A few words about a few things mentioned on this thread.
Number one to the guy who thinks that running a professional pool tournament is just writing names on a board and calling them off, I say "Have at it!" I'm sure that you can do my job for much less than me. As to whether the players, the fans, the room owner, etc. etc. will be happy with your work, that remains to be seen. I will say this, the work doing the board is the easy part. I take pride in my work and pay close attention to everything involved in running the tournament. And there's a lot more to it than you can imagine.
A few things to consider. You are dealing with 64 players (or more) with different wants and needs. Some of these guys are great and some can be a big headache. BUT, you have to deal with all of them, like it or not. You may be in charge of setting up the playing arena (like I was in Phoenix). How that looks depends upon your expertise, and what you have to work with. You may have to figure out how to control the gate and how much to charge (yes on both counts here). Spectators and fans will be asking you a million (and I'm not exaggerating) questions about the tournament. You must be patient and do your best to answer them all. Heaven forbid you piss someone off.
And there's more. Who gets a pass? Do you know, and how do you handle the pass situation? What about the rules? Can you explain them to the satisfaction of all the players during the players meeting? Now comes the hard part, you have to go out on the floor and make calls in all kinds on odd situations, not just good hits or bad hits. What do you do if the player knocks a piece of chalk off the rail and it hits an object ball hanging in the pocket and it drops? Don't laugh, it's happened! Could you handle that to the satisfaction of both players?
Oh, and what about the scheduling of matches, how long each round should be and how late to play each night. I guess you have that all wired too. One hint, it's different depending on how many tables you have and how many days the tourney lasts. But you knew that already, didn't you. There's more too, like crowd control and appeasing the fire marshals. But I won't bore you with the trivial stuff.
That brings us to number two. How did I let this tournament go on without knowing the money was good? Actually I was quite hesitant when I arrived on the Tuesday before the tournament began and sat in on a meeting with the hotel people. I knew then that this promoter had not done his homework. It was a close call whether to stay or leave that day. If Kolby's hadn't come through, I would have taken the next plane out. And I made that clear to Chuck.
The second issue was about the purse. I demanded a full accounting of his finances, which he grudgingly gave me. I told him I wouldn't start the tournament until I knew the money was good. He took me by his business and I could see he had a fairly substantial operation. I still insisted on seeing bank statements, which he ultimately produced the day of the event. And there was nearly enough money to cover the entire prize fund. But he told me that he had player entry fees in cash on hand. Plus we knew the gate would add more money to his coffers. I also felt an obligation to the players who had traveled great distances to play. So I did my best to see that they had a tournament to play in.
And now we are where we are at today. The top five players (plus me) remain unpaid. Chuck did answer my call early this morning. "Hello Buddy" he said. I wanted to gag. I let him know in no uncertain terms how displeased I was with the state of things and how he had misled me. He DID lie to me more than once. He said once again he was sorry and he would make it right. Naturally I asked him how. He told me a deal was pending for his eight Diamond pool tables with Mark Griffin. And he went on to add that someone may be buying his business for cash. I told him that writing bad checks was a felony in Arizona, and I had talked with the Maricopa County Check Enforcement division (all true). I wanted that on the table. Then I told him that Mark and I had been friends for many years and I was going to call him next, and I did.
So I called Mark who was up to his ears in preparation for the BCA Nationals. I told him about my conversation with Chuck and he confirmed that they had spoken. But he said they were far from any deal, and a lot depended on the man who owns Alexanders where the tables are currently residing. Even if they are sold, the money will not be enough to cover everyone's bad checks. So that's where things remain today, UNRESOLVED!
I will keep you updated as to any progress that happens. I'm planning a trip back to Phoenix the week after the BCA event is over.
![156455394_689310700_440feb25a0ad7cd9224555548d239eddc712739f[1].jpg](/data/attachments/46/46302-eb42ed7bd6b3e701b1ac8b5cdbf26bd6.jpg?hash=60Lte9az5w)