The BCA is supposed to be the organization that promotes the billiard sports in the USA. That supposition would be in error though. The BCA is a membership organization consisting primarily of business members. Their mandate at one time was to promote billiards an activity and to bring some governance to the sport.

Along the way however the BCA has come to be dominated by a few large companies and has shown that all dues paying voting members do not have equal votes.

Essentially the voting power of the BCA resides with those members who purchase the most space at the annual trade show. A trade show which carries the title of Billiard Congress of America Billiards and Home Recreation Expo.

Which brings me to where the BCA is now. It is, by the admission of the board at last year’s annual meeting, an organization whose primary focus is to put on a trade show. And a large part of that job is to sell as much booth space as they possibly can. In years past BCA staff has attended shows outside the billiards industry around the country not as an exhibitor but instead to entice exhibitors at those shows to purchase booth space and the BCA Expo to sell their products. Sounds fairly innocent right?

Well, the problem with this approach is that it doesn’t bring any new buyers into the billiard industry and it further spreads the purchasing budget of existing buyers among non-industry companies. The BCA says they are providing value to the attendees by providing them a lot of choice at the show.

When did the billiard industry become Wal Mart? We need more people to decide to become billiard players and proprietors, not to encourage the ones that already are to diversify into other activities. Offering poker tables, foosball tables, ping-pong suppliers, video games and a plethora of other activities at the BCA Expo does nothing for the billiard industry.

Why doesn’t the BCA spend the money to purchase booth space at the other shows and sell the visitors there on the virtues of being in the billiard business? Perhaps because that would be a little too much like work to man a booth for the duration of the show and to try and sell a product. The BCA doesn’t understand what their members, especially the members with no power, have to deal with when they show up at the billiard trade show and they have to compete with non-industry folks for the few buyers that do show up. Perhaps if the BCA had to do some selling themselves instead of spending then they would understand how the dynamic is supposed to work.

The billiard industry is at a low spot right now. Table rentals are off. League participation is down. Men’s professional pool is all but dead and our best players are not considered much of a threat to the international competition. In a recent survey only Steve Mizerak was identified as a famous player and then only because the clerk at the sports store sold cues with the Steve’s name on them.

In other parts of the world the equivalent organizations to the BCA who are operating with a fraction of the funds at the BCA’s disposal have managed to get pool on television regularly, uncut and exciting. They are getting pool into the public consciousness. Why can’t the BCA do this as well?

What does the BCA stand for? Find out for yourself at www.bca-pool.com

Like a spurned lover I put away all the old pictures of me and Instroke. I have them in albums and archived on cd somewhere but it’s all in storage. But I did find one old grainy picture from back in the day.

This one is vintage 1995 and was done for a local newspaper article in Germany. I was trying to portray myself as the case guru.  I guess nothing has changed in that regard. In this picture you can see the lines of cases that we were making at the time including the wildly unpopular Color Line.  I really stepped in it on that one with 25 color combination in 5 sizes.  Later we reduced to the Sport Line which all featured black bodies with contrasting pockets and just five combinations.  Did much better.  Even the case guru can’t get them right all the time

To honor all those who supported me back when I had Instroke and to get the new workshop started I have decided to raffle off a free custom case. The winner will be the first person besides me to get a case from my new workshop.

Send me an email to jbcaseraffle@jbideas.com to enter. The drawing will be on Friday May, 4th. If you own or have owned an Instroke case please describe it briefly. If not no biggie. Owners of Instroke cases get two entries and we are on the honor system.

The only limitation to the case you receive will be your imagination and my ability to procure materials.

I am totally stoked about this and the volume of emails with well wishes and stories of folks and their cases has been wonderful. It’s a good way to get me more pumped up for this.

Hope to see you in the raffle.