Now that the dust has cleared...

I would like to thank all those responsible for putting on this event. I went to three sessions and had a great time. The viewing was great with a raised floor. The food was good and inexpensive.
I thought with the population of NYC that I would see a greater turnout in the stands. I bought vip seats. There were empty seats at each of the sessions I attended.
I was also surprised at the turnout of players. I know there were players who neither finished first or second in the qualifiers. It seemed that Charlie had to round up players to get to the 48 he had. There were supposed to be 64 players.
I think having the tournament in NYC has something to do with this. It is expensive to stay in NY.

kaznj said:

It is expensive to stay in NY.

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Yep, this is why the next tournament should be held in Dallas.

Dallas sounds nice. There should be plenty of seating for the 3 people who show up to watch. There are about 9 million people living in NY. Another 10 million are less than an hour away by train or car. With all these people there were many empty seats. That's a shame. And we wonder why the sport is dead.
Can you just imagine how much is costs to head or air condition a place the size of carom billiards. That's before the rent and electric bill. Yet, they host an event like this and they seats are empty. That is sad.

kaznj said:

Dallas sounds nice. There should be plenty of seating for the 3 people who show up to watch. There are about 9 million people living in NY. Another 10 million are less than an hour away by train or car. With all these people there were many empty seats. That's a shame. And we wonder why the sport is dead.
Can you just imagine how much is costs to head or air condition a place the size of carom billiards. That's before the rent and electric bill. Yet, they host an event like this and they seats are empty. That is sad.

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On the other hand, weekday tournaments make spectating difficult. I live in NYC and would have loved to go; however I can't reasonably take days off from work to go watch a pool tournament.

BayGene said:

A dynamite final with two (count 'em) 100+ runs.
A worthy, worthy champion.
Six days of 14.1 in comfortable surroundings (with food!)
Can everybody now stop complaining for a beat or two and thank Charlie, Cindy, Dr. Fedak, Dennis Walsh, Charles Eames, Dr. Pannullo, Ira Lee, Michael Kang and all the others who made this happen for the seventh straight (!) year?

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Gene: I think all you got was a beat, not two.

From everything I heard, it was a wonderful tournament and a very nice venue, with good seating, food, and billiards to watch. There were many exciting matches, many 100 ball runs, and my man, Schmidtty took home the cheese.

Of course, people can find fault with anything, and I am afraid that is becoming more common on these forums. I choose to celebrate the good, while doing what I can to improve things.

Thanks to everyone in involved, especially Michael Fedak, Charlie Williams and Cindy Lee. Stu Mattana, Dr. Louis Panullo, Charlie Eames and others also helped contribute to this event. (I have to correct you though Gene. I was unable to contribute this year so I deserve no thanks. )

Thanks for all the updates, Gene. Hopefully, I will see you next year.

I was there every day, and I can certainly say that the night session was definitely more packed than the day session; I can almost guarantee that is because not many people can take off work to attend the event.

It also became significantly more pack once the 3 Cushion event started.

TSW said:

On the other hand, weekday tournaments make spectating difficult. I live in NYC and would have loved to go; however I can't reasonably take days off from work to go watch a pool tournament.

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I agree. I was entertaining the idea of buying the full stream for $99, but could only maybe watch the last match of each day due to it being held during the week and so I didn't buy it.

I found it strange that the schedule wasn't slid a couple days to the right to have it end on a Sunday so that the 32-man bracket could have been on Friday, 16-man bracket on Saturday and the semis and finals on Sunday. I would bet that would have improved the number of viewers.

I personally would have definitely taken off Friday from work and watched every match I could during the final three days of the tournament.

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9balljim said:

i agree. I was entertaining the idea of buying the full stream for $99, but could only maybe watch the last match of each day due to it being held during the week and so i didn't buy it.

I found it strange that the schedule wasn't slid a couple days to the right to have it end on a sunday so that the 32-man bracket could have been on friday, 16-man bracket on saturday and the semis and finals on sunday. I would bet that would have improved the number of viewers.

I personally would have definitely taken off friday from work and watched every match i could during the final three days of the tournament.

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bingo!!!!!

BayGene said:

A dynamite final with two (count 'em) 100+ runs.
A worthy, worthy champion.
Six days of 14.1 in comfortable surroundings (with food!)
Can everybody now stop complaining for a beat or two and thank Charlie, Cindy, Dr. Fedak, Dennis Walsh, Charles Eames, Dr. Pannullo, Ira Lee, Michael Kang and all the others who made this happen for the seventh straight (!) year?

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Thank you Gene for supporting our event. We have had tremendous feedback via emails and calls from many fans and sponsors. It was definitely a winning event for DP and 14.1 and for USA pool with John Schmidt as the new reigning champion

I would have been there but was in Vancouver with my family for 9 days. I am sorry I missed John winning the whole darn thing. Congrats!