As a pool fan, player, frequent internet user and Maryland resident, I can honestly say I have never heard of breaknnrun.com before this thread. I think announcing your tournament there is almost like whispering to your sister in the corner of the dining room. I doubt that many people new about it beyond a small group that may follow that web site. It certainly isn't the end all and be all of pool tournament listings in Md.
I went to the web site and it seemed to only include a few bar table events in less than a handful of rooms. You can't expect every pool player in the state to frequent a site with such limited content.
This is not a knock on the people involved in the web site. They are trying to establish something good and it will take time to grow. If they are targeting the bar table players, that is fine but don't expect to reach the entire pool community. If they want to address the entire pool community, they have to pursue complete listings from as many poolrooms as possible.
If you are serious about your tournament, you should have announced it to a wider audience, here on AZ and on as many other forums as possible. Until you do that, there will be conflicts and you will make some people angry.
In the end, I don't think, for the most part, your bar box tournament and the Md 14-1 tournament will draw the same group of players. Yes, there may be a couple of players wanting to play in both and, unfortunately, they will have to make a choice. However, it is better that players have choices rather than no tournaments at all.
Rich, you summed it up nicely by stating that the attendees for each event would not overlap anyway.
I know the creator of
www.breaknnrun.com, and of course I know the owners of Big Daddy's.
I don't think the issue was ever one of advertising on a well-established website or having more flyers etc., it was basically one owner feeling slighted by another, and having the disagreement made public on the forums.
Knowing what little I do of The Green Room, I have learned that they are very limited with dates they can choose for tournaments like these. They are a full-blown APA house so their dance card is filled, you can count on that.
On the other side, Big Daddy's feels that the third Saturday of every month should be used for their monthly tournaments, and, in the spirit of teamwork (as much as you can have in business anyway), the rooms should work together to coordinate schedules.
Whether this is a realistic expectation is between the owners to discuss.
I think this is a classic case of the Internet doing more harm than good when a simple offline discussion could have avoided most of the vitriol.
You will note I am reserving some of my opinions online. I know Rick and Cindy, and I have become acquainted with the owners of The Green Room. They are ALL nice people and are trying to make a buck whilst giving us pool-playing savages all the pool we can handle.
Whether or not rooms could or should work together to coordinate tournament schedules is a matter for them to resolve OFFLINE, in my opinion.
Of course, I am well aware of other rooms that schedule their events regardless of what others are doing. They are perfectly within their rights to do so. Some rooms have a lot more to offer than others (kitchen, bar, karaoke, darts, poker etc.) and could care less what others are doing, and they already have a well-established and loyal customer-base anyway.
Similarly, some regional tours have to schedule events on top on local events simply because the work and the semantics involved with coordinating a well-scheduled regional tour, is, in my opinion, that much more difficult.
I am neither a business owner nor have I ever been involved with coordinating a tour of any kind. I am simply saying all of this based on my observations over two decades of playing in various events at various locations.
Loye Boleyard is trying very hard to have his new website,
www.breaknnrun, become a local force in the pool world. It has not been easy, and like Ozzy Reynolds, he is also a family-man with a full-time job.
But again, this conflict in this particular thread has nothing to do with the popularity of his website. One could argue that the Professor Cue Ball magazine is equally as unpopular.
Anyway, I think I made my point somewhere in there. I do believe both rooms have worked it out and in the end, it is all good for us players.
Sometimes having choices may blind us from the drama behind the scenes.
Thanks.
Curtis.
