Pool Cue News and Review

I’ve been trying to put this off for as long as possible, but its time to move the PCN Threat-o-Meter needle into the red.

How bad is it for the billiards industry?  Really bad.  As first reported on Billiards Digest, the BCA has warned that they will finish their fiscal year with an $800,000 loss.  Now before you all start ringing the death knell for the BCA, keep in mind that according to their annual report, they had a little over $3,000,000 in cash and assets prior to this loss.  The BCA still has plenty of dough, they just need to be a little more careful with their spending moving forward.

And that brings us to the really bad news.  Hasta la vista BCA/EnjoyPool/GenerationPool 9 Ball Championships.  The Hall of Fame ceremony is going the way of the dodo as well.  Not a big surprise considering the fact that these two events are an annual $150,000 sinkhole but damn does it suck to see the best looking billiards event on TV bite the dust.

I’ll tell you what really chaps my hide about the 9 Ball cancellation.  The massive losses can be blamed squarely on the location of the trade show.  North Carolina was pretty disastrous, especially when you keep in mind that the BCA generates 2/3 of its revenue from the show.  North Carolina was Steve Ducoff’s final donkey punch to the BCA and the billiards industry.  Even with the loss, cutting the 9 Ball event seems a bit extreme.  After all, the trade show will be back in Vegas next year, which means more attendees and more booth space sales.  This really makes you question what exactly the BCA is going to be doing to promote pool and billiards (which was their founding mission after all).

In a couple years, the BCA will be back in the black but the tradition of the 9 Ball Championships will remain six feet under.  Cummings said that he would consider outsourcing the event to someone else, but we all know how well that works.  Who are you gonna outsource it to?  One of these chumps that hangs the cardboard signs throughout the arena and fills the rafters with guys in coveralls passing around a mason jar filled with moonshine?

If the new BCA Board President had any long term vision for the industry, he’d keep the tournament alive.  I guess that’s what you get though when you ask someone who runs a boating company to head the BCA board.  Its not like Brunswick has anything to do with pool anymore.  Just read their annual report and you’ll see that there’s barely a mention of our beloved little industry.  Hell, Brunswick doesn’t even break billiards out as a seperate categoy.  They lump it in with their bowling division.

Sorry if I’m not my normal jovial self this morning.  I swear I’ll return to the Castle Snarkdom soon, but pretty much everything about this announcement really rubs me the wrong way.

Is it just me, or did yesterday’s 9 Ball event on ESPN look better than pretty much any other televised pool event?  The players looked good (the women at least), the editing was sharper, hell, event the commentating was better.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ga Young Kim look this good on TV.  Some of the players could have classed it up a bit, but overall I thought it came off really well.

The one thing that shocked the hell out of me though was the fact that out of all the WPBAers, Jasmin looked the worst (in both her game and the way she dressed).  Her play was sloppy and her black pants, black shirt, hair in a bobby pin look is getting pretty tired.  Even little Brit-Brit Kostanian looked good (until her match was over and she donned the t-shirt, sweat pants and flip flops of course).  In fact, I’d go so far as to say she was looking downright foxy.

We’ll see what the final ratings are, but hats off to ESPN and the BCA for putting on a killer show.

The BCA announced ESPN’s scheduled first TV run of the 9 Ball Championships that took place last month in Charlotte.  Grab your drinkin’ boots, because we’re talking about six consecutive hours of pool on ESPN!

2008 GenerationPool.com 9-Ball Championships ESPN Schedule:

• Men’s Semi-Final 1: Johnny Archer vs. Ronnie Wiseman, 12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. EDT
• Men’s Semi-Final 2: Shawn Putnam vs. Jeremy Jones, 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. EDT
• Men’s Final: Ronnie Wiseman vs. Jeremy Jones, 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT
• Women’s Semi-Final 1: Anna Kostanian vs. Xiaoting Pan, 3:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT
• Women’s Semi-Final 2: Jasmin Ouschan vs. Ga Young Kim, 4:00 p.m – 5:00 p.m. EDT
• Women’s Final: Xiaoting Pan vs. Ga Young Kim, 5:00 p.m – 6:00 p.m. EDT

Hey Britt-Anna, you just took down two of the most recognizable names in this sport!  Do you have any training tips for the rest of us?

“Sometimes I play the ghost and sometimes I’ll just gamble… usually gamble”

Way to go Anna!  You are truly a role model for young players everywhere.  Here’s the clip of her interview with Samm Diep if anyone wants to see it.

Yeah, I get it… pool players like to gamble.  Don’t get me wrong, I like to gamble too.  Not on pool because I suck ass, but who doesn’t like to throw dice every now and again.  If I was being interviewed though, I don’t think I’d ever say anything to the effect of “I’m as good as I am thanks to hustling suckers at pool halls”.

I really hope the WPBA isn’t hanging their hopes on this girl as being the new face of the league.  Sure, she’s young and cute and can clearly play, but using gambling as a training tool is yet another reason why people outside the industry think pool is skeevy.

The GenerationPool air dates have been announced by the BCA. It looks like we’ll be having a pool marathon on July 19th. Here’s how it all breaks down hour by hour on ESPN.

2008 GenerationPool.com 9-Ball Championships ESPN Schedule:

This is a huge improvement over last year when ESPN buried the men’s programming in the middle of the night (that was the one where Van Boring got skunked 7-0 in the finals). The Archer v Wiseman match should be pretty interesting, especially if they capture the whole “sharking” thing that got Wiseman’s panties in a bunch.

Well… the final numbers are out for the BCA Expo and they aren’t good.

Exhibitors - 178 down from 234
Booths - 626 down from 1003
Buyers - 1111 down from 2156

In my efforts to not to be such a “callous dick” as one of my readers called me, I’m not going to go doom and gloom on this. Well, really I’m not going doom and gloom because there’s no need, but I’ll use this as an opportunity to show that I’m all sunshine and lollipops anyway.

So here’s the deal. Charlotte was a disaster before the ink on the contract even dried. You can’t move this show out of Vegas and the old regime who booked this and Houston should’ve known better.  It could’ve been worse… much worse.  A lot of the smaller booths on the edges looked pretty miserable, but there was some brisk business going on with the bigger players.

All I can say on this one is live and learn.  Next year, the show moves back to Las Vegas where it belongs.  Attendance will be up because store owners in every industry use the annual trade show as an excuse to write off a vacation as a business expense.  No one wanted to go to Houston for a vacation and Charlotte in the summertime is a pretty miserable experience.  Next year the show will be at The Sands on the strip, people will come to the show, get loaded, lose lots of lettuce gambling and will have a good time.

In my somewhat drunken rant about Brit-Anna, I forgot to mention that the finals are set. For the men, Jeremy Jones will be playing Ronnie Wiseman. I’m 0-4 on predictions so far, but based on how Jones played yesterday, I’ve got to think that Wiseman is going to take the match.

On the ladies side, its Ga Young Kim vs. Xiao Ting Pan. GYK looked unreal against Jasmin last night and was an absolute machine. If GYK is on her game like she was yesterday (she only missed 2 balls in the entire match), she’s gonna sizzle again tonight.

On a side note, I had no idea how foxy GYK was until I saw her yesterday. I have yet to see a picture that does her justice, because she was an absolute knockout. The announcer was teasing her about some gameshow she was on where she was shooting fruit, so I had to go find it. Pretty entertaining stuff, even if I can’t understand what they’re saying.