Appleton Suspension?

[ChrisinNC]

At the professional level I like the 4" pockets. Watching people run rack after rack may be fun to watch for the core but, the public would/does get bored with it very quickly. You have top create tension/excitement to keep people interested.

I like the 4-inch pocket standardization for all Matchroom events. What many of us players here know that a casual pool fan may not know - 4-inch pockets on newly installed Simonis which is what these events are played on, plays at least 1/4” more forgiving than 4-inch pockets on cloth that has been played on for a number of months. For the best pro pool players in the world, it is absolutely a necessary change for them to play on tighter pocket tables.

 

[kling&allen]

Darren Appleton posted on Matchroom Pool Forum that players had to pay their own airfare and hotel, but that each of the 24 players got $1,750. I'm pretty sure he was talking about this event because it was on a thread about this World Pool Masters.

View attachment 640995

I don't post on Matchroom Pool Forum anymore, though, because it's gotten a little toxic, kind of similar to what happened to Google Groups RSB, and there's spammers on there trying to get people to go to their pirated links of the matches.

Wow, thanks!

 

[buckshotshoey]

Some pro players on Facebook, veterans and current, think this format a "crapshoot," their word, not mine.

One observation was that in a format like this, when you're benched in a winner's break and race-to-7 format, it's like "Feed the monkey and watch him sh*t."

So what was the longest string put together? I haven't had a chance to watch any of it.

 

[chefjeff]

I’m stealing this one…perfect

Lost in all this is the poor neglected 13 ball. Cousin to the 5.

What of his color changes? Well??? Doesn't anyone in Canada care????


Jeff Livingston

 

[sjm]

So what was the longest string put together? I haven't had a chance to watch any of it.

I've believe it was Miesko Fortunski's five pack against Jayson Shaw.

 

[BeiberLvr]

Perhaps the reason they feel the need to say the purple 5 ball, is the fact that it’s not intuitive to anyone who has played longer than 5 minutes. They don’t say “good break, he made the black eight ball in the corner and he’s got shape on the yellow one ball.”


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Karl has mentioned the color of the other balls plenty of times while doing commentary for the World Pool Masters.

JJ has done it as well.

 

[kling&allen]

I'm not buying into your suggestion that Matchroom doesn't care one way or another about these things, I think you are right in suggesting that the stable of players is so big that the loss of a few players isn't going to make much difference in our game. If, for the sake of argument, half of the world's top 50 players suddenly went to jail for ten-year terms, I don't feel pro pool's marketability would suffer too much and the product would still be a strong one because the talent pool these days is so deep. These days, to be a top 100 player in the world, you need a Fargo of 764 or better. Even to be a top 100 player in America, you need a Fargo of 717 or better.

Remember, pro pool players are outside contractors, not employees of Matchroom, and should not expect Matchroom to fight their battles when those battles fall outside of the arena of play for them. Players who violate the WADA-compliance section of the WPA contract will have to live with the consequences. Whether that's fair or not, neither Matchroom nor any other event producer is forcing any player to sign that contract.

I do wonder why Emily mentioned the Appleton suspension at all, unless she wanted to get out in front of it. I'm sure Matchroom knows not to air any of these disputes in public as it tarnishes their brand. I also have to imagine with the money and time that Predator and Matchroom invested in promoting Tkatch that the WPA ban triggered some form of non-public complaining.

 

[TrxR]

I like the 4-inch pocket standardization for all Matchroom events. What many of us players here know that a casual pool fan may not know - 4-inch pockets on newly installed Simonis which is what these events are played on, plays at least 1/4” more forgiving than 4-inch pockets on cloth that has been played on for a number of months. For the best pro pool players in the world, it is absolutely a necessary change for them to play on tighter pocket tables.

I'm still trying to find concrete info on the side pocket size. Their are people saying 4.5" and some saying 5" and their has been talk that a side pocket should never be smaller than 4.75"

 

[chefjeff]

Lonely hearts club, with the side pocket and the 13 hangin' out. Sup, side? Nuttin' orange man.


Jeff Livingston

 

[westcoast]

Ten ball is a much poorer gamer for the fans, with so many situations and rules that are completely unrecognizable to the casual or non-player. Call shot, golden breaks don't count, opponent can make you shoot again if you pocket a ball other than the one you called, spot shot tiebreakers ---- almost nobody in the pool halls or the bars plays this way.

I greatly admire Predator for their strong commitment to the pro game and would like to see them succeed with their tour, but Matchroom is managing the entertainment value of the pro pool product with far greater passion and far greater skill than Predator. As Emily is quick to concede, they're not getting everything right, but they are marching quickly in the direction of a standardized professional nine ball product.

It is Matchroom that is making pool a good career for the top players. Predator's five-event ten ball series will pay out a total of $375,000 prize money this year. The world 10-ball had a prize fund of $225,000 making the total prize money in 10-ball about $600,000 for 2022. Even if you look at Matchroom's invitationals (Premier League Pool, World Pool Masters, World Cup of Pool, Mosconi cup) alone, Matchroom is paying out more than that and in those events, they foot the bill for player expense. Add in the other Matchroom events such as the US Open, the UK Open, the WPC and the European Open and that's over $1,000,000 more being paid out in prize money.

Right now, Matchroom is the major leagues and they represent the only real hope for the top pros to consistently make a good living from pool. Predator's tour may one day become a more formidable competitor for them, but I concur with Emily that there's room in our sport for both of them to succeed.

I'm not saying they shouldn't market 9 ball- that is fine and it may be successful for the reasons you explained.

What I'm upset about is her disregard for 10 ball- she had quite a dismissive attitude about it and was smirking about Predator's efforts to market 10 ball. I know the general public may not understand it very well, but for serious pool fans it is more enjoyable to watch in my opinion (aside from the spot shots).

 

[chefjeff]

Put me in, coach...

...I'm ready to play.



Jeff Livingston

 

[ChrisinNC]

I'm still trying to find concrete info on the side pocket size. Their are people saying 4.5" and some saying 5" and their has been talk that a side pocket should never be smaller than 4.75"

Yes, a 4.75” side pocket mouth is about as tight as you can go without completely changing the game. 4.75” sides would appropriately compliment 4” corners, in terms of difficulty.

You have to be knowledgeable of pool table pocket specs to know that, and apparently we can’t assume that is the case with Matchroom decision makers, as no one knowledgeable of the game would have ever dreamed of swapping 4 ball and 5 ball colors.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Darren Appleton posted on Matchroom Pool Forum that players had to pay their own airfare and hotel, but that each of the 24 players got $1,750. ...

If I were a promoter and I wanted to be sure that players would not decline an invitation due to travel costs, that's how I would prefer to handle it. Otherwise you become, in effect, a travel agent or you have to check a lot of receipts.

 

[Bob Jewett]

Karl has mentioned the color of the other balls plenty of times while doing commentary for the World Pool Masters.

JJ has done it as well.

The first Matchroom broadcast I ever saw was a World Nine Ball Championship in Cardiff, Wales (2000?). They had the line of remaining balls across the bottom of the screen so new viewers could tell which ball was next and get familiar with the color order. That broadcast had like 60 hours of live TV in the UK. Matchroom has been at this a while.

 

[9Ballr]

Grey cloth looks dingy as hell. Tournament blue is where it's at. Almost all legit pool halls and us at home that own our tables have this cloth. Looks solid on the tele. Would love to see an aramith blak set that mirrors the standard colors. I can't tell you how many times it throws me off watching a match with the 5 and 4 ball. 5 ball should be orange, 4 should be purple period. This is the way.

I love the gray. Think it's perfect against the other colors and looks the least like any other ball vs the green or tournament blue.

 

[sjm]

I'm not saying they shouldn't market 9 ball- that is fine and it may be successful for the reasons you explained.

What I'm upset about is her disregard for 10 ball- she had quit a dismissive attitude about it and was smirking about Predator's efforts to market 10 ball. I know the general public may not understand it very well, but for serious pool fans it is more enjoyable to watch in my opinion (aside from the spot shots).

Of course, you should watch the events you enjoy the most, and ten ball is, obviously, just slightly more difficult than nine ball. You have conceded that the general public doesn't understand it very well, and one can take they view that this is OK, but the alternative view is to say it is not OK because if our sport is to have any real future and pool is to become a truly lucrative career for the world's best players, the game played must be one that the general public can easily understand. This is part of what makes snooker work. Even fans like me, who watch snooker just a handful of times a year, find it very easy to follow, probably easier than any game ever played on a pool table. Snooker isn't a call shot game, either.

Call shot games are for the diehards, and, as one who watched the end of the straight pool era, I'm one of those who feel that the call shot component in straight pool was part of why the sport struggled so mightily to draw any mainstream fans. The pace of the game and the difficulty of following it for the casual fan were problems, and the emergence of nine ball addressed both of these problems.

So which of us is right? I think it's both of us. As fans, we both like to see the pros challenged to the max, and no doubt, ten ball, one pocket and straight pool are all more difficult than nine ball. Speaking for myself, I enjoy watching all four of these, but ....

..... I'm a fan that thinks about all fans and potential fans and what I think it will take for pool to reach them. In this regard, I'm 100% aligned with Matchroom that nine ball is, by far, pool's best shot. They surely feel that ten ball, as being presented by Predator, does not hold the key to pool's future. Maybe they are right and maybe they are wrong, but it's their every right to see things that way.

 

[Cameron Smith]

I'm not saying they shouldn't market 9 ball- that is fine and it may be successful for the reasons you explained.

What I'm upset about is her disregard for 10 ball- she had quit a dismissive attitude about it and was smirking about Predator's efforts to market 10 ball. I know the general public may not understand it very well, but for serious pool fans it is more enjoyable to watch in my opinion (aside from the spot shots).

I didn’t quite read her the same way. From previous interviews she tends to be quite smiley generally. It’s clear that she thinks that 10 ball is the wrong strategy for attracting casual fans but I didn’t think she intended to be overly derisive of predator/CSI’s efforts.

 

[L.S. Dennis]

My take on this is first of all Emily likes being on camera. She adores the limelight of being the maestro of pool. She constantly talks about the things "we" have done and yet I get the feeling that these are decisions she has made pretty much on her own. Her long explanation about why "we" changed the colors of the balls and how they "pop" out now is total nonsense. The traditional ball colors have been around for literally centuries and are far more recognizable then the new colors that she happens to like. It's almost as if she thinks she can change the ball colors like she changes her hair style or make-up. Let's see, "this should like pretty today!" For all her enthusiasm Emily is a relative newbie to pool. You don't just come in and change things that are traditional to a sport on a whim. It would be like a new lady commissioner of baseball deciding that round bases would be more aesthetically pleasing on television. There should be pushback on the changing of the ball colors and rightfully so.

I'm all for Matchroom promoting professional pool and creating some new, bigger and better events. How well they succeed depends on more than just adding a little money to the pot. When I see Matchroom events being televised on a network in the United States, which is the largest television market in the free world, then I will be impressed. If I want to watch a pool stream then I will go to Pool Action TV for a better show with a variety of games being played, and the four ball is purple and the five ball is orange! And I don't have to listen to Ray Hansen pontificate on what he is doing to better the sport, while he is styling new duds and a well coifed hairdo. He just keeps giving us good pool week after week!

And while we’re at it, I’m sick of seeing lime green 7 balls or whatever they are 7 balls need to be maroon!

 

[PoolPlayer4]

I'm not a fan of it either, but at this point if you can't follow the action, that's on you.

Especially when you have Karl and JJ in the booth saying things like,

"He's come up short on the purple 5 ball."
"He made the purple 5 ball on the break."
"I think he'll have to cheat the pocket a bit when he shoots this purple 5 ball."

I love JJ and some of the other announcers. But I shouldn't need them to recognize the layout of the balls. The ball color change diminishes my enjoyment of the action.

I like to size up the table without the aid of the announcers. Kind of like I do when playing.

 

[VTEC John]

Re: ball colors. Seeing better is not the same as understanding better. They want to make it easier for the audience to understand what's going on on their tv screens? They achieve the exact opposite, because the audience is overwhelmingly people who play pool with the traditional colored balls. If this is Matchroom "branding," they are making the same mistake so many corporations made in the 90's, i.e., establishing a brand from the company's perspective ("we've been in business 115 years!") instead of the customer's perspective ("what are you doing to do for me now that your competition isn't"?"). Stupid and bad business.