I am a huge daydreamer and I come up with off the wall daydreams, ideas, theories and plans on a daily basis. Real life tends to never let me follow thru on any of them so occasionally if I come up with something I will toss it out to someone who might be able to do something with it.
This one falls into a daydream of what could and should be. At least in the world I was visiting.
Last night I was at a captains meeting. It was the 1st one of the year and this was the important one. It wasn't for BCAPL or Valley or APA those don't exist where I was. It was for a league that had been started to build the game of pool and billiards from the grass roots level. We still have handicaps. We still have similar fees. We still have playoffs, regionals and nationals. But we do have some things that are different.
Those differences are what made last night so important. Our league operator handed us a list of the top 32 professional players in the world that live in the US ranked by their performances in sanctioned events over the last 12 months. Our job as Team Captain's last night was to cast our votes for what player/players (max 2) we wanted to sponsor. In this world part of our dues are used to sponsor players and not line the pockets of the great Oz or Ozes who came up with the business plan.
The list we were given is color coded to indicate the regions where the pros live which is important because if we pick someone from our region we get Quarterly visits for a weekend where they give lessons, put on exhibitions, play challenge matches and get to know us. If we pick someone from the West Coast we get one visit. Great players out there but we are going to stay local.
After the votes were counted Knoxville ended up sponsoring Johnny Archer since he was out of Atlanta and close enough that we would get all of our benefits, ie. visits. He is our horse for the year unless a cpl of things happen. 1) He cannot commit to attending enough sanctioned events because of illness, life changes, ect. 2) We have a local player, who was not in the top 32 at the end of last year, who has paid his own way to the sanctioned tournaments and is in the top 32 midway thru the year.
At the end of the year whatever team/teams we have that qualify for Vegas will show up with Archer patches on our Team shirts. If we are lucky enough to get into the final 16 JA himself will be allowed to be used as a coach for our timeouts.
This is just a daydream but I don't see that it is beyond imagination.
This would create a connection between the professionals and the masses.
The Pro would have to start acting like they are ambassadors to the sport again instead of someone just trying to make a living without regards to their actions or appearances. The league players would actually get to interact with the pros and not just think about them being those guys on TV.
Open to debate... Why wouldn't this be the league you would want to be a part of over whatever league you are involved with now? If the fees are similar, the handicapping/format is similar, and the payouts were similar.
This one falls into a daydream of what could and should be. At least in the world I was visiting.
Last night I was at a captains meeting. It was the 1st one of the year and this was the important one. It wasn't for BCAPL or Valley or APA those don't exist where I was. It was for a league that had been started to build the game of pool and billiards from the grass roots level. We still have handicaps. We still have similar fees. We still have playoffs, regionals and nationals. But we do have some things that are different.
Those differences are what made last night so important. Our league operator handed us a list of the top 32 professional players in the world that live in the US ranked by their performances in sanctioned events over the last 12 months. Our job as Team Captain's last night was to cast our votes for what player/players (max 2) we wanted to sponsor. In this world part of our dues are used to sponsor players and not line the pockets of the great Oz or Ozes who came up with the business plan.
The list we were given is color coded to indicate the regions where the pros live which is important because if we pick someone from our region we get Quarterly visits for a weekend where they give lessons, put on exhibitions, play challenge matches and get to know us. If we pick someone from the West Coast we get one visit. Great players out there but we are going to stay local.
After the votes were counted Knoxville ended up sponsoring Johnny Archer since he was out of Atlanta and close enough that we would get all of our benefits, ie. visits. He is our horse for the year unless a cpl of things happen. 1) He cannot commit to attending enough sanctioned events because of illness, life changes, ect. 2) We have a local player, who was not in the top 32 at the end of last year, who has paid his own way to the sanctioned tournaments and is in the top 32 midway thru the year.
At the end of the year whatever team/teams we have that qualify for Vegas will show up with Archer patches on our Team shirts. If we are lucky enough to get into the final 16 JA himself will be allowed to be used as a coach for our timeouts.
This is just a daydream but I don't see that it is beyond imagination.
This would create a connection between the professionals and the masses.
The Pro would have to start acting like they are ambassadors to the sport again instead of someone just trying to make a living without regards to their actions or appearances. The league players would actually get to interact with the pros and not just think about them being those guys on TV.
Open to debate... Why wouldn't this be the league you would want to be a part of over whatever league you are involved with now? If the fees are similar, the handicapping/format is similar, and the payouts were similar.
