I don’t listen to DogginIt much anymore because Molina rubs me wrong. Spends too much time bashing Matchroom, especially the person he tends to refer to as “she.” Embarrassing, really. The industry needs a better independent podcast, but then, is there really any demand for it? Probably not.
I do skip thru sometimes to hear what Mike Panozzo has to say. He is the editor in chief of Billiards Digest.
Panozzo said Shane Van Boening doesn’t like Europe and probably won’t go to the UK Open. He also suggested other top U.S. players might not go, either.
“The shine has worn off the pro players’ WNT love affair, for sure,” Panozzo said. “They are not treating it any differently than any other event that’s out there. ‘I’ll look at the dates, I’ll look at the costs and I’ll decide.’ “
Evidently, players who played in the PLP were expected to pay for their own hotel rooms. Typically MR has paid for rooms for players invited to invitationals.
If this is true, it would be a bad sign. Suggests the economics of pool, at least for MR, is more of a struggle than it already seems.
Lots of talk about why the Euro Open’s field of players was underwhelming. Yapp apparently said his family did not want him to travel to Bosnia once the Iran conflict erupted, but that wasn't all of it.
Carlo Biado stayed in Vegas after the Predator Las Vegas Open for Griffs and other events. SVB did, too. Sky and Tyler played in an Ultimate Pool event. The Ko brothers are largely gone from WNT and WPA events, it seems. Mickey Krause, a former European Open champ, skipped the event for heyball in China. Lots of top Europeans played at the European Open events sponsored by Predator.
Question is, was the European Open a one-off. The UK Open will tell us more.
Last year, Shane Van Boening skipped the UK Open. Gorst was missing due to sponsor obligations. Albin Ouschan was a no-show. A contingent of Pinoys signed up, but most ended up not going. Chua was among the missing.
Still, most top players attended. Skyler and Tyler also showed up, along with another 10 or so Americans.
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Panozzo’s comments suggest future MR events won’t have the same stacked fields they did a few years ago. One reason is Predator has stepped up its game.
Predator typically includes several events, giving the players a chance to make money in one or more tournaments. So they get more bang for their buck at Predator events.
Panozzo also said the WNT no longer seems like a tour to him. He didn’t really specify why, but he did point to late scheduling and alluded to the qualification process for Mosconi and Reyes.
“It’s gotten hard to call it a tour. Matchroom to me at this point has turned into a series of events,” he said. “It’s mix and match between WNT events, and WPA events, and Predator events.”
