CrisDeLaGarza said:
Again, I'm not really sure where everyone is getting this information. At the beginning of this thread it was "No USA Players" at the World Games. Then the WPBA assured you that there are female players going. So now it's "No Male Players"...ALL of this information is not true so no one needs to be so upset about it.
I spoke to Shane to see if he was going to this and he said that he IS invited and would like to go but that he will probably need to find sponsors for it. But he HAS NOT told them no yet. Part of why he has been waiting to give them a definite answer is because the World 8-Ball that was scheduled in Dubai in April is supposed to be postponed until later in the year so he wants to make sure they will not be on conflicting dates.
Hi Cris. At the outset will make it clear I'm not involved in organising the World 8 Ball which was due to be held as usual in Fujairah which is actually an adjacent emirate to Dubai within the same country (UAE) but you are certainly correct in saying that it is already "postponed".
However I do live/work in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and unfortunately as relevant background information I can confirm that Dubai is having severe problems due to the global credit crunch crisis. Massive multi billion dollar construction projects are being cancelled/postponed right, left and centre. Several thousand expatriate professional engineers etc have lost their jobs in the last few months (including at least 'hundreds' of USA nationals) and every week brings more bad news on that front. Abu Dhabi is actually a hugely richer emirate than Dubai but they too are also suffering badly, albeit to a lesser degreee.
Even the prestigious European PGA Tour which normally has sponsors coming out of their ears have for the first time ever had to cancel one of their events (originally scheduled to be held in India this coming weekend) because the Dubai sponsors and others could not fulfil their planned input.
Whilst again making it absolutely clear that I have nothing whatsoever to do with any of the organisation of pool events here I would have to say as a fairly alert commercially experienced person in this region that realistically the chances of pool finding a sponsor here willing to inject sizeable cash sums into any type of world competition in this current climate are probably about as remote as me running 10 consecutive racks.
Companies which are not already bleeding profusely are certainly booked for the intensive care unit later.
The usual organisers of the World 8 Ball are admirable and the nicest most upstanding people you could wish to meet and nobody could be more honest than they are, but frankly if they can pull off the task of finding a sponsor this year in the current business environment it would be one of the achievements of the decade.
So whatever other definitely scheduled events Shane may be swithering over later in the year in my opinion he might be well advised to make sure that in the meantime he doesn't lose the option of taking part in them solely over any expectations of a big money event out here, unless and until someone from the UAE organisers says it is definitely being rearranged.
