Matchroom dumps WPA!
- Thread starter mista335
- Start date
Hopefully this winds up happening. I've been surprised how long Matchroom has put up with the WPA and its interference with business (drug testing, player bans, and the prize fund cut the WPA takes).
He who has the money makes the rules. Same with the IPT. I'm not for or against, just watching with interest
Not surprising, every organization wants to control the market. Look at the fighting between the two Chinese 8 Ball organizations in China that were trying to kill off the other and argue who invented what and who has rights to what.
Soon as Matchroom started with buying out events and making their own point and ranking system you can see this was coming. Only reason to start a new tour ranking is for the players to be forced into it for the money that they provide. Only difference is that they are in control of it all vs being part of several tours that feed into the WPA organization.
Soon as Matchroom started with buying out events and making their own point and ranking system you can see this was coming. Only reason to start a new tour ranking is for the players to be forced into it for the money that they provide. Only difference is that they are in control of it all vs being part of several tours that feed into the WPA organization.
Could WPA demand players pay if they cash in MR tournament?
It’s going to be exciting to hear the WPA side of the story. I’d be curious if there is any retaliation. And if Predator stays playing in the WPA pool and Matchroom doesn’t, how does their competitive relationship evolve in that environment.
How does this affect the World Championship? Will that still be sanctioned, or will the WPA have to find a new promoter. I think they will ultimately have to relent as the Matchroom calendar gets bigger and the WPA rankings don’t take some of the biggest tournaments into consideration.
I could see a few possibilities, in no particular order:
MR schedules their biggest events, such as the US Open and European Open (but not the WC), on top of the Predator WPA world championships (8 ball and 10 ball).
MR schedules their smaller events on top of Predator's regular events.
Predator yields to MR, joins forces, and switches to nineball pool. The 8 and 10 ball WPA world championships go away.
WPA gets salty at MR and revokes, or does not renew, MR's world championship of 9 ball.
MR schedules their biggest events, such as the US Open and European Open (but not the WC), on top of the Predator WPA world championships (8 ball and 10 ball).
MR schedules their smaller events on top of Predator's regular events.
Predator yields to MR, joins forces, and switches to nineball pool. The 8 and 10 ball WPA world championships go away.
WPA gets salty at MR and revokes, or does not renew, MR's world championship of 9 ball.
exactly what is the conflict? they had the nineball rankings this year, and used it for the invitational events, without any problems?
The WPA, in its current iteration and under the management in place for the last couple of decades, has been the most incompetent and useless organization in pool, possibly the world. They literally serve no current purpose whatsoever and should just go away. That's not to say that there isn't a need for an organization that could properly fulfill the roles that they were designed to serve, because there certainly is, it is just just that they aren't the right organization to do it, or at least they would need all new management, every last single person, to ever have a chance because the current crop are, based on results, a bunch of bumbling fools.
To be fair, in the climate of pool of the last couple of decades, it could simply be that the WPA didn't have enough industry cooperation along with the ability to have any real bite to their oversight to ever have a chance of being effective no matter who was leading it, although there is also no doubt that some level of a better job could have been done because you literally couldn't possibly do worse. One thing is certain though, whoever fills the role of the WPA must remain independent from other parts of the pool industry in order to have any chance of being effective and being in the best interests of the sport, the fans, and even the players.
That said, for what might seem like the first time, I'm in 100% agreement with the WPA on this one. What Matchroom is essentially trying to do is make it to where nobody else can even attempt to compete by putting on any other big 9 ball events. For example, if Matchroom was in charge of the official 9 ball rankings, even if somebody else came along and wanted to do a 9 ball event with a million dollar prize fund, Matchroom could just say "well we aren't going to allow that event to count towards the official rankings" which might effectively kill it, or they could even say "any player that plays this event will be removed from the rankings list" which would almost certainly kill it. Matchroom's attempted actions here are both in spirit, and by definition, anticompetitive.
I don't begrudge any company for wanting to own their market, but kill them by out-competing them, not by rigging it to where nobody else can even try to compete.
Kudos to the WPA for finally once in their life having a backbone and being willing to put their foot down when it was needed instead of letting themselves get bullied around. It was their constant acquiescing to various other unacceptable behavior in the past that perhaps more than anything else made them so utterly useless, and if they can continue to have a backbone along with some other changes then maybe, just maybe, they can actually and finally serve a needed and useful purpose.
To be fair, in the climate of pool of the last couple of decades, it could simply be that the WPA didn't have enough industry cooperation along with the ability to have any real bite to their oversight to ever have a chance of being effective no matter who was leading it, although there is also no doubt that some level of a better job could have been done because you literally couldn't possibly do worse. One thing is certain though, whoever fills the role of the WPA must remain independent from other parts of the pool industry in order to have any chance of being effective and being in the best interests of the sport, the fans, and even the players.
That said, for what might seem like the first time, I'm in 100% agreement with the WPA on this one. What Matchroom is essentially trying to do is make it to where nobody else can even attempt to compete by putting on any other big 9 ball events. For example, if Matchroom was in charge of the official 9 ball rankings, even if somebody else came along and wanted to do a 9 ball event with a million dollar prize fund, Matchroom could just say "well we aren't going to allow that event to count towards the official rankings" which might effectively kill it, or they could even say "any player that plays this event will be removed from the rankings list" which would almost certainly kill it. Matchroom's attempted actions here are both in spirit, and by definition, anticompetitive.
I don't begrudge any company for wanting to own their market, but kill them by out-competing them, not by rigging it to where nobody else can even try to compete.
Kudos to the WPA for finally once in their life having a backbone and being willing to put their foot down when it was needed instead of letting themselves get bullied around. It was their constant acquiescing to various other unacceptable behavior in the past that perhaps more than anything else made them so utterly useless, and if they can continue to have a backbone along with some other changes then maybe, just maybe, they can actually and finally serve a needed and useful purpose.
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This is an very interesting development and I wonder how this might affect especially the European pool scene.
The national associations are all part of the EPBF, which is part of the WPA.
Many European players still rely on fundings from their national associations and if the WPA goes wild and trys to ban players, who take part in MR events I wonder how many of the Europeans will risk to side with MR.
I mean the top Europeans will still be MR players. Take Albin for example, who doesn't play EuroTour or EC anymore.
But players like Alcaide, He, Lechner, Grabe...the Polish players could face a difficult situation.
Could be a similar scenario like it was with the BDO and PDC in darts.
The national associations are all part of the EPBF, which is part of the WPA.
Many European players still rely on fundings from their national associations and if the WPA goes wild and trys to ban players, who take part in MR events I wonder how many of the Europeans will risk to side with MR.
I mean the top Europeans will still be MR players. Take Albin for example, who doesn't play EuroTour or EC anymore.
But players like Alcaide, He, Lechner, Grabe...the Polish players could face a difficult situation.
Could be a similar scenario like it was with the BDO and PDC in darts.
Who didn't see that coming day one when Matchroom announced their own point system.
Matchroom on their bullshit self serving agenda as always. F Matchroom
What a stupid comment this is. This misguided statement can be used for any private, free enterprise business that ever existed.
Of course they are self serving. They are a business and need to make money to grow, or what's the fuggin point?