Captain’s Log, February 22nd, 2015

2 weeks ago rumors started swirling that the Riviera Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas was going to be sold. Frankly, it’s been sold many times during our lengthy tenure there for both our Southwest Challenge tournaments and the APA National Team and Singles Championships, so we weren’t really all that worried. But, the very next week the rumor was becoming clear that it was being sold to someone who was planning on tearing it down. As some of you may or may not know, APA’s national pool tournaments require extreme advance notice. These casinos rely on booking their convention space and filling their hotel with guests sometimes as far as a year or two out. APA actually had a 10 year contract with the Riviera for the National event at one time. So, you can imagine that the APA tournament department really jumped into high gear when they were informed that the Riviera was going to be razed. It’s very difficult finding a new location on short notice. However, not only was APA able to land a new location for the National Championships for this coming August, but they secured the location for 2016, as well. APA was also kind enough to include our APA Southwest Challenge events in their package deal with this new location, so starting this Fall, all of the APA events that you’ve grown to love over the years will be moving to the Westgate Casino. Huh? I know, many of you have never heard of the Westgate Casino. However, you probably have heard or have even stayed at the Las Vegas Hilton, which was basically right out the back door from the Riviera. It was the Las Vegas Hilton, then became the LVH (Las Vegas Hotel) and more recently became Westgate. This will be an excellent venue for our future events.

Now, we are very excited about this move, but we are deeply saddened that the Riviera will be getting torn down. We have some amazing memories at that hotel, including great memories with people who are no longer with us. It saddens us that there isn’t a way that Las Vegas can grow without tearing down all of the buildings that helped them become what they are today. The good news is that we do have 2 more events taking place before it gets torn down some time in June. Close to 50 teams will be representing San Diego the March APA 8 Ball Southwest Challenge, and then the APA Singles National Championships take place at the end of April and beginning of May. Ironically, Jill and I are scheduled to check out of the Riviera on the very day the Riviera Hotel will close down for good. That seems fitting. We will be able to give it a proper send off. The memories will live on in our minds, and while they weren’t always the best of times at the Riviera, we will only remember the good ones. Even some of the bad ones became funny enough stories to be good ones today. As we get closer to the closing of the Riviera, we will be sharing some of our favorite memories of the Riviera on our SDAPA Facebook page. If you haven’t liked us on your Facebook page, please consider doing so. We make announcements quite often there and if you visit our page occasionally, those announcements are more likely to show up in your news feed.