Dec 9, 2020 | Latest News, LO Spotlight, SCORE Articles
While we know you’ve only been with us a short time, what has been the biggest highlight of being League Operators so far?
It’s late September, and we just became League Operators. What do we do? How do we get the word out? How do we get the word out and give something back? Breast Cancer Awareness? That’s it. We created, scheduled, and put on a great Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament in a few short weeks. We received tons of support—from pool great Jeanette Lee, to BC Billiards (our new Host Location we call BC’s), to local businesses that donated over $3,000 in retail for the raffles.
As it turned out, the tournament was actually BC’s grand opening! We have to mention the absolute dedication that the BC’s team and numerous APA players showed, not to mention BC’s friends that pitched in with their time and energy just to get the pool hall ready for the event. As a new pool hall, could you imagine having a 64-man APA tournament with a pro like Jeanette Lee for your grand opening?! We could not have asked for a better start to our relationship with BC’s! It was the best day we could have imagined for ourselves as new League Operators. Of course, there were a few minor glitches that will just allow us to improve in the future, but overall it was a day we will never forget.
We couldn’t have pulled it off without the great support system the APA offers. We’ve had endless ideas, wisdom and insight from across the APA Network. Traci and Peggy were great! Kevin and Ashley Morgan, Walter and Alix Jarrett, and Jeff and Cassie Howell were all unbelievable! Jeanette Lee (and Gene) and Mike Massey made us look like rock stars!
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to overcome?
Ask anyone and they’ll probably to say COVID-19…and understandably so. It’s impacting everyone. For us though, the challenge has been the lack of APA awareness in this area. In our seven counties, we have one with teams, two that had teams in the past, and another four with absolutely no knowledge or experience with the APA. We now have teams about to start in three counties, and one of the most common remarks we hear is, “I can’t believe something like this exists!” So, our challenge has been simply making people aware of how amazing our product is!
You purchased a League with relatively few teams and tripled your team count during the pandemic. What is the primary factor you would attribute to your rapid growth?
We have to say it’s been creating word of mouth…the great feedback from our current players that have spoken to more people on our behalf. A great example for us will always be the relationship with our first two venues. When we took over, five teams played in-house League at the All-American Bar & Grill. At about the same time, an entrepreneur named David Trent leased the All-American Bar & Grill and renamed it Dave’s American Grill. We instantly created a relationship with David, helping him locate a better table vendor who took the location from two tables to four tables plus multiple new games and machines. As you can imagine, David not only supports our League as a business partner, but he, his mom and a few friends all play on both 8-Ball and 9-Ball teams here in Sebring. So, creating and leveraging relationships has been a big part of our early success!
Another big step forward for us was developing a relationship with BC Billiards, the Host Location for the above-mentioned Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament. Bill Dixon and Carl Andrews both played APA previously. Along with their partner, JR Smith, they have truly created one of the best pool halls we have ever set foot in! Before our friendship started though, BC’s (while still under construction) had sworn off APA forever. Even worse, they stated their main marketing goal was to create an in-house league to compete against the APA. But, through great word of mouth from our players, awesome conversations with us, and the wonderful experience of helping each other start our businesses, they are now one of our (and APA’s) biggest supporters! Bill and Carl have an 8-Ball team in our League as well as housing three others, while Bill is also on a 9-Ball team and houses two teams for 9-Ball. BC Billiards will also be a fantastic tournament venue for us.
Relationships are the single most important part of this business, both with the players, and with your Host Location partners. Treasure those relationships!
With all the competition today, what distinguishes your League from the rest? What motivates you to keep growing?
In our area we don’t have the traditional BCA, TAP, and Valley competition. Our biggest obstacle to overcome is lack of awareness—no leagues or tournaments before APA arrived. If you have that same situation, schedule your play for the local venue’s slow nights. As for what distinguishes our League from the rest, we offer a ton of patches for our players to earn. Also, a traveling division champions trophy that’s housed in the Division Champs home venue, which we view/promote as a Stanley Cup type for our League. Lastly, we believe we make a great captain’s pack that all Team Captains receive which, hopefully, makes their job a little easier and shows them we appreciate the extra effort. It includes a copy of the bylaws, our playoff structure, our MVP Program, our Patch Exchange Program, our Showdown Series flier, How to Keep Score forms, Sportsmanship Complaint forms, the APA Official Team Manual, envelopes and Captain and Co-Captain Patches.
What motivates us is simply the knowledge that there’s always a new division waiting to be started in a new area where we can help people Have Fun, Meet People and Play Pool!
Share your favorite way to recruit players and/or build teams with us.
We spoke about the great word-of-mouth from players. We’ve had a lot of friends of friends join. It’s fun to have the ability to enter the local tournaments and get to know the people that play. We have some good conversations with them and get them interested in the APA. A great tool for us has been bringing in pro players to get the attention and word-of-mouth in the first place. Jeanette Lee for the Breast Cancer Awareness Tournament was the best! In the next two weeks we have three shows with Mike Massey in different parts of our area as well. Being players, and fans of pool before becoming League Operators, this has been exciting for us on a personal and professional level. Definitely use your passion for pool to keep you motivated when it comes to being out there and building teams!