First I would find what the target audience wants. I would hire a film crew to set up streaming at every table with a chat feature for each table. Viewing numbers and comments will tell you a lot about what people want to watch. I would allow players to have a banner for their sponsor. As long as its a competition the best players are going be in the money. Players need sponsors and those sponsors need exposure. Seems they will always be playing for their own money but that is OK for now. There is no quick fix. If 90% of the field are not good enough to consistently make it to the money. What can you do? Focus on the 10%. Maybe do like they do in Nascar (which I don't watch) and have points awarded and a big payout for the year end winner. Something to strive for and money brings attention to the tour. Control the FREE streaming. Hire someone that gives the fans what they want. What we get now is usually one table with matches viewers don't care to watch. Big match is on a table with no stream. Show a pop up about the players. Sponsors, where they are from, what cue they shoot with, tip, weight etc. All for the novice viewer just tuning in. Who has no idea who they are watching but enjoy watching pool and would like some background on the players to keep their interest. No sport is about the players. It's about making changes to increase the fan base. Please the fans and the players will get compensated later.
Thanks for compiling these comments. Good comments on managing a product. What's missing is the product.
What do you (AZB people) want to see?
How do you want it presented to you?
What do you think would capture the attention of young viewers?
I think people on here have the answer, it just needs to be put together. Talking about managing players, money, behavior and other higher manager functions is a bit useless without a clearly defined product.
I just read through 170 posts from people who adore the game. Most the posts were not constructive. This is a chance to get your opinions in on the front end. Why do you think that someone who figured out how to make enough money to do this needs a pool player's help managing a company?
Please give constructive ideas. RKC might rub people wrong, but he (In a round about way) not only gave an idea, but produced a product. I'm with Robin who is a man attempting to run a business and sell products the American way, hard work from the bottom. He know's to listen to everything, sometimes the package it was delivered in is ugly. BeiberLvr gave his ideas too. Why waste effort belittling other's opinions?
What way could pool be packaged and be sold to the public? How do you present this thing?
Joey A, specifically in regards to the banners; would it be easiest amped make the most sense to have the " banners " or advertising in general created digitally on screen? Tons of flexibility with little to no cost.
SOCIAL MEDIA = WORK (And some don't think they want to invest in themselves.....sad).
How you are perceived by the public is almost as important as how you perform on the table.
JoeyA
It's everything. You have to break the disconnect between the pros and fans to develop a fan base. Those are the people willing to pay to see events and fund efforts to see the sport into the future.
There is so much attention given to negativity that we need to get past. Everyone needs to get something that they're willing to pay something for. Without a public image you can have none of that.
Initial cost for a very large monitor and transporting problems to be dealt with and then YES, lower overall cost, FAR MORE flexibility as in constant rotating of banners, adjusting time of viewing and ease of design and ease of implementation, etc.
JoeyA
And there is the million dollar question,,"willing to pay"!
I don't mean this in a negative way but facts are facts. The majority of pool players are CHEAP!! They don't spend money!
The main point in making an investment is to get some type of return. If the majority of your clientele are CHEAPSKATES, why would the investor want to invest?
I will say this, someone mentioned putting cameras at all tables! I haven't bought many streams, but I can definitely see myself buying many "table matches"! I want to watch certain players play. Main reason why I don't by many streams is because there usually stuck with 1 table!
If you could have your choice which match you want to watch, that makes more enticing for everyone I think!
They could make a "superdeal" watch all matches for a pre determined amount or watch individual matches for a certain amount! Just throwing a # here,,,, $69.95 gets you complete access to all matches throughout the tourney or $4.99 for each individual!
I'm game on that! I would gladly spend 20-30 bucks to watch the matches I want to watch as opposed to being stuck with 1 table!
Especially the local pro's, think about it. You'll get the "local" crowd watching there guy play when he is on! I'm from RI, I'm not a fan of MD, so if he is on I'm not watching him! But if Joe Dupuis or Shorty is playing, you bet I'll throw 5 bucks to watch that particular match!
Just my .02
Eli
Watching pool is not boring when you have a bet on the game. Not betting on pool is like not betting at the Horse or Greyhound track. Johnnyt
This doesn't entice the masses. They don't know an exciting match when they see it. And never will.
Today we have at the click of the mouse tens of thousands of matches to watch with virtually every player alive and dead. Matches we've never seen before, or as my mom used to say "it's new to me". All for free. Yet I, the consummate fan, become quickly bored. I'm sure I'm the rule, not the exception. Pool is all it's ever going to be. It ebbs and flows in a very narrow band width of popularity. Sad but true.
JC
just went through the US open draw and what i saw made me wondering big time! there were 24 matches between US players and non US players yesterday, score was 20 - 4 and 245 - 126 racks for the non US players!
that should ring every alarmbell you guys can find, that clearly shows how poor US pool has become when you take SVB away! to me it looks like its the missing strukturs over there, while everyone else in the world already travels with a coach,you guys are still dreaming of the lone wolf hustler nostalgia! as someone who enjoys great battles like the mosconi, i really hope you guys find the way back to worldclass pool soon....... or the mosconi is in europe forever (beside the occassional fluke)!
Maybe the most important thing. Get pool into the schools!!
Start off small with high schools, and eventually graduateto colleges and then universities.
The sooner we get the youth involved the better.
There have been successful attempts at getting Pool into Schools. i.e BEGNF
Mark Wilson has a university Pool program.
The gentleman that had a column in Professor Pool had some attempts at Pool in schools.
Great idea, plus it gets Mom & Dad into the equation, I saw great High School tournament at The Billiard Den in Dallas...
The message being sent is a simple one....play pool, but stay in school, get an education, when you graduate....get a real job....that pays for your cost of living....and THAT'S why Landon shuffett didn't choose pool for his career, he wants to be a teacher instead when he graduates.