APA just had its Nationals in Vegas. Only had 15,000 players over two weeks. The hotel made a fortune. The convention space and rooms for the tournament staff were probably free. Going to a convention arena without rooms and food on site won’t work IMO. Maybe not enough spectators and rooms were rented in Florida to justify the Matchroom expenses. It’s expensive to produce an event like the Open.
Matchroom/U.S. Open is leaving Atlantic City
- Thread starter jbart65
- Start date
Orlando is a big city now. Plenty of things to do, as is the case with any large city.
That said, if I were to travel to a big tournament as a fan, the assumption is I would be attending and watching the event every day. Then I would go out to dinner and start all over again the next day.
I doubt I'd be sight-seeing much. Ditto for the players. They go out to dinner after their matches and go to sleep relatively early, I'd assume. They are there to play.
Sorry, crazy idea. MR has trouble enough pinning down spots and getting its annual schedule determined early and communicated to players and fans. Doing something like this would make a bad problem worse.
What MR needs is a permanent site for most big opens. The WPC could be the the tourney best suited to moving around, but it will be in Saudi Arabia the next eight years.
Your perception of the Tidewater area - close relatives of mine live there - and my perception are decidedly different. Nice area, but out of the way. So, no contradiction.
Your view of MR/WNT - a view lacking any support whatsoever - is so far from my own that I will refrain from further comment.
That's ridiculous. In truth, unless Matchroom carefully manages production costs, they cannot a) afford to produce new events, and b) afford to pay out the big prize funds with which they are now associated (Biado won a $250,000 first prize in July in Jeddah, Yapp $100,000 in August in Atlantic City.)
To manage production costs, they must make good deals with venues. They are not always able to produce events where they might prefer. While financial considerations may outweigh the importance of the fan or player experience, Matchroom has done more to improve the quality of the fan and player experience than any event prodcuer this century.
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I wasn’t being serious when I posted that. I know they can’t make a good deal with a different venue in a different city every year.
I can’t afford to no matter where they have it but I will watch what I can of it.
Gotcha. Just hope MR starts publishing the full sked well in advance!
Nashville has become a food destination, along with a bar and entertainment destination. Im not a fan of country music, but that's not all Nashville is about.
Moving the event around doesn’t make much sense to me. Maybe they’re experimenting to see what might work. Back during the Sands Regency a side event also took place adding another revenue stream for the casino. That was USPPA as it brought in another 200 players along with the main event. The us open could add an event with sub 730 Fargo rated players to assist in casino expenditures.
I see the gambill requirement. Maybe the homeboy crowd is two gnarly for a "smooth" business venture.
Not sure who brought up Nashville, but nice city. Just came back from a three-day stay. Had to go outside the city to find a pool hall that opened on the earlier side, though. The two mainstays don’t open till 4.
I wonder if there is a big pool culture. Definitely a fair amount of APA, but a lot of young and well-heeled transplants who seem to have other interests …
Whether an event is played where or near where there are a lot of pool players is of secondary importance. In fact, Atlantic City was great in this respect. One reason the arena was packed every day during the US Open was that Philadelphia, New York City, Baltimore, and Washington DC are all pretty close and New Jersey itself has a population of near 10,000,000. Geographically, Atlantic City was a winner. There is a giant pool culture in that part of the United States.
To tend to both their interests and those of the players, Matchroom has to go where they can make financial ends meet, and it may or may not be where there is a big pool culture, even though that must remain the goal.
I might be a little bias but how about Chicago.
Plenty of hotels, event space, fans, great food, airports, things to do.
Plenty of hotels, event space, fans, great food, airports, things to do.
CanadianGuy
Well-known member
for the players, pick a state with low or no state income tax
L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
I still like The Grand Sierra Resort in Reno Nevada. The place is huge and beautiful and would not cost an arm and a leg like Vegas. The weather is great there too. Go on line and check this place out. Too bad this will never happen
International airport? ls?
And there's a heck of a lot of music other than country, as well. Nashville would be a heck of a destination for a big pool event if "fun things to do other than pool" is a consideration.
Good post Stu. Interesting that not one person mentioned Los Angeles. Matchroom depends quite a bit on their live gate and there is no city that would bring in a larger audience than L.A. And that's a fact Jack! We've got over 15 million people within a fifty mile radius and lots of them are pool players and fans. Every event we ever produced out here had standing room only crowds. I could easily see filling an arena seating 2,500 to 3,000 fans, and that's a low estimate. If MR ever staged an event here they would be back for sure.
Nobody mentioned New York city either, but the reason is the same reason nobody mentioned LA. I discussed the matter of why there are no big events anymore in the biggest cities with frequent event producer and friend Pat Fleming over dinner one night at the (?2018?) Mosconi Cup. He offered that production costs (not to mention player expenses) are much higher in the biggest cities than in other cities, making it very hard to make ends meet.
Other than at the Mosconi, I would guess (but cannot say for sure) that Matchroom does not depend heavily on their live gate, with streaming, TV, and sponsorships bringing in the lion's share of the revenue. Keeping event production costs in line is, I believe, the only short-term approach to paying the kind of purses with which Matchroom is now associated at their majors.
The US Open 9ball arena was packed, with barely an empty seat in the house in Atlantic City last weekend. If crowd turnout was the primary concern, I think they would be staying.