That is foreign to me, showing up at a pool hall and not playing because of a whole $25.00. 2 weeks ago I donated $45.00 and 12 hours to a 32 man tournament, finished 7th. Yesterday another tournament with some of the same players and a $45.00 entry for 32 man and I got whopped on with 2 straight loses by AA players, I'm just a B but I will donate to the next one. One difference is we don't have APA up here for some reason, only BCA, its probably a good thing.
It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. The fact that the APA brought a different group of people to pool. People who might not be willing to throw money around playing pool, its enough to play (and pay) a little each week.
All those people who were willing to spend more money playing pool before the APA came into existence, where did they go? The APA didn't make them go away. You should still be able to find the sorts of folks you used to. Just don't expect the casual league player to be that person.
I love playing pool. I play as much as I can, given my other responsibilies. I only have a limited budget for "play money". I would have to carefully consider a $25 tournament. I have played in some $20 ones (APA tourneys, actually) but I couldn't do it every week. I'm sure many casual players will have similar thoughts and concerns.
Good for you that you can drop $25 into a tourney and not think about it. Or gamble for larger amounts. That's cool, too. The way I read things here, there are still plenty of folks like you out there to play with.
