is amateur pool on an upswing in your area?

ctyhntr said:

Super Billiards Expo announced that for the first time in their history, all their amateur tournaments are sold out 2 weeks in advanced of the tournament. Wednesday's warm-up is at nearly 700 players. I never seen it that high in the 10 years I've been attending.

In my area, New York City, Tony Robles Predator tour season opener at Steinway had 140 plus players. Weekly tournaments at Steinway were drawing up to 60 players a night. They had to change from double elimination to single, so everyone could play.

Last season, Amsterdam's Straight Pool league had over 90 players, and our own Steve Kurtz 14.1 league at Bayshore had topped over 50 as well.

Local APA scene, at least one of the territories is offering Masters, Super 30 and other APA league products, not just 8-ball.

Just wondering if this is only limited to NYC area, North East or you see similar trends in your neck of the woods.

Click to expand...

A little in the Tulsa area but a BUNCH in the Ok.City area. Fargo events all the time.

I'm sure plenty of people have just grown tired of sitting in front of their propaganda boxes. The last election "woke" a lot of people about the "news" & TV "programming" in general.

In philly, the pool scene is the best it’s been in 10 years, but still well short of 20 years ago.

I personally think it has to do with the economy having been on the upswing for the past 5 or so years.

garczar said:

A little in the Tulsa area but a BUNCH in the Ok.City area. Fargo events all the time.

Click to expand...

Yeah OKC has a lot. Arizona too. Just posted this this morning about Pacific Northwest.

DCC has had record attendance every year for the past 4 or 5 years.

There are still a lot less pool halls around. The percent of people who play pool is too. That said those who play will spend a great deal of time and money doing so.

ctyhntr said:

Super Billiards Expo announced that for the first time in their history, all their amateur tournaments are sold out 2 weeks in advanced of the tournament. Wednesday's warm-up is at nearly 700 players. I never seen it that high in the 10 years I've been attending.

In my area, New York City, Tony Robles Predator tour season opener at Steinway had 140 plus players. Weekly tournaments at Steinway were drawing up to 60 players a night. They had to change from double elimination to single, so everyone could play.

Last season, Amsterdam's Straight Pool league had over 90 players, and our own Steve Kurtz 14.1 league at Bayshore had topped over 50 as well.

Local APA scene, at least one of the territories is offering Masters, Super 30 and other APA league products, not just 8-ball.

Just wondering if this is only limited to NYC area, North East or you see similar trends in your neck of the woods.

Click to expand...

Dont know about other places but in my area Florence, Alabama ..... lol ... it's hard to find anything pool related that would make any C+ or above player even think about attending.

Only a few places to play and ALL of them are dumps with owners that either dont have the cash to upgrade or dont feel it necessary.

Either way, I stay home or travel out of town to play.

In the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, amateur pool has been strong for many years. I can't honestly say it is growing, but it's definitely not slowing down.

Maniac

I do not get in it as much as I used to and cannot say with any certainty that pool is on an upswing but from what I do see its certainly not declining.

In the 30 years I have been here only one pool hall has closed .....due to poor management in my opinion. He was strictly old school and did not cater to young people or leagues. No new halls have opened though.

A couple of money leagues have been ongoing for 20 or more years and seem to be thriving.

Bcapl folded several years ago due to the league owners misappropriating money meant for nationals.

Napa ....tap and usapl have tried their hand here and failed...mainly because apa realm took off after bcapl folded.

Speaking of apa. We had new owners take over last year and have made quite difference so far. Expanded their presence from 2 counties to 4. Expanded divisions to include a 9 foot table only division. Hold many more tournaments and regional and qualifiers than were ever held before. Some tournaments are full up with a waiting list which has never happened before.

As to non league players I can only speak on one hall since its the one I play at most . Very seldom its not completely full on Friday and Sunday nights when i play league. League takes up all 12 bar tables and I always see all 14 nine footers in use on those nights also. I made the trip to it on a tuesday night a couple weeks ago to check in it a friends meucci cargo pro before making the decision to order one myself. There was not a table free in order for me to try his out on. All 14 9 footers and all 12 seven footers were in use.

ctyhntr said:

Barboxes or 9 footers? C+ or above. So, I'm guess APA 8-ball, and no tournaments (ABCD).

Click to expand...

We have the following:


Tennessee Street Billiards,

6 or 7 BB's and three eight footers. They are valley and each and everyone of them have "at least" two extremely dead rails and at least one rail that are about to fall off. The metal around the table is sketchy, with pieces missing, making it dangerous to walk around the table in areas. The felt is ALWAYS the very cheapest crap one can buy and owner waits till there are a ton of holes and stains before even thinking about recover. Not to mention, lol ... when they do get recovered, it is almost always by someone that knows little to NOTHING about tables.

The tables are so close together, you can't use a 58" cue on any one table without the next table (table itself.... not player) being in the way of your stance/stroke.

In this room, lol, on a good night.... you might see what most here would consider complete beginner to C players but, dont worry... lol, most all there think they are all killers. Two tournaments a week. One 8 ball and one 9 ball. Number of entrants will be from 5 to 12 on average with an occasional 15 to 20 and a lot of "we can't have it tonights".

Their tournaments are $10, nothing added and house keep (I think) $3 for green fees. They almost always pay at least three places... even if just 7 or 8 players. Lol.... dont think about Calcutta unless you like to hear the best player there say "I'll take $5 on myself".... with 12 to 15 entrants, first place would be ~$50 to ~$60 if they had themselves in Calcutta.

Other room, dont even have a name...

It has three tables. Two 9' snooker tables and one 9' foot drop pocket. All three stay in need of attention due to a couple of players getting pissed and actually picking up one end of tables and moving an inch or so..... at least once a day.

well... run down it is but at least there will be two to three people a day to even walk in the building to play pool. It always rosie and for $2 and .25 a hicky per game.

No tournaments or anything of that nature.

Player rating would be same as above.

BTW, did I mention that both places smell like an ashtray on their best day.

That's it sports fans!!!!!!!!

I can't speak to whether or not there are more pool players but I will say the demographics are shifting if what I've seen from this scenario.

I was involved in planning an event done at Chandleys Chalk and Cue in Statesville, NC that was designed for Pool League Players. The League Operators in NC, VA, SC and some in Tenn were contacted. The event was designed to be like "For those that didn't make it to the Cities/Vegas type thing." We also made it where each team would play 3 matches at minimum and the first time we had it 28 teams of 5 people to a team were registered, showed and played all weekend which was good for the food and drink business. Sad to say the management didn't follow through and keep it going but it was a super duper earner for the place. People were really interested and loved the big room we had for it. 28 teams x 5= 140 players playing 3 times meant that they stayed in the room most of the weekend until the last day on Sunday. We paid out big with the top 3 teams getting the payout. People seemed very happy the way it was done. You could form your own teams with accredited APA players with a current handicap on file. It was quite an undertaking but it was nice to see that many people in the room. When you compare the amount of Pool League Players to the free range Non Pool Leaguers you can see the direction that Pool is going.

ctyhntr said:

Super Billiards Expo announced that for the first time in their history, all their amateur tournaments are sold out 2 weeks in advanced of the tournament. Wednesday's warm-up is at nearly 700 players. I never seen it that high in the 10 years I've been attending.

In my area, New York City, Tony Robles Predator tour season opener at Steinway had 140 plus players. Weekly tournaments at Steinway were drawing up to 60 players a night. They had to change from double elimination to single, so everyone could play.

Last season, Amsterdam's Straight Pool league had over 90 players, and our own Steve Kurtz 14.1 league at Bayshore had topped over 50 as well.

Local APA scene, at least one of the territories is offering Masters, Super 30 and other APA league products, not just 8-ball.

Just wondering if this is only limited to NYC area, North East or you see similar trends in your neck of the woods.

Click to expand...

I forgot to mention regular tournaments. Few and far between but they fill up with plenty of Fargo rated players in the 600 range and a few low 700. It draws people from all over the surrounding area and a few from up in missouri.

Then you have a few bar tournaments held on Friday nights and with a 10.00 entry. The guy who hosts the big tournaments with out of town players occasionally holds tournaments for local guys and again draws all the strong local players and the apa 7/9's and even down to 5's who want to test themselves.

ctyhntr said:

Is Dallas/Ft. Worth bar tables or you have 9 footers?

Click to expand...

Dallas has a little of everything, 9ft-8ft-bb's. A lot of pool on 8ft's in DFW area.

ctyhntr said:

Is Dallas/Ft. Worth bar tables or you have 9 footers?

Click to expand...

If you count bars as pool halls, then I'd estimate that about 50% are 7-footers, 40% are 8-footers (oversized 8's), and 10% are 9-footers. The "pool halls" mostly have the 8-footers with some having a couple or three 9-footers. There is a smattering of 3-cushion and snooker tables around the Metroplex, but not enough to give them a percentage. I could be off a little on the guess.

That said, I live in Mansfield, which has Ft. Worth to my close northwest, Arlington just north of me, and Dallas to the northeast of me (but a bit farther away than Ft. Worth). I probably have close to fifteen legitimate pool halls within a 45 minute drive, and if you throw in the bars, the number is too high to try an estimate. If you walk into the pool halls at night they are usually at 50% to 90% capacity table usage.

Most of the pool halls have at least one weekly tournament, and some have at least two.

So, it's a pretty healthy pool scene around these parts. And...there are a LOT of youngsters, boys and girls, getting involved which bodes well for the future of pool.

Maniac