How about this, IPT conflicts with WPC, World 8ball and Mosconi cup in 2006

[Grilled Cheese]

"It would do KT, the IPT and pool in general, good if he could just somehow get together with the organizers of these other tournaments and come up with a consensus on who gets what dates and adjust their schedules accordingly. Like 2 weeks of every month beginning January is reserved for the DCC, February for the BCA Open, March for the US Open, April for an IPT event, May for the World Pool League, June for the World Pool Masters, July for another IPT event, August for the Challenge of Champions, September for the Mosconi Cup, December for the IPT King of the Hill, etc. etc. The other tours can then work their way around this schedule, like the Asian 9-ball can take the last week of every month from March to July. The European tour can overlap with the Asian tour because they're mutually exclusive (as of now). Straight pool, 1 pocket, 9ball tournaments can take the first weeks of the month, etc. etc.

Isn't this kinda like how the golf and tennis tournaments work things out?

Whatever happens, things are definitely looking up for pool and like it or not, KT now has a major say on how things will look like in the future. He can either steamroll the other tournaments into submission or work together with them for the betterment of pool. Let's hope he does the right thing...."

Putting players on exclusivity contracts would not be a good idea!

Interesting, the whole thing about the months and dividing up the year to prevent conflicts and what not...

However, given KT's statements, attitude etc...I have a feeling that he's not even remotely interested in "playing ball" with any of the other tournaments or events.


I think that he's going to do what is most convenient for the IPT. He's put forth an aggressive schedule. That requires a lot of scheduling and contracts etc...many of the venues need to be secured long in advance, and sometimes you can't get the week that you want because some billion dollar industry is having a convention there at that time or whatever other reason..and KT is not going to cram his events too close together or cause problems for the IPT.



I don't think that KT and the IPT will intentionally target certain dates to hurt other events, but they won't make room for anyone else if there is a conflict. I believe in their mindset, they aren't really even thinking about the other pool events as much as we do. I don't think they think very much about others and thus don't really care. Non IPT stuff is insignificant. In their world, it is all IPT. They're focused on their mission and goal to make the IPT big. To them, the other events are more of the same, the IPT is what's going to make pool big.


That's just the feeling I get.

 

[Renegade]

That's understandable. As long as they don't intentionally schedule events to coincide with the other tournaments, I think the others can adjust. When you're a small yacht you have to get out of the way of the luxury liner, right? As long as it doesn't aim for you, that is.....

 

[Snapshot9]

Mosconi Cup

Isn't it in the USA this year? Your only talking affecting 4 people at the most, and one is Efren, and the other 3 will probably be Filapino/European combination of some sort, so that means Team Europe might have to pull in an alternate to play for 1 of their guys. Not a bg dela really.

I think members from both teams will make every effort to be at both tournaments, but if they can't, then alternates will be used in the Mosconi Cup.

 

[parvus1202]

Efren, Mosconi cup? No, Mosconi Cup is only for Europen players against the USA. I never heard of any European player with Philippine or Asian ethnicity. I am not a fan of Mosconi cup anyway.

 

[onepocketchump]

Tell that to all the people who have been put out of business by Walmart and Microsoft.

And conversely, the people who have been enabled by Microsoft and Walmart. There are plenty of "mom and pops" in this country who have been smart enough to specialize and move in next to Wal-Marts and have done quite well with the extra draw that Wal Mart provides.

A rising tide does indeed lift all boats. Doesn't do any good if you have no oars though.

John

 

[onepocketchump]

Good! We agree then!

I think KT realizes this. Definitely, money is not THE barrier to entry to starting a tour like the IPT. That's why he might be seriously considering putting them on exclusivity contract. That way, he has all the top players working for him. But as I've already said, hopefully he won't go down this path as it's bound to self-destruct.

Um, yeah, Money is in fact THE BARRIER to starting a tour like the IPT. Having the moey to bankroll the production costs and the prizefund is absolutely the cornerstone of the IPT and the reason the players are flocking to it. Like it or not a professional pool player can't live on the adoration of the fans when that adoration is not matched by some form of spendable compensation.

KT was right when he said he could put any players on TV and make the public believe that these are the best players on Earth. Who would know the difference? A handful of diehards. The players have NO BARGAINING power right now. None. Maybe after they become famous some of them will be able to negotiate better deals/contracts. Right now though they have nothing to bargain with.

Efren? The IPT could drop Efren right now and the networks, the public, the advertisers would not care one bit. One country on Earth would be affected, the Phillipines, as pertains to whether the IPT could make TV deals or not based on Efren's participation.

If all the tour card holders striked right now then Kevin could and would fill his tournament with second tier players and the final edit of the TV shows would make them seem like they are all world champions. Every miss would be due to the "tough conditions and supreme pressure" and every made ball would be due to the excellent world class skill of the IPT athletes.

John

 

[NYC cue dude]

First and foremost, it won't be feasible to start dividing up months and designate it for a specific tournament. It wont work because kt is planning on having 11 or 12 events each year, or one every month. One main consideration for him to have exclusivity over the players is that he feels that the ipt DOESNT need to be concerned with his events conflicting with other scheduled tournaments. As he has stated, he wants to schedule his events when he pleases. If other events don't want to have conflicting dates, they will have to plan around his choosen dates.

I fully expect kt to make all his players sign exclusivity for 2007. Of course this wont necessarily mean that he wont allow his players to play in other events, it just means that he has the option to enforce it if he wishes. My opinion is that he wants other events to pay sanctioning fees to him, kinda like, if you use my celebrity players, you can rent them from me.

Someone posted that some players missed the vegas event and others will miss the reno event.

To my knowledge, only a few missed vegas, like rempe (who was too ill to play) or the fellow who was denied a visa from china. I seriously doubt anyone CHOSE to skip the event because they had something better to do. As i stated on another thread, the lowere level tour card holders NEED to be at every event in order to try to requalify their cards. The elite players cant afford to miss not 1 single minute because, who knows how long the gravy train will last.

I think it is flawed thinking to believe that ANY player would choose another tournament over an ipt event, ever. (unless the player is under contract to appear) Who knows, if that is the case, say the WPC would enforce it's contracts with the players, perhaps in years to come, to get even, kt might schedule purposefully conflicting dates just to excersise his muscle.

When it comes to the ipt, I am only sure about 2 things.

1) the players will follow kt, lockstep, through the gates of hell, without as much as a question.

2) kt is an egomaniac, and i put nothing past him if it benifits him, or strokes his ego in any significant way.

rg

 

[Andrew Manning]

So, then you must hate the PGA because it doesn't defer to several other tours when scheduling events? Why should it defer? It's the tour the players want to play in, and it's the tour the public wants to watch. It provides real substantial income to dozens and dozens of players, and so it's the place the professionals go to play. If another tour attains such "top dog" status, then they can schedule events without worrying about what the PGA is doing.

Why should pool be different?

-Andrew

 

[sniper]

Isn't it in the USA this year? Your only talking affecting 4 people at the most, and one is Efren, and the other 3 will probably be Filapino/European combination of some sort, so that means Team Europe might have to pull in an alternate to play for 1 of their guys. Not a bg dela really.

I think members from both teams will make every effort to be at both tournaments, but if they can't, then alternates will be used in the Mosconi Cup.

The Mosconi Cup was held in Vegas last year so it should be in Europe this year.

 

[Grilled Cheese]

Um, yeah, Money is in fact THE BARRIER to starting a tour like the IPT. Having the moey to bankroll the production costs and the prizefund is absolutely the cornerstone of the IPT and the reason the players are flocking to it. Like it or not a professional pool player can't live on the adoration of the fans when that adoration is not matched by some form of spendable compensation.

KT was right when he said he could put any players on TV and make the public believe that these are the best players on Earth. Who would know the difference? A handful of diehards. The players have NO BARGAINING power right now. None. Maybe after they become famous some of them will be able to negotiate better deals/contracts. Right now though they have nothing to bargain with.

Efren? The IPT could drop Efren right now and the networks, the public, the advertisers would not care one bit. One country on Earth would be affected, the Phillipines, as pertains to whether the IPT could make TV deals or not based on Efren's participation.

If all the tour card holders striked right now then Kevin could and would fill his tournament with second tier players and the final edit of the TV shows would make them seem like they are all world champions. Every miss would be due to the "tough conditions and supreme pressure" and every made ball would be due to the excellent world class skill of the IPT athletes.

John

Exactly! Well, that's at least what KT thinks he can do with pool players. Right now it is the big names and money bringing people to the IPT. If KT started with total no-name unknowns and on TV portrayed them as super-duper IPT world class 8-ball athletes...maybe some newbie switching to OLN might be fooled, but not a single real pool fan would be. Why is that significant? Well, because in the first year now...the real pool fans are supporting the IPT, even in their limited capacity. Subract them, and KT has nothing at all.


I don't exactly hear any buzz or talk among non-pool fans about the IPT just yet...He hasn't achieved this so called new fan base yet.

 

[NYC cue dude]

as per kt, he has already sold 51% of the ipt to a european company this past may. He told myslef and a bunch of other players (j. archer, j. schmidt, m. sigel, etc.) He said he got 60 million for the controlling share.

I have no way of confirming this, but i passed this info on to robert lipson (pres of the UPA) so he could look into it. It was several months ago and since then have forgotten the name of purchasing co. I do remeber he said that it was europes largest sporting goods company. I believe euro... something????

Anyway, if this is infact true, it can only be good news for the ipt and the players. My feeling is that nobody spends that kind of money (60 million) for a company if they arent willing to do everything possible to ensure its continued success. My biggest concern, and still is, is that if the ipt's future is contingent on kt selling enough natural cures goodies, or fulfilling any of his other possible agendas, i don't have as much confidence that the ipt will have a bright future.

 

[TheOne]

as per kt, he has already sold 51% of the ipt to a european company this past may. He told myslef and a bunch of other players (j. archer, j. schmidt, m. sigel, etc.) He said he got 60 million for the controlling share.

I have no way of confirming this, but i passed this info on to robert lipson (pres of the UPA) so he could look into it. It was several months ago and since then have forgotten the name of purchasing co. I do remeber he said that it was europes largest sporting goods company. I believe euro... something????

Anyway, if this is infact true, it can only be good news for the ipt and the players. My feeling is that nobody spends that kind of money (60 million) for a company if they arent willing to do everything possible to ensure its continued success. My biggest concern, and still is, is that if the ipt's future is contingent on kt selling enough natural cures goodies, or fulfilling any of his other possible agendas, i don't have as much confidence that the ipt will have a bright future.

Randy, I'm not sure this is true. Many have heard the rumour and I'm sure somebody looked into it and found it to be false. I heard it was an Asian company? It would probably be a good thing if he has. Good news I have heard from vegas/KT is that they have a LOT of new sponsors and the end of year your card qualifier will indeed remain $2k (although I'm not sure if they will still honor the $1k/half prize money option as per the KT audio)

If the IPT really does start to bring on sponsors and get good ratings this really could be hear to stay.

 

[SlimShafty]

Europe's largest sporting goods company is Adidas-Salomon AG, They have no interest in the IPT, neither does the 2nd, 3rd....

That was a pretty bad rumor No one would pay $60 million for the entire IPT let alone only half. The PBA was sold for $5 million and it had a TV deal with good ratings, and major sponsors. Even BASS, which had TV shows, 60,000 member subscribers, was sold to ESPN for $35 million. So if you were to take a risk, you might say the IPT is worth somewhere around the PBA number (now).

So far the IPT is not making a profit and still eating KT's investment, I'm sure he has a solid 3 year plan to see the true potential played out. As more sponsors jump on and and a solid business model emerges, who knows, I certainly think it has the best potential out of any other pool venture, just not anywhere near 120 million in potential

To me, forget the rumors, having Emerson on board is a real strong early sign!

 

[NYC cue dude]

with regards to the "sale" of the ipt, it is no rumor. Since Kevin told myself, to my face, and many other pros at the 14.1 world championships, it is either the TRUTH or a LIE. I just passed along the first hand info that was told to me. If you ask me if it is true or not, that is a completely different story.

i can share some insight to kt's prowess of telling the truth:

there is/was a RUMOR going around that kt once ran a 200 playing straight pool. if any of you have listened to him talk about pool, or watched sigel's tutorial about playing (seeing kt's stance, stroke, etc.) you could make an educated oinion that this NEVER could have happened in a million years.

during the 14.1 event, during a conversation between kt and thorsten (kt also told him about the sale), thorsten asked him if his 200 ball run happened. kt looked him squarely in the eye and told him, "yes it is true".

So, he lied. I think this is the type of guy he is. But in the end, i really don't care becuase the players are much better off with him involved in pool, than if he was not. of course, that is my opinion, and i think everyone will be fine as long as we know who we are dealing with here. Keep one eye one the object ball, and the other on kevin trudeau.

 

[Colin Colenso]

I heard a rumor that the Taiwan players, though welcome to participate in the IPT, have been told that they may not be able to keep any cash they win.

Hence, they are not participating in the qualifiers.

If that's how the staus quo operates, it will be a good thing to see them knocked back a peg or two on the power spectrum.