FYI to NE players

B

bob g

New member
To our fellow pool players:

Mark Dionne, who owned Silver Cue Billiards IN WOBURN, MA and ran three pool leagues (two at Silver Cue and one at Corner Pockets Plaistow, NH), went out of business about six months ago. At that time he was holding approximately $7800.00 belonging to the three leagues. Although Mark promised everyone would get THEIR money, to date he has paid only a small fraction, a couple of hundred dollars to one team. He claims he has no money, yet he continues to run his 9 ball tour. As players whom he owes a substantial amount of money to, we think this is not right. We hope you agree with us that you cannot just walk away from an obligation to these players and make money from a new group of players. (On behalf of those who he still owes-copy and paste the message on if you share our frustration)
 
running out on you

Sorry to hear about you guys losing your money. As I am sure you know this happens more often than not with all the small room run leagues. Lot's of claims but don't produce.
 
Re

Marc lost every dime he had keeping that place open. He slept up there in order to keep the doors open. One of the biggest reasons he went out of business was BECAUSE of the leagues. He didn't do anything different than what any other small business owner would have. I know him personally and know that he has absolutely no money but continues to make payments towards the league. He does take money out of the New England 9 Ball tour tournaments but nearly all of it goes to his expenses and money added tournaments. There is no real profit in it for him, as he gives nearly everything back to the players.
What's most important is that nobody would have gotten "screwed" if Marc himself didn't get royally "screwed" when the pool room closed. It was absolutely intended for every league player to receive their payment IMMEDIATELY with the money that was made from selling the pool room. In the case that the pool room couldn't be sold, there WAS an agreement for the sales of $30K worth of pool tables that were half owned by Marc. There WAS at this time an agreement to sell the tables where Marc was supposed to get half of the profits. Said was money supposed to be a failsafe way to pay back the leagues and other money owed. Unfortunately, due to some shady dealings that I won't get into Marc got ripped off, backed into a corner, and ended up getting next to nothing for the pool hall and absolutely zero for the tables.
Anyway, that's how this whole league mess began. Nobody was supposed to get screwed over, things just happened. Marc lost absolutely EVERYTHING that he had and so far nobody had the decency to even try to work with him. This whole mess has been completely blown out of proportion considering that he has been making payments that he cannot really afford to begin with in order to settle things with the league players.
I know how badly Marc truly wants to pay off the league players and get this entire nightmare behind him. While he's not happy with what happened he knows that it is his responsibility to make it right. There's no need for bad mouthing, or the recent underhanded attempts to cause problems in his tournament. What happened to him could have happened to any small business owner.

With my sincere hopes that everyone can try to keep this issue in perspective,
Steve
 
Steve

Good post..way to be positive for a friend..hope things work out for the guy an the league players..times are real hard right now..i'v been thru a few myself..just now brakeing even..once again, I hope it all works out.
 
steves0912 said:
Unfortunately, due to some shady dealings that I won't get into Marc got ripped off, backed into a corner, and ended up getting next to nothing for the pool hall and absolutely zero for the tables.

Anyway, that's how this whole league mess began. Nobody was supposed to get screwed over, things just happened. Marc lost absolutely EVERYTHING that he had and so far nobody had the decency to even try to work with him. This whole mess has been completely blown out of proportion considering that he has been making paymentsthat he cannot really afford to begin with in order to settle things with the league players.
I know how badly Marc truly wants to pay off the league players and get this entire nightmare behind him. While he's not happy with what happened he knows that it is his responsibility to make it right.

There's no need for bad mouthing, or the recent underhanded attempts to cause problems in his tournament. What happened to him could have happened to any small business owner.

With my sincere hopes that everyone can try to keep this issue in perspective,
Steve
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I could understand the original post if Marc was a crook that took off with their money as some people in the past have been known to do. The guy that started this thread "conveniently" left out the part about Marc making payments.

Bob your post is misleading in a most vicious way to a man who is doing his best to make this situation right with everyone. Shame on you for being so callous that you felt the need to come on here and try to ruin a man who has fell on hard times and is doing his absolute best to right the unintentional wrong. In an economy where a lot of people are turning to crime, you should be thanking Marc for staying honest and not giving up.

As for people attempting to cause problems at the tournaments - how childish can "adults" actually be? Show me a tour that pays out every dime taken in and I'll show you a millionaire running a tour for the love it. Every tour that I've ever come across takes out money to cover expenses and time. They have supplies to buy, gas to & from the events, hotel rooms & food costs for out of town tournaments, etc. So what if he takes money out of the tour, every tour does it and rightfully so. Obviously the tour is a part of what is helping this guy who is down on his luck to help pay back some of what he owes and childish adults are going to try to take that from him too?
 
bob g said:
To our fellow pool players:

Mark Dionne, who owned Silver Cue Billiards IN WOBURN, MA and ran three pool leagues (two at Silver Cue and one at Corner Pockets Plaistow, NH), went out of business about six months ago. At that time he was holding approximately $7800.00 belonging to the three leagues. Although Mark promised everyone would get THEIR money, to date he has paid only a small fraction, a couple of hundred dollars to one team. He claims he has no money, yet he continues to run his 9 ball tour. As players whom he owes a substantial amount of money to, we think this is not right. We hope you agree with us that you cannot just walk away from an obligation to these players and make money from a new group of players. (On behalf of those who he still owes-copy and paste the message on if you share our frustration)
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Its plainly obvious you are not a small business owner. . .
 
I've had dealings with both sides, in this case, and, seeing others have expressed thier views, I'm sorry to have to say, "I take Bob's side." Just my opinion.
 
Re

"I've had dealings with both sides, in this case, and, seeing others have expressed thier views, I'm sorry to have to say, "I take Bob's side." Just my opinion."

Well Tom you play in that league, so that's no surprise.
Another important fact conveniently left out by this post is that Bob ran the league WITH Marc for a very long time. It was a partnership and Marc seems to have been made a scapegoat. If one partner is going to be blamed, and this is just strictly MY opinion, then the other has to be at least PARTLY held responsible.
In the end the whole thing has just been far blown out of proportion though.
 
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There was a partnership but I don't think Bob held the money. That's all I'm saying on this matter don't try to put me in the middle of all this, just because I expressed my thoughts.
 
Can't believe that people can't cut the guy some slack. I can't say I know Marc well, but my impression of him is that he is an ok guy. He probably made mistakes, like paying a bill with the league money. Desperate people do things like that. When you are about to lose everything you have I can see that happening. It strikes me that he would have had every intention of paying it back. But in the end he couldn't. Why anyone would have a problem with him trying to make money is beyond me. He isn't getting rich running C events in New Hampshire. For the people that lost money in the league, it is really too bad. But really, get over it. Bad things happen sometimes. Chapter 1; Line 1 in the Book of Life is "LIFE IS DIFFICULT!". I'm sure there were no complaints when Marc gave the leagues free practice or extra practice time. Or the participants took advantage of him in many ways (I used to own a pool room so I know what some players can be like). In the end, he ain't retiring to Florida on the $7300 bucks he might have had for the league. Does it stink for you, you bet. But I think a little compassion for a guy no one had problems working with for years tries to get back on his feet.
 
Re

I wouldn't try to put you in the middle Tom, and there's nothing wrong with expressing your thoughts on the matter.
I don't really want to get in the middle of this either, especially considering that I go up to World Class sometimes. There's nothing wrong with the people in the league being upset either, it's just not necessary for people to constantly attack and defame the man publicly, considering the way it happened and how hard he's trying to make good on it.
Trust me, he's losing sleep over this stuff and it's a shame.

Haha, I have that book, "Do It For the Game". Did you write it? I haven't gotten around to reading it yet. The biggest irony is that even if Marc WAS making money out of his tournaments, which he ISN'T why would you try to ruin them? That would only result in it taking longer to pay the money back.
And yes, the league players were especially catered to at the Silver Cue. Most (not all) did very little to support the business in return. I remember tantrums being thrown because he asked them to buy the coffee at the pool hall rather than at the Dunkin Donuts next door. I also remember him saying the summer before he closed that he had to raise the prices of the league or else he was going to go out of business. Nobody wanted any part of that, the prices stayed the same, and the place closed down. Now they pay even more at the new pool hall it's at.
 
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i know i probaly shouldnt speak but i feel i need to be heard.
this is marc Dionne I think this whole thing is crazy, I didnt mean to screw anyone out of any money, I was always good to the league people, i cared about them like a family. When silvercue closed a piece of me died
i put my heart, sole into that place when i got that place it was a dump, me and a few people completely transformed the dump into a great place to play pool. i tried to cater to the league players, not my real costomuers , and lost my everyday customers, .
its not anybodys fault it is a combind between a bad economy the leagues not giving me enough money, the league people not suporting me.
i am not blaming one thing. But i did learn a lot from this whole experience, i hope in the future i can make the right choice .
im not gona go on and point the finger but i will say one thing like i told all the league people before they will get there money but it will just take time. another thing Bob G who started this thread know what he did to try to ruuin my tour as well as bad mouth me he sent letters to all the pool rooms i run events and told them about the whole situation
he didnt have the balls to say who it was he \wrote anonamins, i thought he was my friend, i guess wen it comes to money there are no friends.
I just have a question to all of you i ran the league with bob, and i know i held the money but bob was my partner is bob partly liable for any of the money that i owe i just need some input. thanks all godbless marc
 
curly666 said:
i know i probaly shouldnt speak but i feel i need to be heard.

EDIT

I just have a question to all of you i ran the league with bob, and i know i held the money but bob was my partner is bob partly liable for any of the money that i owe i just need some input. thanks all godbless marc
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Marc, your first instinct was correct. You're better off not posting on the forums at least until you've been able to settle up with the league. It is easy to get caught up in what people have to say but you don't need people outside of the situation to be able to hurt (or help) your progress. You're already doing all that you can, its probably best to leave it at that.

Without the particulars to the business relationship you & Bob had, there is no way to answer your question. No one but you two know how much say he had in the handling of the money and it would be in both of your best interests not to go down that road here on the open forum.

I'm sorry that you, like so many others in today's economy has fallen on hard times. You get kudos from me for doing your best to repay the money. I'm sorry still that "adults" can't act like adults and appreciate that you are making payments and would instead stoop so low to try to ruin one of the few things you still have that can generate a little bit of income to put towards the payments you're giving them.

Good luck and better times in the near future to you, sir.
 
UrackmIcrackm said:
Marc, your first instinct was correct. You're better off not posting on the forums at least until you've been able to settle up with the league. It is easy to get caught up in what people have to say but you don't need people outside of the situation to be able to hurt (or help) your progress. You're already doing all that you can, its probably best to leave it at that.

Without the particulars to the business relationship you & Bob had, there is no way to answer your question. No one but you two know how much say he had in the handling of the money and it would be in both of your best interests not to go down that road here on the open forum.

I'm sorry that you, like so many others in today's economy has fallen on hard times. You get kudos from me for doing your best to repay the money. I'm sorry still that "adults" can't act like adults and appreciate that you are making payments and would instead stoop so low to try to ruin one of the few things you still have that can generate a little bit of income to put towards the payments you're giving them.

Good luck and better times in the near future to you, sir.
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Tap.....Tap.....Tap......Well said sir! I know neither party involved here, but in reading the various posts by both parties as well as those from both biased and unbiased 3rd partys.....one thing becomes clear. For whatever reason, an honest an respected businessman that made pool his livelyhood, has fallen victim to the recession. He is not trying to escape his obligations, and is doing his level best to meet them. I hope those that feel this man has somehow cheated them, will find the grace of patience and allow him to prove otherwise......Dan
 
I'm months shy of 60. I started playing pool at the Silver Cue when I was 15 years old. My father had to sign a permission slip so I could get in. My book "Do It For The Game" is loosely based on The Silver Cue (the room in the book was called "The Cue"). It is sad. Can't believe it is closed. I still hope the lights are on every time I drive by. Is all the equipment gone now?
 
bob g said:
To our fellow pool players:

Mark Dionne, who owned Silver Cue Billiards IN WOBURN, MA and ran three pool leagues (two at Silver Cue and one at Corner Pockets Plaistow, NH), went out of business about six months ago. At that time he was holding approximately $7800.00 belonging to the three leagues. Although Mark promised everyone would get THEIR money, to date he has paid only a small fraction, a couple of hundred dollars to one team. He claims he has no money, yet he continues to run his 9 ball tour. As players whom he owes a substantial amount of money to, we think this is not right. We hope you agree with us that you cannot just walk away from an obligation to these players and make money from a new group of players. (On behalf of those who he still owes-copy and paste the message on if you share our frustration)
Click to expand...

nice first post mr g.
 
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