AzHousePro said:
Mike, even if in the Philippines it looks like pool is in a bad shape, locally, it is actually healthier. The WTB made it look bad because of the over-eagerness either to earn from it or to jump on the competition. The posts since early this year about Philippine pool politics also made it look bad. But the offshoot is more local competitions than ever in a year's time, and that is a good bottom line.
It is healthier to have competition among promoters, as long as there is a fair playing field. Competition has a semblance to conviction, regardless of the goal being money or development of the sport.
In the Philippines, there is one factor that should be an example to everybody - the unity of players. Two factions are better than apathy among a single group of "constituents". Movement follows as the promoters are selling one group, making it easy to string up tournaments.
It will not sink in well to some of the folks here, but standing up for what is right is another example displayed by the Filipinos. It would be tiring to delve on all the issues again, but the bottom line is that the WPA structure has no capacity to contain issues regarding the fairness of how the country representatives run things under the WPA banner. Getting WPA to involve itself with really helping in promoting pool is non-existent in terms of exposure to risks. Hence, they will never touch TV negotiations with their current set-up.
WPA has a figure leadership, and it can exist for the sport as Royalty exists in the UK. But we all cannot count on the WPA when it comes to the nitty-gritty of the realities in the pool world. If you want to come up with a tournament and you want them to sanction it for what sanctioning is worth, then create the package and then if they will like it, their nod of approval will cost you sanction fees. But underneath all that, we all have to solve our own problems.
Now it is up to us whether we want to rectify things if we see that the WPA set-up is not right. This is where Doug has my admiration. As a promoter, he is practically a single voice in Europe that risks a counter strike from the WPA. What he may gain is far more important than the snags that he may encounter in trying to correct the situation. If we listen to him, we will easily identify where the WPA is more limiting than enhancing. I get e-mails from other European organizers who have no choice but to adhere to WPA because they do not have the leverage, and it is understandable. Well but neither has Doug.
The real problem with pool is that there is no unity among players and that the leadership and most all of the people are merely fence sitters when it comes to solving the problems in pool. Everybody seems to know what to do but there is no show of hands when there is risk concerned. If one will not risk his reputation for what is right like Doug does, then we will truly leave the players exactly where they are now.
The three people wanting to save professional pool in the USA will be controversial, because saving professional pool will mean veering away from the Royalty in pool. Professional pool should know no limits in its re-birth. Promoters and players will automatically seek sanctions and rules and other guidelines when the time is right. Our current template is very outdated.
