Slow Death of pool

J-Flo

J-Flo

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I've never really believed that pool is dead. This weekend I went to a tourney with such poor turnout that they only had 22 tables. The had 7 divisions and the seniors had the largest field with 51 entries. It was held at a casino called the Majestic Star in Gary Indiana. Only one vendor which was Nick Varner . The sad part was there was only 5 people at nicks clinic/demo/show that he puts on. I've seen it 10 times or more but i stayed till the end out of respect for nicks years of service in the game. He is always a gentleman and always there to talk to, sign autographs, or just talk pool. The worst part of it all was the fact that the youngest player i seen there was 28 but most were 40 and over. Only a handfull of young guys.
We need to attract a younger crowd to keep this game going. J.M.H.O
 

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That is a sad photo. Honorable of you to stay to the end...and to Nick for the same. I wouldn't have blamed him if he packed up & left, but he stuck it out too.
 
In Willie Mosconi Biography, "Willie's Game". mosconi mention Pool has been dying from it HAY DAYS since the years of his birth. 1913.
 
What's sad is that Nick feels like he has to use a rack to make the last ball. He plays WAY better than that. I do that shot in every show, as I have for almost 20 years...and have NEVER once used a rack...and never failed to pocket the ball. Too bad about the crowd though.

Scott Lee
http://poolknowledge.com
 
J-Flo said:
I've never really believed that pool is dead. This weekend I went to a tourney with such poor turnout that they only had 22 tables. The had 7 divisions and the seniors had the largest field with 51 entries. It was held at a casino called the Majestic Star in Gary Indiana. Only one vendor which was Nick Varner . The sad part was there was only 5 people at nicks clinic/demo/show that he puts on. I've seen it 10 times or more but i stayed till the end out of respect for nicks years of service in the game. He is always a gentleman and always there to talk to, sign autographs, or just talk pool. The worst part of it all was the fact that the youngest player i seen there was 28 but most were 40 and over. Only a handfull of young guys.
We need to attract a younger crowd to keep this game going. J.M.H.O
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I think you would have to know all the dynamics that created a low turnout. It may not be anybodies fault, sometimes it just happens. I would not consider this isolated incident to be a completely indictment of pool. Pool has always had it's up's and downs. It may be somewhere in the middle right now. For the first time in many years I am toying with the idea of another pool room. I have a lot of equipment and you can get commercial property for a song now in many places. Pool is not a fad, It has done well in good time and bad times in the country.

To me a pool room has always been a bottom line business. There is only so many hours in the week and so many good hours in the week when you make money. If you have your numbers right so you can survive in lean times without going under and do very well in good times. There is also only so much money to be made with a pool room though. For the most part it is not an absentee owner business, it is a job you have created for yourself. There are limits to what you will bring home due to built in governing factors such as overhead and the size of your place but if you are satisfied with this a pool room is still a viable business. Pool is not dead.
 
MOON ON A STICK is what the Pool Communities are after.
This is why we get our A$$E$ kicked worldwide by other sports and games.
ACTION IS REQUIRED - NOT WORDS :thumbup:
 
Every market is different, so it always does better in some places than in others.
In a depressed economy the the first things to suffer are the service industries, luxuries and entertainment. And its always been that way.

lol Pool is not dying. Public popularity does go up and down but its not dying.
For example, go over to the calendar section on this website. There are scads of events literally every week, all over the country.(and world) And thats only the ones we know about. There are plenty more.


I'll put it this way, do you know how long the game of chess has been around?
According to one source, 3 million chess sets are sold every year.
But how often do you hear about it, or see it on TV? Not much at all.
Just like chess, people will always play pool and billiard games, forever and ever, amen.
 
Scott, Maybe he's just working on making things interesting for those not in the know. But that's sad too.
Pretty scary shooting this with an Open Fanta on the table. What if he misses? OMG;)
 
I read somewhere back in the 90's GM was losing market share to imports. According to their own market research, the average age of a new Cadillac owner was 67 versus 22 for a Honda Civic. Cadillac revamped their entire line, and was able to attract younger buyers. In 2011, average age was 57 for Cadillac, and 34 for Honda Civic. Cadillac was able to find a way to retain their core audience while attracting younger customers. At this point, I think leagues may hold the key to the future of pool in the United States.

Popularity of pool is growing in Asia, wonder what are the demographics out there.
 
Last edited:
Flyer

couple of request for info
they even gave out free buffets for anyone playing. just show your players card.
 

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ctyhntr said:
I read somewhere back in the 90's GM was losing market share to imports. According to their own market research, the average age of a new Cadillac owner was 67 versus 22 for a Honda Civic. Cadillac revamped their entire line, and was able to attract younger buyers. In 2011, average age was 57 for Cadillac, and 34 for Honda Civic. Cadillac was able to find a way to retain their core audience while attracting younger customers. At this point, I think leagues may hold the key to the future of pool in the United States.

Popularity of pool is growing in Asia, wonder what are the demographics out there.
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I believe this is true also, but here's something to ponder about that:

For the last several weeks I have been talking with various local league players here in the NE TN area. There are a smaller segment of younger people, 20s/30s, but mostly players are in the 40s and up age group.

Most of the middle-age and older folks (40+) that are accomplished players or fans and have followed the game somewhat know many of the more famous pro players. For sure the players that were Nick Varner's peers....from the 80s, 90s and early 00s....Strickland, Rempe, Hopkins, Hall, Howard, Wiley, Archer, Reyes, Parica, etc. etc.

The younger and middle/older league players that were new to the game would only be able to identify Jeanette Lee and Mike Massey, possibly Johnny Archer and Efren Reyes, as well, out of a photo line-up.

None of these league players, especially the younger segment ones, knew who the following young(er-ish) American male players were: SVB, Dechaine, Morris, Hatch, Deuel, C.Williams, etc. And of course, they also had no idea who the top international players were either.....Appleton, Hohmann, Pagulayan, Feijen, Yu, Wang.....as well as any of the newer women pros.

Seriously, many of the league players WOULD NOT KNOW THESE PROS IF THEY SAW THEM WALKING INTO THEIR POOL ROOM.....AND WHAT's BETTER.....THEY DON'T CARE EITHER.

My question is this...........just what on earth are the players and in particular, the ABP, doing to help their own situation, with player recognition.

Now, maybe I just live in bumpkin-land down here, but I suspect this part of the country is not alone with this kind of problem. I think Pro Player Recognition is falling rapidly all across the US. Sure, not being on TV and not having tour events near all the larger metro population centers are part of it, but surely something can be done to help.

And as Mr. Wiley would say..........The Game is the Teacher.....and it seems the Teacher just signed up for Hospice care.
 
ctyhntr said:
I read somewhere back in the 90's GM was losing market share to imports. According to their own market research, the average age of a new Cadillac owner was 67 versus 22 for a Honda Civic. Cadillac revamped their entire line, and was able to attract younger buyers. In 2011, average age was 57 for Cadillac, and 34 for Honda Civic. Cadillac was able to find a way to retain their core audience while attracting younger customers. At this point, I think leagues may hold the key to the future of pool in the United States.

Popularity of pool is growing in Asia, wonder what are the demographics out there.
Click to expand...

asroun here 10 years ago it was guys in their 50's that cause al the excitement and what people cam eout to see. Theyhad money and bet hig and rally syirred things up. Now in San Antoinot the only time the pool halliflss is when Joah Hager JT happens to ge in action and that is rare very rare as nobody cna comprtere with hime here.
NOw tha older usys have died or gottenold and ill haelth and the pol hall is like a ghosttown and barely haongin ong.
NNO younger playre are coming along at all. the ones tht do have the eye of an eagle and the hhearts of FLeas. Theleagues do a little here but they are there for 4 games and a pitcher of beer and gone with the wind.
HOw to build the younger crowd is jus beyond me and mysterious.
Then you herear tme talking aout th Us open IPt bonus ball and such and they just laugh at the pool world in general
They hear stories of old timers like Keith, Efren Buddy and the likes and just laugh and accuse us of somoing to many babana peels.
 
ctyhntr said:
I read somewhere back in the 90's GM was losing market share to imports. According to their own market research, the average age of a new Cadillac owner was 67 versus 22 for a Honda Civic. Cadillac revamped their entire line, and was able to attract younger buyers. In 2011, average age was 57 for Cadillac, and 34 for Honda Civic. Cadillac was able to find a way to retain their core audience while attracting younger customers. At this point, I think leagues may hold the key to the future of pool in the United States.

Popularity of pool is growing in Asia, wonder what are the demographics out there.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt that Pool League systems are single handedly creating players. Not many people outside of the Pool circles become players. We simply have no coverage to the general public. Pool on tv is almost non existent and what is on the internet is watched by other people who already play pool.

We are in a downward spiral and its serious. I was talking to an industry member who should know and he told me that pool had gone from 40 mil to 20 mil players in the US and we had lost 50 percent of the pool rooms and wholesalers in the last 20 yrs.

So I think its important that we figure out how to put pool in the minds of the general public and buying tv ads are too expensive and who would pay for them?

There are all kinds of questions to be asked and if you try to find out the answer to who should pay for them and why you start seeing a dire picture.

Room owners probably should advertise their rooms to the general public but.....its expensive most room owners just want to open the doors and that's about it.
 
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