Billiard Congress of America

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
CueSports International
)

The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the

non-profit trade organization[3] in order to promote the sport and organize its players via tournaments at various levels. The BCA is headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado.[4][5] The voting members of the organization are mostly equipment manufacturers.[6]

The BCA publishes an annual rule and record book that incorporates the WPA world standardized rules for games such as

one pocket, bank pool, cowboy pool, rotation, American snooker, and Chicago among many others. The BCA holds an annual trade show, the International Billiards & Home Recreation Expo. Also annually, it inducts great players, and those who have made great contributions to the sport, into the BCA Hall of Fame
.

History

The origins of the BCA began with the National Billiard Association of America (NBAA), founded July 25, 1921. The organization rapidly became the de facto governing body of the sport in the United States, with 35,000 members by 1928, and was closely tied to the

Chicago, Illinois, and calling itself "the Governing Body of Billiards", the BAA produced a concise, portable, inexpensive rulebook of carom and pool games that was to serve as the model for future BCA releases.[8] The BAA in turn became the BCA in 1947.[6][9] The BCA formed with, and for several years shared offices with, the promotional trade association National Billiard Council (NBC), now defunct.[9][10] Early BCA rulebooks were essentially identical to the 1946 BAA edition, including the cover art and the absence of the increasingly popular game nine-ball from the ruleset.[8][11] (Nine-ball did not appear until the 1967 edition.[12]
) The BCA rulebooks have remained in near-annual continuous publication to the present day.

In 2000, the BCA made the major move of adopting the

US Olympic Committee).[13] The rules changes have not been without controversy, as some of them upset US player expectations; various leagues have ignored the new rules and continued with traditional US rules (e.g., in the game of eight-ball, legally pocketing the 8 ball on the break shot has commonly been treated as an instant win).[citation needed
]

BCA Hall of Fame

Main article: Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame

In 1966, the Billiard Congress of America created its

hall of fame to honor people who have been known to enrich the sport, containing two categories — "The Greatest Player", a category including players who played either internationally or nationally for 20 years or more and have won at least one national or international championship, and "The Meritorious Service", a category for players that have made "lasting, memorable and important contributions" to billiards.[14]

International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo

The BCA's annual Billiard Expo (as it is known for short, or simply the Expo, within the industry

Sands Expo and Convention Center in Las Vegas saw 116 exhibitor in 412 booth spaces, with 1,120 buy attendees.[18] The next event will be held June 14 (Wednesday) through 16 (Friday), 2010, at the Las Vegas Convention Center,[3] with registration for attendees opening February 15.[5] These were not the original dates, and some debate surrounded the matter, with the dates being finalized only as late as September 2009, and chosen to ensure maximum attendance by billiard entrepreneurs, most of whom have business peaks on weekends.[3] By the end of the 2009 Expo, 65 companies had already contracted for 326 booth spaces at the 2010 Expo.[3]

The vast majority of attendees are industry insiders, rather than players. In 2006, 94% were billiard retailers, 5% billiard hall operators, and 1% "other" (e.g. bowling and amusement center operators).[15] In 2009, only 70% were retailers.[5] In that year, 83% were from the United States and 7% from Canada, with the remaining 10% being from elsewhere around the world.[5] Despite operators not being in the majority, the event is geared toward them, with "Business of Billiards" seminars on successful hall operation,[5][15] and exhibitors principally in the business of supplying such venues. Exhibiting vendors typically include product lines such as pool equipment (tables, cues, racks, chalk, etc.), billiards-themed apparel and accessories, instructional materials, bar and billiard furniture and furnishings (stools, neon signs, juke boxes, etc.), business services (food processing, point-of-sale computer systems, etc.), other commercial gaming equipment (darts, table shuffleboard, foosball, video games, pinball machines, etc.), plus assorted home recreation categories (poker, home spas and pools, tanning beds, sound systems, outdoors equipment, etc.), and billiard-related services such as cue repair.[15][17] The BCA claims that, as of 2009, 55% of attendees make purchasing decisions for their businesses, 50% buy there, and 20% more buy within one month of the show.[5][16]

While Las Vegas is the most frequent host city for the event, it has also been held in

Ft. Worth, Texas.[15]

As of the 2010 event, the cost per 10 sq ft (0.93 m2) exhibitor booth varied from US$1,350 to $1,800 depending upon BCA membership status. The event ticket price was $100 for non-exhibitors and non-members.[16] These prices were up from $1,200 and $50, respectively, in 2007.[15]

BCA Pool League

The BCA Pool League (BCAPL) is one of the major amateur pool leagues in the United States and is present in over a dozen other countries outside the U.S., with a significant presence in Canada. Originally operated by the BCA, since 2004 the BCAPL has been owned and operated by billiards event promoter CueSports International (CSI) of Henderson, Nevada.

The BCA Pool League has approximately 450 local leagues with 60,000+ members. Leagues are played on both bar-size 7-foot (2.1 m) and regulation 9-foot (2.7 m) tables. Beginning in the 2009/2010 season, CSI introduced a second league, the USA Pool League (USAPL), aimed at a more casual player. Both the BCAPL and USAPL (who share a rulebook) use BCA rules, with the addition of wheelchair rules, team play adaptations, and "Applied Rulings" from years of large-scale tournament administration.

Collegiate National Championship

The US

Collegiate Pocket Billiards National Championship, organized by the Association of College Unions International
(ACUI) since 1937, with separate men's and women's divisions since 1939, is recognized and supported by the BCA. The amateur tournament's annual champions are listed in the BCA's Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book.

United States Billiard Media Association

The United States Billiard Media Association (USBmA) was organized in January 2007

Chicago, Illinois, at the same address as Billiards Digest (Luby Publishing).[19]

See also

References

  1. ^ `"About WPA: Our Members". WPA-Pool.com: The Official Website for the Governing Body of Pool. Sydney, Australia: World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-10-22. Retrieved 2011-11-04. Puerto Rico, though a US territory, and Mexico, though often classified as part of North America geographically, are both instead members of the Latin-American Confederación Panamericana de Billar (CPB) instead.
  2. Coralville, IA
    : Billiard Congress of America (BCA). 1998.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Tyree, Shane (September 15, 2009). "Billiard Congress of America Announces International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo Date Change" (PDF). BCAExpo.com. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 7, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  4. ^ Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book. 2008. Colorado Springs: Billiard Congress of America.
  5. ^
    Broomfield, CO
    : BCA. 2010. "Schedule of Events", "Registration", "Exhibitor Information", "Promotional Ideas", "Contact Us" pages. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  6. ^
    ISBN 9781558217973
    – via Internet Archive.
  7. ISBN 9781558217973
    – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ a b c Official Rule Book for All Pocket and Carom Billiard Games. 1946. Chicago: Billiard Association of America. Cover, frontispiece and p. 26 ("Pocket Billiards Index").
  9. ^ a b Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book. 1991. Iowa City: Billiard Congress of America. Foreword.
  10. ISBN 9781558217973
    – via Internet Archive.
  11. ^ Official Rule Book for All Pocket and Carom Billiard Games. 1950. Toledo, OH: Billiard Congress of America. Cover, frontispiece and p. 26 ("Pocket Billiards Index").
  12. ^ Official Rule and Record Book for All Pocket and Carom Billiard Games. 1967. Toledo, OH: Billiard Congress of America. P. 2 ("Contents").
  13. ^ Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book. 2000. Colorado Springs: Billiard Congress of America. P. iii ("Foreword").
  14. ^ "Hall of Fame". Billiards Congress of America. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h "General Information: International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo". BCA-Pool.com. op. cit. 2006. Archived from the original on April 4, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  16. ^ a b c "International Billiard & Home Recreation Expo 2010 Exhibitor Prospectus" (PDF). BCAExpo.com. op. cit. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on February 15, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  17. ^
    Atlanta, GA: BCA. 2006. Archived from the original
    on February 11, 2010. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  18. ^ Dahlen, Robin (June 29, 2009). "BCA Returns to Vegas for Successful 2009 Expo" (PDF). BCA-Pool.com. op. cit. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 7, 2011. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  19. ^
    Chicago, IL
    : USBmA. 2007–2010. "Homepage", "Constitution" and "Members" pages. Retrieved February 7, 2010.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Billiard_Congress_of_America&oldid=1199836352#CueSports_International"