Cue Sports International Expo
What Happened in Vegas It was, to say the least, a tumultuous week in the history of Cue Sports International (CSI).
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n early March, amidst growing concerns about the spread of the corona virus, CSI was faced with a number of decisions about a set of upcoming scheduled events at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. There was a long list of things that had to be taken into consideration; signed contracts, already-made travel arrangements on the part of prospective attendees and vendors, as well as what CSI management was hearing from local, state and federal officials about plans to limit the spread of the corona virus.
26 | Billiards Buzz • May 2020
“You never make a decision like that in a vacuum,” said CSI owner/CEO Ozzy Reynolds. “Even prior to setting up, we were having conversations with (representatives from) the Rio and paying attention to what the Trump administration was saying.” “We weren’t ostriches,” he added. “We agreed at the time, that with the available information we had, things were not serious enough to do anything but hold the event.” There were, of course, people at the time who expressed opinions that
they should cancel. They heard those voices, continued staying alert for changes in the information at hand and kept meeting with all concerned to maintain a dialogue on the developing situation. They had re-scheduled their annual Cue Sports International Expo from its previous late-July slot to mid-March, and planning for the event, to include the four-day Diamond Las Vegas Open, had begun almost immediately when the late July, 2019 event had finished. The 2020 event got underway on March 10 (DAY ONE), the day
