cardiac kid said:
Last year, the UPA selected one of my home room's players to sit on the board of directors. My guess is that his employer had a small interest in the game. His real value to the UPA was one of the value added offerings made by his employer to their clients. Their primary business is payroll. As an added benefit to their clientelle, health care subscriptions are available for purchase as a group.
Some might imagine that a "road" guy like Keith has no medical benefits available directly to him at a reasonable price. Operable word, reasonable. If the UPA charged perhaps $1000 per year membership instead of $100, they might be able to provide basic health coverage to the player / members. They might need to expand their membership base but you get the idea. I don't believe this is so far fetched as to be unreasonable. Perhaps a sponsor in the health care field might step up.
This really is the kind of thing the BCA should be doing. As an umbrella group for the billiard room proprietors and suppliers, providing health care benefits to them at a reasonable price might benefit the individual employee whether or not they play. Professional or not!
Medical insurance is a national problem. Clinton worked on it hard during his administration, but to no avail (IMO).
The UPA's mission is spelled out on their website: "to elevate the standards of the professional pool player's vocation"; "enhance the economic well-being of the individual member"; "stimulate interest and involvement from major media companies, major advertisers, and the public"; and "to continually promote the overall vitality of the sport."
The economic well-being of the individual member is a difficult hurdle to overcome for the UPA. It is extremely expensive to attend a five-day tournament. Many times, a pool player is stuck $1,500 and $2,000 before they hit the first ball. This is a hardship that most pool players, especially the non-sponsored ones, cannot overcome, unless they are independently wealthy. I don't know the answer to this one, Cardiac Kid. It's a hard nut to crack.
Jeremy "Double J" Jones of Texas had a great idea when I spoke to him in Toledo recently. He thought if they could get exhibitions or tournaments in a college setting that it would attract a new audience. If the UPA, as an example, hooked up with a major credit card company as a sponsor, then the credit card folks could offer a free gift for every application on site. I've personally been to football, baseball, and golf events where this is done, and I find myself standing in line, filling out the application, to get the free gift. I think Jeremy's idea has merit. The benefits are endless. Imagine having a credit card with the UPA emblem on it and a picture of one of the UPA Touring Pros in action.
If group medical coverage was available to the UPA at a decent premium, professional pool players would be chomping at the bit to join this organization, and those who are already in would definitely welcome this.
The men definitely need a strong platform to advance their mission. The UPA is a very young organization, and you gotta crawl before you walk, as the saying goes. I'm hopeful to see them excel, but 43 players at the first leg of the Hilton-sponsored NAOT is just awful. I hope they have a larger presence in Pittsburgh at the second UPA-sanctioned tournament of the NAOT in February of 2005. It would be nice to see the UPA have a strong presence at this event (IMO). Sponsors like the Hilton Hotel don't come around very often, and if the UPA can get all of its members to show up, this would certainly help to "promote the overall vitality of the sport" (IMO).
JAM
