Rule Amendments:

There is an open discussion this Wednesday, September 1st at the Q n Brew starting at 7pm.  If you want to put your two cents into the league, now is the time to do it.  This Wednesday, 7pm, at the Q n Brew!

My letter to the league:

Thank you all for coming to opening night of the AZPL State Championships.  First I’d like to thank all of you for coming through like you did in my time of need.  I’ve been running this league for 22 consecutive seasons and I consider you all a part of my extended family.  When I stood before you two weeks ago I thought the league would be over by 8 that night.  I thought half of you would be pissed and the other half would leave although from what I’ve heard recently…we won’t go there yet.  Your actions that night told me how much this league means to you and that means so much to me.  To hear from so many of you that you want the league to continue makes me even prouder to be your league operator.  Thank you so much for your support. 

The first thing I want to address is point money.  Everyone who has paid their dues in full will be getting credit for ALL of their point money towards next seasons dues.  You won’t be missing out on a dime and I’ve already stated that this tournament there is no entry so you’re coming out ahead.  When a business wants to emerge from a bankruptcy they realize changes need to be made to the existing model in order to not let the same mistakes happen.  Change is inevitable if we’re going to succeed.  The first change will be to point money.  Point money will continue but it will NOT be paid out in cash.  It will be applied to each of you as a credit towards next season’s dues.  Spread it out over the season and your dues come out to less than $5 a week.  It will NOT be used to pay the current season’s dues. 

As far as dues are concerned going forward, people, we need to get our dues paid every week.  The league has lost over $70,000 over the past 7 years in unpaid dues.  For most of you that’s almost 2 years pay.  TWO YEARS.  That has come directly out of my pocket.  The funniest thing I always hear is a player coming to the tournament and finds out he owes $98 and asks if I would take payments.  Yeah sure I will.  How about $7 a week starting the first week?  When you don’t pay it not only hurts me, it hurts the league.  Letting your dues ride until the end of the season is unacceptable.  If your dues are not PAID IN FULL by the final match of the regular season your team will NOT be in the tournament.  And when I say IN FULL I mean IN FULL down to the last dollar.  Showing up at the tournament with money in hand, while I appreciate the effort, is a pain in the ass.  I’ve got too many things going on at the same time to stop them all so I can collect your dues and make sure your envelope is correct.  That’s completely disrespectful to the entire league.  From now on it is the captain’s responsibility to put the full amount of dues, $21, in the envelope every week.  If you can pay your bar tab every week you can pay your dues.  If you can’t pay your dues then don’t play.  Maybe if UNICEF starts a pool league you can play there but until they do pay your goddamn dues!  Furthermore, any & all unpaid dues will be coming directly out of the tournament & division prize money.  That makes us all responsible.  Look at the scoresheet.  Does the other team owe money?  Does yours?  Remind them to pay their dues.  For 21 consecutive seasons I’ve guaranteed your point money & the tournament money.  Those days are over.  I’ve run myself into beyond bankruptcy doing that.  Now you are guaranteeing them. 

Over the past few weeks I’ve done a lot of thinking as to how we got to this point.  And while there is a multitude of reasons the biggest one is a dynasty.  Powerhouse teams.  Perennial winners.  This league is not a place for dynasties.  It’s for amateur, beer-drinking, have-fun pool players.  A dynasty in this league is a league killer.  This isn’t the pros where if a team wants to get to the next level they can make a trade or sign a free agent.  People want to play with their friends, their family.  They go out to have a good time.  When they go up against a powerhouse they more often than not get slaughtered like sacrificial lambs.  They feel like they don’t have a chance.  They don’t have fun.  Which leads them to question why are they here.  Then they leave at the end of the season never to return because those superpower teams.   Which is what got us to where we are today.  For the past 7 years I’ve been selling an amateur, beer-drinking, have-fun pool league as just that and the whole time the “money” players (and you all know who you are) have been destroying everything I’ve been trying to do.  Don’t get me wrong, we all appreciate good competition but some of us are not so uber-competitive that every shot is the end of the world.  You need to understand that.  Whether it be stacking your team, throwing your cues, taking 20 minutes to explain a push shot just so you can have ball-in-hand, throwing a fit because your rating went up, using the rule book to win a game like calling a stupid technical foul that gives you ball-in-hand that I have to spend 20 minutes looking up in the rule book all because the wrong person called timeout, crying & wining like you’ve been cheated, being a sore loser, wanting to fight over whether you hit a rail or not, my god people.  Relax.  It’s just a game.  Friendly competition amongst your neighbors.  It’s not life or death.  We’re here to have a good time.  Do us all a favor and SHUT UP.  This league is bigger than you and your ego.  If you want to be respected in the league let your game do the talking because every time you do shit like that it just destroys what we’re trying to do and that is HAVE FUN.  Otherwise take it somewhere else. 

Which brings us to the State Championships. 

1^st, 2^nd and 3rd place in the State Championships –

Congratulations!  You’ve just gotten farther than any other team in the league.  You’ve won more money this season than any other team in the league.  You’re already the favorites for next season.  You’ve proven you can win.  What’s the quickest way to kill a tournament?  Have the same faces at the top every time.  Why keep playing if it’s already pre-determined who’s going to win?  Look around the room people.  We used to have 72 teams playing in this event.  We now have 32.  We used to have 140 teams in the league.  We now have 47.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when the Team Schwinns & Damage Incs were winning that things started falling apart.  Complete domination.  It was going on before them; it’s still going on.  I can see several teams that are here tonight that I can’t remember the last time they didn’t finish in 1^st place.  Therefore:

The entire 1^st place team, the top 2 players on the 2^nd place team and the top player from the 3^rd place team; your ratings are all going up by 1 for at least the next three (3) seasons you play.  If you’re a 7, you are now an 8.  I’m sure you get the picture.  If you win a trophy for anything within that time the calendar starts over.  You’ve proven you can win at your level; you’re getting bumped up.  Deal with it. I really don’t care how hard it’s going to be for you to repeat as champion.  It’s supposed to be harder the 2^nd time around.  And to be honest you don’t have a valid argument to tell me that you’re being unfairly raised.  You just finished either 1^st, 2^nd or 3^rd in the State Championships.  You more than likely finished in 1^st place in your division.  No one beat you.  Tell me again me how I’m being unfair.  It’s not fair to the rest of the league if I don’t.  Along with that your dues for the next season are all going up by $1.  You’ve just won more money than any other team.  You’re already a favorite to win next season and chances are you’ll win a bunch more as well.  If you’re going to win the most you’re going to pay the most and with those kind of odds it’s worth it to you to invest a little more.  And besides, after you apply your point money to your dues you’ll still be paying less per week than you are now so once again, don’t complain. 

With that comes a revised Handicap system –

If your team of 3 totals 13-16 it’s 2 points per point.

If your team of 3 is between 17-20 it’s 3 points per point. 

If your team of 3 totals 21-24 it is 4 points per point. 

25 to 27 is 5 points per and

28 to 30 would be 6 points per point.

To win by the handicap the lower rated team must score as many points equal to their ratings total. 

In an extreme example: Three 4’s (12) vs. a team of two 9s & a ten (28).  A 16-point spread at 6 points per point is 96 points.  The 3 fours would have to score a minimum of 12 points in order to get the handicap points. 

In a more moderate example: A 21 (Three 7s) vs. Three 8s (24).  3 points apart at 4 points per is 12 points.  Now it’s fair both ways. 

If you want to stack your team to guarantee a victory I’m going to make sure it’s just as hard on you to win as it is a team of three 4’s to beat you without a handicap.  If the only way that could happen is if they played flawless pool for 9 straight games then it’s going to be that hard for you to beat them.  But at the same time if you let your cue do the talking and focus on the table instead of worrying about the handicap you can still win. 

The bottom line is we all (well, most of us) pay to play in the league.  We pay for a good time.  It’s not about how much money we can win.  It’s about how much fun we can have doing it.  Some of us have forgotten that.  Let’s remember what the core values of the AZPL are - an amateur, beer-drinking, have-fun pool league.