Why isn't anybody mad about the WPC?

StraightPoolIU said:
The premiere tournament event in pool is the US Open 9 Ball promoted by Matchroom. The fact that this is still technically the "world championship" doesn't mean anything to me.
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At present, I disagree. I think the World 9-ball Championship, which had fifteen of the top 16 WPA ranked players in the field, remains the hardest event to win. The US Open 9-ball field remains filled with dead money, and the stars will tend to have little trouble in the early rounds.

In contrast, it is hard to qualify for the field at the World 9-ball Championship, Established stars like Zheng (Fargo over 820), Mario He (winner of the World Cup of Pool and a Eurotour event this year) and Nick Ekonomopoulos (former bronze medalist at the US Open 9-ball) all failed to get through the qualifiers. In the main event, Max Eberle, Hunter Lombardo, Niels Feijen, and Wang Can all failed to reach the last 64.

The US Open 9-ball is in the conversation for the de facto World Championship, and so is the China Open, which draws far more of the stars of Asian pool than the US Open 9-ball. Winning any of the US Open 9-ball, the China Open, or the WPA World 9-ball Championship is a tall order indeed.

The new Matchroom version of the US Open 9-ball is, without question, the best produced and staged pool event in the world, and it may yet evolve into the World Championship in the coming years, but to place it above the WPA World 9-ball Championship or the China Open is premature.

Like you, however, I'm excited about how they've stepped up their game at the US Open and with Matchroom at the helm, the future of the event looks bright.
 
Maybe so garczar but it need not be that way. Other sports have their Major tournaments without designating them as "World Championships." For years, many have supported the WPA based on the misguided hope that they would usher pool into the Olympics. Why anybody would even care about that at this point is beyond me. I love pool and I've never cared if it was in the Olympics or not.

The WPA does the work of 1 person throughout the year but manage to get their cut of every sanctioned event. The fact that they have managed to do this while professional pool has struggled for years may be the most impressive feat in modern pool.
 
Here's a thought?

garczar said:
The level of prestige really depends on where you live. In many pool playing countries a WC carries far more weight than a US Open win. I kinda agree with you but pool is played worldwide now and a WC will always be big win regardless of where its played.
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Why don't one of you guys with hundreds or thousands of post start a petition and lets try to get everybody here to sign it, get it in front of CSI, APA, BCA and whoever else has a interest and take it over to ESPN.

Lets start slow. lets just ask them to share with the world the results of our beloved sport, just the results! Maybe the last two shots and the winners name, just loke the do for cornhole, darts, drone racing, etc...,

Who knows, maybe then someone might get the bright idea to put a little more Money into the game or actually show a live event.
 
I agree that the field of the US Open has a lot of dead money, but look at the size of the field! That doesn't take away the fact that it also has all the top players in the world, with very few exceptions.

Like 2019, the 2020 field has nearly all the top 16 WPA players registered (except Wu Jiaqin). I haven't gone down the list further, but I suspect, like last year, that at least 40 of the top 50 in the world are signed up.

So that, combined with the stellar production and exciting atmosphere that you acknowledged, definitely contrasts Matchroom's US Open from what we saw in Qatar.

--Steve

sjm said:
At present, I disagree. I think the World 9-ball Championship, which had fifteen of the top 16 WPA ranked players in the field, remains the hardest event to win. The US Open 9-ball field remains filled with dead money, and the stars will tend to have little trouble in the early rounds.
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King T said:
ESPN just showed the results of a darts tournament. Now I'm not going to get into the darts, cornhole thing, but I will say that if the heads of these well run, well funded and very expense events cant figure out that they need to make some in-roads to the international media then there's some real disconnect in ownership.

I don't know if they have tried, but if they all came together and simply said.., can you please show the results of our championships, please!! Just show the finial shot or two like they do in cornhole, darts,drone racing, bowling, fishing...,

Just a mention in your 24 hour around the clock reporting that you charge a ungodly amount for on DirecTV!! Please!!
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I thought of darts immediately as well. I like darts, but pool is my thing. I've been playing pool for 20 years and guess what...I stopped tuning in to pro pool a few years ago. Unwatchable for the most part, IMO. Matchroom has it right...I'll watch that and love it.

For your consideration, here is the crowd at the recent dart tourney with the first female champ (well done to the young lady!):
 

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Fedor Gorst took home $30k first prize. Kelly Fisher just won the women's title bagging $44k. :confused:
 
King T said:
Why don't one of you guys with hundreds or thousands of post start a petition and lets try to get everybody here to sign it, get it in front of CSI, APA, BCA and whoever else has a interest and take it over to ESPN.

Lets start slow. lets just ask them to share with the world the results of our beloved sport, just the results! Maybe the last two shots and the winners name, just loke the do for cornhole, darts, drone racing, etc...,

Who knows, maybe then someone might get the bright idea to put a little more Money into the game or actually show a live event.
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No offense but do you not know how ESPN works? You think they televise cornhole 'cause they like it? ESPN pays the $$ because apparently viewership for it is quite high thus advertisers pay to be on it. Much higher than pool or pool would still be on. All the petitions in the world won't add up to jack if ESPN(or others) don't see substantial $$$ at the end of the day. Go look at the pro cornhole sites. These folks are so much better organized than pool its a joke. The big final event draws over 300,000 viewers on ESPN2. The WC 9b stream pulled about 3,000.
 
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I don't follow or care about the politics of it. I watched several matches and it was fantastic 9 ball. A number of high profile 9 ball players didn't get anywhere near the finals or the semifinals or the quarterfinals.
 
Cornhole has a big sponsorship deal with Johnsonville sausage and I'd be willing to bet that's what is paying for air time and production costs on ESPN. There's no damned way ESPN has money to give to cornhole after what they've paid out for broadcast rights for professional and college sports.
 
Straightpool_99 said:
I honestly must say that i was FUMING from watching the WPC this year! The slowness, the dungeon like atmosphere, the lack of interest...How in the world did this happen? How could the WPA stand by and watch this without doing anything? The most prestigeous event of the sport, reduced to a snoozefest that nobody could realistically watch. I watched the first few racks of the final (having suffered through quite a few matches before) but then I had to switch off. Ted Lerner isn't terrible, certainly no Grady by any stretch, but his co-commentator was unbearable. Get one smooth talker and an expert co-commentator please.

The slowness....my God the slowness...Seriously who can watch this drag on?

It's time for the WPA to completely turn around and do something different, because this is getting worse every year. First the demands for pricemoney has to come down. We can't do without an 8 ball championship or 10 ball championship anymore. If that means the players get smaller prices, then so be it. It's way more important to actually have world champions and that people can watch. Have the 8 ball in China, England, the US, the Phillipines, anywhere but that desert dungeon...Lets get some people to actually be there and cheer! When was the last sanctioned straight pool WPC? Oh, right, we can't have that because nobody can meat the money demands. Well, somebody coffed up the money you wanted for the 9 ball, and look where that got us! WIthout interest from the local people or even the promotors of the event, this morgue like atmosphere is what we end up with. Not to mention the fact that the event is being held far away from the major pool nations.

Some promotion wouldn't go amiss either. I mean ANY promotion. How about a working website, that would be nice. Could there be a podcast of sorts, some interviews maybe? Nah, too much to ask, I guess.

I want to know what the WPA are planning to do about the dismal state of pool? Do they have any idea at all, about how bad things actually are? Or are they too busy counting oil money?
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Don't blaspheme our dungeons infidel. Whats the matter? Are you finding problems with the new Islamic 9-Ball overlords? Oil money talks. Are we having fun yet?
 
DecentShot said:
Don't blaspheme our dungeons infidel. Whats the matter? Are you finding problems with the new Islamic 9-Ball overlords? Oil money talks. Are we having fun yet?
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if this is sarcasm, its funny.....but Im....not....so...sure. lol
 
jalapus logan said:
For your consideration, here is the crowd at the recent dart tourney with the first female champ (well done to the young lady!):
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Just to clarify, she won a match, not the championship. But yes, kudos to her for being the first female to win a match at the world championship.

I would love to see the women compete directly against the men at pool. The top female players would definitely be winning some matches.
 
KAP1976 said:
Cornhole has a big sponsorship deal with Johnsonville sausage and I'd be willing to bet that's what is paying for air time and production costs on ESPN. There's no damned way ESPN has money to give to cornhole after what they've paid out for broadcast rights for professional and college sports.
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I'm sure this is exactly the case, and it's why I roll my eyes every time I see someone spout the "There's corn hole/axe throwing on ESPN but not pool!!!! What the hell??" argument. Those things aren't on there because they are so popular and draw tons of spectators. They are on there because someone is buying the air time to promote something.
 
It is pretty sad what has happened to the W9B.
WPA should just freaking outright sell it to Hearn.
It would be great if it were held the week or days after the Mosconi Cup in the same venue.
 
PoolBum said:
Just to clarify, she won a match, not the championship. But yes, kudos to her for being the first female to win a match at the world championship.

I would love to see the women compete directly against the men at pool. The top female players would definitely be winning some matches.
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Joe_Jaguar said:
All they got to do is step up and sign up :rolleyes:
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The US Open.....is open
 
WoodyMPW said:
But Duddy showed us how they are treated by men...
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Strange how some players want respect....not just women players, but some men also
...in the action days, we went looking for places where you got no respect at all....
...those were the rooms where you could win the most $$$$$$.

I’m having trouble digging up any sympathy for snowflakes who think they’re competitive.
 
StraightPoolIU said:
I'm sure this is exactly the case, and it's why I roll my eyes every time I see someone spout the "There's corn hole/axe throwing on ESPN but not pool!!!! What the hell??" argument. Those things aren't on there because they are so popular and draw tons of spectators. They are on there because someone is buying the air time to promote something.
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How do you know this? ESPN gave it a shot in 2016 on ESPN3. It was a big enough hit that ESPN contacted Stacey Moore and offered to try it live on ESPN2. Pretty sure this was before the brat boys got involved. So far its pulling #'s that pool can only dream of. Sad i agree.
 
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