Billiard Congress of America

Last updated

The Billiard Congress of America (BCA) is the governing body for cue sports in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Puerto Rico, and the regional member organization of the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA). [1] It was established under this name in 1948 [2] as a 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]

Contents

The BCA publishes an annual rule and record book that incorporates the WPA world standardized rules for games such as nine-ball, eight-ball, ten-ball and straight pool, as well as rules for other games that are not presently the subject of international competition, 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 Brunswick-Balke-Collender company, a major equipment manufacturer. After a decline in influence in the late 1930s, in part owing to a dispute with world carom billiards champion Willie Hoppe, the NBAA reformed in 1941 as the Billiard Association of America (BAA). [7] [8] Headquartered in 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 World Pool-Billiard Association's standardized rules for eight-ball, nine-ball, and other games subject to international professional competition. The BCA had by this time become the national affiliate of the WPA. In the new edition of the rules, the organization expressed a commitment to seeing pool and carom billiards become Olympic sports (and in fact selected Colorado Springs for its new headquarters for proximity to 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

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 [15] ) is the largest mostly-cue-sports trade convention in the world,[ citation needed ] and despite its broad name is primarily focused on pool (pocket billiards). It has been held in various locations, most frequently Las Vegas, Nevada, since its founding in 1984. [15] The Expo is exclusively sponsored by the BCA (and its members), [3] [5] and is managed by William T. Glasgow, Inc. of Orland Park, Illinois. [5] [16] The expressed purpose of the event is to "provide industry manufacturers, distributors, retailers, dealers and poolroom operators an annual venue for new business opportunities, including education, new products and networking." [3] Vendor attendance in 2006 was nearly 300 companies filling between 1,300 and 1,400 10 sq ft (0.93 m2) booth spaces. [15] [17] The June 25–27, 2009 event at the 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 Charlotte, North Carolina, Houston, Texas, Baltimore, Maryland, New Orleans, Louisiana, Kansas City, Missouri, Orlando, Florida, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Nashville, Tennessee, Louisville, Kentucky, and 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 [19] to elect "billiard media members to the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame Board". [19] This media-focused suborganization also lists other goals in its materials, including "elevating the visibility and status of billiards in the media at large" as well as various member-support functions. [19] Membership is strictly limited to "professional print, radio, TV, public relations and Internet media persons who cover cue sports", as determined by the USBmA executive board. [19] As of February 2010, the group listed 33 members, including most of the better-known names in US-based cue sports publishing. [19] USBmA is nominally based in Chicago, Illinois, at the same address as Billiards Digest (Luby Publishing). [19]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cue sports</span> Table games using cues and billiard balls

Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as cushions. Cue sports are also collectively referred to as billiards, though this term has more specific connotations in some varieties of English.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eight-ball</span> Pool game popular in much of the world

Eight-ball is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, cue sticks, and sixteen billiard balls. The object balls include seven solid-colored balls numbered 1 through 7, seven striped balls numbered 9 through 15, and the black 8 ball. After the balls are scattered with a break shot, a player is assigned either the group of solid or striped balls once they have legally pocketed a ball from that group. The object of the game is to legally pocket the 8-ball in a "called" pocket, which can only be done after all of the balls from a player's assigned group have been cleared from the table.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nine-ball</span> Type of cue sport

Nine-ball is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with pockets at each of the four corners and in the middle of each long side. Using a cue stick, players must strike the white cue ball to pocket nine colored billiard balls, hitting them in ascending numerical order. An individual game is won by the player pocketing the 9 ball. Matches are usually played as a race to a set number of racks, with the player who reaches the set number winning the match.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">English billiards</span> Cue sport combining the disciplines of carom and pocket billiards

English billiards, called simply billiards in the United Kingdom and in many former British colonies, is a cue sport that combines the aspects of carom billiards and pool. Two cue balls and a red object ball are used. Each player or team uses a different cue ball. It is played on a billiards table with the same dimensions as one used for snooker and points are scored for cannons and pocketing the balls.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willie Mosconi</span> American pool player (1913–1993)

William Joseph Mosconi was an American professional pool player from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mosconi is widely considered one of the greatest pool players of all time. Between the years of 1941 and 1957, he won the World Straight Pool Championship nineteen times. For most of the 20th century, his name was essentially synonymous with pool in North America – he was nicknamed "Mr. Pocket Billiards" – and he was among the first Billiard Congress of America Hall of Fame inductees. Mosconi pioneered and regularly employed numerous trick shots, set many records, and helped to popularize pool as a national recreation activity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Straight pool</span> Cue sport

Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a cue sport in which two competing players attempt to pocket as many object balls as possible without playing a foul. The game was the primary version of pool played in professional competition until it was superseded by faster-playing games like nine-ball and eight-ball in the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billiard ball</span> Ball used in cue sports

A billiard ball is a small, hard ball used in cue sports, such as carom billiards, pool, and snooker. The number, type, diameter, color, and pattern of the balls differ depending upon the specific game being played. Various particular ball properties such as hardness, friction coefficient, and resilience are important to accuracy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Straight rail</span> Most basic form of carom billiards

Straight rail, also called straight billiards, three-ball billiards, or the free game, is a discipline of carom billiards that is the most basic form of the game. The game is played on a pocketless unmarked billiard table, usually 10 by 5 feet in size, and three billiard balls, one, usually white, that serves as the cue ball for the first player, a second cue ball for the second player, and an object ball, usually red. The object of the game is to score points by striking the player's assigned cue ball with a cue stick so it makes contact with both the opponent's cue ball and the object ball in the same stroke, known as a carom. Games are played to a predetermined number of points.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billiard table</span> Bounded table on which cue sports are played

A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables provide a flat surface usually made of quarried slate, that is covered with cloth, and surrounded by vulcanized rubber cushions, with the whole thing elevated above the floor. More specific terms are used for specific sports, such as snooker table and pool table, and different-sized billiard balls are used on these table types. An obsolete term is billiard board, used in the 16th and 17th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pool (cue sports)</span> Family of cue sports

Pool is a series of cue sports played on a billiard table. The table has six pockets along the rails, into which balls are shot. Of the many different pool games, the most popular include: eight-ball, blackball, nine-ball, ten-ball, seven-ball, straight pool, one-pocket, and bank pool. Eight-ball is the most frequently played discipline of pool, and it is often thought of as synonymous with "pool".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfredo de Oro</span> Cuban pool player (1863–1948)

Alfredo de Oro was a Cuban professional carom billiards and pool player who several times held the world title in both three-cushion billiards and straight pool simultaneously. He was posthumously inducted into the Billiard Congress of America's Hall of Fame in 1967, the first non-American to receive the honor. He was ranked number 4 on the Billiards Digest 50 Greatest Players of the Century.

Cowboy pool is a hybrid pool game combining elements of English billiards through an intermediary game, with more standard pocket billiards characteristics. The game employs four balls, the cue ball and three others, numbered one, three, and five. A game of Cowboy pool is contested as a race to 101 points, with those points being awarded for a host of different shot types. Dating back to 1908, the game is a strictly amateur pastime.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">World Pool Association</span> World governing body for pool billiards

The World Pool Association (WPA) is the international governing body for pool. It was formed in 1987, and was initially headed by a provisional board of directors consisting of representatives from Australia, Americas, Africa, and Europe. As of 2023, the WPA president is Ishaun Singh of South Africa. It is an associate of the World Confederation of Billiards Sports (WCBS), the international umbrella organization that encompasses the major cue sports. WPA is headquartered in Gauteng, South Africa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Artistic billiards</span> Cue sport played on a billiard table

Artistic billiards is a cue sport played on a billiard table. A discipline of carom billiards, players aim to recreate a portion of 76 pre-set shots of varying difficulty against an opponent. Each of the 76 shots has a maximum point value assigned for perfect execution, ranging from a four-point maximum for lowest level difficulty shots, and climbing to an eleven-point maximum. There are a total of 500 points available to a player, representing the combined value of a perfect score on all 76 shots, although not all games are played with the full shot catalogue. The governing body of the sport is the Confédération International de Billard Artistique.

Honolulu, also known as banks, kisses, and combinations or indirect, is a pocket billiards game. Players must pocket all shots in an indirect fashion to reach a set number of points. The game shares some similarities with other cue sports, played on tables and with balls used for pool, but differs with foul points being awarded for regular direct shots.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bottle pool</span> Billiards game

Bottle pool is a billiards game. It combines aspects of both carom and pocket billiards. Played on a standard pool table, the game utilizes three balls and a narrow-necked bottle called a shake or tally bottle. The bottle is traditionally made from leather, and is placed on the table and used as a target for caroms. Those unfamiliar with the game sometimes mistakenly use its name as a synonym for the very different game of kelly pool.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cribbage (pool)</span> Two-player pool game

Cribbage, sometimes called cribbage pool, fifteen points and pair pool, is a two-player pool game that, like its namesake card game, has a scoring system which awards points for pairing groups of balls that total 15. Played on a standard pool table, participants who pocket a ball of a particular number are required to immediately pocket the companion ball that tallies to 15 when added to the prior ball's number. Each pair so pocketed counts as a cribbage; there are seven such pairs, and the 15 ball counts as an eighth by itself after all of the others have been pocketed. The first player to score five cribbages wins the game.

Carom billiards and pool are two types of cue sports or billiards-family games, which as a general class are played with a stick called a cue which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiard table bounded by rubber cushions attached to the confining rails of the table.

American snooker is a cue sport played almost exclusively in the United States, and strictly on a recreational, amateur basis. Diverging from the original game of snooker, rules for American snooker date back to at least 1925, and have been promulgated by the Billiard Congress of America (BCA) since the mid-20th century. The game is in decline, as the standardized international rules have largely supplanted it.

The ACUI Collegiate Pocket Billiards National Championship, in recent years known more specifically as the ACUI Collegiate Nine-ball National Championship, was an amateur United States annual pool competition for university and college students, organized by the Association of College Unions International (ACUI). It was founded in 1937, and was one of ACUI's longest-running programs. In June 2020, the ACUI made the decision to discontinue their National Collegiate Pocket Billiards program.

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. ↑ Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book (50th Anniversary Commemorative ed.). Coralville, IA: Billiard Congress of America (BCA). 1998.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "International Billiards & Home Recreation Expo". BCAExpo.com. Broomfield, CO: BCA. 2010. "Schedule of Events", "Registration", "Exhibitor Information", "Promotional Ideas", "Contact Us" pages. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  6. 1 2 Shamos, Mike (1999). The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards . New York: Lyons Press. p. 27. ISBN   9781558217973 – via Internet Archive.
  7. ↑ Shamos, Mike (1999). The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards . New York: Lyons Press. pp. 27, 160. ISBN   9781558217973 – via Internet Archive.
  8. 1 2 3 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. 1 2 Billiards: The Official Rules and Records Book. 1991. Iowa City: Billiard Congress of America. Foreword.
  10. ↑ Shamos, Mike (1999). The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Billiards . New York: Lyons Press. p. 161. 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "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. 1 2 3 "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. 1 2 "Marketing with BCA". BCA-Pool.com. 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. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "United States Billiard Media Association Home". USBmA.com. Chicago, IL: USBmA. 2007–2010. "Homepage", "Constitution" and "Members" pages. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.