My Opinion on the Mosconi Cup - Matchroom Sports - Luke Riches

[Fast Lenny]

I like the Mosconi Cup, no other event like it IMO. I do feel some things need to be addressed. I feel the event is a bit European biased in some ways, we have to pay for a live stream and its showed live there, the PPV stream had many complaints of top of it with the free stream being better. Show it for free, its not hard to do by any means, have it play on the Matchroom website or something, will certainly bring a ton of traffic to the site.

Please do not think I am bashing Luke Riches or Matchroom as they do good things for pool and put on great events. It would be great if they connected with Mark Griffin and made a deal with him for the US rights to video broadcast and see if he can sell it to a sports channel or work out some sort of deal, if the Mosconi Cup wont sell on TV then no pool event will. It cannot hurt to give it a shot though and it would be great if it worked out somehow.

I think that Matchroom should include us fans more like they did in the past with voting, maybe let us vote on a Captain with a couple of choices and also a fan favorite for the 5th player on the team. We need someone with energy on Team USA, regardless if you love or hate Earl, he provided that, then we had Dennis Hatch and look how well we did. I think Dennis Hatch should have been on the team last year, he was the MVP and the MVP should be a shoe in for next years event automatically. I would make it so the fans can pick a fan favorite and also vote for the captains according to a list even if its a short one, the MVP should be in next year and then the top 3 according to points.

Well enough rambling, just thought I would state my opinion on improving this great event and making it something the fans feel more apart of. That is what I feel was missing this past year for USA anyway, with Charlie being the unpopular captain and having no hand in the Cup there just was a good deal missing.

I would be interested in hearing others opinions, I know they have been stated and complained about in other places here, but what about things to improve it? I am sure Luke Riches does read some of this or we would have never seen the press release on AZ Billiards. Thanks Luke for all the great events and I hope they continue to grow and improve.

 

[whitewolf]

, with Charlie being the unpopular captain and having no hand in the Cup there just was a good deal missing.

In case anybody didn't notice, the Europe captain was just as drab as Charlie. But I agree with you anyhow. Charlie showed TOO MUCH DISPLEASURE at the wrong time when he should have been more upbeat.

 

[Fast Lenny]

In case anybody didn't notice, the Europe captain was just as drab as Charlie. But I agree with you anyhow. Charlie showed TOO MUCH DISPLEASURE at the wrong time when he should have been more upbeat.

Yeah, Charlie got the wrong idea of how your supposed to pump these guys up.

 

[wrldpro]

Is this a new exercise for young people to have a role model

Yeah, Charlie got the wrong idea of how your supposed to pump these guys up.

hmmmm.

 

[JB Cases]

View attachment 207289 I wonder if matchroom sports would like to know about and investagate these allegations about charlie trying to do the dirty by sneaking into girls hotel rooms?

Maybe if Charlie is accused of illegally entered a hotel room with the intention of having sex with an unwilling woman the police should investigate it. Until then perhaps all you people should drop it because you are defaming him. If you want to continue to defame him then do so but someday it will probably come back to burn you.

If the woman didn't want to file charges why are you carrying a torch based on rumors??

I swear sometimes I really want to hire some minions to flood this forum with "allegations" about everyone.

Guess it never occurs to you that Matchroom's people read the forums and knows all about the "allegations". And gee, they happen to be in a country where such allegations are made by the tabloid press every day. So maybe Matchroom doesn't care if the people affected don't care enough to take it to the police.

Guess it never occurs to you that there might be another side to the story?

I don't know what side is right but I do know that on this forum I have never seen Charlie's side and until then I am not sending the guy to the electric chair based on a one-sided story. If you want to lynch him go right ahead. Until then though hate away that the guy has the trust of many of the professionals he works with and the trust of many companies around the world who sponsor his events and the trust of Matchroom to allow him to participate in their events.

Charlie has done plenty to irritate people that's public knowledge. Focus on those things if you really want to be negative about him and stop with the sexual harassment/attempted rape charges unless you are willing to go to the police and file those charges. Because the truth is that there are only two people on the planet who know the full story and we have only heard from one of them.

 

[billbOK]

I like the Mosconi Cup, no other event like it IMO. I do feel some things need to be addressed. I feel the event is a bit European biased in some ways, we have to pay for a live stream and its showed live there, the PPV stream had many complaints of top of it with the free stream being better. Show it for free, its not hard to do by any means, have it play on the Matchroom website or something, will certainly bring a ton of traffic to the site.

I think this part needs some clarification. If Skysports is, from what I know, available through the cable in UK, it is by no way free of charges. In other European country it wil cost a lot to have these channels (around $1500 per year for my country). So I really can't see an inegality of treatment regarding the US public. I am really thankfull that they put a PPV to watch the event. In top of all it wasn't expansive, I paid $15 for the five days.It was free of ads or other bad stuff that you have on illegal stream sites.

Concerning the quality, I myself was satisfied from the PPV. The last day it was even in HD. The stream was flawless end never frozzed.

I can't ask for more :thumbup:

PS I hope your daughter is fine now, Lenny

 

[West Point 1987]

Of course it's biased toward the Europeans...It's a European event, European promoter, packaged for and sold to a European media market...the U.S. media didn't buy it. Fox is Sky's network partner; if they wanted it, they could have broadcast it in the States without a lot of drama.

 

[the420trooper]

I do agree that the MVP should be guaranteed a spot on next year's team.

 

[billbOK]

Of course it's biased toward the Europeans...It's a European event, European promoter, packaged for and sold to a European media market...the U.S. media didn't buy it. Fox is Sky's network partner; if they wanted it, they could have broadcast it in the States without a lot of drama.

I was only talking about the TV and PPV part. Just look the quote...

 

[JumpinJoe]

lenny makes great points.

and JB you will never hear charlies side. he knows when to keep his mouth shut.

 

[dmgwalsh]

Maybe if Charlie is accused of illegally entered a hotel room with the intention of having sex with an unwilling woman the police should investigate it. Until then perhaps all you people should drop it because you are defaming him. If you want to continue to defame him then do so but someday it will probably come back to burn you.

If the woman didn't want to file charges why are you carrying a torch based on rumors??

I swear sometimes I really want to hire some minions to flood this forum with "allegations" about everyone.

Guess it never occurs to you that Matchroom's people read the forums and knows all about the "allegations". And gee, they happen to be in a country where such allegations are made by the tabloid press every day. So maybe Matchroom doesn't care if the people affected don't care enough to take it to the police.

Guess it never occurs to you that there might be another side to the story?

I don't know what side is right but I do know that on this forum I have never seen Charlie's side and until then I am not sending the guy to the electric chair based on a one-sided story. If you want to lynch him go right ahead. Until then though hate away that the guy has the trust of many of the professionals he works with and the trust of many companies around the world who sponsor his events and the trust of Matchroom to allow him to participate in their events.

Charlie has done plenty to irritate people that's public knowledge. Focus on those things if you really want to be negative about him and stop with the sexual harassment/attempted rape charges unless you are willing to go to the police and file those charges. Because the truth is that there are only two people on the planet who know the full story and we have only heard from one of them.

A well thought out, cogently presented analysis. :thumbup:

Aren't you afraid you will be drummed out of AZB?

 

[storke]

I for one don't think it matters who the captain of the team is. Every player involved for both teams knows how to win. I also don't buy into the euro team is alot better than the team we had, they just played better in that event and the result is they won. You could play that match ten times and get a different result each time. As to how Macthroom picks the players for the team I'm not sure if any way they do it ill be happy.

 

[bfdlad]

I like the Mosconi Cup, no other event like it IMO. I do feel some things need to be addressed. I feel the event is a bit European biased in some ways, we have to pay for a live stream and its showed live there, the PPV stream had many complaints of top of it with the free stream being better. Show it for free, its not hard to do by any means, have it play on the Matchroom website or something, will certainly bring a ton of traffic to the site.

Please do not think I am bashing Luke Riches or Matchroom as they do good things for pool and put on great events. It would be great if they connected with Mark Griffin and made a deal with him for the US rights to video broadcast and see if he can sell it to a sports channel or work out some sort of deal, if the Mosconi Cup wont sell on TV then no pool event will. It cannot hurt to give it a shot though and it would be great if it worked out somehow.

I think that Matchroom should include us fans more like they did in the past with voting, maybe let us vote on a Captain with a couple of choices and also a fan favorite for the 5th player on the team. We need someone with energy on Team USA, regardless if you love or hate Earl, he provided that, then we had Dennis Hatch and look how well we did. I think Dennis Hatch should have been on the team last year, he was the MVP and the MVP should be a shoe in for next years event automatically. I would make it so the fans can pick a fan favorite and also vote for the captains according to a list even if its a short one, the MVP should be in next year and then the top 3 according to points.

Well enough rambling, just thought I would state my opinion on improving this great event and making it something the fans feel more apart of. That is what I feel was missing this past year for USA anyway, with Charlie being the unpopular captain and having no hand in the Cup there just was a good deal missing.

I would be interested in hearing others opinions, I know they have been stated and complained about in other places here, but what about things to improve it? I am sure Luke Riches does read some of this or we would have never seen the press release on AZ Billiards. Thanks Luke for all the great events and I hope they continue to grow and improve.

Lenny, as much as I may agree with letting the fans pick certain players I believe that there is too much politics in the way of letting that happen and also a number of ways that it could be manipulated. For example, when they did the fan vote there was talk that the european pool community were voting for the players that would maybe hurt the team. Also what if Earl is voted on the team? To you or me or a number of other pool fans its a great idea and wouldgive the USA team some spark. However the other players do not respect him and feel he brings the team down with negativity. So from the outside looking in Earl is a good pick but would potentially hurt the team. So are we trying to get a player thats popular and wild or a player that hurts the team somehow?

Since weas the fans don't know all the ins and outs of team dynamic its hard for us to make the right choices. All we can do is pick our fav player.

Again, I am, not saying that I disagree with you but there are too many other facets to the concept to make it work in my opinion.

 

[Fast Lenny]

Lenny, as much as I may agree with letting the fans pick certain players I believe that there is too much politics in the way of letting that happen and also a number of ways that it could be manipulated. For example, when they did the fan vote there was talk that the european pool community were voting for the players that would maybe hurt the team. Also what if Earl is voted on the team? To you or me or a number of other pool fans its a great idea and wouldgive the USA team some spark. However the other players do not respect him and feel he brings the team down with negativity. So from the outside looking in Earl is a good pick but would potentially hurt the team. So are we trying to get a player thats popular and wild or a player that hurts the team somehow?

Since weas the fans don't know all the ins and outs of team dynamic its hard for us to make the right choices. All we can do is pick our fav player.

Again, I am, not saying that I disagree with you but there are too many other facets to the concept to make it work in my opinion.

I know there are ways for people to manipulate votes but the players on the list will all be top notch players and it will be a short list. I really enjoyed voting for Dennis Hatch and him winning the spot, we win, he was MVP, it could not have went any better. If USA has there BEST team we can win but our best are not playing, who like Putnam and Dechaine over Dennis and Earl? Nothing against Dechaine, he played pretty good for his first Mosconi Cup and will continue to get better but we do have better players to put in the box. Like Earl said its a shame that Shane cannot win some of these things because he does not have the right players in there with him.

 

[storke]

I know there are ways for people to manipulate votes but the players on the list will all be top notch players and it will be a short list. I really enjoyed voting for Dennis Hatch and him winning the spot, we win, he was MVP, it could not have went any better. If USA has there BEST team we can win but our best are not playing, who like Putnam and Dechaine over Dennis and Earl? Nothing against Dechaine, he played pretty good for his first Mosconi Cup and will continue to get better but we do have better players to put in the box. Like Earl said its a shame that Shane cannot win some of these things because he does not have the right players in there with him.

I have to disagree currently Dechaine is in the top 5 of american players. Like it or not he plays as good as anyone in the U.S.

 

[JB Cases]

Let the rank list decide and the players choose their captain. Enjoy the show.

 

[elvicash]

Lenny I believe MAtchroom operates out of funding provided by the BBC. In the UK they pay a TV tax or at least they used to and that is probably where the cash comes from for this event so they do what they want with it back on the continent. It is probably much watch back here and in this country nobody in the non pool public knows a thing about it the Mosconi Cup.

We should fund our side and then we can complain. Until we pay our way it is hard to complain when you have a first class event putting 50k plus in the hands of our players for coming in second place with no entry fees and expenses paid. Thanks Matchroom for supporting pro pool in a first class way even though it is only a single event it was good to see someone doing it right and proving pro level income to our team for a week or two. I know those players all wish they had similiar events for a 20-30 week season every year.

Congrats to Team Europe. I hope we get you next time.

Thanks Matchroom

 

[pro9dg]

Lenny I believe MAtchroom operates out of funding provided by the BBC. In the UK they pay a TV tax or at least they used to and that is probably where the cash comes from for this event so they do what they want with it back on the continent. It is probably much watch back here and in this country nobody in the non pool public knows a thing about it the Mosconi Cup.

We should fund our side and then we can complain. Until we pay our way it is hard to complain when you have a first class event putting 50k plus in the hands of our players for coming in second place with no entry fees and expenses paid. Thanks Matchroom for supporting pro pool in a first class way even though it is only a single event it was good to see someone doing it right and proving pro level income to our team for a week or two. I know those players all wish they had similiar events for a 20-30 week season every year.

Congrats to Team Europe. I hope we get you next time.

Thanks Matchroom

For the record, Matchroom are a private commercial company, owned to all intents and purposes by Barry Hearn. They receive no funding from the BBC for pool events simply because BBC don't show pool events.
Matchroom are more than a one annual pool show. Their current roster also includes major tournaments The World Pool Masters and The World Cup of Pool

 

[JB Cases]

For the record, Matchroom are a private commercial company, owned to all intents and purposes by Barry Hearn. They receive no funding from the BBC for pool events simply because BBC don't show pool events.
Matchroom are more than a one annual pool show. Their current roster also includes major tournaments The World Pool Masters and The World Cup of Pool

And snooker, darts, fishing and boxing if I remember it right. http://www.matchroomsport.com/

In fact it looks like darts is bigger than pool for them.

 

[Jerry Forsyth]

First, it is only the BBC that gets the government money. Matchroom broadcasts are done by Sky Sport. No government money to them.

Second, folks on the forum are always pointing to the Mosconi Cup and saying: "All we have to do is produce events like this and we can get pool on TV here in the states." Well, this production is available to US broadcasters and they do not want it. They have become accustomed over the last 30 years to getting pool for free and that is the value they place on the sport. And anyone who wants to match this production value better have deep pockets. Even a dozen years ago Sky was spending around $150,000 per day for a pool broadcast and these puppies last four days!

How do we get pool on TV here in the States? Stop giving it to ESPN! First, get pool OFF TV. Then see if an appetite for it grows and demand requires that broadcasters pay for the content. If not, it does not deserve to be broadcast.