When I first moved to Houston in 2001 there were around a 100 rooms classified as pool halls not including bars. Most of these rooms had terrible equipment, terrible food and service. As the popularity of pool dipped over the next 15 years many of these rooms closed and it felt like pool was contracting. Over the last 5 years several newer more well equipped rooms opened offering better refreshments. At the moment 4 new high end rooms are going to open soon in the southeast Houston metro alone. Leagues are blowing up with the addition of the upl. I can’t remember a time when there were more well attended weekly tournaments than now across the metro. On the other side of the coin with the exception of last year the Houston open is gone. The space city open is gone and the big tyme classic is also no more. Only one room in the metro is capable of hosting a big tournament on 9 footers but none currently exist. There is the lone star tour but that is played on bar boxes and doesn’t draw a big field of national and international players. All in all Houston is doing well just nothing resembling big pro events or rooms able to groom elite talent.
The Grand, in Austin, hosts leagues all the time. They have plenty of 8 and 9 foot tables. League play is always on the 8 foot tables. I heard a room owner say he makes more money on league nights than tournament nights. He sees the money is in league play with extra seating for nonplayers to watch, eat and drink. That sounds like more 7 and 8 foot tables will be the growth area for the near future. The BadBoys' Texas Bar Table Championships in Temple, TX kept 42 7' Diamond tables going late into the night for a full week. It was a very family friendly event.
I saw zero advertising for Pro billiards. I saw no SVB, Filler or Gorst shirts for sell. Could be an untapped market? The Olympics could fuel interest in 9 foot tables with 9ball but 8 ball seems content with a smaller table. I understand Heyball is played on an 8' table as well.
