City teams

J

jimM

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
The city team that was outlined in the 15th episode of Sharks has gotten a lot of good reaction.

We are already forming two teams in New York. It seems that there are enough players here to have two good teams. We will have the first game for the show within a few episodes. I plan to do it the way I think it should be done to make it as interesting as possible.

The plan though, is to try to have real games between cities in the future.

I am writing this to see if there are any players in close cities who are interested in discussing the formation of other teams, or even groups of teams in other parts of the country.

Hopefully, I am not jumping the gun on this, but I really don't see any reason to wait. I would like to know what everyone thinks about this idea as far as forming other teams.

Thanks,
Jim
 
sounds alot like bonus ball to me, except you are playing pic your game and not bonus ball. sound like someone is trying to steal another persons idea again. Gota love the pool world.
 
City Teams

spanky79 said:
sounds alot like bonus ball to me, except you are playing pic your game and not bonus ball. sound like someone is trying to steal another persons idea again. Gota love the pool world.
Click to expand...

Spanky,

The idea of teams has been brought up many times over the last few years. I personally have had several discussion - particularly when the NACPBA tried to get something going back around 2008.

I know Murnak has had his concept in place for a couple of years.

I domn't think he is trying to steal anything from anyone. In fact, almost none outside of the real knowledgable players and fans even know about Bonus Ball.

Remember, there are no new ideas.

If it makes more people aware of pool - it is all good.

Mark Griffin, CSI
 
Mark Griffin said:
Spanky,

The idea of teams has been brought up many times over the last few years. I personally have had several discussion - particularly when the NACPBA tried to get something going back around 2008.

I know Murnak has had his concept in place for a couple of years.

I domn't think he is trying to steal anything from anyone. In fact, almost none outside of the real knowledgable players and fans even know about Bonus Ball.

Remember, there are no new ideas.

If it makes more people aware of pool - it is all good.

Mark Griffin, CSI
Click to expand...


Well said Mark and couldn't agree more, it's all good if it helps pool.
 
What?

spanky79 said:
sounds alot like bonus ball to me, except you are playing pic your game and not bonus ball. sound like someone is trying to steal another persons idea again. Gota love the pool world.
Click to expand...

That's quite a charge. That I'm stealing something from Bonus Ball. First, please tell me if you are being paid by Bonus Ball.

Second, Bonus Ball is in itself a different game. That was their choice, and I am not talking about Bonus Ball in any way.

If you are talking about the city team idea, then you should call the NY Mets, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chicago Bulls, etc. and accuse them of the same thing.

Actually, most people do love the pool world. That's why people still try to make it better.

Thanks
Jim
 
jimM said:
That's quite a charge. That I'm stealing something from Bonus Ball. First, please tell me if you are being paid by Bonus Ball.

Second, Bonus Ball is in itself a different game. That was their choice, and I am not talking about Bonus Ball in any way.

If you are talking about the city team idea, then you should call the NY Mets, the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Chicago Bulls, etc. and accuse them of the same thing.

Actually, most people do love the pool world. That's why people still try to make it better.

Thanks
Jim
Click to expand...

No, I have no affiliation with bonus ball what so ever. It just sounded very alike and the timing seemed to coincide.

Sorry, if it sounded like I was accusing anyone of stealing I apologize.
I personally think bonus ball is a joke and will disappear when the well goes dry like everything else.

I think your idea has a better chance of actually working.

I hope it works out for everyone.

I guess I was in a mood this morning. Again I apologize.
 
Thanks

spanky79 said:
No, I have no affiliation with bonus ball what so ever. It just sounded very alike and the timing seemed to coincide.

Sorry, if it sounded like I was accusing anyone of stealing I apologize.
I personally think bonus ball is a joke and will disappear when the well goes dry like everything else.

I think your idea has a better chance of actually working.

I hope it works out for everyone.

I guess I was in a mood this morning. Again I apologize.
Click to expand...

Thank you. I really appreciate your response.
 
Originality is just undetected plagarism - and I stole that from John D Loudermilk.

The city teams idea was floated about ten years ago by Don Mackey and the professional organisation of the day (the PBTA). I'm not entirely sure of the timings but I think that it was destined to be a Camel sponsored event.
But when the original Camel deal went tits up so did the Cities Pool League.

Obviouly the demographics of where the relevant pool players are located has changed in that time. So I wonder how the cities and teams would shape up today. I understand that Bonus Ball has done work on this but they have utilised overseas players.

It would be better if it were restricted to US players who were bona fide dwellers in the leading metropolitan areas of the country. That way you could develop a committed fan base.

There was another similar plan hatched by the BMPAP in the Philippines for a team league of professional. This was not city based but instead a few Philippine team supplemented by Cue Mercenaries from all over the World - sort of Have Cue Will Travel. I think that idea got gunned down
along with it's main perpetrator.
 
I'm old...

pro9dg said:
Originality is just undetected plagarism - and I stole that from John D Loudermilk.

The city teams idea was floated about ten years ago by Don Mackey and the professional organisation of the day (the PBTA). I'm not entirely sure of the timings but I think that it was destined to be a Camel sponsored event.
But when the original Camel deal went tits up so did the Cities Pool League.

Obviouly the demographics of where the relevant pool players are located has changed in that time. So I wonder how the cities and teams would shape up today. I understand that Bonus Ball has done work on this but they have utilised overseas players.

It would be better if it were restricted to US players who were bona fide dwellers in the leading metropolitan areas of the country. That way you could develop a committed fan base.

There was another similar plan hatched by the BMPAP in the Philippines for a team league of professional. This was not city based but instead a few Philippine team supplemented by Cue Mercenaries from all over the World - sort of Have Cue Will Travel. I think that idea got gunned down
along with it's main perpetrator.
Click to expand...

I'm old, but I remember talk of such a pro league 40 years ago.
The idea originated with baseball, I believe.

In the 1950s we had a pro bowling league that was sponsored by beer companies (Hamm's out of Chicago, Budweiser out of St. Louis, etc.). It was even on tv a bit, but apparently fans wanted to see the individual competition instead.

In 1964, I organized the West Wisconsin Traveling All-Star Bowling League with 8 teams. We even had a draft lottery to choose teams, so the powerhouses couldn't dominate. The league was a success, until I moved to pool, and nobody wanted to run the All-Star.

I based my 1966 "La Crosse Pool League" on this idea, but it was traveling from bar to bar rather than city to city. We also had the "River League" in 1968 that traveled between small towns in a limited area. It was great fun, very competitive and very promising. It was the cost of travel that put a damper on such things in later years, and would obviously be a problem today.

We had a pool league here in Gainesville, the Hogtown League which ran for many years, traveling from bar to bar. It folded, sadly, two years ago, partly because of resistance to changes in the rules, lack of cooperation from owners, and because of the price of gasoline (required driving to nearby towns).

Donny L
PBIA/ACS Instructor
 
pro9dg said:
Originality is just undetected plagarism - and I stole that from John D Loudermilk.

The city teams idea was floated about ten years ago by Don Mackey and the professional organisation of the day (the PBTA). I'm not entirely sure of the timings but I think that it was destined to be a Camel sponsored event.
But when the original Camel deal went tits up so did the Cities Pool League.

Obviouly the demographics of where the relevant pool players are located has changed in that time. So I wonder how the cities and teams would shape up today. I understand that Bonus Ball has done work on this but they have utilised overseas players.

It would be better if it were restricted to US players who were bona fide dwellers in the leading metropolitan areas of the country. That way you could develop a committed fan base.

There was another similar plan hatched by the BMPAP in the Philippines for a team league of professional. This was not city based but instead a few Philippine team supplemented by Cue Mercenaries from all over the World - sort of Have Cue Will Travel. I think that idea got gunned down
along with it's main perpetrator.
Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your post. It has a lot of good information in it.

The one thing that I think would not be a problem is that players from other countries be involved as long as they stay on one team per season. Baseball and basketball teams have players from other countries on the teams and it doesn't seem to change the fans' view except to make them more excited that their team has another great player. Imagine your team in Atlanta, or Pittsburgh is not doing so well and Efren Reyes decides to play for you. I would think that would boost the interest instead of diminishing it. But it would be only for cities in the States.

Thanks
 
I think the team idea is a super concept. I know a friend of mine, Coby Atkins (Lancaster, PA) was trying to organize something some time ago-- so as Mark said -- it's not a new concept.

That said--- I hope someone--- anyone-- can get that off the ground.

A neat format would be for a league to get funded (that's the catch) and allow for X teams max who each get Y "credits" and require everyone play each other in a round robin and each match the money in the middle is negotiated and the game worked out. Whoever has the most credits at the end wins and cash paid out to the top Z teams.

Just the barking alone between teams would be worthy of a JimM episode :)
 
Thanks for the questions.

Jude Rosenstock said:
Hey Jim,

Who is on the NYC teams as of now?
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I will be putting up the team roster in about 2 weeks. We want to secure participation of a lot of players before we figure who will be on the first string, second string, third string, etc. If you are interested, please contact Jennifer.

We do have a team forming in Queens and rumors are that Earl will be on that team.

Thanks Jude
 
jimM said:
Thank you very much for your post. It has a lot of good information in it.

The one thing that I think would not be a problem is that players from other countries be involved as long as they stay on one team per season. Baseball and basketball teams have players from other countries on the teams and it doesn't seem to change the fans' view except to make them more excited that their team has another great player. Imagine your team in Atlanta, or Pittsburgh is not doing so well and Efren Reyes decides to play for you. I would think that would boost the interest instead of diminishing it. But it would be only for cities in the States.

Thanks
Click to expand...
A fair point Jim but maybe overseas players are something that you might consider implementing in season two. Get your teams set up and create your fan base. Then you can build up the draft of international stars to an exciting level of anticipation.
How about San Francisco Chinatown with Chang Jung Lin in their lineup. Or Young Guns Los Angeles with Mega Breakers Roberto Gomez and Oscar
Dominguez in the same lineup.
Maybe Kings in Queens, the mind boggles........ just mindmeandering but leaving the door open for suggestions for eye popping squads.
 
IMHO city teams are one element of building interest in pool -- but only one. But at least it would give local media a reason to give pool one minute of coverage.

In Chicago we could fill a stadium of any sport if the opponent is Green Bay. :D
 
cool

pro9dg said:
A fair point Jim but maybe overseas players are something that you might consider implementing in season two. Get your teams set up and create your fan base. Then you can build up the draft of international stars to an exciting level of anticipation.
How about San Francisco Chinatown with Chang Jung Lin in their lineup. Or Young Guns Los Angeles with Mega Breakers Roberto Gomez and Oscar
Dominguez in the same lineup.
Maybe Kings in Queens, the mind boggles........ just mindmeandering but leaving the door open for suggestions for eye popping squads.
Click to expand...

Cool. I'm glad to hear things like this.

I know that this was tried before a number of times, but there are a few very different circumstances now. Ten years ago, there was no internet to speak of. No way for these matches to reach anyone other than getting on Network TV or going to see them in person.

Ten years ago, there was no software available to make it interesting, other than for high end productions. What I mean is that the software used in the Super Bowls 4-5 years ago by large networks looks like junk compared to what I can find now for my computer.

I guess what I'm saying also, is that the output of most pool shows is, by necessity, boring. There are many reasons for this. One is that there are a lot of individuals playing on different tables and most, if not all streamers, can't cover more than one at a time. My games will be played on one table with all the players concentrating on what happens on that table. Also, my game will take about 2 hours, as most sports events. No waiting for tomorrow night to find out who wins.

We will have a pre-game show to show all the players involved and to show newcomers something about the games.

Now, I have to back up what I'm saying. :)
 
jimM said:
Cool. I'm glad to hear things like this.

I know that this was tried before a number of times, but there are a few very different circumstances now. Ten years ago, there was no internet to speak of. No way for these matches to reach anyone other than getting on Network TV or going to see them in person.

Ten years ago, there was no software available to make it interesting, other than for high end productions. What I mean is that the software used in the Super Bowls 4-5 years ago by large networks looks like junk compared to what I can find now for my computer.

I guess what I'm saying also, is that the output of most pool shows is, by necessity, boring. There are many reasons for this. One is that there are a lot of individuals playing on different tables and most, if not all streamers, can't cover more than one at a time. My games will be played on one table with all the players concentrating on what happens on that table. Also, my game will take about 2 hours, as most sports events. No waiting for tomorrow night to find out who wins.

We will have a pre-game show to show all the players involved and to show newcomers something about the games.

Now, I have to back up what I'm saying. :)
Click to expand...

Go get 'em Jim
 
What are the stakes? How much do the teams get paid? What type of venues will the matches take place in?
 
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