I've Been Invited to Compete in the WNT European Open!

JAM

JAM

I am the storm
Silver Member
Have you ever dreamed of competing against the world's best 9-ballers? I have, and I've been invited. Hip, hip, hooray!

The WNT European event will take place in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina, March 11 through 16, 2025.,

Here is my invitation.

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Oh wait! The invitaton is for all WNTTV-dot-com subscribers. :giggle:;):p

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mjantti said:
What a peculiar way to organize qualifiers 🤔
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Not "qualifiers". Entrants.

Real weak. Reduce the entirely unnecessary 256 field down to 128 or whatever as well as the six days down to four. Winners probably play what, 2 matches total in the first two days?
 
I wonder what the cost is to spend 5 days in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Airfare round trip from DC to Sarajevo is about $700, which ain't too bad.

Hotel is $141 per night, though it says there is no availability on March 10 and 11. Maybe there is a book of rooms reserved for WNT players.

Food, entry fee, and miscellaneous expenses, I'd guess $500.

So a rough estimate of expenses for entire trip is $2,000, if I was going from USA to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Website of hotel, the place is beautiful: https://hotelhills.ba/
 
JAM said:
I wonder what the cost is to spend 5 days in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Airfare round trip from DC to Sarajevo is about $700, which ain't too bad.

Hotel is $141 per night, though it says there is no availability on March 10 and 11. Maybe there is a book of rooms reserved for WNT players.

Food, entry fee, and miscellaneous expenses, I'd guess $500.

So a rough estimate of expenses for entire trip is $2,000, if I was going from USA to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Website of hotel, the place is beautiful: https://hotelhills.ba/
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2K not too bad.
 
JAM said:
I wonder what the cost is to spend 5 days in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Airfare round trip from DC to Sarajevo is about $700, which ain't too bad.

Hotel is $141 per night, though it says there is no availability on March 10 and 11. Maybe there is a book of rooms reserved for WNT players.

Food, entry fee, and miscellaneous expenses, I'd guess $500.

So a rough estimate of expenses for entire trip is $2,000, if I was going from USA to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Website of hotel, the place is beautiful: https://hotelhills.ba/
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I think 2K would be a fantastic once in a lifetime opportunity. Being Retired I would want an extra day or two on either end to just explore.
The hotel looks really nice.
 
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JAM said:
Airfare round trip from DC to Sarajevo is about $700, which ain't too bad.
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I haven't looked it up, but I suspect that is at least two legs, or more likely, three, to get to Sarajevo. Plus, there is zero chance I would ride in coach (economy) class. I'm guessing round trip in first class (again, 2-3 legs), is in excess of $10K.

But it is a pretty reasonable price to get there, if you are willing to ride in misery class, for a couple of days.

The funny thing, is that, being a retired pilot, I fly for free. But I still wouldn't do it. Too long, too many legs, and I'd likely end up in coach for at least 2-4 of those flights. I'm growing particular in my old age. :ROFLMAO:
 
Banger said:
I haven't looked it up, but I suspect that is at least two legs, or more likely, three, to get to Sarajevo. Plus, there is zero chance I would ride in coach (economy) class. I'm guessing round trip in first class (again, 2-3 legs), is in excess of $10K.

But it is a pretty reasonable price to get there, if you are willing to ride in misery class, for a couple of days.

The funny thing, is that, being a retired pilot, I fly for free. But I still wouldn't do it. Too long, too many legs, and I'd likely end up in coach for at least 2-4 of those flights. I'm growing particular in my old age. :ROFLMAO:
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Holy smoke, you're right. Check out the prices for business class from DC to Sarajevo with only 1 stop.

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Economy class with only one stop is about half the cost of business class.

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If the WNT ranking points is based on attending the major WNT events, with the majority of them being overseas and/or in Asia, American pros better have deep pockets, very deep, or a stakehorse.
 
JAM said:
Holy smoke, you're right. Check out the prices for business class from DC to Sarajevo with only 1 stop.
Economy class with only one stop is about half the cost of business class.
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Cheap flight to Europe then take the train. Probably faster once you include connections/layovers.
 
And here I am still waiting for Augusta National to invite me to the Masters since I pay for CBS…

Kidding aside, I do think this is an odd way to fill a tournament. I get that you need to fill a field but sending a mass invite to every John/Jane Doe just because they subscribe to your streaming platform certainly takes a bit of the shine off of what is supposed to be THE professional pool tour.
 
JAM said:
I wonder what the cost is to spend 5 days in Bosnia & Herzegovina. Airfare round trip from DC to Sarajevo is about $700, which ain't too bad.

Hotel is $141 per night, though it says there is no availability on March 10 and 11. Maybe there is a book of rooms reserved for WNT players.

Food, entry fee, and miscellaneous expenses, I'd guess $500.

So a rough estimate of expenses for entire trip is $2,000, if I was going from USA to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Website of hotel, the place is beautiful: https://hotelhills.ba/
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This may be the only chance you get, if it sounds fun to you , and you can afford it, go and enjoy yourself.
I'm sure you have earned it.
I played in one mens pro 9 ball event, I had no chance, but I played pretty good for all the pressure , I was ahead 4 to 3 on Chris McDonald and also 4 to 3 ahead of the amazing Poochie Sexton. Unfortunately , they were races to nine , lol
I bought the Accustat tapes 38 years ago, I still haven't watched them hahaha
I wish you all the best.! Whatever you decide.
 
Scrunge19 said:
And here I am still waiting for Augusta National to invite me to the Masters since I pay for CBS…

Kidding aside, I do think this is an odd way to fill a tournament. I get that you need to fill a field but sending a mass invite to every John/Jane Doe just because they subscribe to your streaming platform certainly takes a bit of the shine off of what is supposed to be THE professional pool tour.
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You could say that about every player in the world that isn't in the top 100, their chances of winning a big tournament are at best miniscule.
 
Having a chance to win the tournament and being pre screened to display some level of competence at the game are two different things. The only barrier to entry right now is money and that doesn’t lend itself to a professional image.
 
mostly muslims there. and americans are not looked upon well in the present. and its been only about 20 years since the srebrenica slaughter.
 
I don't think this is a surprise. WNT has lost a number of top players due to the ban problem and the organization of WNT qualifiers seems to be in its infancy. I think they expected lots of rooms to want to run qualifiers and the interest isn't there. Maybe it will develop in the future. A large problem with the US Open qualifiers was the financial details of running one. The WNT wanted to make money from each one and the deal didn't appeal to host rooms.
 
Scrunge19 said:
... The only barrier to entry right now is money and that doesn’t lend itself to a professional image.
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Like pretty much every pro tournament 10 years ago.

Maybe the qualifiers will eventually get traction. Maybe they will cut back to 128 or 160 players.
 
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