shame on you Mr Crawhorn
Well well well..................
No one in this business was out to destroy a tour. We as people in the industry and players ourselves have an interest in where our monies go. What is my assumption is that this guy would continue to take your money and say he was putting it in a so called escrow account and then suddenly disappear just as another tour has done in this area. Colin's quote on sponsorship is dead nut correct and prior to his posting is what raised huge flags for me. The other flag was that the numbers did not add up not to mention people like MJ and ER had no idea what this was all about.
Unfortunately Mr. Crawhorn thinks that all of us in the industry are idiots. I don’t care who Mr. Crawhorn is, who is related to and who he knows. I have spent several hours researching him through the internet and direct contact to people that he proposed he was in partnership with, related to, businesses he so called owned and Evolution Billiards. My findings are as follows after a telephone conversation I had with Mr. Crawhorn yesterday:
1. He is not in partnership with anyone. My best guess is he is a manager of some sort with a terrible hackle of a laugh in every sentence he speaks.
2. Evolution Billiards is a corporation name in good standing; link
http://cdsprod.ilsos.net/CorpSearch...let?fileNumber=64573748&sysId=CD&nameType=MST
3. EB's agent is SPIEGEL & UTRERA P A, in doing a search for this companies address they also offer other services such as bookkeeping and accounting.
4. L & M trucking is supposed to be one of their sponsors. In doing a search for that company there are 4 or 5 different file numbers that list dissolved companies that are not in good standing. There is one file in good standing that has the same secretary of all of the bad standings and the same president that had the bad standings.
5. The Quarter Mile club that he has stated he owns is questionable. There is a Billiard Club of Rockford on Mainstreet.
http://www.bcorockford.org/ the site even offers coloring books for kids.
6. In doing a search for Evolution Billiards I also came across several other postings for this so called venue on yahoo and another pool room. This is what is copied from this link:
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/poolandbilliards/message/1507
From: mike <thequartermile@...>
Date: Fri Sep 9, 2005 7:57 pm
Subject: Re: [Pool and Billiards] New Billiards Club With $1,000,000.00 to a single winner! mhcrawhorn
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mike wrote:
>John Bashaw wrote:
>
>>Please send me more info. on ur touraments, when and wat Date will
>>they begin.........Thank you ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,John
>>
>>mhcrawhorn <thequartermile@...> wrote:We are opening a private
>>club in Kendall county Illinois that will
>>have 12 monthly tournaments with 1st place receiving $10,000, 4
>>quarterly tournaments with first place getting $30,000, 2 semi annual
>>tournaments with first place receiving $80,000 and once a year we will
>>host a $1,000,000.00 championship to a single winner. Our championship
>>will be pick up and broadcast nationally.
>>
>>The break down is the top 8 players each month advance to the
>>quarterly tournament and Is guaranteed a spot in the 1 million dollar
>>championship.
>>The top 8 from each quarterly will advance to play in the semi annual
>>tournament.
>>Using this format all members have a chance to advance to the 1
>>million dollar championship 12 times.
>>Two weeks before the championship we will randomly pick 4 players that
>>did not advance to join in the championship.
>>
>>Fyi our site will also have a private restaurant and arcade. We will
>>have child care workers on staff to monitor our children in a
>>supervised environment. There will also be private balconies by
>>reservation, live music and entertainment.
>>
>>For more information email me at thequartermile@... with any
>>questions you may have.
>>If you are interested in a membership for the 2006 season let me know
>>in you email and send me your fax number or address so I can get a
>>application sent out. Let me know if you are aware a bigger prize that
>>was issued for billiards, We are going to break the record for 1st
>>place tournament winner in 2006.
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>>Pool and billiards Billiards game
>>
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>We are currently finalizing the construction plans for our site. Our
>club will have all of the following services for members only.
>1. Restaurant
>2. Arcade
>3. Billiards hall
>4. Lounge room
>5. Child play room
>6. Live music
>7. And much more.
>
>Our billiards tournament will work as follows:
>
>12 qualifying tournaments-
>one tournament a month where the top 8 players will advance to our
>quarter finals, and automatically play in our championship.
>The prizes for winning a qualifying tournament are as follows. 1st
>$10,000 2nd $2000 3rd $500. This will give each member 12 chances
>to qualify for our $1,000,000 championship.
>
>4 quarter finals-
>the top 8 players from the prior 3 qualifying tournament will compete in
>our quarterly tournaments. The top 8 plays from each tournament will
>advance to our semi annual tournament. The prizes for winning the
>quarterly tournament are as follows. 1st $30,000 2nd $6000 3rd $1500
>
>2 semi annual tournaments-
>the top 8 players from the previous two quarterly tournaments will
>compete in our semi annual championships. The prizes for winning our
>semi annual tournaments are as follows. 1st $80,000 2nd $20,000 3rd $4000
>
>The quarter mile championship-
>All players who advanced in a qualifying tournament will play in our
>championship tournament. The prizes are as follows.
>1st place $1,000,000.00
>2nd place $200,000.00
>3rd place $50,000
>
>We are expecting to open in July-August 2006 with the tournaments
>starting the following month.
>Membership’s rates vary on the membership type. There will be two
>membership types:
>Single-
>Which gives the member, spouse, children and 1 quest full access to our
>site. The only restriction is, only the member may participate in the
>billiards tournaments not there family members.
>
>Corporate/group membership-
>Allows complete access to our site for up to a 4 person group per visit.
>The corporate membership allows for 1 person from there group to enter
>each qualifying tournament, if that person advances they must compete in
>all tournaments they are not allowed to let someone play for them. This
>allows the corporate or group members to have up to 12 players try out
>for the championship tournament.
>
>The Quarter Mile is proposed to be built in Aurora in the vicinity of
>Orchard Rd. and I-88.
>
>For a membership application and a membership rate inquiry please send
>an email to thequartermile@..., in the subject area type
>application and in the body of your email let us know how you want us to
>send you a application.
>We give you three ways to receive your application:
>
>1. email- just reply to this email and let me know you would like a
>application I will send you a ms word doc you can fill out and follow
>the instruction on the bottom to submit your application.
>
>2. fax- send us your fax # and we will have an application faxed to your
>location ASAP.
>
>3. mail- just send us your information and we will get your application
>in the mail the same day.
>Please let me know if you need any additional information. My direct
>email is michaelcrawhorn@...
>
>Thank you,
>Michael Crawhorn
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>Quick Question, How would you rate you playing abilities from novice to pro?
8. In my phone conversation yesterday Mr. Crawhorn did not understand the concept of brand name loyalty to players. He could not comprehend why some players prefer Diamond tables with Simone cloth and why some prefer to play on Crowns. For someone who states he owns a few clubs in IL and knows nothing about the billiards industry baffles me.
9. He also claims to own a place called City Pool Hall, when I called there and asked for him the manager was clueless to who he was and stated she did not know of him and that he was not a owner.
10. He has prompted this tournament with the same information in three other categories for three other pool rooms. Why has this never surfaced before – simply put it was smoke and mirrors and never happened. If it has not ever happened in the past how could it possibly happen now? Answer, it is bullshit.
11. Four of the so-called sponsors – Allstate, BCBS & an Automotive company and a fourth source (a major food chain) were contacted and said they do not know of him and have no known business relationship in the works or otherwise with him or Evolution Billiards.
12. It appears he is using the skirt tails of a well known pro that has not made any decisions to “partner” up with EB and is telling tales of tournament directing.
13. There are million dollar establishments where a venue of this level SHOULD be held.
The list goes on. I asked Mr. Crawhorn why he had not contacted local Tournament Directors and why he did ask for help. Does he think he can just venture into “territory” and set up shop and propose a plan with no backing?
As I stated before Fox and Hounds are nice places to go and drink and kick around a few balls on a pool table. They are establishments in my opinion that are set up for the group type setting of a work party NOT THE SERIOUS POOL PLAYER. They need a face lift on equipment.
The million dollar establishments should be given the common courtesy to those devoted to the sport and devoted to the best players in the world the first say and opportunity to hold a tournament venue of this style. Thanks to Mr. Crawford he has probably destroyed the opportunity for the serious promotions companies and tournament directing venues to ever be able to capitalize on major sponsorship to hold venues at the million dollar caliber level. This is another shame to our good sport.
It is my goal in 2006 to capitalize on some major money angels to sponsor a huge successful event for the Midwest region. I had started this a few months back and it is still in progression. If the time comes that I have signed contracts and a venue that is established for the players by the players along with devout room owners you will see a professional billiard tournament to speak of that will also come with the professionalism and ethics it takes to take on such a process. In closing there will also be the proper Press Releases to speak of when it is complete and not a day sooner.
Thank you for reading the post….
Steadyneddy’s Girlfriend
Jennifer Amalfitano
This has to be a record, Evolution Billiards wants to start holding tournaments, paying good money.
