Bob Romano said:
Thanks all for your support. I know that you all understand how a business runs.
As for you Dinovirus... I just can't believe that you would be so blind sighted. From what I understand that you are saying, is that I should do all this work (for you) and not receive one dime for my efforts.
That makes me feel so warm and cuddly inside!
Eydie
The work is hardly done 'for me' if I'm the one paying your bills.
Here's the thing - I think you should make all the money you can - I just don't think you should make it from the players. Of course, to be fair, you're entitled to make a buck any way you can, and since your tournaments cater to 'amateur' players, what the hell. I suppose it's no different than big softball tournaments or bowling leagues where the object of the exercise for the organizers is to make money. However, it's a short-sighted way to look at event promotion.
I stand by the statement that players should avoid tournaments that don't offer 100% payback. It's more than possible to hold such events and still make money, you just have to do it right. Look at the US Open golf tournament. The entry fee is about $150 if I remember correctly (top players are exempt from this). First prize meanwhile is around $1.2 million. I think they had on order of 4000 entries last year, which works out to about $600,000 raised by entries. Well, that's a far cry from first prize, and never mind the other $18 million in the prize fund. Where does the rest come from? Well from TV rights, sponsorship, merchandising, admissions, concessions, and parking (and probably in that order). Now THAT's a tournament.
Naturally, golf is a LOT bigger than pool, and the USGA has been running their events for more than 100 years, so they've worked a lot of the kinks out. But, there's lots of ways to make money as a pool promoter without taking it from the players. Hell, Matt Braun makes money with his events (challenge of champions, trick shot magic, etc.) with only 8 players and one table and even pays all the players $1500 just to attend. They're all garbage events from a pool point of view, and Matt takes the lion's share of the money they generate, but they do make money.
Remember, bigger is not necessarily better, and you can make far more money from the AUDIENCE than you can ever make from the players. Do it right and you can make three times the money with half the effort and 1/10th of the initial outlay. You just need to be creative.
