i think it's just preliminary Q1 schedule, at least that's all i could see. from what i've heard there will be a new big open event in USA, but probably later in the year
An interview with Emily
- Thread starter Bob Jewett
- Start date
i think it's just preliminary Q1 schedule, at least that's all i could see. from what i've heard there will be a new big open event in USA, but probably later in the year
the jump cues aren't going away. cue companies sponsors both events and players. it's not happening.
winner breaks vs alternate is dependent on race length. some events like MC will always have alternate breaks
Agreed.
If they weren't working the networks, none of what they are doing would be possible because the viewership on
YouTube isn't even a drop in that bucket of viewers.
The market they are going to is sports viewers who like to see varied content, they aren't necessarily pool lovers or fans even.
What would one have to do to please a real Pool fan? Is it worth it, when there is this?
I’ll give you a parable. Once was born a girl that was the most beautiful and graceful ever, sadly born into poverty on the wrong side of the tracks. Despite her great beauty she never attracted a truly rich or powerful suitor as her poor background made them leery that their fine reputations would be sullied by an association with her. Over the years there were suitors that promised her the world, but were just conmen that broke her heart & left her in the poverty in which they found her. Then later in life came a truly rich and powerful suitor that could provide her every want and need. Sadly he was a pimp that didn’t love her or even really like her. He did see her great beauty and wanted to add her to his stable of whores to profit him.
There are 2 types of fathers, one that would be so happy his daughter would no longer be poor that he could look past her having to be a whore for abundance. The other type would rather see his daughter remain in poverty than be a whore to escape it.
Pool is that most beautiful woman. PBT, Camel, Trudeau, etc. were the conmen. Matchroom is the pimp. Those that SAY they love the game are the fathers that would allow their beautiful daughter to be a whore. Those that TRULY love the game are those that would rather see their beautiful daughter remain poor rather than fall into the hands of a pimp.
WTF?????????? Why the MR hatred???? BarryHearn&Co. have basically single-handedly made snooker(and dart players!!) wealthy household names. Your comparisons in your cute little fairytale are laughable. Its called 'PROFESSIONAL' pool for a reason. The players/promoters/sponsors DO like/love their respective sports but they also are there to make money. You act like this is evil on some level. Calling Matchroom a 'pimp' is ridiculous. Must be nice to live in fantasy-land.
You’re entitled to your opinion and I’m sure most everyone will agree with you. I don’t expect 98% of the world of pool to understand, much less agree with my viewpoint. In synopsis there are those that like and are even obsessed with this game, then there are those that truly love it on a level incomprehensible to others, for the first it’s just another diversion in life, a form of entertainment, for the latter it is a true love, a passion. MR has been wildly successful and will continue to be, but don’t tell me it loves or cares about this game, it’s just a product to them.
Again, you live in complete fantasy land. What you trying to say could be applied to EVERY known form of professional sport on the planet. What you are describing is known as 'AMATEUR' sport, sport for the love of the game. In ANY profession people are in it to make MONEY. Stop trying to compare the two because you can't. I love amateur golf myself but i also love watching them play for stupid money. Two completely different animals.
Again you’re entitled to your opinion and it will be the majority opinion. While you are correct in my love for the game, your supposition that I don’t think the best players in what I believe to be the most challenging of sports shouldn’t make money. I believe it deserves pro golf money but I don’t think the sport, or its rules should have to be changed to do so. Nor should it have to be turned into a carnival to do so.
Examples of what I mean? Pool is often referred to as the cruelest of games and the dynamics that gained it that reputation are the things I truly love about it. As MR is doing 9 ball let’s evaluate that game. 9 ball rules professionally, as in the years of the PBT, were lag for break, winner breaks, 1 ball on the spot, 1 pushout after the break, 1 foul BIH, 3 fouls loss of game. It is your inning until you miss, foul or play a safety. Take a look at the 1999 World Pool Championships match between Reyes and Busti played under these rules. Efren opens & takes a 1-0 lead, in rack 2 he jaws the 6 ball. Busti finishes off the rack and then breaks and runs 2 more, 3-1. Busti scratches on the break and Efren ran a 9 pack from there before his inning ended.
This type of match under these rules established the dynamic that defines pool. It’s demand for unparalleled concentration and execution under pressure. What it reveals about the contestants skill and character and toughness. Is the player tough enough in the chair to endure being tortured and to be able to have the mettle to respond when the opportunity presents itself?
Everyone for the last 15 years cried about the break so they made it alternating breaks completely changing the dynamic of the game. Yet some still cried and they moved the the 9 to the spot instead of the one to stop the “automatic wing ball”. Then players to the cut break and now it’s the “automatic one in the side” and perhaps the wing ball if hit a little fuller. The move didn’t solve anything.
The game shouldn’t have to be changed. As I’ve just elaborated moving the 9 to the spot really didn’t change anything, but an alternating break does, it changes the game. You want to see the best players and the toughest ones? Then revert back to the rules as they should be and make 9 ball what it is meant to be, a gunslingers shootout and a test of the players ability to perform under the pressure that make this game greater than all others. You can’t say it’s not entertaining as that match I referred to is one of the most wildly entertaining matches I’ve ever witnessed in person in over 50 years in this game. Our own Jay Helfert was part of the commentary team and described it as the “greatest pool he’d ever seen played”. Luckily I was fortunate enough to see it in person because the only place you can see it on video is at Matchroom’s site, and sadly that video goes to a station break at 4-3 after the first 3 pack and returns at 7-3 for the last 3 of the 9 pack. You miss 3 of the 9 packs runouts because “marketing and all”. Anyone that loves the game gets it, MR doesn’t.
are you talking about the mosconi or something? everything else MR does is winner break..
What does any of this rambling about the rules/format have to do with MR being a 'pimp' as you put it?? Nothing that's what. You completely changed your story to fit your Ozzie-n-Harriet dream of how pool should be. MR is BY FAR the greatest thing to ever happen to PROFESSIONAL pool. NO other org. has invested the time/$$/manpower to push the game forward. Again, you live in fantasy land.
I want pool to be what it always was and deserves to be. What you call rambling was me trying to illustrate some points but you’re not really receptive, you want “pool on tv” and you see MR as the avenue to that.
I’m going to try a different way to explain. In 2019 I went to Vegas to attend the 1st US Open held by MR. Saw a lot of great pool but also saw things that I found not so good and were the direct result of MR. Pulsating music and lights flashing on the floor around the tables during matches. I overheard a conversation between EF and a gentleman that week where he asked her, “what’s with the music and the lights?”. She replied, “isn’t it great, so fun and festive”. She was oblivious to the fact that just like MR’s vaunted snooker, pool requires an inordinate amount of concentration.
She’s oblivious because EF is not a pool person, she’s a marketing person. You ask why I call MR a pimp? MR doesn’t love pool, doesn’t even like it, its players or fans, it’s just a product to “market” to them, thats why they’re pimps. You don’t see this circus atmosphere at MR’s snooker events. It still continues, the recent Hanoi Open had the same polished circus like atmosphere and pulsating music. No standardized equipment, different tables at different events, the new grey cloth thing with marked break boxes, 9 on the spot versus the 1 etc.
At the end of the day MR has a marketing individual that is putting her footprint on the game, from rules variations to equipment variations, to the circus like atmosphere she apparently thinks is needed to make it “fun and festive” because she feels that’s needed to market it.
Regarding pool on TV. I pointed out the match in my last post to illustrate they don’t understand pool. I can go on Accustats and watch every US Open Final until it fell into MR’s clutches and I’ll see the entire final from the opening lag to the last 9 ball sunk. MR’s team edits their product in a manner that demonstrates they don’t understand pool or care about it. It’s all flash and highlights, multiple rack runs edited out, a highlight reel for the “ooh look something shiny” crowd with limited attention spans. I’d like pool in the hands of someone that actually understands and cares about the game, that gives the game the respect that it’s due. Why can’t MR treat pool with the same deference and respect it gives its vaunted snooker? Like standardized equipment and rules at every event, proper environment for the players to concentrate and perform to their best instead of the sideshow EF is making pool into in her attempt to “sell it”?
Barry Behrman ran the US Open into the ground. Only Pat Fleming was able to save it. I guess players getting stiffed is your idea of pool nirvana. Don't believe me?? Look it up. Pat was awesome but he just didn't have MR's $$ resources when the family went to sell. Hell in your goofy world i guess that makes them pimps/sell-outs too. Whatever dude. Do you actually believe that for a sports promotion firm to exist they must be 'in love' with their respective game/sport game?? I guess that makes the NFL,NHL,MLB,NASCAR,F1, etc. all pimps then?? Again, if so you live in a fantasy world. Nothing MR has done makes them 'pimps'. Go troll somewhere where someone might actually believe this nonsense. Time to toss another troll on the 'ol 'perma-Ignore' pile.
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Unfortunately not going to happen. The only thing the WPA brought to the table has been threats.
dquarasr
Registered
I am curious, and please be honest: did you actually read the entire interview?
You must live in an alternate universe. Pool players have been treated like whores for decades. How many players have been stiffed when payout time comes along? Thats just one example. Matchroom is trying to change that.
I never mentioned Behrman. What I would like for pool is it to achieve the recognition and success it deserves and maintain its tradition, beauty and integrity. For the company managing it to actually put someone in charge of it that understands the game, it’s players and fans, not a marketing agent that changes it into something they can sell. As I pointed out in my last post MR didn’t change snooker. It remained true to its traditional equipment, rules, and most importantly didn’t turn it into a circus in order to try and sell it.
What MR is doing is akin to taking a marketing agent from America that knows fuck all about snooker and put them in charge of making snooker a marketable product in America and having that person make wholesale changes to the game, it’s rules, equipment and pump in music and light shows and turn it into a fucking circus and trounce all over its tradition and beauty. They didn’t fuck with snooker to market it and they don’t need to fuck with pool to market it. They just need to put someone at the head spot running the show that actually has a clue about the game and maintains its tradition and integrity, exactly as they did with snooker. If you don’t get that then you’re nothing more than the majority of the people on this site whose idea of pool is APA league night with the juke box blaring and the beer flowing for a few hours of entertainment away from their everyday life.
Thank you Bob!
You are vastly underestimating Emily. She probably knows more about the game of pool then you do.
She has a job to do. If you think you can do better, apply for her job. I'm sure your vast marketing skills will make it an easy task. Matchroom will be falling over backwards to back you with their money.
You are a pool purist. That fine. You are welcome to your opinions and ideals. You don't want any change going on. But you have to understand your marketing ideas only cater to the 60 year old plus crowd. That is a losing marketing strategy in today's world, and would keep the game a micro niche activity with no opportunity to make money. That includes gambling. Fewer players means fewer dollars obtained.
You make assumptions that have no merit. I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up in my father’s pool hall under his tutelage and that of his former road partners. I spent the better majority of the next 15 years on the road until the internet killed the road. Then I came home and built what was one of the largest pool halls on the East Coast that regularly hosted pro tour and senior tour events, I’ve spent my entire life in this game so I think it’s safe to say I know a little more about pool than EF.
I’ve never had a job and don’t want EF job. As she rose from a mid level marketing exec at MR to “queen of pool” almost overnight as a female with no pool background it gives pause as to what really occurred for that to happen. Anything you’re trying to promote needs marketing but that should be an underling on the team, not the head honcho, someone from the world of pool should be spearheading this at MR, not EF.
I am a purist and idealist, and pool and billiards IMO is the ultimate sport in both Beaty and difficulty. As previously stated MR managed to promote snooker without some clown there tinkering with the game so it stands to reason that pool should be no different. Don’t say it won’t sell, Pro Bowling is on Fox nowadays FFS. I don’t think keeping this game true to its traditions and giving it the respect it’s due as they did with snooker is unreasonable.
Whose hands should it be in?