As I mentioned early on, I see this whole thing as a bottom up proposition. While there has not been any mention on my part thus far, kinda the whole point was fixing " pro pool ". If all of the leagues were to bap able to be " unified " in some for or fassion, AND a fair standardized handicapping system could be implemented ( whether it be FARGO RATE or whatever ), I envision leagues that are capable of being all things to all people. What I mean by that is if all one person wants is to be able to get together with their friends once or twice a week to drink some beer, bs, and beat some balls around and have some fun they could do so. ( And if a fair handicapping system were in use it would be way more fun for EVERYONE ). Next level up is someone that really loves playing pool and wants to get better AND may even have a little competitive streak in them, that's there for them in league too. Going further up the food chain, You have a player that plays decent ( relative term but plays at least good enough to break and run let's say ) and they are motivated by the opportunity to win prizes ( more on this later ), a chance to win local, regional , etc championships and get some trophies for their wall well they can certainly do that here too.
Now comes the FUN PART! I'm envisioning league ALSO being like a " farm system " for the pros. If one has a dream of one day being a pro, they could play, practice, play and practice some more where they would need to reach a certain " point level" which would allow them to participate in certain " pro only " tournaments. All of this could be based on some type of performance points or it could even be done by you actual Fargo rating #, there are tons of ways to handle this. This would give anyone with those dreams a clear and we'll defined path for them to take, while having fun with their friends the whole way. I believe I'd you were able to successfully build a league ( farm ) system in this way, just through natural progression the pro tournaments, " pro tour ", and sponsorships ( money ) would follow hand in hand. I will get into the " pro players involvement shorty"
Still talking the amateur league side, with it being all new, new concepts, AND NEW PRIZES AND PAYOUTS. These will be ways of growing participants exponentially IMO. Yeah, yeah we've all heard about the " dream vacation " to nationals that so many want to " win ". Let's be honest, the fact that you have a 0.000001% chance at that ( or whatever the # actually is ) is pretty cool for just playing some league once a week but in reality it is kinda shitty and if you were going on vacation and paying out of pocket I'm sure it's not how you would do it. So now assuming we have at least one or two major sponsors on board, we now have some money to actually do something. Yes, the money I will be talking about will be considered " sizeable " to all of us common folks - but in reality it is but just a mear drop in the bucket of an advertising / promotion budget for these companies. Let's say you have city prizes, regional prizes, Tri cup ( or whatever it's called lol ) prizes, east coast VA west coast prizes, yall get the idea, and then the BIG ONE - National Championship.
On a more local level, there could be cash prizes of some substance , it could be nice gift cards with partnered companies or smaller sponsors ( just as an example maybe a gift card that would pay for a whole nice meal for entire team - the tram that was runner up to the team that gets to move on in playoffs. Possibilities are near endless when it comes to prizes and structure. Now I truly don't know what the top prize for APA Or whomever if you win the whole thing - I'm guessing what, like maybe $5000 for the whole team? Comes out to what like $500 bucks a person? Don't get me wrong that's cool and all, but considering what all they had to go thru to get to that point wouldn't something a little nicer draw a lot of attention? Once again just an idea but let's say you end up winning your discipline ( oh yeah BTW I'd have at least 3 disciplines - 8 ball, 9 ball, and actually one pocket too ( where they have access to big tables. And oh yeah TABLES, More on that later too ). So anyway, let's say you win your discipline - A 7 day all inclusive, all expenses paid trip for entire team ( with one guest each allowed ) To some resort in the Caribbean in a private plane. Not as Cray as it sounds; many corporations already have at least one of their own planes. They also have properties all over the place that they own OR can get reservations comped or HEAVILY discounted. All of these large corps have access most would not even dream about so actual real money out of pocket for something like this is minimal. Think about the exposure prizes like this would garner. It's crazy really.
Standby, final post forthcoming. Thanks-