Jerry Forsyth
Well-known member
AZB is posting this for Fran Crimi. Fran is on the WPA Executive Board and serves there as the North American Representative. She also serves on the BCA/WPA committee.
"Hi all. I know there are things that make you angry about the BCA and the WPA, like Thomas Overbeck's comments about the title of World Champion. I don't think I would have made the comments Thomas did, but I understand how he feels. Before the WPA came along, it's true that anyone could hold an event and call it a World Championship. The PPPA comes to my mind back in the late 70's and early 80's. I know this first hand because I was the WPBA President for some of that time and I worked with the PPPA and the organizers.
Here's how they invited players: They made sure that all the American players who wanted to play were in the event, and after those spots were secured, they invited any foreign players to fill the spots that were left over. Oh, and of course they did extend a few invitations directly to a few foreign players. That's the way world championships worked back then. They were held in the U.S., they were run by Americans, the majority of the players were Americans and they were mostly won by Americans. Most of the time, people on other continents didn't even know the events were taking place.
Enter: the WPA. Love 'em or hate 'em, they amazingly organized pool on a global level. They followed the Olympic footprint and organized events based on continental quotas. This made a lot of Americans angry because: 1) The majority of players in the events were no longer American and 2) The events were mostly held on other continents.
So why is it that the Americans got 14 spots for this year's 10-Ball World Championship and Europe got 40' Europe has 32 countries fighting for spots. Every time they have a tour event, 250 people show up. Our 14 spots may not sound like a lot but we went down 39 spots in the rankings before we filled those spots. So basically, if you get yourself in the top 40 of the U.S. rankings and you hold a U.S. passport, you have a decent shot at getting an invite to a World Championship and in this particular event, a crack at a $400,000 prize fund.
A few months ago we (here in the U.S.) polled the players and asked how they'd feel if we invited the top ranked foreign player who lives here and can't qualify through any other means. 90 Percent of the players said, absolutely --- invite him. That means that one U.S. passport holder would have to give up his seat for a foreign player. I ask you, how can you not invite a player like Mika Immonen, who's ranked in 3rd, yet can't qualify because of a technicality? So this year, Mika got an invite to the World 10-Ball Championships a la U.S.A. because his fellow players said so.
So when someone holds an event and decides to call it a world championship, I can imagine that it brings back nightmarish memories for people like Thomas Overbeck. As for me, well, now that I know more about how things work, as soon as I hear 'World Championship' by an independent party, I ask myself, okay, what's the gimmick? More often than not, it's there.
Lastly, to address the issue about the U.S. players not being cared about or looked after: That couldn't be farther from the truth. We have a team working for the players of North America seven days a week, day and night. We are here for them. First, there's Ivan Lee of the BCA. You will not find a more concerned and caring person about the players. He rolls up his sleeves and gets involved and stays up nights just like the rest of us when faced with issues that need to be addressed. There are Ed Smith and myself, who don't know the difference between weekdays and weekends. There's Jerry Forsyth and Mike Howerton who tirelessly get the word out to the players like never before. We now have a back and forth system of communication with the players as good as anyone can imagine. Ask Johnny Archer or Shane Van Boening. We have helped players with even the smallest details, like transportation to and from the venue overseas. We make sure the promoters know when they are arriving at the airport. We make sure their hotel rooms have been properly reserved and that they have the size room they requested. We listen to their complaints, and we stand up for the rights of the North American players in the WPA and on the world platform.
As for the big bad WPA, well you have no idea how hard everyone works. President Ian Anderson is truly an excellent president and a great diplomat. We are lucky to have him. He is breaking new ground on a global level that is bringing exiting growth to our sport at a time when things seemed to have slowed down to a crawl here in the U.S. I'm watching Ian and feeling something about our sport that I haven't felt in a very long time: EXCITEMENT.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I wish everyone great pool playing."
Fran Crimi
"Hi all. I know there are things that make you angry about the BCA and the WPA, like Thomas Overbeck's comments about the title of World Champion. I don't think I would have made the comments Thomas did, but I understand how he feels. Before the WPA came along, it's true that anyone could hold an event and call it a World Championship. The PPPA comes to my mind back in the late 70's and early 80's. I know this first hand because I was the WPBA President for some of that time and I worked with the PPPA and the organizers.
Here's how they invited players: They made sure that all the American players who wanted to play were in the event, and after those spots were secured, they invited any foreign players to fill the spots that were left over. Oh, and of course they did extend a few invitations directly to a few foreign players. That's the way world championships worked back then. They were held in the U.S., they were run by Americans, the majority of the players were Americans and they were mostly won by Americans. Most of the time, people on other continents didn't even know the events were taking place.
Enter: the WPA. Love 'em or hate 'em, they amazingly organized pool on a global level. They followed the Olympic footprint and organized events based on continental quotas. This made a lot of Americans angry because: 1) The majority of players in the events were no longer American and 2) The events were mostly held on other continents.
So why is it that the Americans got 14 spots for this year's 10-Ball World Championship and Europe got 40' Europe has 32 countries fighting for spots. Every time they have a tour event, 250 people show up. Our 14 spots may not sound like a lot but we went down 39 spots in the rankings before we filled those spots. So basically, if you get yourself in the top 40 of the U.S. rankings and you hold a U.S. passport, you have a decent shot at getting an invite to a World Championship and in this particular event, a crack at a $400,000 prize fund.
A few months ago we (here in the U.S.) polled the players and asked how they'd feel if we invited the top ranked foreign player who lives here and can't qualify through any other means. 90 Percent of the players said, absolutely --- invite him. That means that one U.S. passport holder would have to give up his seat for a foreign player. I ask you, how can you not invite a player like Mika Immonen, who's ranked in 3rd, yet can't qualify because of a technicality? So this year, Mika got an invite to the World 10-Ball Championships a la U.S.A. because his fellow players said so.
So when someone holds an event and decides to call it a world championship, I can imagine that it brings back nightmarish memories for people like Thomas Overbeck. As for me, well, now that I know more about how things work, as soon as I hear 'World Championship' by an independent party, I ask myself, okay, what's the gimmick? More often than not, it's there.
Lastly, to address the issue about the U.S. players not being cared about or looked after: That couldn't be farther from the truth. We have a team working for the players of North America seven days a week, day and night. We are here for them. First, there's Ivan Lee of the BCA. You will not find a more concerned and caring person about the players. He rolls up his sleeves and gets involved and stays up nights just like the rest of us when faced with issues that need to be addressed. There are Ed Smith and myself, who don't know the difference between weekdays and weekends. There's Jerry Forsyth and Mike Howerton who tirelessly get the word out to the players like never before. We now have a back and forth system of communication with the players as good as anyone can imagine. Ask Johnny Archer or Shane Van Boening. We have helped players with even the smallest details, like transportation to and from the venue overseas. We make sure the promoters know when they are arriving at the airport. We make sure their hotel rooms have been properly reserved and that they have the size room they requested. We listen to their complaints, and we stand up for the rights of the North American players in the WPA and on the world platform.
As for the big bad WPA, well you have no idea how hard everyone works. President Ian Anderson is truly an excellent president and a great diplomat. We are lucky to have him. He is breaking new ground on a global level that is bringing exiting growth to our sport at a time when things seemed to have slowed down to a crawl here in the U.S. I'm watching Ian and feeling something about our sport that I haven't felt in a very long time: EXCITEMENT.
Thanks for taking the time to read this. I wish everyone great pool playing."
Fran Crimi
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