Pool Cue News and Review

In the continuing saga of Ronnie Alcano, a Quezon City judge has ordered disgraced billiards champ Alcano to stay at least 1,000 meters (1 kilometer) away from his daughter at all times. In addition, it has come to light that Alcano was issued a temporary restraining order on March 27th, barring him from any form of communication with his daughter. The full article can be found here.

Elsewhere, in a move that is simply beyond comprehension, Predator Cues has splashed Alcano on the front page of their website, congratulating Alcano on winning the recent 9 Ball World Championships. Why a quality company like Predator would want to associate with a man accused of sexually abusing his daughter is beyond me, but I guess in the eyes of Predator, a champ is a champ, regardless of what he does away from the table.

Well folks, the BCA Annual Report has been released and it is interesting to say the least. The most interesting aspect of the report shows that the Billiard Congress of America is sitting on over $3.3 million in cash, short term and long term investments. They’ve increased their short term investment coffers by over $300,000 and overall have added approximately $100,000 to their cash and accessible investments.

The question becomes, why should anyone care? The answer to this is simple. The BCA generates the majority of their revenue from events and memberships, including the highly profitable Trade Expo in which they spent $647k and generated over $1.8 million in revenue. Keep in mind that the BCA is a non-profit. Their stated mission is as follows:

“The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is a non-profit 501(c)(6) trade organization, dedicated to achieving a united, growing, prosperous and highly regarded billiard industry through BCA leadership. The BCA enhances the success of its members and promotes the game of billiards through educational, marketing and promotional efforts, annual industry trade shows, tournaments and other programs designed to make pool everybody’s game.”

So how exactly does the BCA hoarding $3.3 million in cash and equivalents will enhance the success of its members and promote the game of billiards? Why does this organization feel that it is appropriate to do nothing as the sport continues to decline in popularity.

The BCA will tell you that they’re doing plenty, having Alan Taylor Communications promote the sport for the BCA. By their own reporting however, Alan Taylor Communications has been a miserable failure. According to their 04-05 annual report, billiards received over 112 million impressions via Alan Taylor. In this year’s report, that number has dropped by almost 100 million impressions down to 13,955,003 total ATC impressions.

Granted, new BCA CEO Rob Johnson isn’t completely to blame here, but the fact remains that since he took the position in August 2006, the only news worth noting from the CEO’s office is his decision to restructure and outsource to a 3rd party that knows nothing about the billiards industry.

Just as a reminder to the BCA, I thought I’d include Wikipedia’s definition of a non-profit organization: A non-profit organization (abbreviated “NPO”, or “non-profit” or “not-for-profit”) is an organization whose primary objective is to support an issue or matter of private interest or public concern for non-commercial purposes. Maybe at some point the BCA will come up with some ideas as to how to build interest in the game of pool because they’re current action (or lack thereof) simply isn’t working.

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According to the most recent report from the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association (SGMA), billiards saw a significant decline in table sales in 2005. After four years of steady increases, table sales dropped from $263 million in 2004 to $240 million in 2005.

Its not all doom and gloom however. Participation has increased from 32.3 million in 1998 to 36 million in 2005 with a demographic breakout of 63% men and 37% women. I guess the increase in women players explains the recent glut of pink pool cues on the market.

This is still quite a drop from the billiard heyday that occurred after the release of The Color of Money.

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Scorpion SC71 Hot Pink Pool Cue

Scorpion has jumped on the pink pool cue bandwagon with three new pool cues of the hot pink variety. Scorpion has created a hot pink cue stick, a break cue and a jump cue, each featuring a near blinding hot pink coating. There’s more good news if you’re a pink fan: the break cue and the jump cue are both pink from head to toe. These pool cues have a standard natural colored, fiberglass bonded Scorpion shaft that comes with it.

The Pros:

The best thing you can say about all three of these cues is that they are exactly what you’d expect from a Scorpion pool cue. Solid craftsmanship and rock bottom prices. The cues are in fact, exactly the same as a standard Scorpion shooting cue like the Scorpion 24 Black Pool Cue, their Break cue and their Jump cue. The break cue features Scoprion’s Power Rings in the butt and all the other materials are exactly the same except for the fact that the cues are pink instead of black.

The Cons:

All I can say is that you better really, really like the color pink if you’re going to pick one of these pool cues up. Personally, I’m not a fan of the color, but considering the fact that there are so few cues that are made or designed for the ladies, I suspect there will be a lot of people lining up to get their hands on one of these cues.

The Bottom Line:

From a construction standpoint, the cues are great for the price. I would have liked to see a phenolic tip on the break cue instead of an extra hard tip, but seeing how not all leagues allow use of phenolic tip break cues, it’s not that big of a gripe. If you know someone that just has to have everything pink, these are the pool cues for them.