Beating a Dead Horse Alert: pool on TV

Esp--who ?

deadnutz said:
I am only throwing this out there but the APA (according to their website) currently has around 260,000 members worldwide.
There are roughly 1,000,000 hunting licenses sold each year in my home stare of PA alone. So the state of PA has almost 4x the amount of hunters than the APA has members in the world. I'd love to see more pool on tv but actual numbers of viewers are what keeps the tv stations in business and the numbers of pool players just aren't there the way they are in other sports.
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Not to mention when ESPN does show pool they butcher it so badly, the next time they show any pool there are probably even less viewers. Another satisfied viewer, HA.
 
Reading this mandarory - Agreeing is optional

Lock N Load said:
Hey PT109,
There was pool on ESPN last week end, I watched it. But it was women playing. They were dressed nice too, no smoking, no short pants, no loudness, no fussing, no cussing, no humbugging, just plain being nice to each other.

Hey Double HemLock,
Do you remember when you were a young guy, if you went to the pool hall all the guys were were dressed nice? Some even had suit and ties on. On the other hand now you go to a pool hall and they have on tank tops, flip flops and no shoes, tee shirts, short pants. And a number of other things. And think that it is nice to be out in the pool hall dressed like that! Where is the good image? Do you think a company wants that on TV? Even the women are out in the pool hall with flip flops on! But on TV they wear shoes.
When I look at the live stream I see the same thing, no dress code! PT, I just wondered if this may be the reason we do not see any men pool on TV any more!!! I am not trying to step on anyone toes either, just calling it like I see it.
Many Regards,
Lock N Load.
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The X games are on TV and that's exactly what you have there, come on it's not about image or gambling it's about the fact that there's no tour and the tournaments that there are really don't have much prize money.

I really didn't want to type this but I get so sick of people coming out with this same lame *ss cr*p that I just couldn't help myself. Do you think that the poker tournaments wouldn't get laughed off TV if they were playing for what is considered a good prize in Professional Pool.

I wish I could tell you how to fix it the game and the amazing ability of the players deserves much more.

But what I can tell you is that I'm really sick of these clones, sheeps playing follow the leader like they can't get to a key board fast enough to type something about image and gambling over and over and over give me a break.

Poker has been huge on TV the hold card cam was/is great, so what does ESPEW do they come up with the pocket cam (stupid) for pool. Gambling hasn't hurt Poker, Football, Basketball, Baseball, Horse Racing or any of the other sports that there huge amounts of betting on.

As far as image they have huge incidents happen in all the sports people are people. I've been to a lot of pool tournaments all over and must say that pool players are a pretty clean cut bunch all in all.

Had to vent thanks, if you don't like what I said or don't agree write your own.
 
JCIN said:
Pool is screwed because no one buys anything and 95% dont want to buy anything. The hard core players want to make money not spend money. Hunting and fishing are totally different. You dont hear about a dude who just spent $8000 on a hunt b!tching because he didnt make the money or a dude who bought a $30,000 bass boat complain because there wasnt enough added money in the $50 entry fee tournament.

Its two completely different demographics. One of them companies spend all kinds of money to market to the other one is pool. No it wont get any better.
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Good points. I just played at a nice venue today where they used to have FREE pool every Sunday. Now they charge $10 for the whole day, which is still a steal, but they did it because many would come in there and not even buy a bottle of water.

Very sad.
 
itsfroze said:
The X games are on TV and that's exactly what you have there, come on it's not about image or gambling it's about the fact that there's no tour and the tournaments that there are really don't have much prize money.
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I agree that gambling isn't necessarily a problem with pool (depending on your sponsors) but your definitely wrong about 'image' in general. I've run events and pulled in sponsors for the solar industry and when someone gives you $20k for a sponsorship you will find out real fast when the 'image' you're providing is not acceptable to them. If you want to repeat that $20k next year you'll do whatever it takes to keep that image in line with your sponsors customer demographics.

You may think it was easy to get someone to sponsor solar, but 10 years ago when I started doing it, getting over a few thousand dollars was a very big deal. Most of the time the sponsors were giving hundreds not thousands. We hired an experienced event firm and pulled in several sponsors over $5k and a few in the $10-$20k range.

We worked very hard to make the show professional as apposed to the hippie flavor the solar industry had at the time. It's not that being a hippie is bad, if that's your thing I'm all for it, it's just that getting sponsors for that image is, well... very challenging.

The same thing is true for pool. Imagine a sponsor wanting to spend $10k + to see slobs dressed in t-shirts and shorts next to their logo. I wear a t-shirt all the time when I play so I'm not a total snob - but I'm not on TV. We know it doesn't have to be that way as many of today's pros look professional when they are required to. I'm not talking about wearing a three piece suit. I think that looks cheesy and fake. Dress in neat pants and a sports/golf attire and please no white sneakers or high heels...

One other image problem for pool is the unbelievable abundance of absolute $hitholes that we play in. Again, what event space is high enough quality that you would want TV camera crews in it? Are there more than two or three in the entire US? Don't get me wrong, I love the online streams and my wife can't understand how I can watch pool all the time. But what sponsor would provide money to view those pool halls? I wouldn't want to have the job of selling those sponsorship 'opportunities'. I'm not complaining about the quality of the streams - it's the pool halls themselves and the lack of a dress code. Image matters when it comes to sponsors. The more money you ask for the more your image matters.
 
inside_english said:
I have read and contributed to some of these threads myself, but it still amazes me that not only can I not find pool on television, but after channel surfing before breakfast I saw a show with two men in camouflage preparing to shoot a turkey. The show is called 100% Real Hunting TV.

Oh billiards, how I weep for thee...:shakehead:
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That is hilarious sad but true
 
I have a idea what about a reality show. I hate reality shows with a passion( a handful of exceptions). However, it seems they can make a reality show about the most mundane thing and people watch it. Thus we can get pool on TV...:thumbup:
 
I just watched a first round match from last years U.S. Open on TV here in Manila. Mika vs. Stephan Cohen. The match (a Race to 11) aired in its entirety, nearly two hours long on ESPN Star Asia. This is typical here that you can watch pool matches nearly every day. These folks (and the networks) have their priorities in order! :smile:

Of course they also have advertisers buying time on these shows. The ratings are high over here for pool shows, with typically millions watching (this show was aired all over Asia), far more than ESPN in America gets. Too bad I have to come here to see shows that I worked on in the USA. And that's the reality!
 
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