9ball - A view from the UK

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SammyUtd

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I am glad I found this forum :)

Being from the UK and a lover of snooker, I have always has such an attraction to 9 Ball and in particular the Mosconi Cup. I thought this years event was solid, though due to the scoreline lacked the excitement of previous years.

I was delighted to see the return of Earl, we love a villain and Earl plays that role better than no other. I can't claim to be a pool expert, but his shot making is just sublime.

I just wanted to discuss a few points and was hoping to get some feedback from across the ocean. For some reason, in the UK 9 ball is hardly televised (Mosconi aside). I am surprised that since Hearn has taken the reigns of snooker he hasn't tried to bring this game into the limelight over here. As a country we love snooker, but we lack the characters that pool seems to produce. I am hoping Mr Hearn will consider a world 9Ball tour, perhaps get a few snooker players involved again and try and take it to the next level. 9Ball deserves so much more attention over here, I really do think it could be massive, it just needs a little bit of TLC. How is it televised in the US?
 
SammyUtd said:
I am glad I found this forum :)

Being from the UK and a lover of snooker, I have always has such an attraction to 9 Ball and in particular the Mosconi Cup. I thought this years event was solid, though due to the scoreline lacked the excitement of previous years.

I was delighted to see the return of Earl, we love a villain and Earl plays that role better than no other. I can't claim to be a pool expert, but his shot making is just sublime.

I just wanted to discuss a few points and was hoping to get some feedback from across the ocean. For some reason, in the UK 9 ball is hardly televised (Mosconi aside). I am surprised that since Hearn has taken the reigns of snooker he hasn't tried to bring this game into the limelight over here. As a country we love snooker, but we lack the characters that pool seems to produce. I am hoping Mr Hearn will consider a world 9Ball tour, perhaps get a few snooker players involved again and try and take it to the next level. 9Ball deserves so much more attention over here, I really do think it could be massive, it just needs a little bit of TLC. How is it televised in the US?
Click to expand...

Nobody plays 9 ball in the UK. On what basis do you think it could be 'massive'?

Regardless, the GB9 tour is probably the best in the world- or would be with more players.
 
Pathetic Shark said:
Nobody plays 9 ball in the UK. On what basis do you think it could be 'massive'?

Regardless, the GB9 tour is probably the best in the world- or would be with more players.
Click to expand...

I think more people would play it if there were more televised events. I was thinking it would be 'massive' in the sense of good crowds and reasonable viewing figures. One critiscm that people have for snooker is that it has become a little dull and slow / boring.

9ball is a very exciting alternative and has the characters that snooker lacks, it just seems to be missing the promotion. I do think there is an issue that people consider it to be easy (which is completely wrong).

I'm a sports lover and just want to see a game that seems to have so much potential, promoted a little bit more, because I think once you have seen it you become hooked...
 
Whilst 9-Ball isn't massive in the UK, its popular enough for Sky Sports to have shown the Mosconi Cup for 20 years, the World Championships (on and off), the World Pool Masters for however long and the World Cup of pool as well as previously the World Pool League and numerous English 8-Ball events.

So there is a market for televised pool.

With snooker remaining fairly popular, yet decreasing, 9-Ball could plausibly become quite popular, especially with Barry Hearn supporting it, look at what he's done to darts.

That said I'm sure if Matchroom think it will work they will try it and if not they won't!
 
Just wondering. What the hell is the point of English pool?
The tables are weird and small and the CB is smaller than the rest of the balls, making effect shots behave in a weird way.
 
Kim Bye said:
Just wondering. What the hell is the point of English pool?
The tables are weird and small and the CB is smaller than the rest of the balls, making effect shots behave in a weird way.
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It produces generation after generation of FANTASTIC cueists.


Small tables, small balls, isn't it? Mmm. You know, jamming bog rolls into the bags to avoid paying, marvelous. Small boys in the poolhall, beer mats for goal posts, isn't it? You know? marvelous.
 
Kim Bye said:
Just wondering. What the hell is the point of English pool?
The tables are weird and small and the CB is smaller than the rest of the balls, making effect shots behave in a weird way.
Click to expand...

The small tables mean they can fit in pubs, the small cue ball is for the ball return mechanism.

Whilst most tables are 6 foot, some are 7 foot and the largest are 8 foot. With tight pockets its actually quite tough, especially with the differently sized cue ball!
 
vjmehra said:
Whilst 9-Ball isn't massive in the UK, its popular enough for Sky Sports to have shown the Mosconi Cup for 20 years, the World Championships (on and off), the World Pool Masters for however long and the World Cup of pool as well as previously the World Pool League and numerous English 8-Ball events.

So there is a market for televised pool.

With snooker remaining fairly popular, yet decreasing, 9-Ball could plausibly become quite popular, especially with Barry Hearn supporting it, look at what he's done to darts.

That said I'm sure if Matchroom think it will work they will try it and if not they won't!
Click to expand...

I think Hearn did try and push it a few years ago, especially with the use of the Steve Davis. It always remained on SKY though and was usually lost amongst other more popular sports.

With the BBC in the UK (free to air) hardly having any sport, Snooker being one of their Jewels, I would like to see Hearn and Matchroom promote something that everyone has access to. There could almost be a Mosconi Cup format, but put snooker players againist Pool players. This way the UK audience get to see some familiar names, get to see some new faces and a game that offers a bit more excitement and more of a night out feel (much like the darts).

Call it Champions v Champions or whatever, get Jimmy, Ronnie, Davis, Drago and one other, put them to the sword (probably quite literally!) vs a best of Pool team (select players from US, Europe and Phillipines), I for one would watch that!
 
SammyUtd said:
I think Hearn did try and push it a few years ago, especially with the use of the Steve Davis. It always remained on SKY though and was usually lost amongst other more popular sports.

With the BBC in the UK (free to air) hardly having any sport, Snooker being one of their Jewels, I would like to see Hearn and Matchroom promote something that everyone has access to. There could almost be a Mosconi Cup format, but put snooker players againist Pool players. This way the UK audience get to see some familiar names, get to see some new faces and a game that offers a bit more excitement and more of a night out feel (much like the darts).

Call it Champions v Champions or whatever, get Jimmy, Ronnie, Davis, Drago and one other, put them to the sword (probably quite literally!) vs a best of Pool team (select players from US, Europe and Phillipines), I for one would watch that!
Click to expand...

The problem is Matchroom have worked with Sky for years, it seems unlikely they would turn their back on them to work with the BBC for (probably) less money.

But I agree it would be great to see 9-Ball on free to air TV, maybe GB9 could do it one day, they already have a live stream, so the idea isn't that far away!

When the world Championships were at Cardiff people seemed a lot more interested in 9-Ball, if we could get them back there and throw in a few snooker players as you say, that would be great!
 
ceodynamo said:
SammyUTD To answer your question pool IS NOT TELEVISED in the US
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Do you mean not televised live?

I've watched 9-Ball on TV when I've been on holiday in the US (on ESPN), I thought it was live although I could be mistaken, however it is definitely on occasionally at least!
 
2 times a year

Do you mean not televised live?

I've watched 9-Ball on TV when I've been on holiday in the US (on ESPN), I thought it was live although I could be mistaken, however it is definitely on occasionally at least!
Click to expand...

ESPN used to play the mens Tournament of Champions live from the Mohegan Sun. That is a once a year event and it may not even be on this year due to how expensive airing rights are here in the US. And the matchs are especially not live, they are edited due to a 1 hr TV time restriction.

The women's event may have 2 Tournaments on a year, a semi final match and a finals match. But I havn't seen a womens event on TV in the last 6 months.
 
ESPN Classic

ESPN Classic used to air the old school Buddy Hall, The Crain etc.... But we don't get ESPN Classic now so I don't know but I doubt they have aired that segment in years.
 
vjmehra said:
Do you mean not televised live?

I've watched 9-Ball on TV when I've been on holiday in the US (on ESPN), I thought it was live although I could be mistaken, however it is definitely on occasionally at least!
Click to expand...

Pool watching in the US is pretty much 100% either online streaming or you drive to the tournament place. The only thing that gets on TV is trickshots.
 
There is nobody in the UK who knows more about 9 Ball than I do. That fact is not up for discussion. The game has only niche market status is because of economic reasons. There are simply not enough places to play the American Pool.
Twenty years ago there were hundreds of clubs where you could play snooker,barbox pool and eventually when these two games started to falter these clubs started replacing snooker tables with 9x5 American pool tables.
For a while it stemmed the tide of business failures but with rising overheads many of these clubs (along with thousands of pubs) were driven to the wall. Probably a blanket ban on smoking was the final nail in cuesports coffin.
The town where I live once boasted around 25-30 clubs within a 30 minute drive. Now there are FIVE. As a seaport we enjoyed a wide variety of well frequented pubs. During the 60s we had a choice of 2000 such hostelries. Now we are down to about 200.
Over the years 9 Ball has had a lot of exposure on UK television. The World 9 Ball Championship was a magnificent event when it was held in Cardiff, But there became no value in the game when a large portion of your audience had no access to playing facilities.
 
pro9dg said:
There is nobody in the UK who knows more about 9 Ball than I do. That fact is not up for discussion. The game has only niche market status is because of economic reasons. There are simply not enough places to play the American Pool.
Twenty years ago there were hundreds of clubs where you could play snooker,barbox pool and eventually when these two games started to falter these clubs started replacing snooker tables with 9x5 American pool tables.
For a while it stemmed the tide of business failures but with rising overheads many of these clubs (along with thousands of pubs) were driven to the wall. Probably a blanket ban on smoking was the final nail in cuesports coffin.
The town where I live once boasted around 25-30 clubs within a 30 minute drive. Now there are FIVE. As a seaport we enjoyed a wide variety of well frequented pubs. During the 60s we had a choice of 2000 such hostelries. Now we are down to about 200.
Over the years 9 Ball has had a lot of exposure on UK television. The World 9 Ball Championship was a magnificent event when it was held in Cardiff, But there became no value in the game when a large portion of your audience had no access to playing facilities.
Click to expand...

Where there's demand, there will be supply. The biggest problem American pool has is it's seen as being too easy. Very few serious Snooker or English pool players will lower themselves to play American pool, even for fun.

Without serious investment or a change in the rules, 9 ball will never take off here.
 
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