Empty Seats

sjm said:

Great event but there are definitely some big turnoffs for the fans. Here are a few examples:

1) Player timeouts in the middle of rack. This, to me, is absolutely ridiculous. A competitive, tense, exciting rack can be interrupted by this as was the case when Sanchez-Ruiz took a mid-rack break in the semifinal against Kaci during a safety battle. Timeouts are mostly for team games and are used chiefly for strategy discussions and clock management, neither of which apply to pool. Bathroom breaks should be permitted, as they are in tennis, but never in the middle of a game. The play is the thing and mid-rack breaks stink for fans. In pool, most breaks are taken for gamesmanship/momentum/psychology reasons anyway, and commentator Mark Wilson often takes note of it, once remarking "I think that's a good time for him to take his break, as the match seems to be getting away from him."

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sjm said:

2) The match schedule is rarely adhered to, and I don't mean matches that start late because other matches hold them up. The first match of the evening session, which is never held up by another match, seemed to always start well after the announced time. In one case this week, you could watch the players warming up for over half an hour after the scheduled start time, so the match wasn't held up by the absence of the players. There is also too much time between matches. The result of all this is that a lot of matches go into the wee hours of the morning, and whether I'm there, or watching on the stream, it often means that I miss these matches, which seem to be played played in front of zero fans.

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sjm said:

3) Commentators, some good and some awful, are always unprepared, knowing little about player accomplishments, little about the head-to-head history between the competitors, and even less about the lives of the players. Mark Wilson spent a lot of time talking about the jet-lag issue during a Ko Pin-Yi match, often trying to explain away some mistakes, but the truth is that Ko Pin-Yi, who had played in the event at Gotham in Brooklyn, NY, the week before, had already been in the USA for at least two weeks. This is all a shame for both stream-buyers and the attendees, who generally buy the headsets so they can listen to the commentary, which is badly uninformed. Either get commentators who closely follow the pro pool tournament scene or arm commentators with fact sheets that enable them to offer insights about the players, their accomplishments, etc.

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gxman said:

The problem is they need more tables. 139 player field, double elimination, race to 11 with 13 tables is going to take a long time.

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Nostroke said:

Who owns the US Open now? Is it Pat Fleming, the Behrmans, or maybe they are co-owners?

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JAM said:

Speaking as someone who's attended the Open, albeit many moons ago, I love the fact that they end it on Saturday now, allowing folks to have a day to recuperate and return home on Sunday. For the working stiffs, I do like that format much better.

I don't know if they could shorten the week to make it happen in 4 days, like Mike Zuglan's $25,000-added Joss Tour Turning Stone events. I do like the fact that there are only two business days missed if you attend that tournament.

Keith said this is the toughest field at the Open he's ever seen. I'm thinking they should raise the entry fee to $1,000 a man and shorten the player field. I'll bet it fills up way ahead of time, like Zuglan's Turning Stone events do, if they did that. Just a thought.

As far a fans and spectators, pool has never attracetd the masses. We're a small sub-culture in society. Though we are very passionate about pool, 99 percnet of the world has no idea who Efren Reyes or Earl Strickland or Ronnie O'Sullivan or Ralf Souquet is.

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Low500 said:

Just to bear out what you're saying about the game we love..........I happened to mention to some people at a social event that I was planning on going to the Super Billiards Expo in 2018.
3 or 4 of them said...."Will Minnesota Fats be there?"
That about says it all....:shrug:
:thumbup:

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JAM said:

Getting old, paying taxes, and trying to make ends meet. We're in the autumn of our lives, and the leaves are starting to fall off.

We're actually doing well. Life is good. Keith says we never get past Whole Foods, but I remind him that at least we have a roof over our heads and are eating well. We are both working on health. In fact, we're getting ready to take a walk right now with our dog. Trying to stay fit and healthy. That's the name of the game after you reach 60.


Keith's hit a few local tourneys. He misses pool. There's a few cool events in our neck of the woods. He likes one-hole mostly.

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justinb386 said:

I bet a lot more know who Ronnie is.

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JAM said:

Getting old, paying taxes, and trying to make ends meet. We're in the autumn of our lives, and the leaves are starting to fall off.

We're actually doing well. Life is good. Keith says we never get past Whole Foods, but I remind him that at least we have a roof over our heads and are eating well. We are both working on health. In fact, we're getting ready to take a walk right now with our dog. Trying to stay fit and healthy. That's the name of the game after you reach 60.


Keith's hit a few local tourneys. He misses pool. There's a few cool events in our neck of the woods. He likes one-hole mostly.

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Johnnyt said:

You see the same older people at every major U.S tournaments...year after year, after year. As the die off or get major health problems...there is no one to replace them.

Also, who the hell can get the time off or afford a frigging week to travel, stay in a hotel for 7 days, eat more than 20 meals dinning out misc? Seven (7) days and nights for a 150 player tournament is waaaay to long. Johnnyt

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