Interview With Allen Hopkins

Craig Fales said:
I'm curious as to why he made that statement not knowing the facts to begin with...did you ask him if he even made that statement...I just can't see him saying that without knowing more OR he didn't really make that statement....
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Bingo! The exact same question occurred to me. AH obviously hasn't followed the IPT implosion very carefully, so on what basis could he make this plea that others forego pursuing legal acton against the IPT.

The implication is that he's not terribly concerned by the millions owed to the players. In one respect, it's totally understandable. AH has earned $40,000 from the IPT (KOH, 30K, Vegas 5K, Reno 5K) and has been paid $35,000 of it. In addition, he has earnings from his own events, most notably the Super Billiards Expo. The $5,000 he has been stiffed represents a very small proportion of his total earnings from his involvement in cuesports since the onset of the IPT tour.

Whether his highly uninformed statement regarding the IPT on this forum came from him is, in my opinion, in serious doubt.

All things considered, although I respect AH and am grateful for everything he has given our sport, I could care less how he feels about the IPT matter.
 
Joe Koontz said:
Eydie,

I find your posts to be ultra informative and well thought out. You are a great asset to this forum.

Thank you very much.
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Funny Avatar, Joe. You get some REP. Edie, too. :-)
JoeyA
 
sjm said:
Bingo! The exact same question occurred to me. AH obviously hasn't followed the IPT implosion very carefully, so on what basis could he make this plea that others forego pursuing legal acton against the IPT.

The implication is that he's not terribly concerned by the millions owed to the players. In one respect, it's totally understandable. AH has earned $40,000 from the IPT (KOH, 30K, Vegas 5K, Reno 5K) and has been paid $35,000 of it. In addition, he has earnings from his own events, most notably the Super Billiards Expo. The $5,000 he has been stiffed represents a very small proportion of his total earnings from his involvement in cuesports since the onset of the IPT tour.

Whether his highly uninformed statement regarding the IPT on this forum came from him is, in my opinion, in serious doubt.

All things considered, although I respect AH and am grateful for everything he has given our sport, I could care less how he feels about the IPT matter.
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I agree. Who cares what he thinks about the IPT.Johnnyt
 
Johnnyt said:
I agree. Who cares what he thinks about the IPT.Johnnyt
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But what's odd, he's in the billiard business. It's difficult for me to think he's out of touch. It's also hard to believe he could care less about the 5 grand.
 
sjm said:
All things considered, although I respect AH and am grateful for everything he has given our sport, I could care less how he feels about the IPT matter.
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SJM, you speak for many of us when you say this. BUT, there are people... fans and players alike, that do care what AH says and will follow his "advice" simply because it came from him. :rolleyes:

There's leaders and there's followers in the world, it all depends on what you are. I'm strong minded and will make my own path. Others are not of that nature. I hear sports figures complaining all the time that they don't want to be role models when people chastise them for a certain action. Want to be or not, when you're well known in a particular circle (football, baseball, politics, pool) and you're good at whatever it is you do in that circle, the followers will look up to you and emulate you to the best of their ability.

AH was and still is a great player and is a great promoter of the sport. There are followers out there that will follow his line of thinking just because of these things. They won't think for themselves, they'll allow AH to do it for them and they'll go whichever way he goes.
 
If this ever gets played out in court it could be very interesting. Like asking DA & MS whom knew what and when. Asking KT about all his unfulfilled promises. Asking all the players if they got paid 33% or 100%. I’m also sure there will be other people to come out of the woodwork if this goes to trial. Sounds like the makings of a good book. Johnnyt
 
Island Drive said:
But what's odd, he's in the billiard business. It's difficult for me to think he's out of touch. It's also hard to believe he could care less about the 5 grand.
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He's got a lot of irons in the fire when it comes to the billiard business and I can see how he's gone about his everyday life keeping busy with his AH promotions.

I can also see how he could care less about the 5 grand. He would definitely care if it were a larger sum, but the truth of the matter is that 5 grand is not very much to him AND he's currently ahead of the game as far as the IPT is concerned. He's made much, much more than he's out in travel expenses to Reno.

I wish I could mention the players name but it's just not nice so I won't, but... there is a guy on the pro tour that is very well known for being a tight wad. I'm talking SERIOUS tight wad. Nothing wrong with that and completely understandable considering he never knows when he'll cash in another event. However, he is well known in the pool world for being a tight wad. He is one of the lucky guys that is ahead when it comes to the IPT. He won a good deal early on when they were paying and he didn't fare too well in Reno. I was very curious as to how he was handling this situation (he'll stress over $20) and I had a chance to talk to one of his best friends about it while we were at the open. I was quite shocked that his friend said he wasn't too worried about it. He figured he came out ahead in this ordeal and he's brought home more money from the IPT than he's been stiffed for.

My jaw dropped because I didn't expect to hear this. I expected to hear that he couldn't sleep at night. AH is in the same boat, money wise when it comes to the IPT. If this player is able to not lose sleep over it, you can bet that AH can go without stressing over it. ;)
 
maybe he really means to go slowly

I suspect that AH has been over the hurdles on both sides of lawsuits by now. One thing a person learns is once the lawyers are involved and have a cut of the pie there is no chance of other solutions. AH may just be against rushing into legal action. I can't imagine that he favors the players doing nothing to try to recover some of their loses.

Hu


sjm said:
Bingo! The exact same question occurred to me. AH obviously hasn't followed the IPT implosion very carefully, so on what basis could he make this plea that others forego pursuing legal acton against the IPT.

The implication is that he's not terribly concerned by the millions owed to the players. In one respect, it's totally understandable. AH has earned $40,000 from the IPT (KOH, 30K, Vegas 5K, Reno 5K) and has been paid $35,000 of it. In addition, he has earnings from his own events, most notably the Super Billiards Expo. The $5,000 he has been stiffed represents a very small proportion of his total earnings from his involvement in cuesports since the onset of the IPT tour.

Whether his highly uninformed statement regarding the IPT on this forum came from him is, in my opinion, in serious doubt.

All things considered, although I respect AH and am grateful for everything he has given our sport, I could care less how he feels about the IPT matter.
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Eydie, I can't give you a rep 'cause I need to spread some more around, but I truly appreciate what you're doing.
 
I would think it is really in AH's own best interest to have no comment at all.

He can't win in this situation.
 
I suspect that AH is a very, very busy man and may not have been up to speed with all that has been going on, but may have thought that he was. Also, AH is one of the biggest if not the biggest promoter in the sport and so he may be more willing than most to give KT the benefit of the doubt and more time to somehow make things right. In his years of promotion, he may have run into rough times himself and have had people question his actions, etc., in the past. Just some thoughts from a guy who really isn't up to speed myself...
 
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