When will pool be dead?

RiverCity

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Where are you from? I'm afraid I need to withold the greenies due to receiving terroristic threats from River City. I'm not messing with that guy for anyone!

tenor.gif
 

ShootingHank

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
It's an old man's game and I say that with respect. When you look at the audience, participants and who's playing....it's all the older guys.

You'll see hot shot younger players but they are so good they show up once a week where the older guys are there everyday practicing. So when the general public goes in all they see are the seniors playing.

Reminds me when I was a kid going into a bowling alley and seeing the senior league. I still think of bowling as an old person's game.
 

Geosnooker

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
You need to travel more.



The A in AZ Billiards doesn’t stand for America.. Most popular pool game in the world is Chinese 8 ball.

Table tennis and billiards events on Chinese sports channel draws more viewers than an NFL game in the USA. There are 1.4 billion Chinese. 1400 Snooker clubs just in Shanghai.
 
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DaveK

Still crazy after all these years
Silver Member
Maybe you guys can explain why you are not giving this honest answers?

The health of the pool scene depends on where you are. Our pool scene is fine.

Also beware of very small sample sizes and biased opinions.

Dave

PS, IMO the answer to your thread-title question is never
 

maha

from way back when
Silver Member
people that own pool rooms are not good businessmen in general. so they are doomed from the start.

to make it in any business you have to attract customers not just open the doors and have a sign out.
the owners are rarely there at most of the places ive gone to in the last 20 or so years. they hire a minimum wage guy that could care less about profits. they dont clean the place and equipment to entertain the customers with even a thank you for coming in.

and that is the fault of the owner. as he has to take an interest in his business and also be savvy enough to do what is right for it.

and a poolroom needs to have people hanging around. this way they make games and eat and drink. sure you get some jerks but a good owner can weed them out. a bad owner isnt there to tell the difference.

the town i am in the room is packed and has leagues on one side. its a big room. they also bought another a few miles away and that one is packed now the same way after it going broke catering to smokers and selling beer for 4 dollars a bottle.
its also the only non smoking rooms in the whole area. the others have smoking and only one or two tables going.

they have a very cheap monthly rate for those that play often so there is always at opening time about 6 to 10 players there practicing. and 10 or so watching and buying food and drinks. and others show up to hang with all the action going on as some players now match up and play.
and on the other side of the place are smaller tables that the league and fun players go and most of the time near all the tables are full and full at league times.

thats what happens with a good business person running his room.
 

garczar

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
PickleBall is in Vogue, I don't get the gam, but Old People love it.
Actually a pretty cool game. Kind of a cross of tennis/ping-pong. Don't need the mobility to play like tennis. They have an org. and leagues and a tour. Sad but they are FAR more organized than pool. Of course that's not saying much.
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
Maybe you guys can explain why you are not giving this honest answers?

Because, honestly, pool is not dying.

Using your observational logic (being in a poolhall with one or two people in the place around 5pm during a worldwide pandemic where most people are not going anywhere), we could also say the restaurant business is dying because no one is going into the local restaurants right now either.

As far as non-pandemic life, many poolhalls die and get reborn under new management. It's been like this for years. No different than a nightclub or bar that eventually goes out of business due to lack of customers, poor management, lousy atmosphere, etc... Then someone else reopens the place, cleans it up, changes the name, offers food and live music, and just like that the place is alive and thriving again.

Some areas are hotbeds for pool, where the poolhalls are ways packed because owners or management incorporate activities to keep people coming in, like in-house leagues or BCA or APA leagues, or food and beverages, etc... Mr. Cues in Atlanta GA is a good example, a place that's always been packed everytime went there. Poolhall owners know, just as any club owner knows, there are good days, great days, and dead days. If you have great business every day, then you are the exception that other places would like to emulate.
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
It's an old man's game and I say that with respect. When you look at the audience, participants and who's playing....it's all the older guys.

You'll see hot shot younger players but they are so good they show up once a week where the older guys are there everyday practicing. So when the general public goes in all they see are the seniors playing.

Reminds me when I was a kid going into a bowling alley and seeing the senior league. I still think of bowling as an old person's game.


Yeah, it's a misconception based on locale. If you visit any bowling alley on seniors day, and you aren't an avid bowler, you'll associate bowling to older folks. But go on another night and you'll see younger people filling the lanes. Then on another night you'll see a handful of bowlers on 2 lanes and the lights out on all the others.
Poolhalls are no different.

If you visit a poolhall everyday you'll see this... Older players playing during the day, usually drinking coffee. The place might look empty, boring. But there's an energy there that the non-poolhall junkie doesn't see, doesn't feel. But it's there, and maybe 3 nights a week it is so alive, so strong and obvious that anybody who walks in can recognize that pool is not dead. But the true junkies recognize it every day. They see it in the two old guys hitting balls on the back table, in the new cloth their favorite table has on it now, in the look on a kid's face when his dad brings him in the place for the first time.

Any player that loves the game can walk into a nearly deserted poolhall, glance over at two elderly players playing a game of one pocket, and immediately be reminded of how alive pool is. In 40 years he'll be on that back table hitting balls, if not here then somewhere else, and a younger player will walk in and watch him a for minute, and neither will be thinking pool is dying. It's just not something that's ever going to die, because too many of us love the game.
 
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CocoboloCowboy

Cowboys are my hero's
Silver Member
Pool is not in growth mode, if it the Sports wants to grow they need to copy the business plan of other types of sucessful sports. Most of the other sports have one scantioning organization, not many.

Most of the business models are working because they have sponsors. NASCAR is a good example, their sponsor are everything from Big Pharmicitacal Companies, to Candy Companies. Their list of sponsor is too long to list.

NASCAR's plan worked for them. But Pool's biggest stumbling block is dismantling the APA, BCAPL, ACS, and other groups, and build a New Single Group over all Pool both amature & professional events.

Never ever heard of someone playing in a PGA Golf Event, and getting a rubber check. Just don't happen, because the PGA gets purse money guaranteed.

All of there other sports have advertising depts, public relation departments, and several like the NFL & MLB have started partner with youth sports leagues, to build future fan bases.

How could Pool accomplish this? Time and one group of people working into one direction, not against each other.

JMHO
 

jaime_lion

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Because, honestly, pool is not dying.

Using your observational logic (being in a poolhall with one or two people in the place around 5pm during a worldwide pandemic where most people are not going anywhere), we could also say the restaurant business is dying because no one is going into the local restaurants right now either.

As far as non-pandemic life, many poolhalls die and get reborn under new management. It's been like this for years. No different than a nightclub or bar that eventually goes out of business due to lack of customers, poor management, lousy atmosphere, etc... Then someone else reopens the place, cleans it up, changes the name, offers food and live music, and just like that the place is alive and thriving again.

Some areas are hotbeds for pool, where the poolhalls are ways packed because owners or management incorporate activities to keep people coming in, like in-house leagues or BCA or APA leagues, or food and beverages, etc... Mr. Cues in Atlanta GA is a good example, a place that's always been packed everytime went there. Poolhall owners know, just as any club owner knows, there are good days, great days, and dead days. If you have great business every day, then you are the exception that other places would like to emulate.

The why was I told by multiple people on this forum and in google searches and by people at a local pool hall that it is dying?
 

BC21

https://www.playpoolbetter.com
Gold Member
Silver Member
The why was I told by multiple people on this forum and in google searches and by people at a local pool hall that it is dying?

Because it hasn't been a wildly popular sport for several decades now. Many people say it's because pool has a dark and dirty public image due to gambling. But that's bs. Every sport has gambling. As proof that gambling isn't an issue, that the unwholesome image of pool isn't an issue, just look back on the explosion of pool players and poolhalls that sprouted following the movie "The Hustler", and again with "The Color of Money'.

Pool just isn't growing much. But just because it's not growing doesn't mean it's dying. Sure, it may die in your town or somebody else's town for a while, but it'll be vibrant somewhere else. Then a few years later the pool scene there will fade in that place and your town might become a hotspot for pool again.

The thing is, it really doesn't matter what most people on a pool forum tell you. It's all opinion, and there are plenty of doomsdayers on every forum. It doesn't matter what the owner or worker in your local poolhall tells you. What matters is that there are millions of pool players in the US alone, so if a dozen people here tell you, "yes, I believe pool is dying", well that doesn't mean much compared to the millions of casual and serious players out there who love the game and will always be playing it somewhere.

Industry people have a good insight on how strong or weak the pool scene is. But like with most businesses, or industries, there are always ups and downs. For every poolhall owner that tells you, "a poolhall is a losing business, pool is dead", there is another poolroom owner out there who has figured out how to get people in and how to keep them coming back.
 

jaime_lion

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Because it hasn't been a wildly popular sport for several decades now. Many people say it's because pool has a dark and dirty public image due to gambling. But that's bs. Every sport has gambling. As proof that gambling isn't an issue, that the unwholesome image of pool isn't an issue, just look back on the explosion of pool players and poolhalls that sprouted following the movie "The Hustler", and again with "The Color of Money'.

Pool just isn't growing much. But just because it's not growing doesn't mean it's dying. Sure, it may die in your town or somebody else's town for a while, but it'll be vibrant somewhere else. Then a few years later the pool scene there will fade in that place and your town might become a hotspot for pool again.

The thing is, it really doesn't matter what most people on a pool forum tell you. It's all opinion, and there are plenty of doomsdayers on every forum. It doesn't matter what the owner or worker in your local poolhall tells you. What matters is that there are millions of pool players in the US alone, so if a dozen people here tell you, "yes, I believe pool is dying", well that doesn't mean much compared to the millions of casual and serious players out there who love the game and will always be playing it somewhere.

Industry people have a good insight on how strong or weak the pool scene is. But like with most businesses, or industries, there are always ups and downs. For every poolhall owner that tells you, "a poolhall is a losing business, pool is dead", there is another poolroom owner out there who has figured out how to get people in and how to keep them coming back.

So to sum up pool is dying. But I am in denial so I dont think it is.
 

PRED

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Pool is dead. Send me your Szamboti's, Balabushka's, and Peterson cues
 

Buzzard II

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I live in an "active"retirement community
So yeah me and everyone around me are geezers. Within ten miles from me are three pool halls, they seem to be doing well. But I don't really know because within two blocks from my house are seven pool tables, that I know of. And I'm looking to
add a second to my basement. So from my point of view it's not dying, but it is aging successfully.
 

Black-Balled

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
I live in an "active"retirement community
So yeah me and everyone around me are geezers. Within ten miles from me are three pool halls, they seem to be doing well. But I don't really know because within two blocks from my house are seven pool tables, that I know of. And I'm looking to
add a second to my basement. So from my point of view it's not dying, but it is aging successfully.

Whacky. We are neighbors and I am ready to retire (only 30 more years to go).

Where are you, if'n you dont mind my asking?
 
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