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Erik S
Starting Member
26 Posts
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 Posted 04/26/2010 : 4:31:05 PM
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Very well said Lexy.
Interesting how everything was set in stone for us to build our teams around, make final spring roster adjustments, making sure everyone understood when you would need them, make sure they planned to be there, etc, but suddenly none of that matters.
This tournament is by far and away the biggest payout of the year and everyone knows it, only now lots of people won’t be able to participate. Why is that, so it’s more convenient for the new league? To save money by only paying for one regional instead of two sites? I am not saying I know the answer, but then again no one is telling me the answer either, so all you can do is guess and none of the guesses I come up with seem to be in the best interest of the players.
I think you are correct about teams not being able to play. I would expect lots of no shows when people have to drive 1.5 hours each way on three consecutive week nights, potentially two weeks in a row. Between the shear time and cost in gas I am sure lots of people will decide it’s not feasible. I certainly have doubts about being able to field a team of five players for the regional birth we earned and had to play/pay all year for.
I wouldn't say it was perfectly fair to everyone in the league no matter if you picked Angola or Sturgis (as in past years), but at least everyone knew what was going to happen at the beginning of spring session and made plans to make it work. This year it was Angola and everyone has known that since the start of 2010, but then again what we have told our players doesn't appear so true anymore.
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Kaleena
Starting Member
 6 Posts
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Posted 04/27/2010 : 8:09:11 PM
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We completly agree with the situation. There is no way that we can drive 200+ miles and 2 hours each night to make it to Kalamazoo, plus the drive back. Not only that but we, as well as many others, have kids that we would have to find sitters for and try to make it back before 2am to pick them up and then go to work the next morning. What about the people who don't get off work till 5 pm and may not make it in time....?? Are we expected to forefit that match?? I don't know how fair that is....besides that, what happened to the HAVE FUN part of the APA's slogan?
This is supposed to be a LOCAL team championship! We have called the Kendallville Event Center and the Auburn Cord Deusenburg Museum with no luck. There has got to be somewhere that we could go. What about the Potowattami Inn or something. I am sure some of these places would cost a bit more but right now paying more for the tournament is worth having the chance to play to go to Vegas vs. not getting to go at all. Who cares about specials on drinks and no greens fees when you when you have to pay for practice let alone the gas money and miles we have to put on our vehicles to get to Kalamazoo.
I am doing my best to find anywhere big enough to play at. If anyone thinks of anywhere please let me know.. I want to help out anyway I can. If it comes down to it, I think we need to organize a meeting somewhere and let him know exactly how we feel. If anyone is interested in doing this call me and I will put it together. I am all for going to piggys those weekends if it comes to being there with the people I enjoy spending time with or going to Kalamazoo.
All of us have paid our dues and weekly fees each session all year long to get to this point and now it is being taken away. We don't put our time and effort into this league to be screwed out of that chance. Please keep responding to this blog so everyones input is out there for Allen to see. We have got to do something to defend ourselves and our LOCAL Team Championship for the years to come.
As I said before PLEASE contact me with anything else you have to add. |
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sir_randy
Starting Member
6 Posts
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Posted 04/27/2010 : 11:15:19 PM
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Sad how the area that MADE NEIAPA, Angola area, has been kicked to the curb for Al's new friends in MI. Wish Al and his new business venture well. Hope it was worth it Al! Amazing how the people that helped AL start his business, can be treated so poorly!
That is the problem with this time in our lives, no LOYALTY!
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sir_randy
Starting Member
6 Posts
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Posted 04/27/2010 : 11:48:34 PM
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| How many berths are we going to be playing for if we are now combined with a league from Kalamazoo? Wouldn't it be better if each area (Angola, Kendallville, DeKalb, Coldwater, Ligoneer, Sturgis, now Kalamazoo, etc)each sent there own Local Champion to Vegas rather than us all getting lumped together? Bring back LOCAL Team Championship! |
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dennisrmullins
Starting Member
3 Posts
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Posted 04/28/2010 : 1:38:57 PM
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| I agree with everyone complaining about this Kalamazoo issue. For the life of me I can't figure out how our Steuben County league is planning on having the LTC's in another county AND state. Since the majority of the teams qualified for the LTC are in the counties of Steuben, Dekalb or Noble it makes perfect sense to house the LTC's in one of those counties. I'm sure no one would complain then. Our APA League office should strike a deal with someone in one of those counties and have the LTC's at THAT LOCATION EVERY YEAR !! I think I can speak for several of my friends and others in our league by saying I would NOT have continued playing in the APA AND paying annual dues AND $7.00 per night if Allan had told me in January we would be playing the LTC's in Kalamazoo, Michigan !! It's absolutely ridiculus. Maybe we should ALL quit playing in the APA and start our own league. Kaleena, do you know how I can contact the National Charter of the APA? I would love to have a phone or email address so I could let them know what's going on. If anyone has any information on this please leave the info here or call me at 260-316-0809. Isn't there a new TAPS league coming to our area? Maybe we should ALL quit the APA and join their league. Geeeeeeezzzzzzz............ |
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sir_randy
Starting Member
6 Posts
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Posted 04/28/2010 : 4:18:21 PM
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| Dennis, I agree aboout the money we spent to win a berth in the LTC and will probably not be able to compete in since 1/2 my Team is from Ft Wayne. My rough calculations for my team alone $2176 that we paid Al for the right to try and qualify for the LTC. Lets see, how many teams does the Angola area have in both 8 ball and 9 ball, times how much money each team paid over the course of the year, for what? And then you look at this session there were 41 Teams (we are talking just 8 ball Teams here)in Steuben/Dekalb/Noble which would make it approximately $89,216 for this session. And then you figure 3 sessions, for approximately $267,646 that was paid to Al by the poolplayers from Steuben/DeKalb/Noble, and we are suppose to go to Kalamazoo for the LTC? ENOUGH! |
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sir_randy
Starting Member
6 Posts
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Posted 04/28/2010 : 4:40:41 PM
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My calcualtions were off........
$1880 per Team times 41 Team is $77080 per session times 3 sessions would be $231,240 from our area.
But still! |
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Tweety59
Starting Member
1 Posts
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Posted 04/28/2010 : 6:41:00 PM
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| since Al bought St.Joseph County in Michigan, almost 6 years ago. We as a part of NEIAPA have driven to Angola every year with the exception of 1 year when we played in Sturgis without complaint and now that you Indiana players have to drive it's a catastrophe. I feel you are being unreasonable, he is doing the best he can, I think you need to talk to him and find out what the situation was. Maybe the solution to this would be to separate Michigan from Indiana. since you whiney babies can't take the drive. Even though we did it for 5 years! either deal with it or quit! |
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Gambler Captain
Starting Member
You can do anything you set your mind to! |
Posted 04/28/2010 : 7:21:10 PM
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| Being a player from St. Joseph County, MI and qualifying to shoot in LTC for 8-ball, 9- ball and 9- ball doubles the last couple of years and 8- ball and 9- ball every year I have had to drive from Sturgis,MI to Angola a lot!!!! With this being said I can understand the difficulty with traveling, mileage, expense etc. Having LTC in Kalamazoo will not save me much in mileage, money or time this year either since it is roughly the same distance as Angola. Between Branch County and St. Joseph County, MI we have 54 teams in the league. This is definitely a significant number of teams with a vested interest. All of these teams have made the sacrifice in time, money and mileage for several years as was mentioned above. A good solution would be a location between Angola and here, but that has not been possible as of yet. Another possible solution could be to have an Indiana LTC and a Michigan LTC. Before Al bought MI we had to travel all the way to Jackson, MI for a chance to win a trip to Vegas. It comes down to the fact that in order to shoot pool it requires a certain amount of sacrifice. It's up to each individual and team to decide what sacrifices they are willing and able to make in order to play pool! |
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Kaleena
Starting Member
6 Posts
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Posted 04/29/2010 : 06:54:36 AM
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We are still working on tring to find a location somewhere close so everyone can attend and have there chance(right) at getting there shot at there trip to Vegas! I understand what you guys from St.Joe County are saying as far as having to make the hour trip to Angola every year for LTC. Being that we shoot out of Noble/Dekalb counties we know that we will probably never host a LTC, so we know every year that we are going to have to travel at least an hour to get our chance and we have no problem with that. But we think its a little unfair to have to travel 2 hours. Maybe if we would've had a longer notice we could have arranged something around work and kids to make this trip, but not on a 5-6 week lead time. If Michigan and Indiana are going to be combined and play in the same LTC i feel that Angola, Coldwater or Sturgis would be the most central locations. If that means we have to drive an hour so be it, but its not 2 hours. We need help finding a location somewhere and we need to book this location years in advance so we dont have this problem. And instead of everyone bitching at everyone(which is where these replies are starting to go) lets all put out freaking heads together and make this league FUN again. If we need to lets have a meeting somewhere and get everyone to get ideas on where we can have this at. And dont start pointing fingers cause that is not going to solve anything.
Brad Cole |
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joann
Starting Member
3 Posts
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Posted 04/29/2010 : 07:54:29 AM
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Tweety59, you are right about what you are saying about coming to Angola to play in the LTC. But you knew from the beginning that it was going to be played in Angola. We was not informed about the change until this pass week that it wasn't going to be played in Angola, I believe if we had more notice it won't have been such a surprise to us. With peoples work schedule and child care you need more than just 5 weeks notice. I hope something is worked out for everyone because it is a fun league but the surprises lately sure makes you want to stop playing pool in this league.
Jo Tedrow
Jo ann Tedrow |
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Gambler Captain
Starting Member
You can do anything you set your mind to! |
Posted 04/29/2010 : 10:09:58 AM
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| I agree with Brad Cole's comments. People need to work together for the best possible solution for everyone involved. With this late notice that is not going to be easy. However, we need to find something that is as fair for all of us as possible and something that is comprobable for everyone in the future. |
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Erik S
Starting Member
26 Posts
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Posted 04/29/2010 : 10:25:23 AM
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I agree with Justin. I don't think from anything I heard from other players that anyone would have had a problem with any location (Angola, Coldwater, Sturgis, Kalamzoo, Fort Wayne, Jackson, etc) if they knew before spring session. You would build your spring roster to make it work or join a team that would be able to play, very simple. As a matter of fact, having it rotate to differnet locations be fair to all league members is a great idea.
The problem is right now you can't change your rosters. As a captain you told your players where and when they had to play and it got moved 1.75 hours from that location so a large number of people can't play and as a captian your are hearing them not be happy about it.
So as a group let's fix that if possible and work together. Regionals is always the best time of the pool year because not only are you playing for the trips, etc, but you get to meet new people and see a lot of people I consider friends that you don't see very often. |
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dennisrmullins
Starting Member
3 Posts
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Posted 04/29/2010 : 12:44:43 PM
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I just talked to John at Piggy's at 12:30 PM today. He said he was just given some information within the last hour that Allan is trying to split the LTC's into 2 locations and apparently Piggy's has agreed to be one of them. Again, I'm not sure this is 100% accurate information but it sounds like Allan is working on it and splitting the locations sounds like a great idea to me. So at this point I think we should give Allan the benefit of the doubt and let him try to make this right with our league players and give him a little break from our complaining. I'm sure his job is tougher than we think and hopefully he will find an acceptable solution for all of us.
Dennis Mullins |
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Gambler Captain
Starting Member
You can do anything you set your mind to! |
Posted 04/29/2010 : 5:32:12 PM
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Dennis is correct I talked to Al yesterday and he said he was trying to split it between Piggys and another club in Angola if possible. He was checking into the same location we had it at in 2006 the last I knew. I can't remember the name of that club though. I think it was The American Legion in Angola. Al is trying to find a solution he would have had it in Sturgis if anyone could have come up with a location big enough and not already booked, but no one was able to as of yet.
Justin |
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