Qlympics auggestions

[jay helfert]

Just your scalp, right? Because if you're promising him hair with the scalp, someone ought to let him know you're shorting him on the bet! Or is that real purpose of your toupees...

Shhh, I'm trying to figure out how to give you a pink dot.

 

[Brian in VA]

First off, thanks for all you do for the game Mark! You put your money where your mouth is and are willing to take a chance to make the game better for all of us.

The players in my league were complaining about the Qlympics being too close to Thanksgiving for them to attend. The 9 hour drive wasn't a topic as they planned to car pool it to get there.

I understand the hotel and added money equation and I don't have a good answer for you on that one. Players want to pay as little as possible for their rooms (most of them) and having to stay and pay top dollar in a hotel that can ordinarily be had for half that price really ticks them off. I realize the hotel is looking to make its nut but so are the players and that will keep them away.

I like the idea of moving it to mid-summer so that it's half a year away from DCC. Then 2 weeks of vacation fit nicely into those two events. I also read that there was a dearth of tournaments for the pros this past summer; maybe you could change that.

I also like the idea of 9 foot table tournaments for amateurs. My league plays on 9 footers and most of us prefer them. Switching to bar boxes for the Nationals adds a level of frustration for some of us. Don't give up on it yet!

Best of luck with this going forward! Hope we can make it to the next one.

Brian in VA

 

[watchez]

I posted this in a different thread a few days ago--

A few major points:

My take is that they should also pick a different venue other than Louisville. I understand that Diamond tables are made in that area so it must be easier to ship/setup for the tournament. However, for the local/regional player - if they have a choice between DCC (established) or the Qlympics, I am sure it was a no brainer. Most people can only give a certain amount of time to pool.

If I was Mark G. I would pick a location where pool is still 'big' in the area. I am not really sure what part of the country that would be right now. But somewhere at minimum 300 miles away from Louisville, preferrably farther. California, Colorado, Minnesota, Florida, Arizona. I am sure Mark can pull a list of his BCA pool league members & see where the highest concentration of membership is. That would be a good start.

Also, the month of November is not a good month. For those of us that have real jobs, travel time has to be saved for family events such as Thanksgiving & Xmas. Also by the end of the year, many people have used up any vacation time they might have acrued. People have too much going on in these two months to give up 5-18 days for a pool tournament. Furthermore, people are short of cash at this time of the year. Most extra money is being used for buying gifts or again, travel to see family. February & March, people are well past the holidays, got their vacation time for the year to squander & a tax return to blow.

And not to hijack this thread, but since Mark was fortunate enough to sign Shane VB for sponsorship, he ought to ride it to the fullest. For what Tiger Woods did for golf, SVB could do for pool (on a smaller scale). Sure the rest of the players on the PGA tour get jealous & tired of hearing about Tiger, the Tiger Slam, etc. but I am sure they are smart enough to put their ego in their pocket & fill it with the $$$ he has brought the entire tour.

 

[oldroller]

Action

of all kinds might happen if you could have this event at the nearby CASINO.Pick a relatavely slow time for their business,work with them & they make out too!Think of the numbers,wives would be begging their husbands to go so they could feed the slots.Besides it's close to Diamond,Louisville & plenty of rooms,Airport ect.It just might bring lots of money & action from all over.
PS if this works send me one of those Diamond
make it a nine footer,any finish will do
THANKS

 

[maxeypad2007]

First off I would like to say I thought Qlympics overall was a great event and the low turnout was really disappointing for me at least.

A few things I see wrong with the tournament.

1. $200 entry fee is quite stiff for a casual player. A lot of people locally would have played if this fee were low enough to attract attention. Based on what I know of the local players in louisville I'd say thats half or more of what many of them make in a week.

2. The caliber of the players that showed up for the one pocket, banks etc could have been a lot better. How can you have a 1p tournament like that without Efren or Scott Frost? For this reason I think the attendance of players coming to watch was non-existent. If this tournament was priced right and there was a good chance of getting to play guys like Efren or similar caliber many regional players would have forked out the dough to play.

3. It was impossible to watch a finals match in the tournament room because it was so dark. I would have liked to have seen a spectator area with seating like the DCC.

4. More vendors. I was pretty unimpressed with the amount of "custom cues" cue vendors were selling at the event.

5. No food really. This was probably more of an issue for those travelling to the location.

6. Nobody seemed to really know locally about the tournament. BCA is not as prevalent as APA it seems like in Louisville for whatever reason. I told several guys at my home room (diamonds billards on frankfort ave) about the tournament. I didn't see posters really anywhere either.

7. The tournament room closed up way too early. Nobody could gamble really. Lots of guys were asking me where to go play locally.

8. The action room housing the 1P final was kind of problematic as nobody could really see inside the room very well.

9. The tournament lacked flair. There really needed to be more "show" to the tournament. There were probably 10 people watching the 1P and bank finals. I blame this largely on how quickly the tournament was over and the fact that there wasn't a really well lit place with good seating to watch these kinds of matches.

So I guess the key reasons were.

Promotion - Not enough locally. Not enough turnout for players that would really fill the room.

Cost - Too expensive

 

[Williebetmore]

Mark,
Just a note of thanks from the die-hard pool fanatics who REALLY appreciate your contributions to the game. Well done.

I think you have a wealth of suggestions in the thread. The only thing I would contribute is that weekend events would probably attract more amateur entrants. With DCC and the Vegas BCA and VNEA events; it is very difficult to arrange another week off work. If the early rounds of the events could be crammed into a Friday/Sat./Sun. I truly believe more people would enter. Employers and spouses are much more likely to go along with a long weekend than a whole week off.

 

[maxeypad2007]

Also one other thing.

Its hard for a lot of us to get off work so if you started the tournament on like a friday afternoon and ran it over the weekend that would be great.

 

[selftaut]

Mark , first off thank you for everything you do for our sport, I know you do more than people really know.

I am saddened that you took a bath on this event. And hopefully it won't discourage you in sponsoring future events. I was not able to attend but really would have liked to been there.

OK here is my take on what happened and what possibly can be done to turn the event around.

I think the promotion didn't target the audience/players you were specifically after. It appeared the promotion was intended to blanket an audience, which I believe caused confusion. The US Open events should have had seperate promotion headline titled "US Open". Seperately for the league players there should have been promotion titled "BCA East" or something to that effect. Each promotion specifically intended to target a certain audience. Titling the event Qlympics in my opinion was a mistake as it didn't comand direct attention, just curiousity. Then the webpage was really confusing as to what were the details of the events (until it got fixed).

My next thoughts are similar to all above. The dates , the length, the location etc..etc..all those things put together spelled disaster for an event this large and this ambitious. I think if you had to keep the location and keep similar dates for the event then I believe you have to re-think exactly who would play in the event and tailor the event around those players that you know will surely come to play. That being said, if you wanted to keep the event around the same time and same venue then IMO your event may be more suited to attracting barbox and road players. Maybe bring in just 7' Smart Tables and focus on a great barbox event that can be run in 5 days.

How about something like mingling an Open with a BCAPL event running side by side, event #1:

US Open Barbox All-Around Championships
Open to ALL players!
1st set 8 Ball race to 5
2nd set 10 Ball race to 5
3rd set 9 Ball race to 5
Winner of any 2 sets wins the match
Double Elimination
$75 entry fee
Field Limited to 128 players
Finals 1 Match Races Extended to 7

then running at the same time, event #2:

BCAPL Barbox All-Around Championships
Open to BCAPL league members only!
1st set 8 Ball race to 5
2nd set 10 Ball race to 5
3rd set 9 Ball race to 5
Winner of any 2 sets wins the match
Double Elimination
$35 entry fee
Field Limited to 128 players
Finals 1 Match Races Extended to 7

and then maybe some other smaller BCAPL events can be mixed in there depending on time frame and number of tables.

Ok enough babbling from me, just throwing some thoughts out there.

Kev
14and1.com