have u played snooker?
Will Snooker catch on in the US ?
- Thread starter BangkokMichael
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It's probably fair to say that snooker will not be able to compete on a level with the most popular American sports, but there is certainly scope and the interest to bring some big events to the United States in the future.
I had a meeting recently with, Jason Ferguson, the Chairman of the World Professional Billiards & Snooker Association (WPBSA), and he told me that they are exceptionally keen to get into the United States with some kind of event.
Ultimately though it's money that will determine the future of a major snooker event in the United States, and if that cannot be attracted from within the country it's highly likely that it could be gained from a source abroad.
thanks for the reply..
I grew up playing American snooker. Very popular in those days but only in certain areas of the country. 5x10 tables with 2 1/8" balls was the norm. It is essentially gone now. Snooker cannot catch on without tables to play on and the investment required to start a new room with proper equipment would be tremendous with little promise of decent return on your money.
It won't catch on again in any form without major input from some high-rollers and major players in the snooker industry. I can't see any such effort ever happening.
It won't catch on again in any form without major input from some high-rollers and major players in the snooker industry. I can't see any such effort ever happening.
Ask a silly question...
You will get a silly answer.
Ask Corey Duell or Alex Pagulayan and I bet both reply I hope so.
A country the size of the U.S.A. must have a cool snooker player !
Canada has Alex .
Bring it on ! :wink::thumbup:
You will get a silly answer.
Ask Corey Duell or Alex Pagulayan and I bet both reply I hope so.
A country the size of the U.S.A. must have a cool snooker player !
Canada has Alex .
Bring it on ! :wink::thumbup:
that is what i saw as well 2 1/8" balls on american snooker tables, and they are now gone. nothing replaced them, with the rents high as they are now most rooms are putting in 7' tables infavor of 9' tables cause you get more bodies in less space. The trend is going that way, its impossible to open a room with 12' table and make $$$, its just not going to happen anytime soon if ever in America.
I play as often as I can. The tables are across town or I would play more. There are 2 snooker parlors with 6x12 tables (one has 3 I believe, and the other has around 8). There is one pool hall that has a 6x12. They are all European tables and balls.
I love the game and if these places were closer, I would probably play more snooker than pool. There aren't many cities in the U.S. that have 12 full size tables in them though, I can assure you of that
I love the game and if these places were closer, I would probably play more snooker than pool. There aren't many cities in the U.S. that have 12 full size tables in them though, I can assure you of that
As a teenager in the 1950's I had the pleasure of learning the game
from the "Old Masters" at several St. Louis, MO Pool Halls.
Many years went by and slowly, one by one, Snooker Tables were
replaced by Pocket Billiard Tables in most Pool Halls in the USA.
Call me a dreamer, but I still hope for a resurgence in Snooker
here in America.
Cory Deuel may have "sparked" a re-newed interest in the game
with his recent U.S. Championship win. Time will tell.
from the "Old Masters" at several St. Louis, MO Pool Halls.
Many years went by and slowly, one by one, Snooker Tables were
replaced by Pocket Billiard Tables in most Pool Halls in the USA.
Call me a dreamer, but I still hope for a resurgence in Snooker
here in America.
Cory Deuel may have "sparked" a re-newed interest in the game
with his recent U.S. Championship win. Time will tell.
I'd rather play snooker than anything else. It is about the only action in my poolroom. The room I go to has been open 25 years, adn has always had at least 1 Snooker table going!(2 tables for the last couple of years. It's not alot, but it is better than most places.
sadly it has no chance here.
I see the same thing. Most of the pool halls around here (Norther Cali) that had Snooker tables closed up.There is one in a local bar, stuffed away in a corner, but I've never seen it used.
The only "hall" that is still open near me, which I helped set up in the early 90's, has changed hands 3-4 times since then. So even halls are having trouble, and this is in a College town.
The original owner, who was a good friend, knew Pool, Billiards and Snooker well. He pretty much said there was no way he'd loose that much floor space to a table that might see use 1-2 times a week......if that.Hell, around here you can't find anyone that knows what 14.1 is. It's 8 ball, or nothing.
some american pool players did try making it in the professional snooker tour in the 80s, like jim rempe and steve mizerak, but didn't achieve anything. if an american can make an impact in the professional snooker circuit in the uk, the game will probably be more popular in america. mike massey played snooker too, was he any good?
oh where to begin?!??! Fatboy is correct..........The trend is 7' tables in the US, sad but true! Pool is a sub-culture as it is, and Snooker is sub-sub-culture in the US.
What is the absolute BEST cue sport?! Snooker! I would love to see some American take a run at the Snooker tour and fully commit to it and only focus on it. Would be interesting to see if they could rise to the top of Snooker world.
I had the privilege of playing with Mike Massey when he was beginning to get serious about Snooker. Not sure how far he ever took it but he potted balls well. Not sure of his high break either.
Twelve foot tables are far and few in between in Chicago. The USSA tour doesn't even have a tour stop up here any more.
The cue sports are dying a slooooooowwwww death!
We need a miracle boys!!
Mike
What is the absolute BEST cue sport?! Snooker! I would love to see some American take a run at the Snooker tour and fully commit to it and only focus on it. Would be interesting to see if they could rise to the top of Snooker world.
I had the privilege of playing with Mike Massey when he was beginning to get serious about Snooker. Not sure how far he ever took it but he potted balls well. Not sure of his high break either.
Twelve foot tables are far and few in between in Chicago. The USSA tour doesn't even have a tour stop up here any more.
The cue sports are dying a slooooooowwwww death!
We need a miracle boys!!
Mike
With all due respect - it would take more than just one miracle for
Snooker to "catch on" in America.
The game was historically much more popular in Canada than the US,
and it is in a long term, severe, decline there.
Dale
The question is NOT if Snooker will ever catch on in the U.S.....
It is if WE (the billiard fans of the United States) will ever catch on to Snooker?
I, also, do not mean just catching on to it. It is if we can accept (huge key word here) it as a sport as well as what is relative to training it as a sport.
It must be breathed to life by the means of sufficient proceeds and integral structure (from the inside, of course).
It is if WE (the billiard fans of the United States) will ever catch on to Snooker?
I, also, do not mean just catching on to it. It is if we can accept (huge key word here) it as a sport as well as what is relative to training it as a sport.
It must be breathed to life by the means of sufficient proceeds and integral structure (from the inside, of course).
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I enjoy playing snooker, but in the US I think what you see is pretty much what there is for the game. It's not like it was recently introduced.
The biggest factor might be the current state of billiards generally. Rooms are struggling and if anything replacing 9 footers with bar boxes to get more tables in a given space. Given this trend it doesn't help that a snooker table is 6' x 12'.
The biggest factor might be the current state of billiards generally. Rooms are struggling and if anything replacing 9 footers with bar boxes to get more tables in a given space. Given this trend it doesn't help that a snooker table is 6' x 12'.
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As an avid snooker player knowing or caring little about the pool games, I had never heard the name of Corey Deuel until he played the US Snooker Championship. I was impressed with his ability to adapt his considerable skill set to play a reasonable game of snooker. Some foolish pundits opined that he should try his game on the professional snooker circuit in England and he would surely clean up there. Of course, Corey knows better than that. I am sure that he enjoyed the experiment, perhaps he really will continue to enjoy playing the game for pleasure's sake, but I have no doubt that he understands well that snooker is not something that will pay the bills for him. Americans like to be on top at whatever we do. We regularly perch at the top of the heap of the number of medals won at the Olympics. However, we rarely have the fortitude to actually climb to the top starting from the bottom of the totem pole as we would have to do as far as snooker is concerned. (The "Miracle on Ice" of 1980 is an exception to this. We would all do well to look at this for some inspiration.) Like society as a whole, if there is an endeavor at which we are not immediately the best, we will tend to dismiss it as not being worth our time.
Other than the last sentence, I completely agree. The old quote is "If you love something, set it free..." Snooker as a pastime must stand on its own merits, the players must embrace the game. It cannot thrive by being jammed down their throats. If there were suddenly a fully stocked snooker parlour on every street corner in the USA, snooker would not be any more popular than it is now.
Like the metric system, casual nudity on network television, and soccer, snooker as a common pastime in modern American society unfortunately has no chance. In the US, we have a history that if we like the idea of something, we change it to suit our needs.sadly it has no chance here.
Though none of the posters here will admit to it....nay, few can probably even recognize the concept....., the true cause of the decline of snooker with little chance of reversal is in the apathy of the players. Of course, anyone who gives enough of a damn about it to post something on here will also give enough of a damn about it to hope and believe that it isn't so, that this decline can be reversed. General society as a whole however has come to expect instant gratification in every endeavor. Kids play video games, and they have to have the latest title and play it constantly until the next greatest title comes out two weeks later.
Pathetic Shark knows exactly what I mean. He had the perfect post regarding this a while back:
We can all sit and pine how the room owners are removing the large tables to make room for more and easier bar boxes, but the fact of the matter is that entrepreneurship with fill the voids as determined by any given market. If there is no demand for snooker, there will be no supply for snooker. In my little one table club, at any given time, I have about 10 or 12 members. Of these, five show up to play snooker with any sort of regularity. The others will come in a handful of times throughout the year.
(I should say that the snooker club is not my business, just my passion and my playground. If I relied on the snooker club to actually make money, I would have shut the doors after a month.)
The point is that in three years that the snooker club has been open, I have had about three dozen other prospects (besides existing members) inquire about joining and often even visiting the club. A few have been inquisitive pool players. With few exceptions, the remainder stated how they "love snooker" and they "used to play all the time" but that you "just can't find a table anymore". In most cases, when they find out they have to drive 30 or 40 minutes for a good session of snooker, they never show up again. There is just no instant gratification. So much for "loving" the game. I know that If I lived an hour away from Augusta National and I were given the opportunity to play a round there for $20, I would certainly "love" golf enough to make that drive every weekend even though I would probably never break 120.
Suffice it to say that in a metropolitan area of approximately 10,000,000 people (that's TEN MILLION), I have managed to scrape together a grand total of SIX individuals who have a high enough interest level in the game to show up once every two weeks to play in a league match.
So availability would appear to have little to do with the decline of the sport. Unfortunately, I believe that only one in a thousand (or fewer) billiard game players have the will, dedication, and determination to even reach a level of mediocrity in this great game of snooker. And if it cannot be "mastered" in a short period of time, it is just not worth the bother.
________________________
"If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants." - Sir Isaac Newton
Too often in modern society, we refuse to acknowledge the giants upon whose shoulders we stand, instead preferring to think that we, ourselves, are the giants. And if we cannot attain "gianthood" in a particular endeavor, then that endeavor is simply not worth our time pursuing anyway. It's a shame.
"If there were suddenly a fully stocked snooker parlour on every street corner in the USA, snooker would not be any more popular than it is now.'
This statement has to be wrong. Even the interest in your club by folks that would have to drive a considerable distance to get there proves that travel is a big factor.
Snooker would certainly become more popular if there were more places to play. I just don't think those places would be economically viable for the owner - at least not if they depended solely upon income from the tables.
It doesn't matter, the situation will never arise.
This statement has to be wrong. Even the interest in your club by folks that would have to drive a considerable distance to get there proves that travel is a big factor.
Snooker would certainly become more popular if there were more places to play. I just don't think those places would be economically viable for the owner - at least not if they depended solely upon income from the tables.
It doesn't matter, the situation will never arise.
Underclocked, of course you are right as a matter of mathematics....snooker would be more popular as a percentage of the population that would play the game IF it suddenly became more convenient for them, if only short term for everybody to walk into this new building that suddenly appeared at the end of their block and see what it is all about. After all, mathematically, .002% is more popular than .001%. I was of course being facetious to say it would be no more popular than now; I was meaning that even if snooker equipment were to suddenly become available to every man, woman, and child in the USA, the actual facilities usage would have no chance of supporting snooker as a viable business enterprise and as an industry in this country. Before long, every place that had the equipment would have to shut down or else change business models for lack of support from a large enough customer base. Exactly as you also stated that "those places would (not) be economically viable for the owner".
The original question is "Will snooker catch on in the US?" and my answer is that even if we enthusiasts could expose what we perceive to be the wonder and beauty of our passion to everyone who would care to listen, we would make little headway in terms of making snooker "catch on" here simply due to human nature and current society. Snooker will remain the "root beer" of carbonated sugary beverages. It will not become a Coke nor Pepsi, nor even a Dr. Pepper anytime soon in the US.
I wish it were otherwise. I do all I reasonably can in this area to shed light on this game of which so few in general society have even heard. Amazingly often the result of a conversation with someone new in a barroom, pool hall, or whatever is "Oh yeah, I had a friend whose Dad had one those tables in his basement" only to shortly afterward find out that no, that in fact is a tiny little bumper pool table that you are talking about and it compares with snooker in the same way that tic tac toe compares with chess.
From a business perspective, I think the only geographic areas that will support snooker as an industry (meaning renting the tables out as in a "pool hall"....a "snooker hall" if you will) are those areas that have a large, centrally located Asian immigrant population: Chinese and Indian in particular. It seems to me that the Middle Eastern culture is trying to establish a snooker hall or two in the Houston area. I am certainly not wise enough in this topic to predict if the outcome will ultimately be positive or not. I don't know if there is a large enough Middle Eastern immigrant population in Houston, and I don't know if Middle Eastern immigrants have a particular propensity for playing snooker. How about in Las Vegas? Does anyone know if there is proper snooker available there still in a proper club, or just the back room, novelty, non-standard snooker equipment within an established pool hall like so many other places in the country? The big problem with "pool hall" snooker tables is that they are neglected and abused and nobody cares because they don't generate any money anyway so if some "newbie" wanders in and wants to get that funny set of balls to try out this "snucker", their experience is almost certain to be disappointing and nothing at all like the true and proper snooker experience with which I fell in love.
How to change this I leave to greater minds than mine. I do strongly believe that trying to open a "snooker hall" would be akin to putting the cart before the horse. I believe the few existing and established clubs there are in the country happened to be in the right place at the right time, made some good business decisions, and got enough of a toehold "business-wise" that they can attract enough activity to keep their doors open. Until there is greater exposure to and knowledge of the proper game for and by the general population as a whole and for and by the pool playing segment of society in particular, it will be a foolhardy venture to open a "snooker hall" and expect success in the USA. Specifically, I believe this exposure must come through television coverage of events. Hell, with the advent of cable television, we have a thousand channels of utter crap. I can learn what color wiggler the (apparently evolving) bass are striking this season, I can thrill at which BFF's party the Kardashian sisters will be attending this weekend, I can pick up some tips on how to whip up a chateaubriand dinner for unexpected guests. Why in the hour or two a week that I choose to watch television can I not find a channel that dedicates even a little time to the cue sports? If that existed, then some visual exposure to snooker could naturally follow and then finally perhaps some people may begin talking. (Hey, look at the popularity of "Duck Dynasty"....never seen it myself. I fully and openly admit to my ignorance of the duck calling world.) Then, when ignorance begins to melt, finally businesses in the industry of snooker may open their doors with some anticipation of success.
The original question is "Will snooker catch on in the US?" and my answer is that even if we enthusiasts could expose what we perceive to be the wonder and beauty of our passion to everyone who would care to listen, we would make little headway in terms of making snooker "catch on" here simply due to human nature and current society. Snooker will remain the "root beer" of carbonated sugary beverages. It will not become a Coke nor Pepsi, nor even a Dr. Pepper anytime soon in the US.
I wish it were otherwise. I do all I reasonably can in this area to shed light on this game of which so few in general society have even heard. Amazingly often the result of a conversation with someone new in a barroom, pool hall, or whatever is "Oh yeah, I had a friend whose Dad had one those tables in his basement" only to shortly afterward find out that no, that in fact is a tiny little bumper pool table that you are talking about and it compares with snooker in the same way that tic tac toe compares with chess.
From a business perspective, I think the only geographic areas that will support snooker as an industry (meaning renting the tables out as in a "pool hall"....a "snooker hall" if you will) are those areas that have a large, centrally located Asian immigrant population: Chinese and Indian in particular. It seems to me that the Middle Eastern culture is trying to establish a snooker hall or two in the Houston area. I am certainly not wise enough in this topic to predict if the outcome will ultimately be positive or not. I don't know if there is a large enough Middle Eastern immigrant population in Houston, and I don't know if Middle Eastern immigrants have a particular propensity for playing snooker. How about in Las Vegas? Does anyone know if there is proper snooker available there still in a proper club, or just the back room, novelty, non-standard snooker equipment within an established pool hall like so many other places in the country? The big problem with "pool hall" snooker tables is that they are neglected and abused and nobody cares because they don't generate any money anyway so if some "newbie" wanders in and wants to get that funny set of balls to try out this "snucker", their experience is almost certain to be disappointing and nothing at all like the true and proper snooker experience with which I fell in love.
How to change this I leave to greater minds than mine. I do strongly believe that trying to open a "snooker hall" would be akin to putting the cart before the horse. I believe the few existing and established clubs there are in the country happened to be in the right place at the right time, made some good business decisions, and got enough of a toehold "business-wise" that they can attract enough activity to keep their doors open. Until there is greater exposure to and knowledge of the proper game for and by the general population as a whole and for and by the pool playing segment of society in particular, it will be a foolhardy venture to open a "snooker hall" and expect success in the USA. Specifically, I believe this exposure must come through television coverage of events. Hell, with the advent of cable television, we have a thousand channels of utter crap. I can learn what color wiggler the (apparently evolving) bass are striking this season, I can thrill at which BFF's party the Kardashian sisters will be attending this weekend, I can pick up some tips on how to whip up a chateaubriand dinner for unexpected guests. Why in the hour or two a week that I choose to watch television can I not find a channel that dedicates even a little time to the cue sports? If that existed, then some visual exposure to snooker could naturally follow and then finally perhaps some people may begin talking. (Hey, look at the popularity of "Duck Dynasty"....never seen it myself. I fully and openly admit to my ignorance of the duck calling world.) Then, when ignorance begins to melt, finally businesses in the industry of snooker may open their doors with some anticipation of success.
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Kind of like chess, correct?
There's always different methods of persuasion. It does not have to be "jammed" into another person. It's about how you leave that impression to enthuse the person into getting into snooker... that's the tricky part.
No. Aside from the latter answer, it does not have to be in a "snooker parlor" (a pub, I would think). Ideally, it could possibly be on the midst of a spacious basement, man-room, or an outdoor isolated room that has space for such a table and people in it.