Appleton Suspension?
- Thread starter kling&allen
- Start date
I assume Matchroom appreciates the WADA side of WPA. They want to market some public heroes to a global audience. As much as that could impact a couple of their potential story lines, they’d rather be working with the stable of players they have than the kind that hang out in New Orleans. For the record, I love both cultures. But I appreciate only one of them is commercial.
I'm really tiring of reading this fiction.
It is the sole domain of WPA to give sanctioning and the date protection that comes with it to event producers. Matchroom has a constraint that CSI doesn't because they can't just request and get any TV dates they want on Sky Sports. They must choose from the air dates made available to them and the enhanced schedule has forced them to make some tough decisions. In one, not multiple cases, they requested sanctioning of an event for dates that Predator also wanted, and WPA made the unique and, to my knowledge, unprecedented decision to grant both sanctioning for those dates.
That said, Emily openly acknowledged that given the increasing number of events, schedule clashes are sure to be in play at times but dealing with them will be the ultimate responsibility of WPA, not Matchroom or Predator.
It is not the responsibility of Predator to schedule around Matchroom nor is it the responsibility of Matchroom to schedule around Predator when it comes to sanctioned events. All that said, worldwide sanctioning and the maintenance of the world pool calendar have never been more difficult than now and the WPA will have to rise to the challenge in the management and administration of these busy times for pool.
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Yes, and he's not the first to have to deal with this. Without naming names, I'm aware of a situation in which a top ten player in the world was denied a chance to warm up for his match in a big event because he was selected for random drug testing between his matches.
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 entry fees. 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.
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Fair enough. But I bet Matchroom would rather make these calls regarding its product instead of being jerked around at the last second by WPA or IOC nonsense. Major professional sports don't have to deal with this sort of interference. And most pro sports in the US no longer bother testing for weed.
I didn’t get that far into the video, I quit watching when she said the purple 5 is staying 
I didn’t get that far into the video, I quit watching when she said the purple 5 is staying
Emily and Matchroom are making great moves for pool. But, what Emily doesn't get about the ball colors is that the same principle applies as to Matchroom's other smart choices about the game structure. They're promoting 9-ball and a set of rules premised on the idea that this is what pool players actually play. The same is true of the ball colors. The average player virtually never encounters these colors in their leagues or tournaments.
The purple 5 has to go. It is an abomination and interferes with many people's ability to follow the action.
to me 9-ball is one of my least favorite disciplines, but it probably is the most played games in leagues outside of the US, not counting english/chinese 8-ball because of their funny tables.
besides, i don't think us players are the only, or even the main, reason for them choosing to run with 9-ball. they want to do with pool as they've done with darts, snooker, which is to get casual viewer fans. if they do that they can get outside sponsors and bigger prize funds. i'm all for whatever means that achieves that goal.
100% agree - Matchroom is the future of pool (IMHO) and I love what they are doing but, to make a rash decision and then realize it was not well received and refuse to change it is simply wrong. Again, this borders on shock marketing and for some reason, all I can think about is the current state of "reality TV" and that's not a good thing to be associated with.
To me, 9B is THE game to play on TV to get the masses involved. It's quick, easily followed, can have it's own drama, etc. but to disregard the opinions of the people who are at the core of the pool world is wrong. Abandoning those people will probably not change their future but, it will create a faction of the pool world who will refuse to embrace what they are doing.
Give or take whatever they feel like...
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yea i buy the arguments for 9-ball.
is it the purple 5-ball you are referring to as where the core of pool is abandoned? it would be so easy to just change the 4 and the 5.. the ball set is fine to me otherwise, the green is better than before and the 9-ball is actually fine on tv. maybe aramith made a big investment and there are such matters to consider too.
here's an idea btw: skip 9-ball and make a reality series based on straight pool high runs. like big brother but with a pool table. schmidtty, danny h, bobby c, etc
I respect that thought. I know WADA is holding firm to their stance on weed for 2022 but soliciting input for going forward. So there is progress. (I don’t smoke but I recognize those who do). But in terms of Matchroom’s interest. They didn’t give a shit when Mario He failed a beta blocker test for heart medicine. They didn’t care about Billy. They half give a shit for Darren. Even Fedor didn’t phase them. If it was Shane, Joshua or Albin then maybe they’d go to bat. But for now this hasn’t affected their show horses. Their stable is as big as they could want to have for suitable contingencies. So it seems they are genuinely comfortable letting WPA do what they will.
Abandoned may have been the wrong word - disregarded, not listened too, not appreciated, are probably better words but yes, I was referring to the 4/5 balls. If they are looking for something for the the fans to disagree on for conversation then good on them but my opinion is they are making decisions for ratings - and that doesn't usually end well.
AZB has a minimal user base and look how many people here don't agree, how many people in the real life pool world also don't agree?
I will add - I'm just one guy who's individual opinion doesn't matter
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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."
Nyquil
Well-known member
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.
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I don't disagree but I also don't totally agree. I will never have grey cloth on any table I own. I like either traditional green or tournament blue, blue is my favorite color though, so I am biased - personal opinion/preferences. That being said, I don't think it looks dingy and it does make the balls stand out more (even the purple 4 ball and pink 5 ball
. Looking at it in a visual stimulation view (marketing world) by using colors to focus attention on specific things and grey scales (cloth) to direct attention elsewhere there is enough attention grabbing colors (balls, player apparel, ads on walls, etc.) the color change is the right choice.This really boils down to tradition versus marketing (i.,e. money). At what point does so much marketing bury tradition to a point it's no longer enjoyable/appreciable for the group of people who has kept it alive for all these years?
Again - this is all personal preference/opinion