THIS is what is wrong with pool these days!

3andstop said:
We will always be able to persuade interest in the game to a few, but I am really a firm believer that in order to really make pool mainstream, it has to be a school activity, one that starts with early teens, and I think 8 ball is the best game to use for that.

I know sporting good stores are full of parents buying baseball, softball, skating, equipment. I can picture them buying cues, gloves, instructional materials as well if the kids were involved in school.

Wish I knew how to get it established, donating tables from pool rooms is a possibility, but getting schools involved is another thing.
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It could happen that School Programs could work. Diamond Tables and Billiards Across America put Diamond tables in racks and ship them and flip them out of those racks onto the floor then level them.

If that can be done for a tournament/trade show those same racks could be used for storage and the gym floor covered with a tarp and waa laa instance billiard competition in any school....the lights are there or could be put up using theater type lighting.
 
336Robin said:
It could happen that School Programs could work. Diamond Tables and Billiards Across America put Diamond tables in racks and ship them and flip them out of those racks onto the floor then level them.

If that can be done for a tournament/trade show those same racks could be used for storage and the gym floor covered with a tarp and waa laa instance billiard competition in any school....the lights are there or could be put up using theater type lighting.
Click to expand...


Well, they can send a man to the moon, if they could build a pool table that flips up on it's side for storage along the walls of say a gym, and then rolled out and tilted flat like a coffee tray, that could be the ticket. :thumbup:
 
You know one of the problems with pool???

One of the problems with pool is that it takes phenomenal coordination, knowledge, thought, skill...It basically takes a super well rounded individual to play the game well.

You look at other things and you can have one or the other, physical skill, or mental skill and excel at them. If you have no physical skill, you can still play chess at a high level so long as you have mental skill.

If you're a brick or too (pun intended) shy of a chimney, but you can run fast, you can still play football, baseball or any other number of sports.

For pool, you gotta be well rounded and even exceptional in many aspects (except life choices..lol) to be exceptional at it.

Jaden
 
Get Rid of Them

Pool players are cheap.
They want free time free food and suckers.
They save all there money for gambling.
They want tournaments with added money, yet won't spend a dime at the tournament.

For a pool room owner, I think it is better to support the non pool players.
They have money so they don't complain.
They spend money, eat at your place and come back.
Of course you should have a well lit room, great restaurant, full bar, good tables and treat them great.
That way they will come back.
For them it is not about pool but the atmosphere.

Hope, I am wrong................
 
Jaden said:
One of the problems with pool is that it takes phenomenal coordination, knowledge, thought, skill...It basically takes a super well rounded individual to play the game well.

You look at other things and you can have one or the other, physical skill, or mental skill and excel at them. If you have no physical skill, you can still play chess at a high level so long as you have mental skill.

If you're a brick or too (pun intended) shy of a chimney, but you can run fast, you can still play football, baseball or any other number of sports.

For pool, you gotta be well rounded and even exceptional in many aspects (except life choices..lol) to be exceptional at it.

Jaden
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Exactly what my "pro" bowling friends expressed 30 years ago, and just as....um interesting:wink:
Maybe you're not really serious
 
336Robin said:
A few months ago a guy came up to me at a local place I was practicing and said hey dont I know you...most people around here have seen me there at some point and we struck up a conversation around pool. The guy was playing probably 3 leagues in differing league systems. When I asked him if he knew anything of the US Open. It was huh? Whats that? AzBilliards...no never heard of them...simply amazing.
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and i bet the only "pros" they could name were:
The Black Widow (cause they don't know her name)
Earl
Johnny
(and in that order, and that's all - 3....)

same responses above, in my Greensboro poll.

what i have seen in the past 13 months, is a movement of the diehards, from public to private. tables are now affordable. and taking it inhouse with friends, is more economic & enjoyable.

having said that - the only "äction" on our friend's perfect GCIV on SuperBowl Sunday, will be our asses, while glued to the TV screen!
 
Floppage said:
I have heard a lot of theories about what is wrong with pool. Not enough sponsorship money, tournaments don't pay out enough (or at all in some cases), too many groups like the ABP causing in-fighting, Bonus Ball drama, etc.

Here's what I think is wrong with pool...

I have been watching football with the same group of guys for over a decade. Its a mixed group spanning construction, military, college professors, etc. This coming weekend I'm hosting the NFL conference championships and in the invite email mentioned the fact that this year there's a pool table in the front room with the TV.

The responses I got back were something like:

"Pool table?"
"Is there another TV or just that one?"

Huh? There are a couple of guys who have played before but even they were very blase about the prospect of shooting some pool while watching the games.

This is what is wrong with pool.

I have read posts on this forum from players wondering why more people don't watch professional pool. Maybe its because they don't even want to play it casually with friends. My feeling is that many of the people involved with pool have been doing it so long they have forgotten a time when they weren't interested in pool and over the years their social circle has become increasingly dominated by people from the pool world. (leagues, tournaments, etc.)

My friends are definitely sports oriented group who watch most major professional sports and I am having to politely ask them to keep an open mind about pool. This is why ESPN doesn't want to show pool more often.

If you want to fix pool then I believe we all need to work on fixing it. That means CJ, Mark, Jay, Barry and anyone else who may or may not read this post. Pool doesn't need another variation to avoid racking tricks, a new pro tour, better league management, more gambling or anything like that. Before any of that will work pool needs more people to not balk at the thought of just picking up a cue and hitting some balls with their buddies. What pool needs is for ALL of you to ask someone you don't think has played ever or lately to go play some pool with you for fun.

Fortunately I already did this once with one guy from this group awhile back by getting him to play a few games of 8-ball with me at a bar table in a local sports bar so I have one ally in the group. And I'm hoping with his help I might create one or two more converts on Sunday.

If that doesn't work maybe I'll try going door-to-door. That works out for some religions, right? :thumbup:
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TIMING:
I invited my pool loving friends to watch last years Mosconi Cup. I said I have a full PS3 / 50" separate set up in the living room which WE could play alongside watching the MC. On their arrival they collectively took baseball bats to me PS3 state of the art set up and B!TCH SLAPPED me..!
...There's no pleasing some people. I thought these guys were my friends. I'll never, ever invite them to my home AGAIN! :thumbup:
 
HawaiianEye said:
I play at 10 a.m. on Sundays and they even have a church in the front of the pool hall. You can kill two birds with one stone.

Aloha.
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Funny you should mention. I play at a room on Sunday that opens at 9am. I call it my church and I call the houseman "reverend" on Sunday. 7 bucks from 9 to noon. He blesses me when I leave. Ha.
 
PINKLADY said:
and i bet the only "pros" they could name were:
The Black Widow (cause they don't know her name)
Earl
Johnny
(and in that order, and that's all - 3....)

same responses above, in my Greensboro poll.

what i have seen in the past 13 months, is a movement of the diehards, from public to private. tables are now affordable. and taking it inhouse with friends, is more economic & enjoyable.

having said that - the only "äction" on our friend's perfect GCIV on SuperBowl Sunday, will be our asses, while glued to the TV screen!
Click to expand...

Thats exactly right. The home game room is going to see a lot more action in normal pool playing lives because not everyone can stand to pay top price while they work on their games for 6 or so hours at a shot. This also means an uptick in the Gaming Industry as people install tables at home in search of a value for their entertainment dollar.

The home market in pool has been suffering some but the businesses that carry the product they use are just fine because most are set up to operate off of low margin profits. Those that aren't many have already gone to by the wayside and others are following now. Sales of cloth, chalk, tables etc have been at an all time low but are now starting to increase from the information that I have been getting.
 
I think Floppage is onto something.

Other than legitimate physical impairments and/or money and time constraints, what is it that keeps many people out of the gym, or off the golf course, or away from many other social activities? I think it's the fear of failure and embarrassment. If they had someone to introduce them to the activity in a proper manner, and then mentor and encourage them along the way, they would probably enjoy that activity for life.

Roger
 
"What's wrong with Pool", is a skosh ambiguous, but some of the things that have contributed to Pool's decline in popularity include: Gambling, smoking, drinking, drug use, loose women, and fast cars.
However, if there is one overriding factor that may have caused this decline, I would have to say lack of participation by the yoots of today. You just don't see the youngsters coming into the pool hall these days. Where I play there is only one kid (19 years old) who plays, so when the guys like me leave, who's gonna fill dem shoes. :)
 
Meet up

Floppage said:
I have heard a lot of theories about what is wrong with pool. Not enough sponsorship money, tournaments don't pay out enough (or at all in some cases), too many groups like the ABP causing in-fighting, Bonus Ball drama, etc.

Here's what I think is wrong with pool...

I have been watching football with the same group of guys for over a decade. Its a mixed group spanning construction, military, college professors, etc. This coming weekend I'm hosting the NFL conference championships and in the invite email mentioned the fact that this year there's a pool table in the front room with the TV.

The responses I got back were something like:

"Pool table?"
"Is there another TV or just that one?"

Huh? There are a couple of guys who have played before but even they were very blase about the prospect of shooting some pool while watching the games.

This is what is wrong with pool.

I have read posts on this forum from players wondering why more people don't watch professional pool. Maybe its because they don't even want to play it casually with friends. My feeling is that many of the people involved with pool have been doing it so long they have forgotten a time when they weren't interested in pool and over the years their social circle has become increasingly dominated by people from the pool world. (leagues, tournaments, etc.)

My friends are definitely sports oriented group who watch most major professional sports and I am having to politely ask them to keep an open mind about pool. This is why ESPN doesn't want to show pool more often.

If you want to fix pool then I believe we all need to work on fixing it. That means CJ, Mark, Jay, Barry and anyone else who may or may not read this post. Pool doesn't need another variation to avoid racking tricks, a new pro tour, better league management, more gambling or anything like that. Before any of that will work pool needs more people to not balk at the thought of just picking up a cue and hitting some balls with their buddies. What pool needs is for ALL of you to ask someone you don't think has played ever or lately to go play some pool with you for fun.

Fortunately I already did this once with one guy from this group awhile back by getting him to play a few games of 8-ball with me at a bar table in a local sports bar so I have one ally in the group. And I'm hoping with his help I might create one or two more converts on Sunday.

If that doesn't work maybe I'll try going door-to-door. That works out for some religions, right? :thumbup:
Click to expand...

You make a good point. Here is an idea that I thought about that you and others might be interested in. VERY recently I took up a new hobby, photography. When I tell you I don't know anything about photography, I mean it. Well, I have been cramming for about a week now and I can see that just like in pool, there are many levels to being a "photographer". I just want to enjoy learning how to take photos of different things and will most likely one day if I can justify spending the money, get a lens that is suitable for taking photos in pool rooms.:smile:

So I don't want to aggravate my pool friends with questions about photography and I want to learn more and there is just so much videos you can watch. It's the interaction with other people that most of us enjoy. So I google "photography lessons" and up pops a link about meet up and I find that this is an Internet business that allows people to "Meet Up" and join particular groups that are of interest to them.

I join the photography group and find out that there are 1,349 members in my local area. WTH? I haven't gone to my first meeting just yet but from the posts I read online, it seems that the photography people are a good crowd and I just hope I don't ask too many questions. :embarrassed2:

Anyway, I'm thinking that there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who don't play pool or who have never played pool very much who don't know anyone who plays pool and would love to be introduced to pool without being hit on, without being hustled, without feeling like they were a guppy amongst mighty sharks etc. Meet UP might just be the ticket.

For $10 a month, you can start your own local group with 50 members (more members cost more) and it seems possible that with just a little effort, more people would get involved with pool. Here's the link to my Meet Up website: http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/la/new_orleans/

I'm sure you can put in your city and join a group. I had never heard of this before but 1349 photographers that joined this group. The meeting this month has 35 attending at one of the locals homes.......

With MEET UP, people can search for things that might interest themselves and so far I haven't checked to see if they have pool or pocket billiards as a hobby/interest. They sure have a lot of different categories so pool shouldn't be a big jump.

If this idea takes off, we can ask Mike Howerton to make us a Sticky or sub-forum to keep up with how the various groups around the country are doing and what some are doing to make it more successful. If the group gets too big and expensive, I guess you could charge the members a very small fee to cover the expenses or you could charge the pool room where you would have your local monthly meeting. (Could have more than one meeting once a month).

It could probably be a money maker for pool instructors as well. Ok, that's about it for now.

Good luck and thanks for caring about our sport.

JoeyA

Oh yeah, go to the Meet Up website and start to create a group and type in topics "pool". A bunch of different categories. Heck, I might get the venture capitalists in my area to fund this project (pool rooms).
 
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JoeyA said:
You make a good point. Here is an idea that I thought about that you and others might be interested in. VERY recently I took up a new hobby, photography. When I tell you I don't know anything about photography, I mean it. Well, I have been cramming for about a week now and I can see that just like in pool, there are many levels to being a "photographer". I just want to enjoy learning how to take photos of different things and will most likely one day if I can justify spending the money, get a lens that is suitable for taking photos in pool rooms.:smile:

So I don't want to aggravate my pool friends with questions about photography and I want to learn more and there is just so much videos you can watch. It's the interaction with other people that most of us enjoy. So I google "photography lessons" and up pops a link about meet up and I find that this is an Internet business that allows people to "Meet Up" and join particular groups that are of interest to them.

I join the photography group and find out that there are 1,349 members in my local area. WTH? I haven't gone to my first meeting just yet but from the posts I read online, it seems that the photography people are a good crowd and I just hope I don't ask too many questions. :embarrassed2:

Anyway, I'm thinking that there are probably hundreds of thousands of people who don't play pool or who have never played pool very much who don't know anyone who plays pool and would love to be introduced to pool without being hit on, without being hustled, without feeling like they were a guppy amongst mighty sharks etc. Meet UP might just be the ticket.

For $10 a month, you can start your own local group with 50 members (more members cost more) and it seems possible that with just a little effort, more people would get involved with pool. Here's the link to my Meet Up website: http://www.meetup.com/cities/us/la/new_orleans/

I'm sure you can put in your city and join a group. I had never heard of this before but 1349 photographers that joined this group. The meeting this month has 35 attending at one of the locals homes.......

With MEET UP, people can search for things that might interest themselves and so far I haven't checked to see if they have pool or pocket billiards as a hobby/interest. They sure have a lot of different categories so pool shouldn't be a big jump.

If this idea takes off, we can ask Mike Howerton to make us a Sticky or sub-forum to keep up with how the various groups around the country are doing and what some are doing to make it more successful. If the group gets too big and expensive, I guess you could charge the members a very small fee to cover the expenses or you could charge the pool room where you would have your local monthly meeting. (Could have more than one meeting once a month).

It could probably be a money maker for pool instructors as well. Ok, that's about it for now.

Good luck and thanks for caring about our sport.

JoeyA

Oh yeah, go to the Meet Up website and start to create a group and type in topics "pool". A bunch of different categories. Heck, I might get the venture capitalists in my area to fund this project (pool rooms).
Click to expand...

I like this idea a lot. Its a lot less intimidating than joining a league or showing up to a bar and trying to figure out how to get started. I haven't used MEET UP before but the concept makes sense.
 
philly said:
I have said this before. The key to getting people as interested in playing pool as we are is mentorship. The millenials are keeping the myriad of production cue companies in business but they are taking their sticks to bars. Talk up the poolroom. Get them there. Mentor them. They have the wherewithal. They will get bit just like we did and they have loads of friends they connect with through the various social media. Word of mouth is still the best advertising. Remember when you first started playing and an older more experienced player took you under his wing? I think that's the key.
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Screw "millenials"....I hate that this group of people have been given this title that sounds kind of special when all they did was get born at a certain time ....who cares?! They actually think they are special...let's stop glorifying this group folks.They did nothing special and are no different from anyone else...I just saw a poster at the bar last night that was talking about American Honey Spice? and it said millenials are looking for more this or that..if they demand more maybe they should try some Caymus Cabernet or Oude Tart from The Bruery in Califorinia.....yada yada...they need some taste, class, respect, and common sense first....just because they are up on technology doesn't make them great..tech is all there is now anyway...I heard they don't even know how to write in cursive. They must be a genius generation.....right! ha. What a joke. Sorry to derail...back to the thread ;) OOOH..they call me a Millenial ..sounds cooler than baby boomer but it's not.... Sorry, I just get tired of hearing about this generation and having to share the bar with them...it's not easy to tolerate. Hate to generalize, I'm sure there are good one's that are in touch with reality that I haven't met...
 
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Floppage said:
I like this idea a lot. Its a lot less intimidating than joining a league or showing up to a bar and trying to figure out how to get started. I haven't used MEET UP before but the concept makes sense.
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I will be starting a MEET UP for people in my area today. I have talked to one of the pool room owners and they are happy to INVEST in this idea. I'm going to invite 3 pool rooms to fund me for a year. The first guy understands that if only 50 people decide to join the group, that's a heck of a lot of hourly rate money that will be going into his cash register that he doesn't have now. The other two will probably jump all over this.

I'm going for the unlimited membership at about $200 a year. I will collect the money from the pool rooms and pay for the one year in advance. If it flies, all is good. If it fails, well the three pool rooms are out a whopping $60 each. I'm not going to make this a money-making proposition for myself and will just try to insure that it is successful.

Yes, it makes sense. There are lots of women/girls who don't like getting hit on aggressively and there is strength in numbers, so if a group is formed that gives them that protection, they will most likely be more willing to take a chance on this new hobby. The other thing is there are lots of people who enjoy socializing but find the pool room intimidating with the alcohol, the hustlers and gambling in general. A group gives all members a sense of protection. It makes sense to me too.

Mike Howerton, get your Sticky Note for JoeyA's Meet UP ready along with a sub-forum. Ok, maybe you should wait until we have it rolling. :D

Floppage, since you inspired me to think about this, maybe you should start a new thread about MEET UP and we can explain it so that others of like minds can discuss the BEST WAY to do this.

JoeyA
 
StuartTKelley said:
Screw "millenials"....I hate that this group of people have been given this title that sounds kind of special when all they did was get born at a certain time ....who cares?! They actually think they are special...let's stop glorifying this group folks.They did nothing special and are no different from anyone else...I just saw a poster at the bar last night that was talking about American Honey Spice? and it said millenials are looking for more this or that..if they demand more maybe they should try some Caymus Cabernet or Oude Tart from The Bruery in Califorinia.....yada yada...they need some taste, class, respect, and common sense first....just because they are up on technology doesn't make them great..tech is all there is now anyway...I heard they don't even know how to write in cursive. They must be a genius generation.....right! ha. What a joke. Sorry to derail...back to the thread ;) OOOH..they call me a Millenial ..sounds cooler than baby boomer but it's not.... Sorry, I just get tired of hearing about this generation and having to share the bar with them...it's not easy to tolerate. Hate to generalize, I'm sure there are good one's that are in touch with reality that I haven't met...
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You sound a little bitter. I am a baby boomer and there is a "Y" generation and yes there are millenials. Trust me there some very capable and smart millenials. Better believe in them because they will be running the country one day. Every time I complain about the younger generation I sound like my father. It's always been that way. The older generation never understands as I'm sure your parents didn't understand you and your friends. There are many millenials that are self sufficient and well educated and yes they are keeping Seyberts, Muellers, Billiard Warehouse, and Ozone, etc. solvent. As Bob Dylan said: The Times They Are A Changing.
 
No!

He suggesting introducing it to people that may have no experience playing. perhaps they've just never been around the game. With pool halls as scarce as they are now, its probably pretty easy to find people that just haven't been exposed to the game... which of course is completely different than being OPPOSED to playing the game. BIG DIFFERENCE imo


SLIM said:
So your fix for pool is to try to force people who have no interest in it what so ever, to be interested in it?

Slim
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