United States Professional Poolplayers Association
Open-knowledge reference entry
The United States Professional Poolplayers Association (UPA) is the governing body for the sport of men's professional pool in the United States, as well as the organizer of a major national amateur league, and a variety of pro and amateur tournaments. The organization, now based in Manhattan, was founded in January 2002 in Arizona by professional players, to replace several competing and dysfunctional men's professional pool organizations which had suffered years of problems such as inability to pay out winnings or to keep a stable schedule of competitions. UPA was formerly named the United States Pool Players Association, and has also frequently been unofficially referred to as USPPA or USPA, especially in reference to its professional side versus its amateur UPA League operations. The UPA Tour series of pro tournaments cover multiple pool disciplines, including eight-ball, nine-ball, ten-ball, and straight pool; the amateur UPA National Championships are team eight- and nine-ball events. The organization also offers instructional programs, and event promotion/production for pool tournaments and trade shows.
On the professional side, the Billiard Congress of America, which is the World Pool-Billiard Association (WPA) US-national affiliate, officially recognizes the UPA as the men's pro pool competition association for the United States, making it the present counterpart of the Women's Professional Billiards Association (WPBA). On the amateur side, UPA is one of a half-dozen or so major national leagues.
UPA League
In the 2000s, UPA launched an amateur league program named the UPA League (originally the League of Champions); UPA describes it as "a pool league designed by professionals for the serious player." While it is mostly team-based, UPA also offers singles competition, and is not gender-or age-divided, which is an unusual lack of categorization. Most distinguishing of all is that league members can use their singles match records in the league to leverage their way into formal professional play as ranked UPA Touring Professional Program (UPA Tour) members, qualified to compete in pro-only events. For example, a record of 20 UPA League singles matches within the year, and payment of the UPA Tour membership fee, qualifies a player to compete in the Vegas Bar Box Championships.
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