Pool Cue News and Review

In case you haven’t seen it already, here’s the official word on why we won’t be seeing the NACPBA’s mythical multi-million dollar tour. For those of you who don’t feel like reading the press release, here’s the synopsis. “Your industry sucks, your associations and organizations all suck and someone needs to fix it. We won’t fix it because we weren’t really ever anything other than a POS website with no actual backing, but you players should really do something about it”.

Oh yeah, they also pulled the plug on their website. Not a “sorry we’re gone” placeholder page, but a complete shutdown of the site and the server.  I’m  sure if you try to contact one of these jerkasses, their phones will be disconnected to.  Just another con artist looking for some attention. At any rate, here’s their “official statement”.

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Official NACPBA Press Release

We at the NACPBA are saddened and deeply disappointed to announce the canceling of the multi-million-dollar tour we were planning. The decision in fact was not made BY us rather FOR us. The financial backers feel that the environment of professional pool/billiards in the United States of America is not conducive to the sizable investment they were talking about. Using the pool community as a test bed and marketing arena for their product would cost too much money to “fix” the environment. They have found other “venues and commodities” for this.

Through our research, conversations, investigations and negotiations we have learned a great deal about the inner workings of the sport and industry. There is a great deal of work that needs to be done to make the professional pool/billiard community a viable entity to work with corporations and investors alike.

It is time for some hard decisions to be made. Those decisions lay first and foremost with the players and their organizations. The players need to decide whether the organizations that represent them are the ones they want and whether they are ran the way they want them. If they are not then either change them or replace them. If they are then you need to rally around them and become an asset not a liability. You can not leave this decision up to others to make. These organizations should be yours and should serve your needs first and foremost. These organizations should listen to the players and work hard to meet their needs fully. There should be a committee deciding things not one person.

The leading organizations in this country need to really listen to the players and help them get what they want and need. If you feel you can’t lead the sport completely with total confidence then be open to handing that responsibility to people who can and will do it with integrity, honesty and morality. There needs to be a group to mold the sport into what is needed to make it an attractive commodity. The future is up to you.

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No one really believed this was going to happen, right? When the NACPBA announced their $22 million prize fund with $200,000 first place payouts, didn’t it sound just a little too good to be true? According to their website, the North American Confederation of Professional Billiards Associations (damn… even the name sounds like horseshit!) their mission is “To provide the professional pool player with and avenue to pursue his chosen profession and earn the money and respect afforded every other professional athlete and to further provide a solid path for the amateur aspiring to become pro.” I guess they weren’t too serious about that mission since they’re canceling their tour.

There will be more on this later in the week, but I’m going to go out on a limb here and make a statement. If someone comes and promises millions of dollars and he is a known felon or he refuses to divulge where he’s going to get the money to pay out the prize money, look him straight in the eye and call bullshit. The only way there will ever be a pro billiards tour with serious jack is if a real company steps up to sponsor it. Tell me that there’s a Budweiser Tour, a Rolling Rock Tour or hell, even a Denny’s Tour like the PBA has, show me a statement from the company that its real and I’ll believe it. But anytime some snake oil salesman like Kevin Trudeau or a complete unknown like “Tim Dennis” comes along hyping big paydays for a sport that doesn’t draw dick for TV ratings, I’m not gonna hold my breath.

More on this when Tim Dennis releases his “official statement”.