Why Europe gets more slots than the USA

Roy Steffensen said:
EPBF is hosting the tournament, and I guess IBP is running it for them.

Perhaps I miscalculated the entryfee, maybe it is more around 160 $ per player per dicipline. (Think it is about 120 Euro).

Just in the mens divisions (8-ball, 9-ball and 14-1) 128 players will compete in each dicipline. That means 60 000 $ in entryfee just in the mens tournaments...

The tournament attracts sponsors too, and the tables are provided by Olympic I think, so no costs for EPBF regarding the tables.

Oh, Mr. European Poolplayers! I've got a tournament here in Pool's Paradise. We've got real nice trophies, we'll put your pictures on a full major newspaper page, live TV coverage of the finals match ..........See? I can give you guys more bang for the bucks! My exploitation won't be as bad.:D
 
bandido said:
Oh, Mr. European Poolplayers! I've got a tournament here in Pool's Paradise. We've got real nice trophies, we'll put your pictures on a full major newspaper page, live TV coverage of the finals match ..........See? I can give you guys more bang for the bucks! My exploitation won't be as bad.:D

Don't forget to offer the wet, sweaty handshake!!! :thumbup:
 
Lmao @ you guys :) lol

Does the live TV finals include having to go through all that stage make-up malarky as well :p :D lol

Willie
 
JAM said:
If the Billiard Congress of America is going to represent "Canada," then they should represent Central and South Americas too.

JAM

I wish.......but it is unlikely....

Some info:

Central, South America and the "Caribbean" are represented by the CPB, doing business as the "Confederacion Panamericana de Billar" which translated goes something like this "Panamerican Billiards Confederation or Panamerican Confederation of Billiards." However, it is just easier to use CPB when naming the Regional Representative for Central and South America. The WPA website lists the CPB as "Confederation Panamerica of Billiards" which is not a true translation but fits the purpose of matching the "CPB" lettering.

CPB covers all countries from Mexico all the way down to Argentina and all Caribbean Nations; however, there is a new organization in the Caribbean named "Caribbean Billiards Union" not affiliated with the WPA at this time.

CBU consists of Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, St Kitts & Nevis, and Jamaica. We are trying to gather other Caribbean Nations to join the organization but some countries have not organized a pool or billiard Federation. Not an easy task either. See Caribbean Map below:

MapaCaribe.gif

Aruba, Curacao, Bonaire, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Trinidad & Tobago are current members of the CPB. Dual memberships allowed by CBU but not particularly by the CPB.

CPB gets only 5 spots to the World Pool Championships for 21 countries; therefore a qualifier is needed to earn a spot to the WPC. (By way of the Pan-American 9 Ball Championships for Men). Lesser spots are provided for Women and Juniors.

Burden of this all:

Some players earn their spots in the Pan-Am Champ's but their Federation most of the time does not have adequate funds to cover the expenses of travel, lodging and food for the players, so sometimes we have to opt to convey the spots earned to other countries with the means ($$$) or return the spots to the WPA for reassignment (wild cards) to other World-Class players.
 
  • Like
Reactions: JAM
TheWizard said:
Lmao @ you guys :) lol

Does the live TV finals include having to go through all that stage make-up malarky as well :p :D lol

Willie
For US$160 each!!! You can get the make-up and get escorted by the make-up girl to your chair at the finals table. Hard to beat that deal!
 
supergreenman said:
I thought this would be of interest.

This is an old chart. Some realignments have been made. Puerto Rico and Mexico are now under the CPB (South America).

CPB countries will be posted later....
 
Last edited:
bandido said:
For US$160 each!!! You can get the make-up and get escorted by the make-up girl to your chair at the finals table. Hard to beat that deal!

Hold the make-up, having the make up girl to escort me to the chair would be good enough for me :) lol, does that get me a little discount? :p :D lol

Willie
 
juegabillar said:
....players earn their spots in the Pan-Am Champ's but their Federation most of the time does not have adequate funds to cover the expenses of travel, lodging and food for the players, so sometimes we have to opt to convey the spots earned to other countries with the means ($$$) or return the spots to the WPA for reassignment (wild cards) to other World-Class players.

Thanks for the EXCELLENT explanation. I truly never understood the breakdown of countries until this thread. So this has been very informative.

Personally, it doesn't seem fair that the organization representing Central America, South America, and the Caribbean doesn't have more spots being used at the WPA events.

Am I to understand that the authoritative organizational entity must pay the WPA a yearly amount of some sort to be "recognized" as a full-blooded member organization in good standing?

I also think Canada should get their own organization, as opposed to having their Canadian organization send all their paperwork and other data to the BCA. Otherwise, it should be called the Billiard Congress of America and Canada if it is representing Canada and not the other Americas, to include the Caribbean.

JAM
 
JAM said:
Am I to understand that the authoritative organizational entity must pay the WPA a yearly amount of some sort to be "recognized" as a full-blooded member organization in good standing?

JAM

Yes, each CPB member country pays an annual membership fee to the CPB which in turn pays an annual fee to the WPA, as well as to other World Governing Bodies (Snooker & Caroom).
 
juegabillar said:
Yes, each CPB member country pays an annual membership fee to the CPB which in turn pays an annual fee to the WPA, as well as to other World Governing Bodies (Snooker & Carom).
Yes, but my understanding is that the CPB, perhaps because pocket billiards in South America is not the major game, has a lower membership fee to the WPA than the EPBF, the BCA and the APBU. The three "big" members pay $10,000 per year, while the members from the other regions pay $3500 per year. For the details, see http://www.wpa-pool.com/pdf/wpa_constitution.pdf
 
Bob Jewett said:
Yes, but my understanding is that the CPB, perhaps because pocket billiards in South America is not the major game, has a lower membership fee to the WPA than the EPBF, the BCA and the APBU. The three "big" members pay $10,000 per year, while the members from the other regions pay $3500 per year. For the details, see http://www.wpa-pool.com/pdf/wpa_constitution.pdf

If the three "big" members pay the same amount, $10,000, why is the BCA only afforded 14 spots and the European "big" member gets over 30 spots?

JAM
 
JAM said:
If the three "big" members pay the same amount, $10,000, why is the BCA only afforded 14 spots and the European "big" member gets over 30 spots?

JAM
Because there are more countries in Europe? But in the past, the BCA hasn't even been able to fund sending its 10 players to the WPC and I think those spots have sometimes gone unclaimed. I think the EPBF manages to fill its spots.

I think a better question is whether North America should be a "big" member.
 
Bob Jewett said:
Because there are more countries in Europe? But in the past, the BCA hasn't even been able to fund sending its 10 players to the WPC and I think those spots have sometimes gone unclaimed. I think the EPBF manages to fill its spots.

I think a better question is whether North America should be a "big" member.

I am a newcomer to learning how the BCA operates.

My understanding of the past 7 or so years is that the only Americans who are eligible to compete in the WPC, as an example, were the hand-picked players of the UPA. I know they are supposed to be ranked, but the UPA did not adhere to their ranking system.

I know of several players who were ranked HIGH on the UPA ranking scale, but did not get selected to compete in the WPC in Cardiff one year. Teddy Garrihan was selected to compete in Cardiff, representing the USA, and he was not that high on the UPA ranking list. There were other UPA members who were ranked higher than Teddy. The UPA did not ask the higher ranked players to go.

So, today, who picks the American players to go to WPC? BCA? UPA? Matchroom Sports?

I think that it is not fair for Europe to have over 30 players getting to compete in the WPC.

One of those countries in Europe isn't as big as the size of Florida, and Florida most likely does have more pro players than that one itty bitty European country, as one example.

How many pro players does Hungary have or Spain, France, and Italy?

How many players does Ohio have or California, New York, and Arizona?

JAM
 
Bob Jewett said:
Yes, but my understanding is that the CPB, perhaps because pocket billiards in South America is not the major game, has a lower membership fee to the WPA than the EPBF, the BCA and the APBU. The three "big" members pay $10,000 per year, while the members from the other regions pay $3500 per year. For the details, see http://www.wpa-pool.com/pdf/wpa_constitution.pdf

CPB has "half-membership" thus also having half the power, half the vote, half representation, etc. Nothing to do with pocket billiards not being a major game (which is not true).
 
USA can barely fill the 10 spots allocated every year, I think they don't like balut that much :)

Also EPBF is pretty close to WPA :) :) :)
 
Last edited:
14.1player said:
USA can barely fill the 10 spots allocated every year, I think they don't like balut that much :)

I guarantee you if they had it on American soil, the USA could fill the 10 spots easy. The whole world seems to enjoy Coca-Cola and McDonald's hamburgers. We got 'em on every corner in the major cities, and by gosh, these American companies seem to be around the world in every major city today as well. What do you know!

14.1player said:
Also EPBF is pretty close to WPA :) :) :)

There was a time when that statement would bother me, but today, frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn anymore.

Let the EPBF and the WPA have their cake and eat it too. They sleep together; they might as well eat together. :outtahere:

JAM
 
TheWizard said:
... if the BCA can get the use of a casino for a week and have 200 or so tables, then there's no reason why the WPC couldn't be set up to have a larger venue with around 32 tables, with the number of tables being reduced as the tournament goes along.

This is one of the blessings that many take for granted and that we must all be thankful for. We have been blessed with a land of 'plenty', plenty of choices and space. BCA is able to hold such a large event because of the availability of space. WPC on the other hand (and since its inception) have been held in places where space is a premium. Having an event as large as the BCA takes more than just increasing the number of tables. It will be a logistical nightmare if the WPC organizers will take the WPC to the volume of BCA. BCA can do what it does thanks partly to sin city - where the place provides many choices as venue and both player and spectator accommodation. There are not many places in the world (perhaps the only one in the world) like LV. Besides, I don't think there are thousands of 'professional' pool players who will be willing to travel the globe for the WPC with today's high cost of travel. Even if there is, I'd say the best place to do it is still Las Vegas.

I would love to see the WPC hop around different cities in the world. Wouldn't it be a great pool fest if it can be put back-to-back with the BCA perhaps at the Sand's Convention Center? While at it, might as well throw in the BCA Expo. Even better, the winner of the BCA singles events automatically qualify for the WPC. Now, that's pool heaven. :wink:
 
Back
Top