WPBA Regionals change...looks good to me

[CrisDeLaGarza]

I guess this will put an end to Foreign pro players getting into WPBA by snapping off few qualifiers here and there. It looks like they have to play majority of 1 Regional Tour for a year and accrue high enough points to be considered top 8 to get a shot at RTC...

S.

That brings up another point...I've always thought that players like XTP who were already professional players in other countries should have an alternate way of earning their way on the WPBA Classic Tour. I think the diversity of countries represented in the WPBA is a great thing so I'm all for foreign players earning their way on the tour, I just think there should be an alternate way if they are already recognized as a professional player in another country...but perhaps that opens up an entire new argument of how you determine what a "professional" player is.

 

[BrooklynJay]

does anyone else think the changes were made due to the fact that they have, um, only 5 events this year? with all the exempt players they have they just didn't have enough spots to give away to the regional tours facilitating the change.

isn't that the real problem? 5 events? is it a tour with 5 events? it's that really enough matches to determine the #1 player?

 

[shayla]

does anyone else think the changes were made due to the fact that they have, um, only 5 events this year? with all the exempt players they have they just didn't have enough spots to give away to the regional tours facilitating the change.

isn't that the real problem? 5 events? is it a tour with 5 events?

I wouldn't doubt if that is what started the whole thing.

it's that really enough matches to determine the #1 player?

Touche! :thumbup:

 

[cuechick]

One thing I would hope the WPBA will consider for next year's RTC is making it centrally located. Having the RTC on the extreme east coast or west coast really hinders people's ability to attend. The WPBA needs to look at the roster for the RTC events in Washington and Florida and count how many women from that part of the country were in attendance at each one. Having the RTC at the Parlor in Seattle was awesome, but there were a lot of local women in attendance. Please consider a centrally located venue for 2010.

Note: From what I've heard from my peers about this new change, my opinion seems to be in the minority.

Very good point. It also would help if it is near a major airport. When they held the Amateur Nationals at MaGoos, I could never find an airfare under $500! So, I really hope that keep this in mind too.

 

[Johnnyt]

That brings up another point...I've always thought that players like XTP who were already professional players in other countries should have an alternate way of earning their way on the WPBA Classic Tour. I think the diversity of countries represented in the WPBA is a great thing so I'm all for foreign players earning their way on the tour, I just think there should be an alternate way if they are already recognized as a professional player in another country...but perhaps that opens up an entire new argument of how you determine what a "professional" player is.

I agree and have been saying this for years. Most of the out of country players that have to win regionals to play on the WPBA tour are or were champions in their country before coming over here. 12 of the top 20 on the WPBA tour last year were from out of country and won almost every regional they entered to get there. They should either be invities that must stay in the top 20 or so, or have to go to regionals or their country needs to have it's own qualifiers. Just look at the Fl Spirit tour. In five years I don't think a non-pro has won three stops. And most of the pros that won were champions from other countries. Johnnyt

 

[sjm]

does anyone else think the changes were made due to the fact that they have, um, only 5 events this year? with all the exempt players they have they just didn't have enough spots to give away to the regional tours facilitating the change.

isn't that the real problem? 5 events? is it a tour with 5 events? it's that really enough matches to determine the #1 player?

Yes, that's the issue. The WPBA press release includes this sentence:

Or, as we are experiencing in 2009, the number of available qualifiers has been severely diminished because there are more Exempt Pros guaranteed entry into each Classic Tour event, plus there are simply less events due to the economy.

 

[shayla]

Very good point. It also would help if it is near a major airport. When they held the Amateur Nationals at MaGoos, I could never find an airfare under $500! So, I really hope that keep this in mind too.

Weird! Tulsa is an international airport, so I would think going from one international airport to another would be much cheaper. I can get to Tulsa from Austin on Southwest for about $250 RT and Austin's airport is tiny in comparison.

 

[srs314]

Just my take!

The WPBA had to make a change because the current system would be out grown very soon with less events and more interested new regional tours. In my opinion the changes they are making will be good for the tour.

I understand the point that it is just one event at the end to get in and their definately is a luck factor. For example the World Pool Association even request that the national governing bodies qualify players for the World Championships by using points over multiple events for the same reason I believe.

This is an idea I've had in the past to solve this.

You could take the top 8 in every tour and award each place a number of points going into the RTC. So like 80 for first, 70 for second...

Next there are points for how you place in the RTC which you would add to the points earned by the placing on their own regional tour.

From there you would get some of your 8 people to go to the WPBA maybe 2-3. The rest would be from how they place just in the RTC.

I feel those players that have dominated their own tours are given a better chance to get in and not be left behind due to one bad tournament.

Also this would be incentive to finish at the top of your own tour and attend all the events.

Like Christina mentioned the differences in the numbers on each tour are an issue. However you could give larger tours more spots in the RTC based on membership numbers for that tour.

Anyway lots to think about but looks like the WPBA is being very proactive in solving a problem before it becomes a real big issue.

Just some ideas from a guy that thinks he knows stuff.... lol

 

[CrisDeLaGarza]

I guess this will put an end to Foreign pro players getting into WPBA by snapping off few qualifiers here and there. It looks like they have to play majority of 1 Regional Tour for a year and accrue high enough points to be considered top 8 to get a shot at RTC...

S.

I actually think this might make it harder for the pros in other countries to qualify now. Rather than being able to come over here and win a few qualifiers and place in a few WPBA events, they will now have to play on a tour for an entire year (which could mean 5-8 stops they have to play in)then place high at the RTC.

I know that they can form regional tours in other countries but that will mean they will have to rely on someone forming a tour over there near where they live or forming one themselves...creating an entire tour is a big committment and takes time to get started. But hopefully there is enough interest internationally that this will actually grow the WPBA.

Like I've said though, I know the WPBA has the best interest of the players in mind and wants the organization & tour to grow so I'm confident that they will come up with a very well thought out plan to execute these changes.

 

[akaTrigger]

just food for thought (and note that I have not decided if this is something that I have a strong opinion on or not), but in essence, you are basing a full year's worth of play on the pro tour on one tournament. it is extremely easy to get into the top eight of a regional tour - this can be accomplished by just showing up pretty much. so, then you get invited to the regional tour championships and you have one shot to get into the top eight (bad draw, sick, anything can happen - everyone has had bad days) - with 64 players which is what they have been having, for higher caliber players, not much of an issue, but again, anything can happen. but, you throw "x" number of new regional tours into the mix and that number goes up.

so, as a woman regional player, do you still feel the same?

I don't think it's as easy as showing up - last year we had 6 players show up to every stop that didn't make the top ten.

But I agree having one event determine if you make it or not in the WPBA puts a lot on the line. In addition, unforeseen events can hurt what one has been trying to get to all year.

I think it's an interesting alternative to solving some problems tho. At least the WPBA is coming up with solutions, which I applaud.

 

[akaTrigger]

I actually think this might make it harder for the pros in other countries to qualify now. Rather than being able to come over here and win a few qualifiers and place in a few WPBA events, they will now have to play on a tour for an entire year (which could mean 5-8 stops they have to play in)then place high at the RTC.

I know that they can form regional tours in other countries but that will mean they will have to rely on someone forming a tour over there near where they live or forming one themselves...creating an entire tour is a big committment and takes time to get started. But hopefully there is enough interest internationally that this will actually grow the WPBA.

I agree - it will be more difficult for them to get qualified. It's not easy to start a tour and if they are starting one just to get qualified then.... I dunno.

 

[9balllvr]

I don't think it's as easy as showing up - last year we had 6 players show up to every stop that didn't make the top ten.

this may be true for the OB1 Tour, but when you have regional tours that bring in max 20-25 players per event versus the norm on the OB1, it does not take much to get into the top eight. if you can make a few balls, you are on your way. the OB1 Tour is unique in that it does draw large fields, but here on the east coast (minus maybe the Ladies Spirit Tour because they allow pros to play), the norm is not usually more than 20 women at any given event and worse yet, new tours bring 10-15 players max for several years before growing regardless of what they do to get it going.

 

[sunnyday]

After thinking about it for few days, I like the overall concept of this change. In the long run, in my opinion, it will increase the number of participants every where, if there are more Regional Tours. Now it gives less skilled level players to mingle and compete against more skilled girls to learn and build commodore from. Vice when it was "Qualifiers", less skilled or beginners often shied away from. This gives all lady players to have "be longness" and a tour of their won to thrive from.

I used to play in Great Lakes Tour (it died from ever decreasing number of participation) - when it was a regional tour. It began with many players but it started to dwindle down to 20 girls or so, who were die hard to qualify...Girls who weren't interested to qualify didn't show up driving miles and spending hotel bills. Just because number was small doesn't mean talents weren't there. It was just more concentrated

I hope to see these Regional Tours flourish and give more young ladies an opportunity and stage to compete and horn their skills from even if they don't have their sight set on winning the qualifying spot.

Good luck to WPBA.

S.

 

[Mowem down]

Really a good idea...

Just last week I was talking to my buddy Mr. Madden about the state of billiards and was saying the foundation is there ( men and women ) sombody just needs to put it together. The IPT had the right formula and this is right along the same path...

2 things I would say are; 1. Pool is a perfect game ( because there can be some ROLLS in any given match ) to have round-robin turneys. 2. For some insite on how qualifing for somthing works, Golf and Q-school are a good example....

1 other thing you might want to consider, Giving a spot to the women that takes first place in a national league event. Right know I think the only 1 worthy would be the winner of the BCA masters. But by doing that it puts another ave. out there for a player, could spark some participation and other major leagues to put together more womens events.....

Anyway, good luck with this plan, its a step in the right direction...

 

[maldito]

Would not be surprised to see a WPBA regional tour started up somewhere in Northern Europe.

 

[Melissa Herndon]

Would not be surprised to see a WPBA regional tour started up somewhere in Northern Europe.

We sure hope so. That is one of the benefits of the new system. There can be regional tours started in Europe, South America, Asia....those players will no longer have to spend thousands of dollars to travel to the states for single qualifiers.

Melissa

 

[Johnnyt]

Another thing that should be addressed is the cost to the regional players to attend an event. Even some of the regular exempt players are having a very hard time coming up with the money to go to the events. I use to see a few turn down the chance to play in a WPBA event, but now it seems like more turn it down than ever before. They just can't can afford to go. I have no idea how to overcome this but it looks to me like it is a problem that keeps getting bigger each month.

The only thing I could come up with is have all the WPBA events in a central part of the nation and very close to an International Airport. Maybe buy, rent, or some nice person has a building they can let the WPBA use and take a tax right off? Tables could be left there all set up and ready to play when uncovered. Even if the purses were lowered a bit, and have more touraments a year, I'm not sure sponsers would be available for this kind of thing. If the TV ratings would come up a bit that might be the answer for sponsers. Johnnyt

 

[Rich R.]

does anyone else think the changes were made due to the fact that they have, um, only 5 events this year? with all the exempt players they have they just didn't have enough spots to give away to the regional tours facilitating the change.

isn't that the real problem? 5 events? is it a tour with 5 events? it's that really enough matches to determine the #1 player?

Jay, I think you make a good point about there not being enough spots to give away.

Looking at things from a slightly different angle, could it be that there are just too many exempt players?

From what I have seen on the regional level, players earn entry into the WPBA Classic events and win a couple of matches. Before you know it they have their exempt status. From that point on, they stop playing in the regional events. In time, the quality of their play drops, from the lack of regular competition and they never win more than one or two matches in any Classic event.

I think this weakens the regional events and room owners are less likely to hold tournaments because they are not drawing the numbers or the talent they had before.

Maybe it would be a good idea to have less exempt players, forcing players to go back to the regional tours to qualify, making both the players and the regional tours stronger. Every organization needs a stong foundation and the regional tours are the foundation of the WPBA. The WPBA would be wise to do whatever they can to support the regional tours.

 

[Rich R.]

One of the WPBA's new ideas this year is a series of smaller events, held in pool rooms, open to any and all female players (but with Exempt players having priority registration). This new series of tournaments will be called the Satellite Tour...and we are discussing with our membership the idea of playing different disciplines.

Melissa, IIRC, the idea of having non-Classic WPBA events was discussed on one of the other forums a couple of years ago. I guess no one at the WPBA was paying attention at that time.

Everyone agreed that the WPBA needed more events and that not all events had to be in large arenas or televised. We all agreed that putting good quality pool back into the pool rooms would create more interest in the sport. Of course, these events would also have to have smaller prize funds. However, these tournaments would be more accessible to the average fan. I know they would go well in my area.

I also like the idea of playing different disciplines. Speaking for myself, I would love to see the ladies play 14-1 or 8 ball.

BTW, in these days of streaming video, it shouldn't be too difficult to get good event coverage on the internet for these smaller events.