Challenge Match and Youth Day
We are pleased to announce that Mr. Ken Shuman and Mr. John Leyman will co-direct this year’s U.S. Open. They will also have the experienced Sherri Bruner to assist them. Thank you Ken and John very much. Welcome aboard Sherri!
As usual, this is a WPA sanctioned event and we thank Ian Anderson and Skip Nemecek for being so supportive over the years.
The itinerary plans will be the following. Saturday at the Marriott from noon till 3 pm we will begin another U.S. Open tradition by having “Youth Day” where the future players of tomorrow can meet and play some pool with many past champions and other greats of the game. There is no charge to bring your kids and enjoy the afternoon.
At 3 pm Saturday Ken and John will conduct the players meeting also at the Marriott. Food will be served for the players at 5 pm. The flow charts will be up around 9 pm Saturday night with matches beginning Sunday night with 3 rounds of play at 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30.
Then, at Q Master Billiards on Saturday night at 7pm, we will conduct a U.S. Open Champions ring game between 2 time champion, Darren Appleton along with our defending champion, Shane Van Boening and 5 time U.S. Open Champion Mr. Earl Strickland who has just come off of winning Mike Zuglan’s Turning Stone Event last weekend. When we called Earl yesterday, he said, “Tell those boys he has another title, number 6, in his sights then his record will be out of reach.” This winner-take-all $1,000 matchup is so exciting we have goose bumps just writing this today. There are 50 theatre reserved seats for sale at only $20.00 to enjoy along with bench seating for 50-75 more people at no charge. To reserve a seat to this exciting ring game; give Christine a call at Q-Master Billiards 757-499-8900. Also, all other tables in our tournament room will be in action during the challenge. What a way to kick off this years’ 38th Annual U.S. Open. How do you like it?
We both want everyone to have a great time all week long this year, as we move forward rebuilding some of our stumbling blocks from the past.
Play will be as follows:
Monday thru Friday match times will begin at 10 am, noon, 2pm and 4 pm. Evening matches will be 6:30, 8:30 and 10:30. Starting each day at 10 am and not taking a two hour dinner break, as the buffet will be from 5pm to 8 pm, allows us to not have any late night matches as in the past where we had matches beginning at midnight or later. This scenario allows us to have 7 rounds per day which is one more than before and also having shorter days/nights for everyone. We are sure everyone will be happy about this and now can go to Q-Masters earlier or to bed.
Then as usual on our final day, Saturday October 19th, we will be down to our final 4 players with match times at 1 pm, Semi’s at 3 pm and “The Finals” at 7pm.
Of course the after party to celebrate our 2013 Champion at Q-Masters is always a fans and players delightful way to end the week.
We took a lot of time to generate this year’s floor plans and must have changed it at least 50 times before finally getting it right after last year’s debacle.
Our main ballroom will consist of our T.V. arena surrounded with 4 rows of high seating for 200 VIP seats which are about sold out. We will install an 8ft T.V. screen into VIP section beaming play from the 8 table area and also another large 8ft screen beaming the T.V. match into general admission for all to be able to see the entire room. Again, we have made sure to dot every “I” and cross every “T”, as Shannon and I know we have much to make up for this year.
As everyone knows the $50,000 added has been in escrow for many weeks as well as all paid entry fees going into the same account. We also will be gladly adding around $9,000 in additional funds to make up for the early bird specials that players gladly took advantage of. We have even more wonderful things going on all week. Another goal of ours is to fill the field at 256 players for 2014 and if so we will be increasing our added money from $50,000 to $72,000 and have another $200,000.00 U.S.Open and we feel after this year’s success that will occur. We hope for the best from this year forward especially in paying players without delay. We thank Johnny Archer and Mr. Dennis Walsh from the ABP.
Finally, we want to express our gratitude to our sponsors; Diamond Billiard Products, Simonis Cloth and Aramith Billiard Balls along with many others who have been at our sides through thick and thin, including our players and the greatest people on earth, our fans! Also to our vendors, we finally have one long 20 x 120 hallway for everyone to be together this year and everyone will love the Marriott for many years to come. That is our goal.
The main ballroom is 7,200 sq. ft. compared to 4,200 sq. ft. last year and the Riverside Ballroom directly behind the main ballroom will house four tables with seating on each end at no charge. We will also have a two table player’s practice room near the other two rooms.
Again, we have worked very hard to please everyone and we feel great going into this year’s 38th Annual U.S. Open 9 Ball Championship!
The question is can Shane repeat after Mika and Darren prior to last year? We will find out very soon. Everyone be safe coming and leaving Chesapeake again.
We love you all very much.
Barry and Shannon
We have been so busy and excited getting everything ready, we almost forgot about some of our sponsorship opportunities.. It’s not too late!
SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
TITLE SPONSOR $20,000.00
ARENA SPONSOR $ 5,000.00
ARENA PANELS $1,000.00 (3-4 LEFT)
VENDOR SPACE $ 500.00 - $800.00
(2-3 LEFT DEPENDING ON 8FT OR 16 FT SPACE)
WE HAVE JUST ENOUGH TIME TO SATISFY YOUR DESIRES.
EMAIL US AT usopen9ball@yahoo.com
