JAM said:
You talking to me?
There are some folks who may benefit from listening to an instructional tape and/or relaxation audio. If it helps people to improve concentration, though, by all means, go for it. I don't discount anything, if it helps.
JAM
Great post JAM. It is very expensive for players to attend tournaments and everyone does not win. Something more startling is that there is no one organization that oversees this entire sport. Yes there are league and tournament organizations such as the BCA, APA, UPA,... but this is fragmented. Imagine one organization that presided over all organizations, "Pro Billiards Tour". They would be the rules dictator, handicap dictator,.. More importantly they would be the sales tool for the Billiards Tour and all of billiards. One organization at the top with no side interests. Why is this important? Mainly because it is much easier for vendors, of not just billiard products, to see a good structure in a sport so when contributions are made the entire organization benefits. Right now contributions from vendors only affect a segment of billiards, BCA, APA, UPA,.. not the entire sport. This means if they give money to support the UPA, that's the penetration limit - the UPA only. Nothing wrong with this but we have just segmented an already small participation sport into a yet smaller group.
You probably already know that more people own pool tables and play at home than those that go to pool halls regularly and belong to leagues. This is a much bigger market that is not penetrated. These are royalty payments that are available.
Organization is were it begins, pulling all those fragmented groups into one strong one.
How can this be achieved?
As unlikely as it may be, this is how it could be achieved;
Form a small group of players of pros, vendors and league players to formulate a structure.
Get league players to tell their league management that they want to donate $2 yearly and to exists under the umbrella of a single billiards organization. Remember, the players are the customers and they as a group carry a lot of weight. They can demand what ever they choose and get results. There are 750,000 league players and if each player donated $2 dollars that would yield $1,500,000. This money would be then spent to invest in ways to increase vendor participation, getting logos on all billiard equipment sold and get royalties. Getting Coke, Pepsi, Bud, .. to donate because they are now advertising to an enormous single audience. This initial $1,500,000 could be multiplied 10 fold. Now the UPA, BCA and APA can get funding to support 12 tournaments a year at $1,000,000 each. We can now pay out 30 positions down that at least pay and make it worth while for players to go to events. Players would be sponsors for non-billiard products.
The strength is in numbers and right now we only have fragmentation so vendors are not interested. The leagues players are the industry, they are the thrust we need to build this into a recognized sport with solid sponsors.
Anyway, this is achievable and it does hold the key to success for billiards in our lifetime. In my opinion this is what needs to be done. I believe in what the APA and BCA leagues have done. They have been fabulous. Lets now take advantage of this to build billiards. Done correctly, each of these leagues would also benefit financially well beyond were they are today.
The biggest bariers to this success are;
1. The negatives from people who deeply feel that they are involved in a sport that is worthless and are not deserving
2. Those that own organizations that profit from them and are afraid to lose $$$ and power when in fact they will not only make more money but they have an opportunity to contribute to the success of billiards and be recognized as that.
Babe Cranfield told me that he would never see billiards as a successful and organized sport in his lifetime giving deserved recognition to players that have worked so hard to be good, well he didn't. Maybe we will not either.
