Croquet Goes Pro!

What do you get when you have a group of top players sitting courtside at a recent Nationals in lovely Palm Springs, asking themselves, “What’s next? What else can we do for this fascinating sport of ours?” You get the Professional Croquet Association (PCA) and ideas for a series of events called the “PCA Tour.”

Knowing that the PCA would be a complement to the USCA rather than a competitor, its primary goals include the development of exciting, newsworthy, sponsored events in competitive croquet, and to create an opportunity for competitors to earn money playing the game.

In fact, the goals of the PCA go well beyond the monetary aspects including: increasing the competitiveness of American players, raising awareness of the sport by developing events that are highly publicized and sponsored; and to help host clubs drive new membership by drawing prospective players from the community to view top level play.

According to PCA board member Macey White, “These Tour events will be different from the average croquet tournament.  For most of the PCA Tour events there will be live streaming of games, a media presence and players who will not be wearing all white but colors representing their sponsorships or other affiliations.  The games will be announced and open for the media and spectators who will be encouraged to applaud great play.”

Players are selected for the tour based on their performance in regional and national USCA competitions and a full list of all tour eligible players can be found on the PCA website https://professionalcroquetassociation.com/.  In addition to these tour eligible players, each club that hosts a PCA Tour event will be given 4 wild card spots in that tournament to be distributed at that Club’s discretion.

All competitors in these tournaments will receive prize money.  The winner will receive half of the purse, 2nd place will receive half of what the winner receives, 3rd place will receive half of what the 2nd place receives and so on right down to the last place finisher.  Purse money is a combination of endorsements, sponsorship money and a portion of the entry fees.  The purse for the first two events is guaranteed to be at least $2000 each and the purse will increase by $100 for every player who enters the tournament over 20 entries and will increase with sponsorship, endorsement and advertising revenue.

In addition to prize money, each tour eligible player who participates in a tour event will receive a PCA Tour Card that they can wear on their clothing.

The PCA is advised by a who’s who of top US players who include Danny Huneycutt, Sherif Abdelwahab, Randy Cardo, Mohammad Kamal, Steven Morgan, Brian Cumming, Doug Grimsley and Leo McBride.  The PCA organizational officers, who have agreed not to take financial compensation are Macey White, Tom Cooper, Russ Dilley, Conner Helms and Shane Hettler.

The full details of the 2020 tour are still being formulated, however the first two Tour events scheduled are an American 6-Wicket PCA Tour event at the Chesapeake Bay Croquet Club on May 1-3 and an Association Croquet PCA Tour event at Pinehurst on June 26-28.  A 2020 Golf Croquet Tour event is also in the planning stages.

The PCA is accepting sponsorships and advertising.  Most of the advertising and sponsorship money will go into the Tour event purse and some will help defray PCA event operating and advertising costs.  Businesses or individuals who want to help sponsor or advertise through the PCA Pro Tour have several sponsorship packages to choose from.  Depending on the package, sponsors can have advertising placed in the tour printed programs, signage at the events and even have tournaments or the entire tour named after them.

The PCA Tour, with broad support and a viewpoint of expanding the sport, promises to help promote Croquet with exciting streamed events, increased media attention and top-level players battling it out on the courts.  It should be a great show for the participants and spectators alike.