly don't have as many tournament activities.
It seems that almost anyplace you go across the US and Canada you can find a local tournament almost every week. That's right, bar tournaments and pool room tournaments in almost every mid-sized+ city . Now add the many amateur pro tournaments like Joss, FL tour, .. add in the amateur only tournaments such as the Gateway tour, .. and the annual tournaments like Derby City, Windy City,..
Given all of this we have leagues; BCA, APA, TAP,.. At the very top we have professional tournaments like the US Open, Mosconi Cup,.. And now the IPT and whatever new tours that may pop-up because they simply will and it makes sense.
Wow, now that's a lot of activity.. and with all this activity, billiards does have a solid foundation except it is made of concrete block, brick, stone and poured cement. Yes, looks like a mess. Even more so, it is a battle ground of tours against tournaments and billiards against the economy. Yes a real unfocused chaotic mess.
Years and years, billiards has been fighting the battle of recognition, that is recognition that would yield a better economy. That's right, an economy that would gain the respect of big corporations that would pump big bucks into it and players getting paid the money they deserve. I now question if we can win, even worse yet, what about falling short of our real potential and becoming stagnant again (maybe just at a little higher level). Or putting all our eggs in one basket, what a horrible way to invest.
In my observations of chaos over the years I have noticed the battles we are fighting against with one another, we have a tours and leagues that do not like each other. We have new tours that look promising and become the new hate group of those businesses and players who feel either left out or their chances of accomplishing the same have diminished. We have egotistical vendors that conspire amongst themselves to control distribution channels. We have many empty claims of "the Governing Body of Pool".
Pool in its fragmentation is so busy fighting the many different battles within itself. Constantly one fragment against another so that it becomes to sparse to fight the real battle. Yeah, too many battles causes loss of resources to fight the most important one, the economy of billiards. If the potential billiard economy were human, it would laugh at us.
So what is needed in my opinion is better structure and I do not mean the BCA and WPA taking over it, or anything like them. Gosh no, enough is enough. What I mean is a new true non-profit organization represented by top players, league management, tour management and a billiards room association (wow, an association for billiard rooms). A group that has no ego and the bylaws that assure no preferences exists. A group that is driven to pull it all together into a well structured pile.
This is not taking away from anyone, but adding real strength to billiards as one humungous organization that corporate America wants to be part of. This is allowing fairness and respect for those organizations with scheduled dates. It is recognizing that different organizations have single strengths in what they do and not allowing them to become fragmented into trying to run or control everything.
The power of Billiards is controlled by one group, not existing organizations, and this group is called "the players" - but they don't know it. Without them, billiards organizations have nothing - period. I am not saying that we need to dictate how much money a tournament pays out, or how to pay out, or even to collect money from them. What I am saying is to create a new and fresh group that represents billiards in a non threatening way. I'm saying to create a Billiard Unification.
I want to see the IPT become successful and I want billiards to become successful which means we must all work together. Imagine, IPT could reach even greater heights that it could otherwise.
Anyway, for whatever it is worth I'd like to see the foundation made of one material, Billiards. Imagine the attraction a unified billiards organization would have in pulling corporate america in? I'm tired of seeing organizations suck whatever money they can out of billiards and leaving it dry.
Just my thoughts.
It seems that almost anyplace you go across the US and Canada you can find a local tournament almost every week. That's right, bar tournaments and pool room tournaments in almost every mid-sized+ city . Now add the many amateur pro tournaments like Joss, FL tour, .. add in the amateur only tournaments such as the Gateway tour, .. and the annual tournaments like Derby City, Windy City,..
Given all of this we have leagues; BCA, APA, TAP,.. At the very top we have professional tournaments like the US Open, Mosconi Cup,.. And now the IPT and whatever new tours that may pop-up because they simply will and it makes sense.
Wow, now that's a lot of activity.. and with all this activity, billiards does have a solid foundation except it is made of concrete block, brick, stone and poured cement. Yes, looks like a mess. Even more so, it is a battle ground of tours against tournaments and billiards against the economy. Yes a real unfocused chaotic mess.
Years and years, billiards has been fighting the battle of recognition, that is recognition that would yield a better economy. That's right, an economy that would gain the respect of big corporations that would pump big bucks into it and players getting paid the money they deserve. I now question if we can win, even worse yet, what about falling short of our real potential and becoming stagnant again (maybe just at a little higher level). Or putting all our eggs in one basket, what a horrible way to invest.
In my observations of chaos over the years I have noticed the battles we are fighting against with one another, we have a tours and leagues that do not like each other. We have new tours that look promising and become the new hate group of those businesses and players who feel either left out or their chances of accomplishing the same have diminished. We have egotistical vendors that conspire amongst themselves to control distribution channels. We have many empty claims of "the Governing Body of Pool".
Pool in its fragmentation is so busy fighting the many different battles within itself. Constantly one fragment against another so that it becomes to sparse to fight the real battle. Yeah, too many battles causes loss of resources to fight the most important one, the economy of billiards. If the potential billiard economy were human, it would laugh at us.
So what is needed in my opinion is better structure and I do not mean the BCA and WPA taking over it, or anything like them. Gosh no, enough is enough. What I mean is a new true non-profit organization represented by top players, league management, tour management and a billiards room association (wow, an association for billiard rooms). A group that has no ego and the bylaws that assure no preferences exists. A group that is driven to pull it all together into a well structured pile.
This is not taking away from anyone, but adding real strength to billiards as one humungous organization that corporate America wants to be part of. This is allowing fairness and respect for those organizations with scheduled dates. It is recognizing that different organizations have single strengths in what they do and not allowing them to become fragmented into trying to run or control everything.
The power of Billiards is controlled by one group, not existing organizations, and this group is called "the players" - but they don't know it. Without them, billiards organizations have nothing - period. I am not saying that we need to dictate how much money a tournament pays out, or how to pay out, or even to collect money from them. What I am saying is to create a new and fresh group that represents billiards in a non threatening way. I'm saying to create a Billiard Unification.
I want to see the IPT become successful and I want billiards to become successful which means we must all work together. Imagine, IPT could reach even greater heights that it could otherwise.
Anyway, for whatever it is worth I'd like to see the foundation made of one material, Billiards. Imagine the attraction a unified billiards organization would have in pulling corporate america in? I'm tired of seeing organizations suck whatever money they can out of billiards and leaving it dry.
Just my thoughts.
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