OK, here goes.......this is probably gonna be a long read. I apolgize in advance, and would like to remind you that I'm not responsible for any injuries sustained if you fall asleep reading this and fall out of your chair.
I'll take one of your earlier posts on this topic Mike. You said that players need to eat/drink at the establishment, and to support sponsors by buying their products.
Not trying to offend, but, thats not the way to make money in sports/games. If this is the case, basically you'll just have a closed loop system, where sponsors and players put some money into pool, and they just keep trading it back and forth. This has happened for all of about eternity for pool.
The key is, to bring in outside money. Go to any pool tournament nowadays, except for a very, very select few, and count how many players there are. Now, count the spectators......which one do you think is higher? Normally its the players.
Now, put yourself in the players shoes. First we'll look at the financial side......you've already paid the entry fee, you're stayin a hotel possibly. So, you're already in your own pocket for a decent amount. Well, now I need to support the place by buying their food, and I need to support sponsors. There is a good chance I might not even make any money in this tournament, so I'm at a total loss. Well, since I know that I might not cash, I'm going to eat at the MCD dollar menu, and I'm not going to spend extra money on the sponsoring merchandise.
Now, lets look at the other issues some people have. They are playing, so they don't want to eat a lot and get sluggish. They want to play their best, so they don't drink alcohol.
So, lets face reality........pool PLAYERS are not going to support pool. It doesn't happen in any other sport/game. Except for maybe poker, I can give you the reasons why, but thats another topic.
Pool has been around a long long time. Lets look at a sport that hasn't. Lets take Mixed Martial Arts for example. Namely, the UFC. They have been around about 15 years or so. They have come a long way and now are a multi-million dollar company, and a lot of their participants do very well for themselves.
They don't ask their fighters to pay entry fees, they don't ask them to buy food/beverages at the shows, they don't ask them to support sponsors.
So, what do they have that pool doesn't????
SPECTATORS!!!!!
This is true for every sport that is successful. You CANNOT be financially successful without a spectator audience AND fanbase. Period, no way, no how, not gonna happen.
I hadn't thought of it, but you're right Mike, players make themselves too accessible to the public.
If the average Joe sees pool on t.v. they think "hell, I can go down the road and do that".
Pool needs a more "elite" image. It needs to be something special. It needs to not be BORING.
Again, lets face reality, watching the typical nine ball game is quite boring, even for someone that knows the ins and outs of pool.
Until the average person can look at pool and say "wow, i could never be that good" or "wow, those guys are amazing" then pool is gonna be in trouble financially.
What is the reason sponsors actually sponsor people or events? The answer is "audience". They know that there is going to be a large audience at the event, and an even larger audience at home watching it on t.v..
If I'm a sponsor, why am I going to put up money for a pool tournament, that for the most part, only a 100 pool players are gonna see my product??
Bottom line is........once you get people "outside" of the pool world interested, the rest will fall into place. You won't be begging sponsors, they'll be begging you. You won't be begging room owners, they'll be coming to you.
Of course, this is no easy task, and I haven't the slightest how to change this.....hopefully someone has some ideas.
Thanks
