Kaci, pro pool and prize money

[banged up]

And the WNBA loses money every year, as do the individual teams.

How long will it continue? For the life of me, I can't understand why it still exists as it is...

2025 (Profitable): Surging ticket sales, merchandising up over 750%, and record broadcast ratings pushed the league into the green. The revenue boom was significant enough to trigger the first-ever player revenue-sharing payout in WNBA history, resulting in an $8 million pool distributed among the players. Keep moving those goalpoasts.

 

[skogstokig]

In the big cities one has to sell booze to make a room pencil.

sounds like an odd way to go about it.
in sweden we use basswood, alder or aspen

 

[SA96]

Pool is bar room game.

In the big cities one has to sell booze to make a room pencil.

Table time and pool players won't pay the bills.

Pool is not an " event " sport.

It will not fill stadiums or sport's arenas.

Professional pool is what it is....

People said that about darts.

 

[JAM]

If his expenses aren't covered by his sponsors, they are a tax write off. I'm not sure what percentage can be written off.

And what happens in the United States with the IRS, if one does not turn a profit on pool due to tax write-offs and deductions for expenses/costs, the IRS does not recognize it as a profession and it becomes a "hobby." A hobby does not let you deduct expenses that are more than your income.

Believe me when I say the expenses on the road in the early 2000s were hefty if you wanted to eat well and sleep in a decent hotel. Entry fees, travel expenses, hardware purchases and tune-ups, they add up. Even when you cash in the big tournaments, you're so suck from the ones you did not cash in that you never, ever turn a profit, unless, of course, you win, place, and show on a regular basis to offset the exorbitant costs to play pool professionally around the world, two, three, and four times a month.

 

[VarmintKong]

Kaci wrote on Facebook:

Tournaments with 128-256… only $50K-$100K in total prize money…
…I’ll be skipping them…

Kaci followed up with:


… I was talking about the smaller ranking events. Like Bucharest Open , Vice city open…

Well, that was a righteously indignant 3 days. Kaci playing this morning vs Asis in the Phoenix Open.

 

[JAM]

snooker has had a steady tour for decades, with a steadily increasing fan base. WNT and PBS are in their infancy by comparison.

the chinese 8b promotors peddle tables to a massive market, have big chinese sponsors, and ad revenue.. it's just a different numbers game there, with anything you sell.

I was watching America’s Got Talent on TV last night. The first-place prize? $1 million. That got me thinking about professional snooker. Just a few days ago, Mark Selby won more than $330,000 for taking first place in the China Open. Snooker isn't exactly mainstream entertainment in the United States. I love watching it, but I know I'm in the minority. To someone who isn't a snooker fan, watching players methodically clear a table probably isn't exactly edge-of-your-seat television. And pool is even further down the sports ladder.

Here's the uncomfortable truth. Until an entity like Matchroom, the WPA, Predator, or someone else figures out how to sell pool as an entertainment product and attract mainstream viewers, professional pool is going to remain largely a game people play in bars, pool halls, and amateur leagues rather than a major professional sport. And maybe that's perfectly fine for the people making money from the pool industry. Think governing bodies of professional pool consisting of industry members. They're getting fat. Most professional players are scrambling for crumbs and going broke.

Pool has incredible players, personalities, rivalries, and drama. What it needs is a way to package all of that so that someone who doesn't already love pool will want to watch, because the goal shouldn't simply be to grow the pool audience. It should be to create new fans who never thought they were pool fans. That's how you move pool up the sports ladder.

I've never in my life watched a soccer game until I noticed Norway's Erling Haaland in the FIFA World Cup. Now I'm following him and soccer. I love it. I'm watching it. I'm now a full-fledged soccer fan.

Haaland, Haaland, he's a blue just like his dad. Now he's at Etihad. Ha-ha-ha-Haaland.

 

[David in FL]

2025 (Profitable): Surging ticket sales, merchandising up over 750%, and record broadcast ratings pushed the league into the green. The revenue boom was significant enough to trigger the first-ever player revenue-sharing payout in WNBA history, resulting in an $8 million pool distributed among the players. Keep moving those goalpoasts.

I stand corrected.

One barely profitable year in its history for the league.

How many individual teams were in the black?

My point remains.

 

[rexus31]

And what happens in the United States with the IRS, if one does not turn a profit on pool due to tax write-offs and deductions for expenses/costs, the IRS does not recognize it as a profession and it becomes a "hobby." A hobby does not let you deduct expenses that are more than your income.

Believe me when I say the expenses on the road in the early 2000s were hefty if you wanted to eat well and sleep in a decent hotel. Entry fees, travel expenses, hardware purchases and tune-ups, they add up. Even when you cash in the big tournaments, you're so suck from the ones you did not cash in that you never, ever turn a profit, unless, of course, you win, place, and show on a regular basis to offset the exorbitant costs to play pool professionally around the world, two, three, and four times a month.

Now you are shifting gears. You mentioned Shane in the post I quoted you on. I didn't make a blanket statement about all players. I was referencing Shane, "If his expenses aren't covered by his sponsors, they are a tax write off. I'm not sure what percentage can be written off.". It's unlikely his expenses are going to overshadow his earnings so I think he is safe, as are (probably) the Top 10 on the earnings leaderboard.

Actually, the closer you can get to no profit as sole proprietor, the better off you are tax wise.

 

[loggerhead12]

We AZ'rs see pool from in a bubble, a small one at that. If you talk to any(most??) sports fans they don't even know pro pool exists. Its never going to be popular on the scale like in the places you mention. It is doing better and i'm good with it as it is, i have no delusions of 'pool grandeur'.

Yup. Very few in any pool hall have ever heard of Efren, or SVB, or Filler. And it pisses me off that they stream cornhole instead of pool.

 

[BMC361]

They need to put pool in the Olympics, summer or winter.