WPBA Regionals change...looks good to me

Johnnyt

Johnnyt

Burn all jump cues
Silver Member
To: WPBA Regional Tour Directors

From: WPBA Board of Directors – Regional Tour Committee

Re: New Business Model for Regional Tours for 2010 and beyond

In 2008, the WPBA was contacted by several persons wanting to open Regional Tours in their area. As growth and expansion is one of the main goals of the WPBA, we are thrilled about the possibility of new Regional Tours across the US. However, our enthusiasm is slightly dampened because we realize that it would be nearly impossible to add new tours because of the current business model that we are operating under.

Last year, there were 10 Regional Tours (RTs) and qualifying spots were only available for 5 WPBA events. There were 9 spots per event….for a total of 45 spots that had to be divided among 10 tours. That would allow each RT to receive 4.5 spots. Fortunately, there are a few tours who only book one or two for the year, which allows other tours to have more than their allotted 4-5.

However, looking at adding a potential 5-6 more RTs would be implausible operating under these same parameters. Imagine having to divide 45 spots between 15 tours. Now each tour would only get 3 for the year. 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.

Because the WPBA is committed to the growth of its organization, we will be implementing some changes to the Regional Tour system. Effective in 2010, we will no longer be offering qualifier events for Classic Tour events, nor will the year-end point’s winner from the previous year be guaranteed a spot into the WPBA Tour for the following year. Instead, the top players of each Regional Tour will be invited to play in the Regional Tour Championships….and top 8 finishers[1] from the RTC event will earn their spots for the following WPBA season.

This new business model solves several problems:

Allows for an unlimited number of Regional Tours across the US
Allows for the creation of International Regional Tours
RTs will no longer have to fight for a limited amount of qualifier spots
RTs will be able to book more events/venues because the $500 qualifier spot will no longer be an issue. If an RT operator can find rooms that will add $200, but not $500 or $1000…they will be able to include that room in their tour now.
The new systems allows for the “cream of the crop” to rise. The top RT players will be competing against each other for the 8 spots, which gives the best players the fairest chance at earning their Exempt status.
While the no-qualifier policy will not take effect until 2010, we are planning to change the format of the next RTC event to the new format where 8 players will earn their exemption instead of 1 player. The winner of the event will still earn paid entries into all the Classic Tour events (minus the US Open)…so there is incentive to try and win the RTC itself.

For the remainder of 2009, RTs will be allowed to book qualifiers for 2009 events….but not for any 2010 events. (State Championships are the only exception to the qualifier rule. If you want to hold a State Championship, that tournament can still be a qualifier to a WPBA US Open.)

It is important that this information be passed on to your players so that they are aware of the importance of participation versus winning a q-spot. If a players goal is to become a professional in the WPBA, their focus should now be on finishing high in the year-to-date rankings so that they qualify to compete in the RTC.

More detailed information will be coming soon in a new Regional Tour Handbook.

Thank you,

WPBA Board of Directors – Regional Tour Committee



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[1]This number could be increased, but 8 is the minimum amount of players that will earn their 1-yr exemption into the WPBA Classic Tour each year.
 
Yes. This looks like a much more efficient way of handling regional qualifying. Nice to know someone in the pool world has their head screwed on straight. :)
 
These are very logical changes in view of the times. Those with pro aspirations still get their shot, and strong regional amateurs will retain a vehicle by which thy can compete and develop their games.

High marks for the WPBA here.
 
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?
 
9balllvr said:
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?
Click to expand...

Good post, and no doubt, the new system may be slighlty inferior by allowing a slightly bigger luck factor tied specifically to one's draw in the RTC. Part of this issue can be eliminated by having seeding at the RTC.

I would support seeding at the RTC based on one's final ranking on their regional tour. Let the point race winners play their opening matches against players that finshed eighth on their regional tour, second place finshers play seventh place finishers, etc. That will give those who perform exceptionally on the regional tours a big advantage, one they will have earned through their play in their regional tour events. It will also keep aspiring pros hungry to win or finish high in the point races on their respective regional tours, and would discourage non-participation by those already assured of a top eight finish on their tour.

OK, that's enough random babbling for now.
 
sjm said:
Good post, and no doubt, the new system may be slighlty inferior by allowing a slightly bigger luck factor tied specifically to one's draw in the RTC. Part of this issue can be eliminated by having seeding at the RTC.

I would support seeding at the RTC based on one's final ranking on their regional tour. Let the point race winners play their opening matches against players that finshed eighth on their regional tour, second place finshers play seventh place finishers, etc. That will give those who perform exceptionally on the regional tours a big advantage, one they will have earned through their play in their regional tour events. It will also keep aspiring pros hungry to win or finish high in the point races on their respective regional tours, and would discourage non-participation by those already assured of a top eight finish on their tour.

OK, that's enough random babbling for now.
Click to expand...
I am not always a huge fan of seeding in tournaments, but you spelled out some pretty compelling reasons why it might be a good idea to do it here.
 
As we were comtemplating this model, we definitely considered the fact that one tournament would be deciding as aspiring player's fate for the entire year. With that in mind, we are considering a couple different options for the year-end event....but a front-runner in my mind would be a round robin format. Using a round robin...players play more matches, so the best player should be able to overcome a single bad match or bad series of rolls...which might eliminate them in a regular double or single elimination tournament.

Also, we currently "seed" players in the RTCs...trying to make sure that players don't draw another player from the same RT in the first round (like an AWT player doesn't get another AWT first)....and I am confident that we will continue to seed in some manner or another.

There is a conf call scheduled with the RT directors to get their input and to discuss their questions/concerns. Once we receive their input, we'll be able to finalize the details.

I'm glad to hear that there is some support for the concept out there!

Melissa
 
Melissa Herndon said:
As we were comtemplating this model, we definitely considered the fact that one tournament would be deciding as aspiring player's fate for the entire year. With that in mind, we are considering a couple different options for the year-end event....but a front-runner in my mind would be a round robin format. Using a round robin...players play more matches, so the best player should be able to overcome a single bad match or bad series of rolls...which might eliminate them in a regular double or single elimination tournament.

Also, we currently "seed" players in the RTCs...trying to make sure that players don't draw another player from the same RT in the first round (like an AWT player doesn't get another AWT first)....and I am confident that we will continue to seed in some manner or another.

There is a conf call scheduled with the RT directors to get their input and to discuss their questions/concerns. Once we receive their input, we'll be able to finalize the details.

I'm glad to hear that there is some support for the concept out there!

Melissa
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Seeding at the RTC based on regional tour performance is good, but I agree that round robin is even better. Sounds like you guys have the right ideas in mind.
 
Melissa,

Is there anything in the works for the WPBA to look at presenting other games besides 9 ball? Would there be room in the schedule for 8 ball, 14.1 or 10 ball? I think that this would add a lot of depth to the tour, and it would attract more players on the regional tours, plus it would showcase players that excel at other disciplines. I have always wondered if this would ever be a possibility on the WPBA.
 
Blackjack said:
Melissa,

Is there anything in the works for the WPBA to look at presenting other games besides 9 ball? Would there be room in the schedule for 8 ball, 14.1 or 10 ball? I think that this would add a lot of depth to the tour, and it would attract more players on the regional tours, plus it would showcase players that excel at other disciplines. I have always wondered if this would ever be a possibility on the WPBA.
Click to expand...

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.

If anyone is interested in getting more information about hosting a Satellite Tour event, please feel free to email me at melissa@wpba.com. I would be happy to provide more information.

As for the Classic Tour events, we have always discussed the possibility of having a specialty event using a different format. We are open to it, but nothing definitive has come from that yet. But don't be surprised if it happens sometime in the next couple years.

Melissa
 
I agree with the entire concept, except for the fact that it all really comes down to just one tournament.

Outside of that, I think this is a great model to improve women's pool. It will allow the cream of the crop to rise and the higher caliber players will be able to play on the Pro Tour.

I've played in a WPBA event before by way of a qualifier. I attended the event because the original qualifier winner wasn't able to attend and I was next in line. Did I enjoy being able to play in the WPBA event? Hell yeah! But I'm no where near the caliber of player that should be playing in the pro events. Maybe someday, but not now. The WPBA deserves top quality players, as this is what is going to draw attention of the audience. People want to see good pool! They don't want to see someone like me!

I played in the RTC this year and years past, again only because some of the players above me in the rankings either couldn't or didn't want to play. Again, I enjoy the RTC, but I don't really belong there. I've never won more than 2 matches. I would rather forfeit my ability to go if it meant only the best will be able to play and then proceed on to the WPBA.


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.
 
shayla said:
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.
Click to expand...

I agree...Both times I have attended they have been on the edge of the country so there was a large number of local players.

I would also suggest that rather than just asking the top 6 or 7 from each tour to attend the RTC, the number of invites for each tour should be based on the size of that tour. The OBCues tour typically draws 50-70 girls per tour stop and holds 7-10 qualifiers per year while some of the other tours only get 15-20 girls every stop and only hold 2-4 qualifiers per year. Talent aside, just looking at pure numbers it is much easier to end up in the top 7 on a tour with 2 stops and only 15-20 players than it is for one that draws hundreds of players every year and holds 10 stops.

Don't get me wrong, the skill level of those players are just as good (Ming won the RTC and she is from one of the smaller tours I'm talking about) but on larger tours you have to attend many more events and place high every time.

I watched the draw this year at the RTC and I know the regional tours were spaced where they weren't playing each other first round but there was nothing preventing the Tour Champion of one tour from playing the champion of another tour first round. So I'm glad to hear that you guys will be implementing something into the format to ensure that won't happen next year.

I think the WPBA always has the best interest of the sport and the players in mind so I'm completely supportive of whatever changes they make. And I'm confident that they only make changes after great consideration and a well thought out plan.
 
One glaring difference that I see is that the way it is now, since there are 45 spots given away one spot at a time, there are potentially 45 new faces on the tour that year. The new way, there will be 8 new faces and they will have the chance to compete at 5 events. Which brings to mind something interesting... right now, a player who qualifies once and plays once will almost certainly have to qualify again to play again, numerous times over, until they can reach a level where they are invited to all events. On the other hand, those who are lucky enough to make it into the last 8 at the RTC will have a far better chance of becoming a regular tour member once they have used up all of their qualified spots.

Another thing that isn't mentioned is how these spots are going to get paid for with the new format. If I recall correctly, right now the host room pays the $500 to cover the qualifier spot, correct??? And what exactly will be the minimum investment required by the host room under the new format?

There are great possibilities with the new format that I really like. Since there is less up-front investment required by the host room more rooms can participate, and tours with low participation might still be able to survive. This should help cover some of the geographical areas that are being missed now.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out....
 
lady9ball said:
One glaring difference that I see is that the way it is now, since there are 45 spots given away one spot at a time, there are potentially 45 new faces on the tour that year. The new way, there will be 8 new faces and they will have the chance to compete at 5 events. Which brings to mind something interesting... right now, a player who qualifies once and plays once will almost certainly have to qualify again to play again, numerous times over, until they can reach a level where they are invited to all events. On the other hand, those who are lucky enough to make it into the last 8 at the RTC will have a far better chance of becoming a regular tour member once they have used up all of their qualified spots.

Another thing that isn't mentioned is how these spots are going to get paid for with the new format. If I recall correctly, right now the host room pays the $500 to cover the qualifier spot, correct??? And what exactly will be the minimum investment required by the host room under the new format?

There are great possibilities with the new format that I really like. Since there is less up-front investment required by the host room more rooms can participate, and tours with low participation might still be able to survive. This should help cover some of the geographical areas that are being missed now.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out....
Click to expand...

The top 8 players of the RTC will earn their exception instead of just the winner. However, only the winner will get their spots free... the other 7 will have to pay their own entry fee. That is how I interpret the email from the WPBA...

As far as being lucky to get in the top 8 of the RTC, I don't think there is much luck to that. If you look at the brackets from the RTC a couple of weeks ago, the top 8 women are high caliber players and most of them have already played on the pro tour at one time or another.
 
shayla said:
The top 8 players of the RTC will earn their exception instead of just the winner. However, only the winner will get their spots free... the other 7 will have to pay their own entry fee. That is how I interpret the email from the WPBA...
Click to expand...

Thanks for pointing that out. I missed that part. I guess that explains where the money comes from as well.

shayla said:
As far as being lucky to get in the top 8 of the RTC, I don't think there is much luck to that. If you look at the brackets from the RTC a couple of weeks ago, the top 8 women are high caliber players and most of them have already played on the pro tour at one time or another.
Click to expand...

Although things would have to fall into place nicely to get to the top 8, I really didn't mean lucky in that sense. I meant it more in an "I wish I was you" sense. :) I guess since it's 9ball, "lucky" was the wrong word to use.
 
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.
 
sunnyday said:
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.
Click to expand...

Not really, in the email from the WPBA above:

Allows for the creation of International Regional Tours

Nothing stoping them from creating a tour overseas.
 
shayla said:
As far as being lucky to get in the top 8 of the RTC, I don't think there is much luck to that. If you look at the brackets from the RTC a couple of weeks ago, the top 8 women are high caliber players and most of them have already played on the pro tour at one time or another.
Click to expand...

I would definitely agree with that. If you noticed, 4 of the final 6 players at the RTC were the Tour Champions (or next in line if the actual Tour Champion is already an exempt player on the WPBA Classic Tour) of their own tour. So I'm confident that most of the Tour Champions for the 2009 seasons will make it into that group of 8 anyway.
 
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