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Team USA and the future of the Mosconi

Rocket354
kollegedave said:
The people here mentioning parents are right to include them as a significant factor. I agree with the sentiments of SJM here, but I would go a bit further.

Using the moneyboard on the AZBilliards home page (and I will admit that I don't know how accurate it is) Wiktor Zielinski has made about 86k by September, with some events remaining in the year. He may likely gross 100k plus sponsorships and minus expenses. The expense number here is surely not small.

White collar professions are offering less and less with an increasing cost to access jobs and stay in those jobs. The cost to enter these professions versus the payoff is diminishing, if the trajectory continues, we will reach a tipping point. I don't think we are there yet. Blue-collar jobs are cheaper to enter and are currently offering extremely high upsides related to the cost.

I think parents would look at this moneyboard and think, "is my kid more likely to be a mediocre HVAC professional, plumber, diesel mechanic, accountant, lawyer, financial planner, etc. or a world class pool player like Wiktor?" Additionally, I believe Poland has some kind of publicly funded healthcare. American players (if they are smart) are paying for individual private healthcare, which is expensive. Still further, parents are always concerned about grandkids. Can a pool player make enough to sustain not just himself, but a family?

There is more to life than a salary and benefits. Some of that "more to life" is achieved when you live out a dream and win the U.S. Open hill-hill on ESPN, and some of that "more to life" is accessed when you walk with your wife and kids to the bus stop on the first day of school.

Currently, pool players have to choose which priceless moments to pursue. Until pool can pay enough money to allow a player to support a family and enough to compensate him (and his family) for him missing walks to the bus stop, pool will have a problem. Right now, maybe the absolute top players make an amount that approaches this? But then the question gets worse, "Is my kid more likely to be a mediocre HVAC professional or Fedor Gorst?"

Parents will look at the AZBilliards money board and tell their kids the deposits are too light. The good news is that some kids don't listen to their parents.

kollegedave
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Pool payouts are attractive to those in countries not as rich as the US. For many families in the Philippines, Vietnam, eastern Europe, etc, pool can be a financially lucrative aspiration. For those in the US, trying to be a professional pool player is a lot of effort for a payout that, for anyone not in the top-10 in the world, is less than a typical FT worker. Even if you are in the top-10 in the world, you are earning as much as, what, a middle manager in a decent-sized corporation?

The payouts will increase when popularity increases. Popularity will increase when more people are involved. More people will be involved when
payouts increase, er, more people regularly enjoy the game, which means more people are able to safely play the game as kids.
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Team USA and the future of the Mosconi

Rocket354
Cord said:
My gut reaction is, "demand." A great place near me has five beautiful 9' Diamonds, and ten or eleven 7' Diamonds. $6/hr table time; $3 draft pints. On any number of occasions, I've seen all of the barboxes in use, and none of the big tables.
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Barboxes are also what the overwhelming majority of leagues play on, and of course tournaments, as well. I know a lot of people who play/practice on them because they want to play/practice on the same tables they compete on. The underlying issue is businesses can get more tables and therefore more revenue into any one space with them and so they've taken over.
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Team USA and the future of the Mosconi

Rocket354
sjm said:
I think both the WNT and the Predator PBS are starting to make some headway in making pool more respectable, but I think the bigger issue is the culture of the poolroom itself. Until the typical poolroom is a place where parents are comfortable leaving their children to play, participation among juniors will disappoint, and I do not think we have accomplished this yet in America. It will help if televised pool causes parents to have more respect for the game, but unless they come to view the poolroom scene as respectable, it may not be enough.
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Agreed. A pool table is difficult for a lot of families to dedicate an entire room to, not to mention the actual cost and effort involved in getting one. So the only option is to go to the publicly available pool tables. Most of those are cordoned off in bars where one has to be 21. So it's quite difficult for kids to get regular access to a pool table. Until that happens, pool in the US will lag the rest of the world.

Compounding the issue is that most pool rooms, even those accessible to kids, are just dumps. Anecdotally, the closest one to me and the only one that allows kids (until 7? 9? pm at least) is also the cleanest and most respectable one. It just had a shooting a few months ago, in a town that doesn't get many shootings. One farther away is located in one of the worst parts of town with literal crackheads roaming the area and lots of businesses go on lockdown once the sun goes down.

I tried taking my niece and her friend to go play pool a few years ago, to another pool hall that allowed kids during the day. Going into the bathroom there was literal pornography plastered on the walls.

It is a steep and treacherous uphill climb we face to get pool to where it is accessible and appropriate for kids. I don't know what the solution is, but for now it is a catch-22. Pool is not popular with kids, therefore no one makes it accessible to kids. But because it isn't accessible, no kids can grow up loving the sport and it won't be popular with them.

It is no coincidence that Shane grew up in a pool-loving family with access to pool tables from a very young age. Until that situation is more common for kids, the US will never be competitive on the international stage.
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