Bonus Ball--That Dog Won't Hunt

I watched that match too. What's with the light color table? Is it so the balls stand out better? It might be just me hanging on to the old games but, it seems really boring to watch. I can't get myself into waiting with anticipation for the pattern to play it self out as a player plays position from the 1 ball and 2 and 3.... and on to the 9. It just seems like OH! he made a purple ball....... and now what?? And why is the blonde bimbo putting the black ball back on the table........ how come that black ball doesn't have a number 8 on it?

I looked up the teams that are set up and a lot of big names are there. I do really hope it flies but I can't see it happening.

Any business that is successful has an income stream......... where is it???


Kim

Think the guy said expected revenue is:
PPV now
Merchandise soon
TV Maybe sometime in the future
Leagues maybe sometime in the future.


But right now PPV
 
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1pocket or 14.1 will put the casual fan to sleep before they even get a chance to change the channel.

It puts hard core fans to sleep as well. On average it takes me about 26 hours to get through a one hour pocket match. :-)

Getting through the famous 100 minute rack between Hopkins and Varner took me about six months.
 
I am guessing you are looking at the old one which is pretty janky. The http://wpbl.tv/ one is pretty good but short on actual info like whos on what team.

The $800K camera bill baffles the shit out of me and I cant even wrap my head around 3 mil. But then I don't have much vision I guess.

The website will triple in content this week now that I have the players here to acquire the actual content.

And just to clarify, I can't blame you for not being able to wrap your head around the $800k figure for cameras. There's a reason for that though, and the reason is gossip and misinformation. That figure is bloated by over 20-fold. Almost all I've read over the past few days is horribly inaccurate.

No matter what the truth is, people will always find a way belittle other people's honest efforts.
 
The Man in the Arena

No matter what the truth is, people will always find a way belittle other people's honest efforts.

The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
 
The website will triple in content this week now that I have the players here to acquire the actual content.

And just to clarify, I can't blame you for not being able to wrap your head around the $800k figure for cameras. There's a reason for that though, and the reason is gossip and misinformation. That figure is bloated by over 20-fold. Almost all I've read over the past few days is horribly inaccurate.

No matter what the truth is, people will always find a way belittle other people's honest efforts.

You guys are like third graders....you're friends and you are in the same city, knock down some beers and work it out.

Both of you rock balls when it comes to promoting pool, both of you have a body of work so far that in my opinion qualifies you for the hall of fame at some point.

Justin you know how the pool world works. Two guys playing in the corner for 10 a game even becomes one of them getting the nuts for a dime by the time the news hits the front counter.

Nathan, put down the keyboard bro, you have a TON of stuff to be doing and right now dealing with haters and upsetting people who can be your biggest cheerleaders isn't the way to go. If I know anything I know haters. And I know that it's not hard to turn good folks into haters. SO right now my advice is to back off and do your thing.

Personally I wasn't going to commit to a full season of BB but now I am. I will spend the $10 a week and actually watch a real live league season among the pros. I know what sort of work you're in for. Rock it and let the results be what's talked about and leave the speculation to the folks who are just wanting to get their daily dose of free forum entertainment.
 
You guys are like third graders....you're friends and you are in the same city, knock down some beers and work it out.

Wait...what? I'm not sure if I'm blind, but I didn't intend that to be even remotely hostile. Did you completely misinterpret my post, or am I going crazy? I may not get along with Justin, but I actually respect almost everything he says. Hell, even when he talks down about something I'm involved in, he's usually right.

As far as myself is concerned, I think I've made maybe a total of 5 posts this entire week, none of which were even remotely dramatic, spiteful, or intended to stir up shit.

EDIT. If you're referring to the last part about belittling others efforts, that was a generalization about the forum. As far as I know, the statement of Justin's that I quoted didn't really say anything poorly about me either. I have no doubt that his opinion of Bonus Ball has nothing to do with me whatsoever.
 
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And just to clarify, I can't blame you for not being able to wrap your head around the $800k figure for cameras. There's a reason for that though, and the reason is gossip and misinformation. That figure is bloated by over 20-fold. Almost all I've read over the past few days is horribly inaccurate.

From earlier in this thread....

"Just to give an example- larry bought Cameras and paraphernalia for cameras costing him Eight Hundred thousands+ dollars. The man has Passion."

Where do you suppose this poster got that number, just pulled it out of his whoo-hoo? Someone said it to him..Perhaps it was out of context, and perhaps not. But you folks involved have to control your information flow.

Otherwise you have to spend far more time correcting things, and defending the product, as opposed to promoting it.
 
Could it be that they bought eight-hundred-thousand dollar's worth of camera equipment at a far lower price than eight-hundred-thousand dollars? Who knows? In today's economy, good deals can be found on almost anything.

One thing I do know for sure: I like that case in JB's signature!

Roger
 
The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt, 1910

That sums it up very nicely! It is now as it ever was...
 
The Man in the Arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

- Theodore Roosevelt, 1910


Ah, ya. But sometimes that arena is ground floor at The Roman Colosseum and what's behind door #3 is licking its chops looking for a quick Happy Meal. IOW, while Teddy's words are oft true, not everyone is ready for prime time in the arena.

Lou Figueroa
 
Really?

New Coke. Windows Vista. Sony Betamax.

I would agree that there's only so much you can polish a turd.

But playing devil's advocate, you can definitely take an inferior product and get it to beat competitors strictly through slick marketing. And the things in this list arguably are a testament to the power of marketing.

New Coke: though eventually hated by many, the initial push was positive thanks to marketing, getting coke a slight bump in sales compared to the year before. And after it fizzled out, marketing the old formula as "classic coke" allowed coke to mount a miracle comeback and turn the tides on pepsi. Coke's hundred-year-old flavor was losing ground to pepsi in a big way, but after new coke flopped, that same old boring flavor was now skyrocketing in sales... leading some conspiracy theorists to wonder if new coke wasn't just a clever marketing trick.

Beta: arguably technically superior to VHS, but better marketing probably played a big role in VHS winning the format war.

Vista: lots of negative press, but it ended up on lots of computers anyway and there's no question it was profitable. Pool's wildest success probably wouldn't be half as profitable as Vista's "failure".

I don't think there's anything about Bonus Ball that's so distasteful that even the best marketing couldn't make it a success. Unfortunately, "the best marketing" is not available. But I'm hoping what they've got can lead it to profitability.
 
None of this will work great (bonus ball included) if pool is not promoted more to the younger generations. Maybe some kids might start picking up pool cues instead of golf clubs? I just wish in the States we had more pool in primary and high schools. But all of us pool players should do our part to introduce the game to others if we actually want it to succeed professionally some day. It's not like there are no great players that conduct themselves in a great manner that kids couldn't look up to.

Maybe we should look at everything that has been done in snooker professionally overseas. Or maybe in America we only prefer sports where you get to smash someone's head in? lol I doubt all feel that way. Golf does pretty damn good. I used to play golf. Started pool and realized it is the best game in the world. Haven't picked up a golf club since.
 
The website will triple in content this week now that I have the players here to acquire the actual content.

And just to clarify, I can't blame you for not being able to wrap your head around the $800k figure for cameras. There's a reason for that though, and the reason is gossip and misinformation. That figure is bloated by over 20-fold. Almost all I've read over the past few days is horribly inaccurate.

No matter what the truth is, people will always find a way belittle other people's honest efforts.

Welcome to the internet.

That 800K figure was put out as having come from Larry's mouth. So either Ravi is full of shit or Larry is. Most of these posts about numbers have "Larry told me" in front of them. That doesnt make it true but it may be a clue.

Playing the victim card this early doesnt help you either. You guys should get your shit together, designate one person to handle online marketing who doesnt piss people off at the cyclic rate and try to get the die hard fans behind bonus ball. I would recommend Dave or Lenny and fine anyone else who posts here. I have no doubt the final product is going to look good and probably be somewhat interesting but if people are turned off already they will never watch it.

I understand not wanting to be told how to do something. I am bad for that myself. But sometimes when you are standing on your crank with golf shoes on it pays to listen to the guy next you when he tells you to take a step to the side.
 
But sometimes when you are standing on your crank with golf shoes on it pays to listen to the guy next you when he tells you to take a step to the side.

Another Justinism.

Ya know, if I didn't know better, I'd swear you have a writer cranking out this stuff for you.
 
The only inferior product in that bunch was windows vista...

I would agree that there's only so much you can polish a turd.

But playing devil's advocate, you can definitely take an inferior product and get it to beat competitors strictly through slick marketing. And the things in this list arguably are a testament to the power of marketing.

New Coke: though eventually hated by many, the initial push was positive thanks to marketing, getting coke a slight bump in sales compared to the year before. And after it fizzled out, marketing the old formula as "classic coke" allowed coke to mount a miracle comeback and turn the tides on pepsi. Coke's hundred-year-old flavor was losing ground to pepsi in a big way, but after new coke flopped, that same old boring flavor was now skyrocketing in sales... leading some conspiracy theorists to wonder if new coke wasn't just a clever marketing trick.

Beta: arguably technically superior to VHS, but better marketing probably played a big role in VHS winning the format war.

Vista: lots of negative press, but it ended up on lots of computers anyway and there's no question it was profitable. Pool's wildest success probably wouldn't be half as profitable as Vista's "failure".

I don't think there's anything about Bonus Ball that's so distasteful that even the best marketing couldn't make it a success. Unfortunately, "the best marketing" is not available. But I'm hoping what they've got can lead it to profitability.

The other two were superior products with bad marketing.

New coke should not have replaced original coke. They should have marketed them together. New coke was more like pepsi but they alienated the customers who liked coke and couldn't hope to take enough of pepsi drinkers away from pepsi for it to be worth it, by the time they reintroduced coke classic, the damage had been done and new coke was a goner.

Betamax had far superior audio quality to VHS, again it was bad marketing that did in betamax. If Sony would've licensed it out to a few vendors and not tried to hold the market on it completely themselves, the market wouldn't have been saturated with VHS and they may have won that war.

Apple almost went under a couple of times from the same mistake of not licensing out macintosh computers. It was only a few excellent marketing ploys I-Mac and new creations, Ipod, Iphone etc... that prevented Apple from being a historical blip.

Without Jobs to save them the next time they make a fundamental error, I doubt they will survive another one...

Jaden
 
Ah, ya. But sometimes that arena is ground floor at The Roman Colosseum and what's behind door #3 is licking its chops looking for a quick Happy Meal. IOW, while Teddy's words are oft true, not everyone is ready for prime time in the arena.

Lou Figueroa

But it's the guy who actually gets out there who has the shot at glory and not the guy who criticizes from the sidelines.

You may be killed by the lion but if you manage to kill him then you are the one remembered with statues built in tribute for all eternity. The words Teddy spoke ring true for all time and for everyone.

It is the doer of deeds that makes the world work not the critic. Only two things can happen when you try, fail or succeed. Only those who try get those options whether they are deemed ready or not by those on the sidelines.

The cheapest thing in the world is ideas with no action and the next cheapest thing is the critique of those ideas.
 
Actually the cheapest thing is that gross draft they sell in plastic liter bottles
at the off sale in Canada.
 
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