We can sit around and blame it on smoking bans until we feel better. I think that is complete and total BS - I have always believed that since I started hearing that from everybody. No matter what the individual circumstances - the smoking ban was probably an end factor, combined with many other factors that were preexisting.
Take a hard look at the the state of the billiards industry. Nobody is making a lot of money right now. It's slow for everybody and nobody is walking around jumping for joy with big bags of cash in their hands. Not cue makers, not table manufacturers, not billiard supply companies - its slow for everybody - including instructors (like myself) and and including ROOM OWNERS.
When times are tough, you have to adjust. Some businesses are not going to survive the adjustment. That's just how it is. These adjustments I am referring to include smoking bans, the screwed up economy, etc.
As a business owner, when faced with these adversities you have to dig in and work twice as hard. Some of the rooms that are closing fought and fought until their arms got tired. Then there came a round where they couldn't answer the bell.
It happens.
I saw rooms survive the smoking bans when they were passed in El Paso. There was an adjustment period, but after a while the smoking laws became the norm. The businesses that had a plan to survive that adjustment are still around. The businesses that have a plan to survive the recent economy will still be around this time next year.
I believe that the days of flat rate pool and free pool are numbered. Not many people are willing (or able) to pay $10 an hour to play pool when gas is $4.00 a gallon.
As fuel costs rise, so does the cost of shipping supplies, shipping pool tables, etc. Everything in your pool hall will become more and more expensive.
Instead of looking at smoking bans and all this stuff that is closing the pool halls - try to find something that you can do in your area to bring positive attention to your pool hall. Do a charity fund raiser or something that will generate local POSITIVE interest in the game. Make people curious. Show everybody exactly what it was that attracted you to the game.
Here in Orlando, the only time I hear about pool in the news is when there is a shooting near a pool hall. The shooting might have occurred 3 businesses down the block, but because they see a pool hall the story gets attached to pool - and people in turn avoid that business like the plague.
That has to change or we will see more rooms closing.
As an instructor, I am having to adjust as well and try to find ways to keep the students that I have while attracting others. It's nonstop - some days I find myself working from 6AM til midnight - working on instructional material, giving classes, working with amateur players, pro players, making deals with tour promoters to give clinics. If I didn't work those crazy hours I wouldn't be surviving right now. It's a necessary evil. I'm working my ass off and my ultimate goal is to be able to afford to take a week off to schedule a trip to see my 7 year old daughter in NYC this summer. It doesn't look like its going to happen.
