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Headstring News
IPT News Alert: The Party's (Probably) Over Until 2007
Oct 30, 2006, 5:12 PM
In a short press release sent early Monday evening, officials with the multimillion-dollar International Pool Tour announced that they were postponing the three remaining events in the 2006 season — marking the latest scheduling upheaval in the troubled tour's debut season.
The events in question are the $1.27 million IPT Masters 8-Ball Championship, set for Nov. 26-Dec. 3 in Chicago, Ill.; and the $1 million King of the Hill Invitational and 2007 Tour Qualifier, both set for Dec. 12-17 in Las Vegas. The events likely would be postponed until February or March of 2007, and both likely would take place in Chicago, the release stated.
The announcement came as the 200 players from the IPT's World 8-Ball Open Championship spent their seventh week waiting for $3 million in prize money from the event, which took place Sept. 2-10. The following event, the IPT's $1.27 million Players 8-Ball Championship, set for Oct. 22-29 in London, was cancelled in early September.
The tour's pending acquisition by Asian billionaire Stanley Ho was among the reasons for postponing the season's remaining events, according to the release. Details were not provided.
Billiards Digest will have more news as it becomes available. Here's the full text of the announcement:
The International Pool Tour's Masters Championship, King of the Hill and Tour Card Tournaments are officially being rescheduled. These schedule changes are due to many factors, many relating to the Ho Interactive acquisition and financing schedule being pushed back due to recent legislation signed into law relating to online gaming. New dates for these events will be published in the coming days as the IPT event team is in contact with each of the venues. Tentatively, the IPT is targeting February and March for these tournaments and they will most likely be held in Chicago.
The IPT offers its sincerest apologies for those players and fans who have already made travel arrangements to attend these events. Players who have played in qualification tournaments and won qualifying spots in the 2007 Tour Card Tournament will be contacted shortly with the new dates. Again, the IPT apologizes for the inconvenience. Due to the fact that the IPT Masters Championship needs to be played in order to complete the field for the Tour Card Tournament, it was impossible to keep this event scheduled as-is.
Please note that these events are not cancelled, but rather in the process of being rescheduled. The moment that new dates are secured, there will be an announcement made. It is expected that within a couple of days new dates will be secured for each of these events. The Masters Championship will still be considered a 2006 event, thus prize earnings in that tournament will be reflected on the Money List for 2006.
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