Can anyone explain this to me?

[Mike Templeton]

I'm a little disturbed by something and I was wondering if I'm the only one or am I just wrong? First, let me state a few things. I don't begrudge a pool room owner from making a living. Second, I understand there is a big financial investment to make up when you put on a large event. Third, I was out of town so I wasn't even there last weekend. Now, this is what bothered me. A couple of friends of mine drove almost an hour to the Viking Tour Championship to watch a couple of local guys play. When they got to the door, they were told it would cost $25 to watch. They immediately left. I found out it was $10 the first couple of days and then $25 on Sat. and $30 on Sunday. This just seems to be WAY out of line to watch an open event with only a handful of Pro players in it. I could maybe see $5 or so being appropriate. How would a guy with a couple of kids go see a friend play on the weekend? Better yet, what about a players' family? You really couldn't make an exception without pissing people off. There it is. Sorry this went so long

Hopefully I can give my opinion without having to endure a pissing contest. I agree that it was a little out of line on price. Mike Janis puts on a great event, and room owners do have to make a profit. But looking at it from a fans point of viewand comparing it to other events, I think I paid $7 days and $10 evenings at Grady's Gulfport Classic in December and about the same (I don't really remember) at the Derby last year. $17 to $20 per day to watch ALL the best players in the world play is a great deal. To pay $30 per day (if that's what it was) to watch just a handful of pros play for the day is not such a good deal (IMO).

Mike

 

[ScottR]

Poster Boy #2........

No Money & Bad Attitude.................yet, the typical pool customer.

At the risk of being poster boy #3, I have thought about how to say how your posts read. I think the safest way is to ask a question?

What do your customers think of you?

Scott Roberson
Atlanta, GA

 

[Egg McDogit]

Unf****** believable. The poster boy for what's wrong with pool just showed up.

Don't worry about me. I don't hold these types of events. Financial considerations is priority one for a business owner. Bills need to get paid.

Hey be cool man it's just a forum...keep that blood pressure down haha. I gotta say, it's pretty funny to me that you tell me I'm what's wrong with pool - and then a few lines down you say you don't hold these events because you're just trying to get yours. Way to promote the game and set an example for what's right for the game of pool Sherlock Holmes.

Do you know what an owner has to gross on the weekend to recover his $3000?..................$8,000-$10,000. Impossible. By the time he pays for the cost of product and other overhead he may end up with $3000 out of the $8-$10,000. AND, that just breaks him even on the $3000 he put up. What about the $5000-$6000 of business he sacrificed to hold the tournament?????

Cry me a f'ing river. Having a tournament is a business decision...don't act like you do it solely for the players out of the kindness of your heart. You want to run a poolhall that the players consider legit? Then you're gonna have tournaments. It's a form of advertising. You use tournaments to let people know you're there/draw in new players and maintain the name of your poolhall. It's a business cost. Oh wait players are supposed to foot your business costs. My bad haha. Anyway no one's forcing you - I'm not trying to force you to have tourneys - I could give a f what you do. I'm just glad the owner of the poolhall I goto cares about the players. Man you've given me so much more appreciation for him.

For all that talk about players being cheap whiners...you're really coming off as a greedy elitist whiner.

peace
-Egg

 

[or1pkt]

Ditto

Which is the point of almost all my posts.

This game has NO CHANCE to be big. The pool underworld is uneducated, underfunded, whiny, and complainy.

One truth will never go away. No one can make money with broke customers. And without money you have no chance at BIG POOL.

Complainy is that word in the dictionary. Well it may be in yours because i think before you post you look up words and phrases in the DICKtionary

 

[Jack Flanagan]

I work for a living, and make a pretty good salary, if you must know.

(giggle).....does your boss know you are on this forum AND on the clock,,,no, wait, You're the boss, you must own a pool room & know what teacher and I put up with every day...

I own a pool room and know how it alienates the regular, paying customers when I have a tournament,,,I know how disappointed the few fans are when a "big" name player is a no show or 'literally' breaks his cue in disgust and leaves,,,,BUT people pay a lot more for a lot less,,,1st round knockouts in a prize fight just to name one,,,sometimes you don't get what you pay for, but if you don't pay & get in you may miss something worth more than the price of admission,,,IMHO...

 

[Jack Flanagan]

Complainy is that word in the dictionary. Well it may be in yours because i think before you post you look up words and phrases in the DICKtionary

take 2 Prozac and call me in the morning.....<joke>...I'm also a retired English teacher,,,,everybody need a spellcheck now and then,,,It always amazes me how these threads degenerate into a pissing contest,,,LOL

 

[vapoolplayer]

the original poster complained about how there were "only a few top pro's"...........and that 25 bucks was to much..........yet people go to pro boxing matches to watch TWO fighters (who may or may not be top fighters) for more than that. hell you'd pay 8 bucks (or more to see a movie) then you buy food at the movie theatre.........there you just spent 25 bucks........

earl was there...........he's a WORLD CHAMPION for crying out loud..........the 25 was worth just seeing him play. if you want free pool, go watch the local "A" player who couldn't hold a candle to most of the pro players.

my .02


VAP

 

[Teacherman]

Heh, every time you open your mouth you show how ignorant you are by lumping everyone together. I work for a living, and make a pretty good salary, if you must know. Bad attitude? If you want to interpret it that way. You're a dick head. Why would I have a "good attitude" toward you?

If you make good money, either pay the door fee for your girlfriend OR stop whining about it.

The fee is there for a reason.

 

[Teacherman]

What is abundantly clear is the "hey, I'm a pool player" image and these people's insistance that they are the foundation for a pool room.

They couldn't be farther from the truth.

Yet, they insist they are.

And, regardless of the facts, they know more than the owner.

Reminds me of the definition of insanity.......doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results.

The general public is by far the monetary foundation of any upscale pool room.

And, whenever a pool room owner (many times a player himself) would like to have a nice pool event, he can not depend on the players support..........unless it's free...........or so cheap that the event can not be successful.

 

[Jack Flanagan]

Why not make a point instead of mindlessly babbling and attempting to be insulting.

back at 'ya !.....I there was any reason for you to jump in ?,,,read your own quote,,,just another dissatisfied ,wanna be free to put mindless drivel on a "chat room" ___________,,,wish you could be in a pool room all day, plenty of them for sale,,, then you might understand the headaches of operating a business where you have to interact with 'real' people all day,,,computers don't talk back, YET !

 

[Teacherman]

At the risk of being poster boy #3, I have thought about how to say how your posts read. I think the safest way is to ask a question?

What do your customers think of you?

Scott Roberson
Atlanta, GA

If you read far enough you'll see that I don't hold these events so therefore I am speaking my mind trying to help those rooms that do.

I can say what they are thinking but are afraid to say.

There isn't a week go by that my customers don't ask for an event like these. I tell them no and show them why financially it's a bad deal. They get their "event" fix at other rooms. Yet, they always come back to mine. Why?

Has to do with money. Making it. Reinvesting it into the room so they have a nice place to play. Has to do with offering them a good league system that they can enjoy. The $3000 that the "event" room added to his tournament left town with the winner and his place is a little run down. The $3000, that I refused to give to the road player that I'll never see until I up another $3000, I reinvested in my room, redecorated, or bought new equipment or new TV's or recarpeted the room etc etc.

The places that hold these types of tournaments locally are all far from upscale. They get the tournaments. I get the business.

Who's got the better deal?

 

[ScottR]

If you read far enough you'll see that I don't hold these events so therefore I am speaking my mind trying to help those rooms that do.

Teacherman, I did read all the posts. I guess my question had more to do with this comment you made a few posts back:

"No Money & Bad Attitude.................yet, the typical pool customer."

If that is your opinion of your typical customer, why do you run the business? Sounds like if I threw up at the sight of blood and became a surgeon.

I am truly not trying to join a pissing match; just understand where a successful room owner is coming from toward his clientele. Thanks.

 

[pete lafond]

The pool hall I frequent is also a Joss tour stop. The pool hall use to add $5000 to the money (now they add $2000), plus pay for some players hotel rooms. Now this pool hall added an admission of $10 per day (should be more) to watch the tournament. Some people bitched. They had no reason, they just bitched. People still showed up and paid and those that protested did not show up at first until they realized they would be left out.

In any event I think that this whole thing is screwed up. Why should the pool hall add any money. They lose the use of the tables and have to clean up afterwards, no income. Sure they sell more food and drinks but big deal. It takes work to get one of these things organized.

I believe that it should be up to the tounament operators and players to find money for this event, not rely on the pool hall. The pool hall puts up the facility and should profit from this. This is what makes sense to me.

No matter the event, I guess it all comes back to no-one has any money to spend on pool.

 

[Teacherman]

..."No Money & Bad Attitude.................yet, the typical pool customer."

...If that is your opinion of your typical customer

Don't confuse typical pool customer with typical customer. One has an attitude. The other has discretionary income.

Which would you prefer to do business with?

 

[ScottR]

Don't confuse typical pool customer with typical customer. One has an attitude. The other has discretionary income.

Which would you prefer to do business with?

Maybe I misunderstand your business. I thought it was running a pool room, granted it's an upscale one. So, I'm reading that the customers you cater to are those who come to your place to eat, drink and play a little pool, in that order. The other customer base that you've had bad experiences with are "real" pool players who are not so "spendy".

Am I getting closer? If so, my response would be that I'd like to do business with both, but understand that that may be a pipe dream. I'm trying to think of a place that does both and am coming up dry.

 

[FLICKit]

Don't confuse typical pool customer with typical customer. One has an attitude. The other has discretionary income.

Which would you prefer to do business with?

Definitely not the one with an attitude,
therefore, definitely not you.

 

[Teacherman]

My business takes different directions.

At one time we had 54 pool league teams playing weekly. That is a fair number of pool hobbyists (which I'll call pool players) mixed in with some "here for the beer" teams.

There are always exceptions, but the pool player group would get out spent by the others by about 3 or 4 to 1.

There are always exceptions, but the pool player group would be the most vocal, most irritated when something didn't go their way, most violent of the two.

There are always exceptions, but the pool player group would be the most critical of handicaps regardless of truth. (they always pursued an advantage, not fairness)

There are always exceptions, but the pool player group would be the first to ask for tournaments and then not show up.

Over time, you learn to like one group more than another.

BTW, when I first opened I would have to be categorized as a pool player.

 

[ScottR]

Good Info

Interesting. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Scott

 

[1pRoscoe]

If you read far enough you'll see that I don't hold these events so therefore I am speaking my mind trying to help those rooms that do.

I can say what they are thinking but are afraid to say.

There isn't a week go by that my customers don't ask for an event like these. I tell them no and show them why financially it's a bad deal. They get their "event" fix at other rooms. Yet, they always come back to mine. Why?

Has to do with money. Making it. Reinvesting it into the room so they have a nice place to play. Has to do with offering them a good league system that they can enjoy. The $3000 that the "event" room added to his tournament left town with the winner and his place is a little run down. The $3000, that I refused to give to the road player that I'll never see until I up another $3000, I reinvested in my room, redecorated, or bought new equipment or new TV's or recarpeted the room etc etc.

The places that hold these types of tournaments locally are all far from upscale. They get the tournaments. I get the business.

Who's got the better deal?

this is, I believe, your wisest post to date.

 

[Teacherman]

Definitely not the one with an attitude,
therefore, definitely not you.

The attitude that you don't like is the key to the success of my business.

Which, of course, you're incapable of understanding.

May be when you get a little experience your words will have meaning.