Most people do not see pool as a cheap sport to get involved in. They see the price of brand new tables (5k plus for a Diamond) and even quality production cues as being a lot of money (not unusual to see prices of $1000 or more. The cost of a quality set of tournament grade pool balls can be $300. A person can easily put out $10k setting up a home pool room. Some may say serious pool players or pool players are cheapskates.
Honestly, one of the main things that make pool a great pastime that is one of the few things you can do to enjoy yourself alone or with friends that can be done at home alone or with friends. Something that once you get past the initial investment the equipment will last a long time. If you practice or play enough the investment will pay for itself in savings of money you would have paid out for that same time at a pool hall or bowling alley or bar green fees. You will not be limited on when or how long you use your home table or even any rules that you may have in a public venue for that matter.
Some say serious pool shooters are bad for pool hall business and they may be correct. Most serious pool players have spent a lot of hours on a table learning and practicing. Most own their own set of equipment at home. If you have to pay for every minute you need to learn to play good pool you will go broke. Higher skill level may be intimidating to less practiced customers of a pool establishment. The serious pool player will be aware of current pricing on things they may want. That puts pool hall owners at a disadvantage for marking up pricing above retail pricing to the informed consumer.
An example of this can be seen at most pool halls you can buy Pool cues. Most of them will be priced at or above MSRP. The savvy pool player can find the same product brand new online at places like Amazon Prime which they can get free for a year if they have a student ID for substantially less than MSRP. That would include free 2 day shipping. Those people that would call pool players cheapskates think that the customer should pay the higher price to the pool hall instead of simply ordering it online.
I understand the idea of supporting local business. I also understand the concept that pool halls or any business need to make money. I have written on this topic a couple times here and have been told basically that if a pool hall does not have Alcohol and Food they will go out of business. I do not see anything wrong with businesses charging slightly more then they pay for a product. I do not think they should be charging more that the highest sellers of the same product near them such as convenience stores. Pool halls should make the majority of their money off the casual player that either does not own, cannot have, or afford to have on their own. That should be their target customer. They should not only respect the more advanced player but they should try to find a way to use the advanced players to try to attract new customers or teams for their pool leagues. Good players and Pro players will end up with people that follow them. A good house pro or trainer will attract customers as well.
For me it getting to the point that going to a pool hall has very little to offer me I cannot get at home. In fact, as soon as I add a few more things to my home setup it will be a higher level of quality equipment than most pool halls I have been in.
