There are many who agree with you. Truthfully, I'm not sure where to cast blame. At one time, Camel cigarettes and Budweiser were strong pool sponsors, but poorly organized pool organizations had a hand in having those sponsors pull back.
Pool's lack of success as a sport in the United States is a multi-faceted problem.
Surely, you remember Lou "Machine Gun" Butera. Well, he realized that competing in pool professionally in tournaments was like a dead fish in the water, so he figured out how to capitalize on his pool talents and made pool work for him.
Here's what Machine Gun Lou said about the state of pool in America when he was in his prime: You've got five companies doing over $10 million a year in this game. Yet, the amount they spend on the promotion of the game is peanuts, ridiculous. Now, if those companies can't put a quarter of a million of that into the promotion of the game, something is very wrong. There should be a Brunswick Open, an Ebonite Open, a Fisher Open, a National Open, just to name a few...all the big manufacturers should be promoting the game through tournaments.
This statement was made over 30 years ago. Players were struggling then, too. Those who were successful took their show on the road like Lou, Steve Mizerak, Willie Mosconi, and Minnesota Fats. I don't think any of them got rich from competing in pool tournaments.
Pool is a tough sell in America. We have so many other competing forces, to include the recent popularity of poker. There's golf, MLB, NBA, NFL, tennis. Heck, even the hot dog eating contests get more press in the media than pool today.
Everybody has their own thoughts on why pool continues to have one tire in the sand. I personally believe it has nothing to do with the players themselves, but rather it is a lack of organization. It must start with the BCA, and they've washed their hands of professional pool, it would seem.
Johnny Archer, et al., are trying to get an organization established with the ABP. This is a step in the right direction, but their strength is weak at this time and lacks structure. Hopefully, they can get it together and create a legitimate tour, so that players can be ranked. The current ranking system in the United States is a combination of various tournaments that are noteworthy and lucrative, but any shortstop, amateur, social shooter, and ball banger can sign up and compete in them. They are not restricted to members of any professional organization -- at least not yet. :smile:
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The ultimate irony is that one of the guys sent out a mass email, prior to the event, puffing about the strength of the field, saying stuff like "and the second tier is pretty strong too, with Ray Martin, XXX player, HIS NAME, etc. Trust me, he has no place including his name with those second tier players.
