Who are the people that claim pool is on the down hill slide?

[Meucciplayer]

But 3C is popular in Europe as well. So there are 3 cue games vying for attention, to varying degrees depending on country. But both pro snooker AND pro 3C are a lot more solid, there, than pool.

3C is only/mostly popular in France and Belgium, AFAIK.

My current club hosted the best 3C players in the world only recently and there were only a handful of visitors watching the games. Sadly, this is a total fringe sport in most parts of Europe. I doubt you will find more than a handful of 3c and snooker tables in commercial establishments all over Germany. Maybe 50 3C tables in clubs and about the same amount of snooker tables.

Snooker in the UK is different. And it is different here also because there is a lot of interest in the tv broadcasts. But this is like American Football - 99% of the viewers don't play it actively themselves. Still, the snooker broadcasts shine a tiny amount of light on pool and a few people might still feel the urge every now and then to go to a bar or club to pick up a -pool- cue. Snooker tables are just way too big for this country with the same problems as in the US - rents are way too high to make them affordable for businesses. Plus spaces are tighter in Europe and rooms that allow the setup of a 12-footer are pretty uncommon. Some industrial areas have some such spaces but then again rents are way too high.

 

[realkingcobra]

You should visit the Midwest once in a while. Snooker was and still is popular here. Our Senior center has 2 snooker tables.

But 3C is popular in Europe as well. So there are 3 cue games vying for attention, to varying degrees depending on country. But both pro snooker AND pro 3C are a lot more solid, there, than pool.

And they are doing it without glue. Or some mega event center which will cost a fortune to build and equip and another fortune to pay the overhead. Or player ability tests to qualify.

How well is 3C doing again? This event was the highest payout 3C has ever seen, and it was for the entertainment of a billionaire at his home!!!

SAT
MAR 31
New York Tournament To Boast Largest Cash Payout in History! FEATURED
Written by Super User Published in World 3-Cushion News Read 1860 times
New York Tournament To Boast Largest Cash Payout in History!
The six best players in the world and six wild card players are set to face off in the world's most lucrative three cushion tournament ever. Twelve top players in three cushion will meet each other in New York August 5-11, 2018 to battle it out for a total of $608,000 in prize money. The winner will receive $150,000 - the single largest payout ever to a winner of a 3-cushion billiards event. The name of the tournament is The McCreery 3C Champion of Champions. The location is in New York (at a private estate of the tournament's billionaire benefactor.) The organization is in the hands of UMB in cooperation with the organizers. Broadcast will be provided by Kozoom

 

[KissedOut]

You start shit, then cry like a baby when I respond?

You mistake laughing for crying. You have Drs. disease - the belief that because you know one thing very well you know everything very well.

 

[realkingcobra]

You mistake laughing for crying. You have Drs. disease - the belief that because you know one thing very well you know everything very well.

I'll tell you what I do know, I know this industry I work in, but it's very clear to me that you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to knowing something about this industry at all!

 

[realkingcobra]

You mistake laughing for crying. You have Drs. disease - the belief that because you know one thing very well you know everything very well.

Stick to being a player, if you're even that.

 

[Meucciplayer]

I'll tell you what I do know, I know this industry I work in, but it's very clear to me that you have no idea what you're talking about when it comes to knowing something about this industry at all!

I don't doubt that you have knowledge about the industry - as it exists right now. However, there is a difference in knowing the die-hard fans and the existing pool halls plus their requirements WRT tables and all vs. the impact pool has on the general public.

Sadly, I see a huge decline in interest in many areas that used to be highly popular over 20 or 30 years ago. Bowling, pinball and many other formerly popular activities come to mind. Most of which had their peaks in the 70's.

Even worse for formerly popular hobbies like stamp collecting, model railroading, scale model building and so on. People nowadays just can't and don't invest the time necessary for most of these. Video games and the Kardashians etc. seem to be the craze, if anything.

Using your hands and skills (mental or manual) don't really excite the younger generation. Pool is still better off than some of the aforementioned activities but having lived long enough I see the same trend. Unless the public can easily watch pool and watch it on tv - if only by mere accident - I don't see a revival. Maybe a major Hollywood movie might help a little but I don't see a new "Hustler/Color of Money" around the corner, either.

 

[realkingcobra]

I'm going to try one more time to explain the simplicity of my glue to help create the needed changes in this sport, ONE MORE TIME.

First of all, it should be pretty clear to everyone by now, that for countless years, no sponsors have jumped on board to fund the sport because of the most basic question...what's in it for them, and how do they get a return on their investment.

Now here's the simple truth to my glue, every pool table manufacturer on this planet...is ALREADY spending MONEY buying glue to install their cushions and facings, or just the cushions in the case of snooker and billiard tables. They're ALREADY buying glue!

Every pool table mechanic on the planet is ALREADY spending money buying glue to recover bar tables with 1 piece slates...they're ALREADY BUYING GLUE!

EVERY Diamond pool table built since 2000 was designed to install the bed cloths, so who ever is recovering them is ALREADY buying glue, the money is ALREADY BEING SPENT!!

I'm not asking ONE person on this planet to send me money so I can build a fund to start the changes needed in this sport, NOT ONE PERSON!

ALL we have to do as a group of people that love this game so much, is ask that YOUR hired pool table mechanics to switch the GLUE they're ALREADY BUYING, to using the KING COBRA adhesives instesd....that's IT! Diamond and I will be promoting the KING COBRA adhesive to OTHER manufacturers as well, leading by example, by using the King Cobra glue in their factory when building new, or servicing pool tables.

NO ONE HAS TO SEND MONEY IN TO SUPPORT POOL, just switch the glue you're using to King Cobra glue, it's the best glue for the job, I should know, because I've used the best glue I knew of in this line of work for the last 35 years, and introduced it to everyone else in this industry as well, the FB10 or Scotch Grip 10 as some people know it today. And trust me, if I didn't have a better glue to work with today, I'd still be buying FB10 at well over $300 for a 5gal pale, even with all its drawbacks, crowd clearing smell and all!!! But, today, I now have an option, and option that is so good, I wouldn't switch back to FB10 if I could get it for free!!

All ANYONE who cares about this sport has to do, is ask...hey buddy, before you work on my pool table, if you need to use glue....are you USING THE NEW KING COBRA GLUE?

How frigging hard is that? I'm making free YouTube videos for every cloth manufacturer there is, showing how to stretch index the cloth so it's installed correctly on all pool tables, and showing how to glue it down using my system. If you're planning on having your pool table(s) recovered, and want the end results to be the best possible....ask your potential table mechanic if they're familiar with the RKC cloth installation system, if not, tell them to look it up on any cloth manufacturers website and learn, if you're a home owner, and want to do your own pool table, I'll help you for free, as I'm also going to show for free on YouTube how to recover the rails, festherstriped or bar table style glue down, and I'm also including another several YouTube videos on the principal's of leveling slates, as well as explaining how to use the Diamond leveling system!

It's a huge undertaking on my part, but I don't know how else to create change in this industry all at the same time, helping the table mechanics learn how to do their job better, AND raising money to help spark the changes needed to turn this sport into what it should have been over a 100 years ago, organized, Pro's separated from amateurs, so the Pro's can represent this sport to the masses in a professional format, and earn great living doing so.

I'm done, you haters are just going to keep on hating, I don't care. No one has came up with a better plan than I have so far, if so, this conversation wouldn't even be happening!

Now I just showed everyone how we can work together, if it don't happen, then no problem, I'll just keep my money and live out the rest of my life fishing and never look back. I'll be out of this industry soon anyway, I'm getting to old to keep playing this game of working on pool tables, and don't have that many years left to go steelhead and Coho Salmon fishing in the rivers. Not catching a fish, but spending all day trying, is better than working on pool tables or thinking about helping this industry!!!!

 

[realkingcobra]

And once again, let me explain as well for those that really do care about our sport. The Kinc Cobra glue is such a great adhesive that the same roll on formula I'm introducing into the billiards industry, will be introduced in its spray-able formula to the cabinet manufacturing industry as well, just not quite yet, and once again, that's trading one glue for another to that industry, I'm not asking any cabinet manufacture for money, only to switch to buying my adhesive instead of what they're already using, and trust me, I know what that adhesive is as well, because Diamond was using it too.

I can't stop the hacks from spray gluing the bed cloths down, even with self help free YouTube videos to teach them, but if they're going to insist on doing the work they do, at least they can switch out the aerosol spray glue they're using, to my King Cobra aerosol spray glue instesd.....I'm not asking them for money either, just to change the glue they're already BUYING to my spray glue.

 

[realkingcobra]

I don't doubt that you have knowledge about the industry - as it exists right now. However, there is a difference in knowing the die-hard fans and the existing pool halls plus their requirements WRT tables and all vs. the impact pool has on the general public.

Sadly, I see a huge decline in interest in many areas that used to be highly popular over 20 or 30 years ago. Bowling, pinball and many other formerly popular activities come to mind. Most of which had their peaks in the 70's.

Even worse for formerly popular hobbies like stamp collecting, model railroading, scale model building and so on. People nowadays just can't and don't invest the time necessary for most of these. Video games and the Kardashians etc. seem to be the craze, if anything.

Using your hands and skills (mental or manual) don't really excite the younger generation. Pool is still better off than some of the aforementioned activities but having lived long enough I see the same trend. Unless the public can easily watch pool and watch it on tv - if only by mere accident - I don't see a revival. Maybe a major Hollywood movie might help a little but I don't see a new "Hustler/Color of Money" around the corner, either.

I can tell you this for sure, the LAST thing the public will ever give up, is their entertainment, and the way they get that is always evolving. DUI's, traffic, cost of living, higher table time rates, $2.00 a game for a coin op on the east coast....they ALL add up to a breaking point and change in public habits, but entertainment, that's not going away. You have to stop looking at your back yard as a measuring stick to pool, the back yard has grown into the world back yard. Cell phones and the internet have shrunk the world down to the point that almost nothing is out of reach anymore, and think about the captive audience you now have on cell phones and the internet....we never had so many people in the history of this game....squeezed into such a small, confined space before. All we have to do is get this sport live....right into the internet, right into the cell phones, and it's game, set, match! But we need the whole world to draw from, because it's no longer your back yard sport, this sport belongs to the world, AND to ALL those that don't want to leave home to find their entertainment anymore....they want it brought TO them.....ok, well then we ALL need to work together to do just that!

 

[jay helfert]

I'm going to try one more time to explain the simplicity of my glue to help create the needed changes in this sport, ONE MORE TIME.

First of all, it should be pretty clear to everyone by now, that for countless years, no sponsors have jumped on board to fund the sport because of the most basic question...what's in it for them, and how do they get a return on their investment.

Now here's the simple truth to my glue, every pool table manufacturer on this planet...is ALREADY spending MONEY buying glue to install their cushions and facings, or just the cushions in the case of snooker and billiard tables. They're ALREADY buying glue!

Every pool table mechanic on the planet is ALREADY spending money buying glue to recover bar tables with 1 piece slates...they're ALREADY BUYING GLUE!

EVERY Diamond pool table built since 2000 was designed to install the bed cloths, so who ever is recovering them is ALREADY buying glue, the money is ALREADY BEING SPENT!!

I'm not asking ONE person on this planet to send me money so I can build a fund to start the changes needed in this sport, NOT ONE PERSON!

ALL we have to do as a group of people that love this game so much, is ask that YOUR hired pool table mechanics to switch the GLUE they're ALREADY BUYING, to using the KING COBRA adhesives instesd....that's IT! Diamond and I will be promoting the KING COBRA adhesive to OTHER manufacturers as well, leading by example, by using the King Cobra glue in their factory when building new, or servicing pool tables.

NO ONE HAS TO SEND MONEY IN TO SUPPORT POOL, just switch the glue you're using to King Cobra glue, it's the best glue for the job, I should know, because I've used the best glue I knew of in this line of work for the last 35 years, and introduced it to everyone else in this industry as well, the FB10 or Scotch Grip 10 as some people know it today. And trust me, if I didn't have a better glue to work with today, I'd still be buying FB10 at well over $300 for a 5gal pale, even with all its drawbacks, crowd clearing smell and all!!! But, today, I now have an option, and option that is so good, I wouldn't switch back to FB10 if I could get it for free!!

All ANYONE who cares about this sport has to do, is ask...hey buddy, before you work on my pool table, if you need to use glue....are you USING THE NEW KING COBRA GLUE?

How frigging hard is that? I'm making free YouTube videos for every cloth manufacturer there is, showing how to stretch index the cloth so it's installed correctly on all pool tables, and showing how to glue it down using my system. If you're planning on having your pool table(s) recovered, and want the end results to be the best possible....ask your potential table mechanic if they're familiar with the RKC cloth installation system, if not, tell them to look it up on any cloth manufacturers website and learn, if you're a home owner, and want to do your own pool table, I'll help you for free, as I'm also going to show for free on YouTube how to recover the rails, festherstriped or bar table style glue down, and I'm also including another several YouTube videos on the principal's of leveling slates, as well as explaining how to use the Diamond leveling system!

It's a huge undertaking on my part, but I don't know how else to create change in this industry all at the same time, helping the table mechanics learn how to do their job better, AND raising money to help spark the changes needed to turn this sport into what it should have been over a 100 years ago, organized, Pro's separated from amateurs, so the Pro's can represent this sport to the masses in a professional format, and earn great living doing so.

I'm done, you haters are just going to keep on hating, I don't care. No one has came up with a better plan than I have so far, if so, this conversation wouldn't even be happening!

Now I just showed everyone how we can work together, if it don't happen, then no problem, I'll just keep my money and live out the rest of my life fishing and never look back. I'll be out of this industry soon anyway, I'm getting to old to keep playing this game of working on pool tables, and don't have that many years left to go steelhead and Coho Salmon fishing in the rivers. Not catching a fish, but spending all day trying, is better than working on pool tables or thinking about helping this industry!!!!

Glen, I think you're a great table mechanic, certainly one of the best out there. But a word of advice would be to NOT turn this thread into a "promo" for King Cobra glue. That will only serve to work against you in the long run. You know Pool and I know how to promote. I've written countless Ads and promos for products over the years and it's always best to let the marketplace determine how good your product is. When you have testimonials from people/companies who have been using your product successfully, then you have something to say. Until then King Cobra glue is a great name and has an eye catching label. That's all we know at this point in time.

I wish you luck with your new product and if it turns half as good as you think then you will be well compensated. What you decide to do with your earnings will be a decision you can make at that time. To forecast an event which may or may not happen is also a big no-no in the advertising biz. Once again, at this point in time, you really have no idea if you can put together any kind of pool tour. Discussing the format and rules of play is a bit premature. If and when the time comes and you chose to move forward I will be glad to offer you advice for free on how to organize and set up a pool tournament. You have 30+ years experience working on tables and I have over 35 years experience working on pool tournaments.

In the meantime I would suggest you give this thread a rest. It's becoming tiresome to read and very repetitive. Why you feel a need to keep this to-and-fro discussion alive is beyond me. Don't you have better things to do?

 

[realkingcobra]

Glen, I think you're a great table mechanic, certainly one of the best out there. But a word of advice would be to NOT turn this thread into a "promo" for King Cobra glue. That will only serve to work against you in the long run. You know Pool and I know how to promote. I've written countless Ads and promos for products over the years and it's always best to let the marketplace determine how good your product is. When you have testimonials from people/companies who have been using your product successfully, then you have something to say. Until then King Cobra glue is a great name and has an eye catching label. That's all we know at this point in time.

I wish you luck with your new product and if it turns half as good as you think then you will be well compensated. What you decide to do with your earnings will be a decision you can make at that time. To forecast an event which may or may not happen is also a big no-no in the advertising biz. Once again, at this point in time, you really have no idea if you can put together any kind of pool tour. Discussing the format and rules of play is a bit premature. If and when the time comes and you chose to move forward I will be glad to offer you advice for free on how to organize and set up a pool tournament. You have 30+ years experience working on tables and I have over 35 years experience working on pool tournaments.

In the meantime I would suggest you give this thread a rest. It's becoming tiresome to read and very repetitive. Why you feel a need to keep this to and fro discussion alive is beyond me. Don't you have better things to do?

Jay, I appreciate your advice, and trust me, I'm not selling glue on AZB, if I were I'd buy advertising from Mike, but truth be told, I wouldn't rely on anyone from AZB to buy my glue as there's already to many members here that try telling me how to do my job, and have no clue what the difference is between hack and a real pool table mechanic. Ask Mike at HT at Sacramento who's fixing his pool tables now, it's not me that's for sure.

As for running tournaments, I have some experience in that area as well, having owned 3 pool rooms in the past, and pool tournament formats from the past don't work anymore today, they have to change to single elimination in order to cut down a players extended stay expenses, start on time, and end on time, so players know exactly when they're playing, and they have to play like they have everything on the line in every match in order to bring out their best, second chances have got to go, and a race has to be long enough that the better player has a better chance of winning the match having a lead over the opponent instead of winning by one game because they're to evenly matched in shorter races.

I'm done, I've said all I'm going to say on this subject.

 

[fishless]

Jay, I appreciate your advice, and trust me, I'm not selling glue on AZB, if I were I'd buy advertising from Mike, but truth be told, I wouldn't rely on anyone from AZB to buy my glue as there's already to many members here that try telling me how to do my job, and have no clue what the difference is between hack and a real pool table mechanic. Ask Mike at HT at Sacramento who's fixing his pool tables now, it's not me that's for sure.

As for running tournaments, I have some experience in that area as well, having owned 3 pool rooms in the past, and pool tournament formats from the past don't work anymore today, they have to change to single elimination in order to cut down a players extended stay expenses, start on time, and end on time, so players know exactly when they're playing, and they have to play like they have everything on the line in every match in order to bring out their best, second chances have got to go, and a race has to be long enough that the better player has a better chance of winning the match having a lead over the opponent instead of winning by one game because they're to evenly matched in shorter races.

I'm done, I've said all I'm going to say on this subject.

"ALL we have to do as a group of people that love this game so much, is ask that YOUR hired pool table mechanics to switch the GLUE they're ALREADY BUYING, to using the KING COBRA adhesives instesd."

Jay offered you some sage advice and your response wasn't surprising. For someone who is not relying on AZ to buy or push your glue that may explains your approach.

 

[strmanglr scott]

I'm just curious RKC, because I'm close to recovering my table, why your glue? Maybe you've already explained this, I've read a lot of the thread, but not all.

Is it going to be competitively priced, is it that much better than what's being used now and why? When is it coming out?

I've played a lot of tables and the cloth on almost all of them was holding down fine.

 

[Meucciplayer]

I can tell you this for sure, the LAST thing the public will ever give up, is their entertainment, and the way they get that is always evolving.

You are completely right here. I just don't draw the same conclusions. Entertainment nowadays is mostly electronic - as you said, smart phones, computers and so on. And those devices offer a lot of stuff that does not require to move your sorry a**, sadly. So all the "manual" activities are being reduced.

You argue that people will watch pool, just like they watch snooker in Europe. Yes, they will. But again, this has to be readily available in their existing packages sold with their cable providers etc. Else the people bothering with pool will be the ones here on AZB and a few other places but this base won't really expand.

The best argument for this is the people around me whom I got interested in "social pool". Those people got really interested in playing pool due to me owning a table and managing our "parties". Before, most of them had all but forgotten about pool. Now - as I said before, I keep mentioning stuff like the Mosconi Cup, Efren Reyes' fantastic games from years past, the Eurotour and so on. Did this for over a year. And all of this is available for free on the internet. Not one out of those 8 people has seen anything yet that I mentioned. One of them borrowed my 1P DVD by Tom Wirth but I doubt he has seen more than 10 minutes of it. BUT - all of them have seen the occasional snooker game on tv. They have heard about Ronnie O'Sullivan and maybe 5-10 other snooker players. None of them knows anything about the German pool players like Hohmann, Filler, Ortmann, Souquet etc. - who are way higher up in the pool hierarchy than anything a German snooker player ever achieved. I am sure none of them would recognize Earl Strickland, Reyes or any other pool player (Germans included) if you showed them their pictures. They do recognize O'Sullivan, though.

So, these people have a slight interest in pool by playing it themselves about 2-3 times a month. But they would not bother to check the internet for pool related stuff. People who don't play any pool fare much worse. But still - if you talk to them about pool many of them mention occasionally watching a snooker game on tv. Because that is easy when they accidentally zip through the channels after the news or their soap or whatever. You would think that an easy search on Youtube for the available pool games there is not much harder and it is free, too. Not so. They just don't do it. Much less would they consider paying for some PPV site to watch pool (or snooker).

So, if pool wants to expand it's viewer base it must be available free and *very* easily accessible. If the pool industry had the means for massive advertising in the general public, that might help. It doesn't, though. Since the pool industry is not GM or Coca-Cola. So the only way I see is to follow in snooker's footsteps. Since snooker has been shown on even such a fringe TV station as Eurosport 1, it is being talked about. Not as much as I would like but probably 1000x more than pool. Even though pool has been played by many more people some distant time in their past. And there are still about 500-1000x more pool tables available for the public compared to snooker tables.

You have to stop looking at your back yard as a measuring stick to pool, the back yard has grown into the world back yard.

You are right here, again. I would not dare to estimate what pool is like in China or the Philippines. All I know about that is what I read on the internet. And that seems to be very different from what the state of pool is in Germany or the US - and a few other European countries I happen to travel to once in a while. I would assume, though, that pool is available on tv in many of those poorer places. Or that people there just attend local matches a lot more for all kinds of reasons. Like it used to be in America and the richer part of Europe some 30 years ago.

Cell phones and the internet have shrunk the world down to the point that almost nothing is out of reach anymore, and think about the captive audience you now have on cell phones and the internet....we never had so many people in the history of this game....squeezed into such a small, confined space before. All we have to do is get this sport live....right into the internet, right into the cell phones, and it's game, set, match! But we need the whole world to draw from, because it's no longer your back yard sport, this sport belongs to the world, AND to ALL those that don't want to leave home to find their entertainment anymore....they want it brought TO them.....ok, well then we ALL need to work together to do just that!

I don't want to guesstimate about the world, as explained above. But for most of Europe and the US I see pool on a decline. Cell phones won't help there. I think we had this discussion before but I don't think that anyone besides a few die-hards would watch a 3-hour pool game on a 5" screen. Even I would not consider that unless I was really bored on a train ride or such. Watching 5 minutes of any kind of video on a smartphone is more than I care for. Smartphones are great for texting, phone calls, listening to music, maybe ordering stuff online or GPS tracking etc. - but watching pool - no way. I have problems enjoying a pool game on a laptop computer with a 14" screen. My 50" tv screen is what I want for pool games. That makes it really enjoyable for more than minutes.

 

[realkingcobra]

"ALL we have to do as a group of people that love this game so much, is ask that YOUR hired pool table mechanics to switch the GLUE they're ALREADY BUYING, to using the KING COBRA adhesives instesd."

Jay offered you some sage advice and your response wasn't surprising. For someone who is not relying on AZ to buy or push your glue that may explains your approach.

I knew someone was going to say something like you just did...LOL you DO realize that AZB represents about. 0001 percent of the population don't you?

 

[realkingcobra]

I'm just curious RKC, because I'm close to recovering my table, why your glue? Maybe you've already explained this, I've read a lot of the thread, but not all.

Is it going to be competitively priced, is it that much better than what's being used now and why? When is it coming out?

I've played a lot of tables and the cloth on almost all of them was holding down fine.

Holding down fine and tight, evenly stretched is 2 different things. As far as pricing and all that, I'm not going into that on AZB unless I pay for advertising with Mike first. I've never even discussed what I charge to work on pool tables on AZB. So, the information you're looking for will come from the distribution outlets as I don't control their end user pricing, but you can call an talk to me like most everyone else does if you want.

 

[realkingcobra]

You are completely right here. I just don't draw the same conclusions. Entertainment nowadays is mostly electronic - as you said, smart phones, computers and so on. And those devices offer a lot of stuff that does not require to move your sorry a**, sadly. So all the "manual" activities are being reduced.

You argue that people will watch pool, just like they watch snooker in Europe. Yes, they will. But again, this has to be readily available in their existing packages sold with their cable providers etc. Else the people bothering with pool will be the ones here on AZB and a few other places but this base won't really expand.

The best argument for this is the people around me whom I got interested in "social pool". Those people got really interested in playing pool due to me owning a table and managing our "parties". Before, most of them had all but forgotten about pool. Now - as I said before, I keep mentioning stuff like the Mosconi Cup, Efren Reyes' fantastic games from years past, the Eurotour and so on. Did this for over a year. And all of this is available for free on the internet. Not one out of those 8 people has seen anything yet that I mentioned. One of them borrowed my 1P DVD by Tom Wirth but I doubt he has seen more than 10 minutes of it. BUT - all of them have seen the occasional snooker game on tv. They have heard about Ronnie O'Sullivan and maybe 5-10 other snooker players. None of them knows anything about the German pool players like Hohmann, Filler, Ortmann, Souquet etc. - who are way higher up in the pool hierarchy than anything a German snooker player ever achieved. I am sure none of them would recognize Earl Strickland, Reyes or any other pool player (Germans included) if you showed them their pictures. They do recognize O'Sullivan, though.

So, these people have a slight interest in pool by playing it themselves about 2-3 times a month. But they would not bother to check the internet for pool related stuff. People who don't play any pool fare much worse. But still - if you talk to them about pool many of them mention occasionally watching a snooker game on tv. Because that is easy when they accidentally zip through the channels after the news or their soap or whatever. You would think that an easy search on Youtube for the available pool games there is not much harder and it is free, too. Not so. They just don't do it. Much less would they consider paying for some PPV site to watch pool (or snooker).

So, if pool wants to expand it's viewer base it must be available free and *very* easily accessible. If the pool industry had the means for massive advertising in the general public, that might help. It doesn't, though. Since the pool industry is not GM or Coca-Cola. So the only way I see is to follow in snooker's footsteps. Since snooker has been shown on even such a fringe TV station as Eurosport 1, it is being talked about. Not as much as I would like but probably 1000x more than pool. Even though pool has been played by many more people some distant time in their past. And there are still about 500-1000x more pool tables available for the public compared to snooker tables.



You are right here, again. I would not dare to estimate what pool is like in China or the Philippines. All I know about that is what I read on the internet. And that seems to be very different from what the state of pool is in Germany or the US - and a few other European countries I happen to travel to once in a while. I would assume, though, that pool is available on tv in many of those poorer places. Or that people there just attend local matches a lot more for all kinds of reasons. Like it used to be in America and the richer part of Europe some 30 years ago.



I don't want to guesstimate about the world, as explained above. But for most of Europe and the US I see pool on a decline. Cell phones won't help there. I think we had this discussion before but I don't think that anyone besides a few die-hards would watch a 3-hour pool game on a 5" screen. Even I would not consider that unless I was really bored on a train ride or such. Watching 5 minutes of any kind of video on a smartphone is more than I care for. Smartphones are great for texting, phone calls, listening to music, maybe ordering stuff online or GPS tracking etc. - but watching pool - no way. I have problems enjoying a pool game on a laptop computer with a 14" screen. My 50" tv screen is what I want for pool games. That makes it really enjoyable for more than minutes.

I guess you're not aware that you can hook your cell phone to your TV and watch your TV

 

[fishless]

I knew someone was going to say something like you just did...LOL you DO realize that AZB represents about. 0001 percent of the population don't you?

No I didn't. I'm guessing the time you don't spend on here is reaching out to the other 99+%.

Glen I wish you luck, I just wish you were easier to cheer for.

 

[realkingcobra]

You are completely right here. I just don't draw the same conclusions. Entertainment nowadays is mostly electronic - as you said, smart phones, computers and so on. And those devices offer a lot of stuff that does not require to move your sorry a**, sadly. So all the "manual" activities are being reduced.

You argue that people will watch pool, just like they watch snooker in Europe. Yes, they will. But again, this has to be readily available in their existing packages sold with their cable providers etc. Else the people bothering with pool will be the ones here on AZB and a few other places but this base won't really expand.

The best argument for this is the people around me whom I got interested in "social pool". Those people got really interested in playing pool due to me owning a table and managing our "parties". Before, most of them had all but forgotten about pool. Now - as I said before, I keep mentioning stuff like the Mosconi Cup, Efren Reyes' fantastic games from years past, the Eurotour and so on. Did this for over a year. And all of this is available for free on the internet. Not one out of those 8 people has seen anything yet that I mentioned. One of them borrowed my 1P DVD by Tom Wirth but I doubt he has seen more than 10 minutes of it. BUT - all of them have seen the occasional snooker game on tv. They have heard about Ronnie O'Sullivan and maybe 5-10 other snooker players. None of them knows anything about the German pool players like Hohmann, Filler, Ortmann, Souquet etc. - who are way higher up in the pool hierarchy than anything a German snooker player ever achieved. I am sure none of them would recognize Earl Strickland, Reyes or any other pool player (Germans included) if you showed them their pictures. They do recognize O'Sullivan, though.

So, these people have a slight interest in pool by playing it themselves about 2-3 times a month. But they would not bother to check the internet for pool related stuff. People who don't play any pool fare much worse. But still - if you talk to them about pool many of them mention occasionally watching a snooker game on tv. Because that is easy when they accidentally zip through the channels after the news or their soap or whatever. You would think that an easy search on Youtube for the available pool games there is not much harder and it is free, too. Not so. They just don't do it. Much less would they consider paying for some PPV site to watch pool (or snooker).

So, if pool wants to expand it's viewer base it must be available free and *very* easily accessible. If the pool industry had the means for massive advertising in the general public, that might help. It doesn't, though. Since the pool industry is not GM or Coca-Cola. So the only way I see is to follow in snooker's footsteps. Since snooker has been shown on even such a fringe TV station as Eurosport 1, it is being talked about. Not as much as I would like but probably 1000x more than pool. Even though pool has been played by many more people some distant time in their past. And there are still about 500-1000x more pool tables available for the public compared to snooker tables.



You are right here, again. I would not dare to estimate what pool is like in China or the Philippines. All I know about that is what I read on the internet. And that seems to be very different from what the state of pool is in Germany or the US - and a few other European countries I happen to travel to once in a while. I would assume, though, that pool is available on tv in many of those poorer places. Or that people there just attend local matches a lot more for all kinds of reasons. Like it used to be in America and the richer part of Europe some 30 years ago.



I don't want to guesstimate about the world, as explained above. But for most of Europe and the US I see pool on a decline. Cell phones won't help there. I think we had this discussion before but I don't think that anyone besides a few die-hards would watch a 3-hour pool game on a 5" screen. Even I would not consider that unless I was really bored on a train ride or such. Watching 5 minutes of any kind of video on a smartphone is more than I care for. Smartphones are great for texting, phone calls, listening to music, maybe ordering stuff online or GPS tracking etc. - but watching pool - no way. I have problems enjoying a pool game on a laptop computer with a 14" screen. My 50" tv screen is what I want for pool games. That makes it really enjoyable for more than minutes.

And there is no such thing as free viewing, someone is still paying even for that.

 

[Meucciplayer]

I guess you're not aware that you can hook your cell phone to your TV and watch your TV

Sure enough. But I would only use the cell phone when I am "mobile", right?

At home, I would normally use the "smart tv" without bothering with the cell phone. Or the computer already plugged into the (older) tv set. But that's me.

People less interested in pool won't even search for pool related stuff on any kind of device. At least that is my experience with quite a few people I have asked/recommended pool in the past couple of years.