Mosconi Cup (another missed opportunity)

[jmurphy]

I think we all can agree that Pool's popularity has been on the decline for a number of years now, that being said with an event such as the Mosconi Cup right here in Vegas
not once did either team think to arrange any kind of meet and greet sessions at any of the local pool rooms to promote pool.
Maybe show up in the Mosconi Cup team uniforms
Sign some autographs
Put on a 30-40min teaching clinic
Watch a few local players hit balls and give them some small instruction
ETC....................................................

 

[fat Albert]

Very good thought indeed and we wonder why the state of Pool.

 

[boogeyman]

I think we all can agree that Pool's popularity has been on the decline for a number of years now, that being said with an event such as the Mosconi Cup right here in Vegas
not once did either team think to arrange any kind of meet and greet sessions at any of the local pool rooms to promote pool.
Maybe show up in the Mosconi Cup team uniforms
Sign some autographs
Put on a 30-40min teaching clinic
Watch a few local players hit balls and give them some small instruction
ETC....................................................

Jmurphy. Where are you getting your info from?

Pool's popularity is not on the decline.
The world has embraced pool like never before.

Further, Team U.S.A. has had several sessions in different pool
rooms with fans leading up to the MC, albeit not necessarily the whole team at once.

Do some research, sir/ma'am.
It's important you find out what's really going on.

I love the idea though about showing up in the actual uniforms.
However, that's another area we might no understand.
The players don't own those uniforms necessarily.

The entity, et al. that put on the MC are the ones who have rights to the
brand/logos.

You have to understand that the MC is mainly about business, not about pool.

 

[jmurphy]

Jmurphy. Where are you getting your info from?l.

Are you kidding?
Pool rooms closing all over the country.
I live in Vegas and never heard a word about either team doing any promotional events, signing autographs etc.........
Bonus Ball was the same way, ZERO local promoting

 

[watchez]

Team USA did 3 (maybe more) trips here. Quad Cities, Bloomingotn and the big bash in downtown St Louis with over 1000 people. While in Vega$, guess what .....they were playing the match of their lives. Not there to sign some autographs over at some pool room.


Another post from a poster that fails to know what he is talking about.

 

[King T]

You miss the point

Team USA did 3 (maybe more) trips here. Quad Cities, Bloomingotn and the big bash in downtown St Louis with over 1000 people. While in Vega$, guess what .....they were playing the match of their lives. Not there to sign some autographs over at some pool room.


Another post from a poster that fails to know what he is talking about.

If these guys cant do a little promoting before playing.., that would be sad. Its a benefit to the sport and to them individually, marketing and promoting never stops.

 

[King T]

wait a minute...,

Are you kidding?
Pool rooms closing all over the country.
I live in Vegas and never heard a word about either team doing any promotional events, signing autographs etc.........
Bonus Ball was the same way, ZERO local promoting

Pool rooms are opening all over Houston and Dallas, New Orleans is going strong, Pool might not be growing, but its far from dying, at least in the south.

It looks pretty good over seas too.

 

[watchez]

If these guys cant do a little promoting before playing.., that would be sad. Its a benefit to the sport and to them individually, marketing and promoting never stops.

People feel cause it is the Internet they can ***** about anything. They were playing on Sky Sports and ESPN3. That's promoting.

 

[couldnthinkof01]

Many sports have promoting like this I have no reason to believe it wouldn't work for pool. Makes good sense, show up for a couple league nights, do an exhibition and sign stuff. Really couldn't hurt and the crowd for this is fun so non-hardcore fans may get into it.

 

[7forlife]

Since there are others that know, can they tell us. Did they go there to practice, word was out and tons of people showed up or was it announced that they were coming to town and people had the opportunity to play with a pro for $5 or $10 and have their game evaluated get a pic and an autograph. This use to happen back in the day.

 

[trob]

People feel cause it is the Internet they can ***** about anything. They were playing on Sky Sports and ESPN3. That's promoting.

ESPN 3 = only streaming and it wasn't promoted to my knowledge on any of there cable channels.

Pool is not completely on the decline but where it's on the uprise is where you hate. It's transitioning from pool halls to bars with multiple table (unfortunately mostly bar box) and all amature leagues are growing showing big numbers. The question is is how do you get this to transition to a pro tour.

Here is also some bad news. I heard them talking on an ESPN talk show this week how the subscriber numbers are down by the millions. (People cutting the chord from cable ) How does this effect pool? Well before ESPN didn't have to worry as much about rating. There advertising dollars were based on subscribers so they were getting subscription money and advertising dollars. With that now declining ratings are now going to be more important which means games they consider nitch (like pool) are going to have a hard time getting air time if they aren't pulling viewers.

 

[snucar]

It looks pretty good over seas too.

As far as Europe is concerned the above statement is completely false. Less pool rooms, less prize money, less players involved, less members in every country's federations, less less less... Take the Netherlands for example. The government is fully supporting pool as a sport for almost two decades now and yet Feijen and Berg are still the only players worth mentioning. Statistically there should have been more people emerging from that country. The once dominant Germany is nowhere to be seen, veterans like Petroni or Murratore are still laying down the law in Italy etc etc But they haven't produced anything simply because nobody gives a f**k about pool anymore outside the usual and aging hardcore fans from pool's better days.

Philippines aside, I even doubt if the game is that popular in China that many people would like you to think. I've watched plenty of their tournaments and the attendance and the general buzz around the tournaments were pretty disappointing, compared to the efforts the country has thrown at pool.

Ask yourselves why Matchroom (a money-making machine) has abandoned the greatest pool tournament in the world (world 9ball championship) a decade ago and never looked back. The numbers aren't just there to provoke any serious investment from someone. So they stuck to smaller and much more easier events like the Mosconi or WCOP which, make no mistake, are airing on SKY just because it's part of other deals Matchroom has made with SKY and NOT because SKY has ANY interest in pool. Eurosport which is usually pretty open to minor sports hasn't shown pool in ages. Pool, if it's not dead is pretty darn close.

 

[jmurphy]

Team USA did 3 (maybe more) trips here. Quad Cities, Bloomingotn and the big bash in downtown St Louis with over 1000 people. While in Vega$, guess what .....they were playing the match of their lives. Not there to sign some autographs over at some pool room.


Another post from a poster that fails to know what he is talking about.

I said ZERO local promotion.
I love pool and want it to get wildly popular again like it did right after the Color of Money came out in the movie theaters.
I'm happy they had a big party and promotional events in St. Louis butt they need to have promotional events all over the country it's called "Self Promotion". Gin up interest and excitement about the game we all love. It's good for the sport and good for the players.

 

[Teacherman]

This was the most successful Mosconi Cup in my lifetime.....and the the genius of this board can't see it.

Carry on.

 

[TheLoneSilencer]

The sooner people realize that pro pool will never be a big popular game/sport in the mainstream again, the better off they will be. No silly movie or promotion is going to save that no matter what fantasy world some want to preach from.

In our society today, people have a ton of more options to spend money & time on with a lot more reward (especially in terms of making a career of it).

Bar leagues work because it is basically a night out to drink & socialize.

 

[jmurphy]

This was the most successful Mosconi Cup in my lifetime.....and the the genius of this board can't see it.

Carry on.

The event itself was awesome, no issues there.
If you want anything to grow it takes branding and marketing.
Professional Pool has shown time and time again that they are the worst branding/marketing organization in human history.

 

[JCIN]

Are you kidding?
Pool rooms closing all over the country.
I live in Vegas and never heard a word about either team doing any promotional events, signing autographs etc.........
Bonus Ball was the same way, ZERO local promoting

If you live in Vegas then you know it would be almost impossible to get random people interested in ANY event they know nothing about. Casinos spend real money promoting shows that have been running six nights a week for a decade. There is so much noise in this town its unrealistic to expect any kind of big PR push targeted at the local market outside of some hotel signage on site which would cost nothing.

Add in the fact that the venue was already sold out anyway. They spent the whole year leading up to the event promoting it and it worked. I saw more buzz on social media about this years cup than any year before. Biggest Vegas crowd I've ever seen as well. Trucking the players out to a pool room the day before the event to sign autographs for 20 people would accomplish nothing.

 

[watchez]

If you live in Vegas then you know it would be almost impossible to get random people interested in ANY event they know nothing about. Casinos spend real money promoting shows that have been running six nights a week for a decade. There is so much noise in this town its unrealistic to expect any kind of big PR push targeted at the local market outside of some hotel signage on site which would cost nothing.

Add in the fact that the venue was already sold out anyway. They spent the whole year leading up to the event promoting it and it worked. I saw more buzz on social media about this years cup than any year before. Biggest Vegas crowd I've ever seen as well. Trucking the players out to a pool room the day before the event to sign autographs for 20 people would accomplish nothing.

Except get jmurphy who was too cheap to buy a ticket to the Mosconi Cup in his home town a chance to rub elbows with the players.

 

[jmurphy]

Except get jmurphy who was too cheap to buy a ticket to the Mosconi Cup in his home town a chance to rub elbows with the players.

I would have happily been there if they had matches on the weekend but like most people I work during the week. During the Cup I was working 10 hour days finishing up a Solar field, 14 hours a day if you count getting up at 4am and getting home at 6pm.
BTW I was offered a free ticket but could not make the match times and even if I had to buy tickets I could have gotten all I wanted at $38 a day. So money was never the issue.
So please stick to something you know about (which might not be much )

 

[jmurphy]

If you live in Vegas then you know it would be almost impossible to get random people interested in ANY event they know nothing about. Casinos spend real money promoting shows that have been running six nights a week for a decade. There is so much noise in this town its unrealistic to expect any kind of big PR push targeted at the local market outside of some hotel signage on site which would cost nothing.

Add in the fact that the venue was already sold out anyway. They spent the whole year leading up to the event promoting it and it worked. I saw more buzz on social media about this years cup than any year before. Biggest Vegas crowd I've ever seen as well. Trucking the players out to a pool room the day before the event to sign autographs for 20 people would accomplish nothing.

You are missing part of my point.
The marketing and promotion I am talking about goes WAY BEYOND the Mosconi Cup itself. I'm talking about the Pro Players getting out and about to promote the "sport" generating excitement and interest in "Pool"
Get out and promote like crazy, generate excitement, grow the Fan base and just maybe after a lot of hard work a new Pro Tour might be resurrected from the ashes.
If they keep doing/acting the same as they have been noting will ever change.