Pool Cue News and Review

Wow… I could’ve picked ‘em better by flipping a coin or throwing darts. In the early match, Jeremy Jones took down Ronnie Wiseman in one of the sloppiest matches that will ever be televised. ESPN is going to have a real challenge on their hands trying to make this watchable, because it was some serious bush league action going on.

The ladies performed quite a bit better than the men, with Xiao Ting Pan taking down Ga Young Kim. XTP played some good pool, but ultimately GYK really gave this one away with a combination of a few key misses and one horrible roll. It’ll be interesting when the Nielsen ratings come out, because the Jasmin/GYK and Brit-Anna/XTP matches were far superior in watchability. I’m not even gonna talk about the men’s matches, since the only one that was even remotely entertaining was the Archer match. The two Jones matches made me want to claw my eyes out and run for the hills screaming.

As I’m sure you’re all aware, recently the men’s “association” The UPA sanctioned an event without making sure the promoter could actually pay the prize money. The players got their checks and sure enough, they bounced. Johnny Archer, Mika, John Schmidt and a few other names you probably know got rooked out of $36,000.

Enter billiards svengali Mark Griffin. The guy works out a deal with the promoter to buy a bunch of his tables so the promoter can take the proceeds and pay the players. So the reality is that if it wasn’t good for Mark Griffin, he wouldn’t be doing it, but I doubt the net result of this from a financial standpoint was much more than a wash. Of course he wins a shitton of good will from the players and the community for doing this, which more than makes up for the fact he’s probably not making a profit on the deal.

Generally speaking, I’m a bit of a skeptical ass, but in this case, color me impressed. The guy’s a smart businessman and has some long-term vision, which you see about as often as a komodo dragon running through a mall when it comes to this industry. As a result, I’ve moved the PCN Threat-o-Meter down to a cautiously optimistic “yellow”.

Well, it should come as no surprise that the ACS has issued their own “press release” about the BCA/UPA situation.  Sure, it doesn’t really have anything to do with them, but considering that John Lewis and the BCA don’t see eye to eye… scratch that.  Considering that John Lewis still holds an 800lb gorilla sized grudge against the BCA over the sale of the amateur leagues, any time he can speak out against the BCA, he’s going to.  For the record, this is from one of the people who thinks that pool should be an Olympic sport, so take it for what its worth.  In all fairness to the ACS, I have posted the entire letter.

For those who have asked, no, I am not the BCA’s bitch.  The BCA does plenty wrong, believe me.  I just think this feud is beyond stupid and the UPA (and now the ACS) are making themselves look extremely childish.  As for me, I’ll just grab some popcorn and happily watch the fight.

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Bravo to the UPA for standing up to the recent “BCA Resumes Control of Men’s Rankings, Communications” release!

The UPA - United States Professional Poolplayers Association, is an affiliate to the ACS - American CueSports Alliance. The ACS – a member-governed association – fully supports a pro men’s player union in the United States and their right to administer and govern their own affairs.

When issues arise that negatively affect the players, too often there’s a lack of activism. Regardless of -
- who is promoting a pro men’s event
- who claims to be a governing body
- who advertises themselves as the next savior of pool, it is paramount that the professional pool players in the United States remain focused on their own union, whose sole purpose is to look after their interests.

In recent years, that has been the UPA. Some may criticize the organization for doing too little, but such critics should never lose sight of one vision - the UPA is “the men pro player’s thing” to which they can look to when outside forces make decisions that affect their future without including their “union” in the decision-making.

The Billiard Congress of America trade association should only be supported for what it is – a trade association that is necessary to the industry.

However, since 2004 when the BCA divested itself of its player programs, it has unfortunately insisted on continuing to adopt a governing body stance, with the also unfortunate backing of the world-governing body for the sport of pool, the WPA - World-Pool-Billiard Association.

The WPA is a credible world sports body, but even a credible body can make poor decisions. The WPA interference in United States pool growth by their continuing to recognize a trade association whose entire board of directors is trade people, is a black mark on the world-governing body. Unlike all the other confederation members of the WPA, the BCA is NOT a sports organization! It has no sports structure. If it walks like a trade association and quacks like a trade association…IT’S A TRADE ASSOCIATION! No amount of coaching from the WPA to be otherwise is going to change the BCA’s true profile.

The ‘Committee’ formed by the BCA of various Player Member organizations (which included the UPA) to somehow satisfy the WPA and to somehow address their complete lack of player membership, has shown itself to be the ‘window dressing’ of which it was suspected. In the United States, the women pros have a strong player’s union, and the WPBA serves that function very capably. But the men pro player’s in the United States should never lose sight of their best interest in supporting their own player’s union, and the UPA currently serves that purpose!

When the BCA announced a new ranking system that will affect the men pro players in the United States without consultation or input from representative players from their player’s union, the trade association showed its true colors.

Players in all member-governed associations should not support such actions. Let your voices be heard! Support the UPA on this issue and discourage the BCA trade association from any involvement in governing the sport.

Especially with the current overall weakness in the billiard industry, we need the BCA to fully focus on trade issues. The BCA should be working with and fully supporting Player Member organizations such as the UPA, instead of needlessly meddling with player issues that it is simply not organized or suited to responsibly handle.

John Lewis
Current ACS Executive Director
Lewis is the longest-tenured BCA employee (1991-2004) in the association’s history and a former board member of the WPA (1991-2007).

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It seems that a letter from BCA president Ivan Lee to the professional pool players got leaked onto some message boards.  The letter makes a number of good points about what the BCA actually does to support professional pool.  Here it is, if any of you haven’t seen it:

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Dear Professional Pool Players,

It is obvious that correct information is not reaching the players, so in the spirit of helping us all to better understand how we find ourselves in the middle of this situation, I offer the following.

In the fall of 2006 the BCA was at a crossroads. At that point, with a new CEO, staff and many new board members, we took a hard look at every facet of the BCA. We went line item by line item through the budget and considered every program in which we were involved. Obviously, during the process the subject of the BCA serving as the North American Representative to the WPA came up. With regard to this issue we asked ourselves the same question we asked ourselves on every budget item, what’s the benefit?? In this case the answer was to help American pool players succeed. See, we believe that the entire industry will prosper as professional players prosper. We’re all connected together in the game of pool.

Once we determined to remain as the North American representative to the WPA, we committed to taking our responsibility seriously. We committed to creating a better relationship with the WPA and you, the U.S. player that can benefit from our association with the WPA. This organization gives you an opportunity to participate in events with prize funds large enough to provide you with real income. The WPA is a vehicle for you as professional players to get recognized globally. Global recognition can bring endorsements from companies throughout the world. It is obvious that the re-popularization of this sport has begun outside of our country and it is central to the future health of the American game to take advantage of the opportunities that the WPA presents and to grow on the global stage.

We also committed to developing a process for managing our relationship and duties with the WPA in a professional and transparent manner. It’s very simple, if we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it right. We also wanted to do it in partnership as we have many other areas of focus under the BCA umbrella. Unfortunately, we have not been able to fulfill our commitment to managing this process in the manner we determined and it’s time for a change. Let me give you a few examples. When the WPA offers invitations to these world-class events we pass them on to the UPA to manage. Sometimes they are filled, sometimes not (with no updates along the way as to interest in participating), sometimes they are turned down at the last minute (so the spots can’t be filled by another organization), deadlines are constantly missed for keeping us and the WPA in the loop on this process and communication to the players regarding this event is inconsistent and unprofessional at best.

This makes us all look extremely unprofessional. To sanction a rankings event without regard to the fact that a major world competition had already filled those dates on a public calendar months before was irresponsible enough to warrant corrective action. Additionally, seats to another WPA world championship were offered when they were not authorized or permitted. Add this to past infractions such as the failure of the UPA to inform all of the eligible players that the BCA was providing a $1,300 travel stipend to all American competitors in the WPA World 9-Ball Championships last fall and it is obvious that the BCA could no longer tolerate the results of allowing the UPA to manage this process.

Now, with respect to the ranking process itself, in the past year-and-a-half, the BCA agreed to continue to delegate the job of ranking the American players to the UPA with the faith that these rankings would be reasonably constructed. But the current situation is that the rankings list contains events that stretch much too far into the past. Rankings need to reflect current performance, not the performance of the last few years. And the points need to protect the players whose lives are affected so drastically by them. For example, Shane Van Boening went to the World 8-Ball Championship and sacrificed 25% of his points for 2008 because he missed the Desert Shootout. This is patently unacceptable as we will not have the American champions treated unprofessionally and unfairly. Further detriment to American players continues today with the unbelievable demand, supported by the UPA, to remove certain players from the BCA rankings list, the very list that provides players with the ability to participate in the income opportunities from events overseas and on our own soil. We will not honor this request to harm our players. All who participate in ranking events will be ranked and those who are deserving of invitations to the major events will receive them. If they wish to turn those invitations down, that is their privilege, but the process will be fair, clearly spelled out and transparent for all to view.

The claim that the BCA does nothing for the professionals is very disingenuous. It is the BCA that provides the funding for the GenerationPool.com event. It is the BCA that funds travel for professionals to world championships. It is the BCA who recognizes that the American players are not being properly informed about the current situation in international billiards and has taken steps to correct that situation. To our knowledge, the UPA has put no players on national television in order to promote them as we have and has funded no events in recent times. The BCA has promoted and televised the spring event for a number of years and has always gone into its own pocket to do so without ever realizing or expecting a profit.

How committed is the BCA to promoting the game and its players? The 2007/2008 BCA budget includes $160,000+ to cover the costs on the BCA 9-ball event next month in Charlotte (featuring six hours of programming on ESPN), $40,000 in WPA membership, travel grants and expenses and $50,000 in grant money to the Billiard Education Foundation to promote junior programs. That’s more than $250,000 not counting the staff time that manages all of these projects. That’s a commitment.

As you know, the BCA is comprised of many programs aimed at supporting vast areas of the pool industry. One of these areas is professional play and the players dedicated to making a living playing the game. We take our desire to help American pool players succeed very seriously. We have individuals that want to help, including our new CEO that comes from a sports marketing and public relations background. Let’s use his and all of our expertise to grow for the future. We have no desire to do the process alone. Our efforts are dedicated to bringing this sport back to life in the U.S.

Sincerely,

Ivan Lee - President
Billiard Congress of America Board of Directors

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Apparently the UPA isn’t quite done stamping their feet about the new rankings system.  In a response to the BCA’s new rankings, the UPA has updated their rankings.  Meanwhile, the rest of the world collectively yawns, scratches their heads, shrugs their shoulders and goes back to not paying a lick of attention to the so called “men’s tour”.

Of everything that’s come out in the past few days, this has to be my favorite quote.

“I am not requesting that my name be removed from the new ‘rankings’ posted by the BCA, I am demanding it.” -Rodney Morris

Seriously?  It’s a ranking system.  Who cares.  Anyone can create a ranking system for just about anything.  Wait… I think I just did.  The following is the Pool Cue News Power Report as generated by the Futura 3000 megacomputer:

1. Ralf Souquet
2. Shane Van Boening
3. Francisco Bustamante
4. Johnny Archer
5. Jung-Lin Chang
6. Allison Fisher
7. Gabe Owen
8. Mika Immonen
9. Ronnie Alcano
10.Brian Gregg

I dig Rodney Morris.  I like his game and he’s a good guy, but I really hate to see him going down this road.  I get that you’re pissed about this whole situation, but demanding that your name be taken off the rankings is just silly.  Besides, the UPA really brought this on themselves by having a such disorganized tour to begin with.  Had they been able to co-exist with the WPA, I seriously doubt the BCA would have felt the need to step in.  If you’re really pissed at the BCA, skip the 9 ball tournament next month in Charlotte and make a statement instead of just denouncing the new ranking system.