spot on
A great post! I cut out a lot in the middle because what we really need to focus on is today's reality, not yesterday's dreams and myths. The pool world seems to spend all of it's time daydreaming about big money falling down upon it from above. Ain't gonna happen. The only way that pool is ever going to become what so many of us wish for it to be is if we start building pool from where it is at now without expecting a miracle to come along and make everything right.
A double breasted organization looks best. A lot of amateurs playing in their own events and each paying a little to fund pro events. Many of the amateurs hope to advance to the pro events but aside from that, the pro's have to be willing to give back to the game and the amateurs. Exhibitions, meet and greets, free or very inexpensive seminars here and there, the pro's would be giving something back for the money the amateurs put into the pro tour.
If pro pool became a professional organization that attracted a general audience then sponsors would take an interest. Probably smaller sponsors at first followed by larger ones as time went on.
This kind of growth is slow, let's say it would take ten years. 2020 before we get where we want to be! Damn, that takes the fun out of the daydream doesn't it? What about if we had started this direction in 2000? We could have started as far back as the seventies but all of us want everything today. Unfortunately things rarely work that way in the real world or the pool world either.
Hu
Its old news.
By now, we should have recovered from any damage that Mackey caused back in the 1990's. We can't go back and blame guys like Mackey and Trudeau - we have to take responsibility for this at some point, learn and grow from it.
. . . .
The blame falls solely on the entire industry. All inclusive. Instead of being united for a common purpose, we spend most of our energy keeping each other at a distance. If we took all the energy that goes into posturing, easing others out, screwing each over, etc - and then generated that energy positively to build something great - then we will succeed. Until then, get used to the way things are - and that's because of US, not Kevin Trudeau or Don Mackey.
A great post! I cut out a lot in the middle because what we really need to focus on is today's reality, not yesterday's dreams and myths. The pool world seems to spend all of it's time daydreaming about big money falling down upon it from above. Ain't gonna happen. The only way that pool is ever going to become what so many of us wish for it to be is if we start building pool from where it is at now without expecting a miracle to come along and make everything right.
A double breasted organization looks best. A lot of amateurs playing in their own events and each paying a little to fund pro events. Many of the amateurs hope to advance to the pro events but aside from that, the pro's have to be willing to give back to the game and the amateurs. Exhibitions, meet and greets, free or very inexpensive seminars here and there, the pro's would be giving something back for the money the amateurs put into the pro tour.
If pro pool became a professional organization that attracted a general audience then sponsors would take an interest. Probably smaller sponsors at first followed by larger ones as time went on.
This kind of growth is slow, let's say it would take ten years. 2020 before we get where we want to be! Damn, that takes the fun out of the daydream doesn't it? What about if we had started this direction in 2000? We could have started as far back as the seventies but all of us want everything today. Unfortunately things rarely work that way in the real world or the pool world either.
Hu