the key to promotion is motion, and there's a serious lack of promotion/motion
In the 90's the average viewing audience for 9Ball was a 1 POINT RATING (one million house holds)....I played a match in front of over 3.8 Million Viewers on ESPN ....and the total hours ESPN gave us in 3 years was thousands of hours (my matches alone were over 600 International Hours)....I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be classified a "failure" in the history of Television.
The challenge became "how to take that success to the next level"...however, there were some missing factors....and the pool game itself was not one of those factors.
It takes people to get anything on TV, it's not ESPN, it's promoters that drive events on TV, you just don't see it now in major sports because it's already in place, in pool, it's not in place - as a matter of fact no one is even trying to do televised events these days.
Trying to figure out why pool isn't on TV is like trying to figure out why we don't get in better shape by NOT exercising.....the reasons are simple, the key to promotion is motion, and there's a serious lack of promotion/motion in pool these days. It's nobody's fault, it just "is what it is".
Pool tournaments and pool rooms rarely advertise outside the "pool world" and then wonder why new people aren't attracted to the Game....."out of sight, out of mind"...'The Game is the Teacher'
In the 90's the average viewing audience for 9Ball was a 1 POINT RATING (one million house holds)....I played a match in front of over 3.8 Million Viewers on ESPN ....and the total hours ESPN gave us in 3 years was thousands of hours (my matches alone were over 600 International Hours)....I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be classified a "failure" in the history of Television.
The challenge became "how to take that success to the next level"...however, there were some missing factors....and the pool game itself was not one of those factors.
It takes people to get anything on TV, it's not ESPN, it's promoters that drive events on TV, you just don't see it now in major sports because it's already in place, in pool, it's not in place - as a matter of fact no one is even trying to do televised events these days.
Trying to figure out why pool isn't on TV is like trying to figure out why we don't get in better shape by NOT exercising.....the reasons are simple, the key to promotion is motion, and there's a serious lack of promotion/motion in pool these days. It's nobody's fault, it just "is what it is".
Pool tournaments and pool rooms rarely advertise outside the "pool world" and then wonder why new people aren't attracted to the Game....."out of sight, out of mind"...'The Game is the Teacher'