Professional pool prize funds historically.

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middleofnowhere

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People were all excited about the $90,000.00 prize that Yapp won. The commentators could not stop talking about it.
It occured to me when recently watching one of the Sands Regency tournaments from the 80s. The first prize was $40,000.00. that is $120,000.00 in today's dollars.
Just found it interesting.
 
Likely because they are young and not educated/schooled speakers. You can't compare these announcers with the likes of one you'd find discussion the Masters Golf event last week. Also, many announcers in the past were close friends of the production crew, and got an ''in''. That still occurs.
 
BadBeef67 said:
Commentators will never stop talking and will fill every available second with their yapping, regardless of accuracy, or relevance to the situation or game in general.
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I think the commentators going on about that money makes the sport seem small time. People watching know what kind of money is in professional sports. This year's Masters made four and a half million dollars for first place.
Last place, guys who didn't even make the cut got $25,000.

Rookie for the Miami Marlins even if he never plays a second year starts at $550,000. If he's around for another year so it will probably go over a million. The public knows that. So if somebody happens to tune into that pool match, to them these guys are like amateurs playing for very little. I just found it, I guess in my mind kind of demeaning.
 
middleofnowhere said:
I think the commentators going on about that money makes the sport seem small time. People watching know what kind of money is in professional sports. This year's Masters made four and a half million dollars for first place.
Last place, guys who didn't even make the cut got $25,000.

Rookie for the Miami Marlins even if he never plays a second year starts at $550,000. If he's around for another year so it will probably go over a million. The public knows that. So if somebody happens to tune into that pool match, to them these guys are like amateurs playing for very little. I just found it, I guess in my mind kind of demeaning.
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Commentators saying crap that is demeaning and condescending tracks. Usually, they talk to us like we've never seen what's being televised (or streamed) before. It's usually bad enough I watch stuff on mute.
 
middleofnowhere said:
People were all excited about the $90,000.00 prize that Yapp won. The commentators could not stop talking about it.
It occured to me when recently watching one of the Sands Regency tournaments from the 80s. The first prize was $40,000.00. that is $120,000.00 in today's dollars.
Just found it interesting.
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For sure, the biggest prizemoney events were few decades ago. IPT$500K won by Efren (paid in instalments) in 2006 about $800K today's money has to be biggest. I think 2nd biggest is Tokyo Open 9 ball $160K in early 2000s ($300K today's money) also won by Efren. Those few W10B in 2000s were $100K for winner.
Of cos these few years with PB WNT tours more events with big winners cheque $100K+ like W10B, US Open, Qatar 10B World Cup
 
skogstokig said:
that's a steep drop. was the 40k a one-off?
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I just went back and watched it again only the beginning where they're introducing it. And sure enough Mike Sigel is playing Varner and they're playing for a first prize of $40,000.
I went back to watch it because I thought maybe I miss heard it and $40,000 was the entire prize fund but no that was first prize. They might have taken a bath on some of those tournaments and rather than cancel it reorganize their prize payouts cuz it was unrealistic.

You know they can play with those numbers in those tournaments. Years ago I sponsored a player and flew him out to I think it was California to play in a tournament with a $1,000 entry fee and an enormous price fund. They just wanted to be able to advertise a giant prize fund. The entry fee was actually 400 and everybody got back $600 on arrival. So if you went 2 and out you had $600.

There was also an Atlantic City tournament that Jimmy Rempy won. It was known by all the players beforehand that that money was not going to be paid out. The payout was going to be based on the success of the tournament. They just wanted to be able to advertise a giant prize fund.

Steve Cook won a tournament I think it was in Louisiana where the promoter didn't want to pay. He was calling people into the office and basically just making them offers. Because most pool players are broke they were just taking whatever he offered.

Until you got to Steve Cook who won the tournament. Steve went in there with his backer a guy TR from Tampa. If anybody knows what I'm talking about they know what I'm talking about. They left with Steve's $10,000.
 
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middleofnowhere said:
There was also an Atlantic City tournament that Jimmy Rempy won. It was known by all the players beforehand that that money was not going to be paid out. The payout was going to be based on the success of the tournament. They just wanted to be able to advertise a giant prize fund.
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couldnt been a very good turnout if they knew they weren't gonna get paid? or do you mean they played for entrance fees in the end?
 
middleofnowhere said:
I just went back and watched it again only the beginning where they're introducing it. And sure enough Mike Siegel is playing Jose Parika and they're playing for a first prize of $40,000.
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What year was that? Or what number. Sometimes they had two per year.

Here are some prizes from the 1980s/1990s listed in a previous thread:

https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/pool-tournaments-history-1990s.496840/page-2#post-6446895

The guy in that thread who was making a full spreadsheet of the Sands Regency events seems to have disappeared.
 
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skogstokig said:
couldnt been a very good turnout if they knew they weren't gonna get paid? or do you mean they played for entrance fees in the end?
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I'm going by memory but I think it was that organization that was short-lived. I think Rempe Mizerak maybe Sigel and a couple others were running it. It was essentially I guess a show and the players were in on it.

Diliberto, Sigel, Rempe and Lisciotti tried to do a traveling tournament. Sort of like a circus or a rodeo where you do the same show from town to town. That, I believe is the origin of that picture you see of the four of them in front of a Rolls-Royce called the roadrunners.

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Median is about $11k.
The bare minimum is $2k for entry, $5.5k for Calcutta. Hotel and food for 5 days($1k?)
And.. you have to fight a murders row to get into the top 25%.
$8.5k minimum
7/8 for a $1.5k profit if you pay the minimum and get top 25%.

Probably better to ask if you want fries with that and get a wage, benefits, plus tuition reimbursement.
 
couldnthinkof01 said:
Median is about $11k.
The bare minimum is $2k for entry, $5.5k for Calcutta. Hotel and food for 5 days($1k?)
And.. you have to fight a murders row to get into the top 25%.
$8.5k minimum
7/8 for a $1.5k profit if you pay the minimum and get top 25%.

Probably better to ask if you want fries with that and get a wage, benefits, plus tuition reimbursement.
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they have backers..
 
skogstokig said:
that was only one year, when darren won. not sure if everyone got paid properly either. they scaled back and folded after the subsequent year, amid pinoy poolitics and boycotts
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The ESPN 9-ball tournament of champions in the late 1990s paid $50,000 to the winner of both the men’s and women’s divisions.
 
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