Is it toast?
Or is it really ‘on hiatus?’ (Although one wonders why they would discuss compensation for subscribers if they are planning a comeback. Well, I guess there could be an explanation.)
The following uninformed perspective is not, is absolutely not, offered in the spirit of putting the boot to a supine entity. Nor to a prone one. (Having been kicked once or twice while I was down has left me with no appetite for the standee POV.)
In any case, as the proprietor of a (very!) small business, I do have some reservoir of sympathy for most new ventures because of the formidable challenges many of us confront.
Gazing back (very much from afar!), it seems to me there were two fundamental Bonus Ball failures:
Business.
Ethics.
The first -- the Wharton School side -- appears to be a classic: underfunding / mismanagement / cash flow problems / over-promising and under-delivering / incompetent-to-antagonistic public relations … well, all of these and many other points have been well deliberated in pool forums and in private discussions.
To me, the more intriguing autopsy resides in the second point … the humane side of the postmortem evaluations.
Two specific examples:
The players. What were they promised? What could convince some of the best players in the universe to move their lives to Las Vegas? Their lives?
The promoters. As Annie mentioned, ‘It’s a hard-knock life.’ Pool, and promoting major tournaments, is difficult enough without internecine warfare.
Bonus Ball-wise … overall, I find myself feeling some mirror neuron empathy for the commercial blunders.
And, simultaneously, some resentment for the yet-to-be-determined human toll.
Now, my crystalline globe is as murky as usual, so I have no idea re: the future of Bonus Ball.
If it can reconfigure, if it can help pool -- and pool people -- put me in the rooting column.
If not … well, I’m confident many of you savvier folks out there will benefit from the ‘lessons learned’ column.
Conflicting emojis are my life,
Sunny
Or is it really ‘on hiatus?’ (Although one wonders why they would discuss compensation for subscribers if they are planning a comeback. Well, I guess there could be an explanation.)
The following uninformed perspective is not, is absolutely not, offered in the spirit of putting the boot to a supine entity. Nor to a prone one. (Having been kicked once or twice while I was down has left me with no appetite for the standee POV.)
In any case, as the proprietor of a (very!) small business, I do have some reservoir of sympathy for most new ventures because of the formidable challenges many of us confront.
Gazing back (very much from afar!), it seems to me there were two fundamental Bonus Ball failures:
Business.
Ethics.
The first -- the Wharton School side -- appears to be a classic: underfunding / mismanagement / cash flow problems / over-promising and under-delivering / incompetent-to-antagonistic public relations … well, all of these and many other points have been well deliberated in pool forums and in private discussions.
To me, the more intriguing autopsy resides in the second point … the humane side of the postmortem evaluations.
Two specific examples:
The players. What were they promised? What could convince some of the best players in the universe to move their lives to Las Vegas? Their lives?
The promoters. As Annie mentioned, ‘It’s a hard-knock life.’ Pool, and promoting major tournaments, is difficult enough without internecine warfare.
Bonus Ball-wise … overall, I find myself feeling some mirror neuron empathy for the commercial blunders.
And, simultaneously, some resentment for the yet-to-be-determined human toll.
Now, my crystalline globe is as murky as usual, so I have no idea re: the future of Bonus Ball.
If it can reconfigure, if it can help pool -- and pool people -- put me in the rooting column.
If not … well, I’m confident many of you savvier folks out there will benefit from the ‘lessons learned’ column.
Conflicting emojis are my life,
Sunny
