Dying game? Get real

[Crawlers]

Pool isn't going anywhere.
I have never before heard anyone speak of pool dying before this site.
Around these forums it seems as if it's the cool thing to say.
This notion is absurd. Pool is alive and well, I'd even say picking up steam.

The people saying pool is dead or dying probably don't go out. The majority of bars have tables, the majority of those tables have a waiting list from the moment the bar opens. These bars are filled with 20-30 y/o people. What it takes to get people interested are the vets of the sport going out and schooling these young people. It lights a fire that soon forms addiction.

So go out and spread pool instead of hiding at your house with your personal table and complaining how pool is dead.

Rant over

 

[chalkdust]

Great rant...

 

[336Robin]

Right

Pool isn't going anywhere.
I have never before heard anyone speak of pool dying before this site.
Around these forums it seems as if it's the cool thing to say.
This notion is absurd. Pool is alive and well, I'd even say picking up steam.

The people saying pool is dead or dying probably don't go out. The majority of bars have tables, the majority of those tables have a waiting list from the moment the bar opens. These bars are filled with 20-30 y/o people. What it takes to get people interested are the vets of the sport going out and schooling these young people. It lights a fire that soon forms addiction.

So go out and spread pool instead of hiding at your house with your personal table and complaining how pool is dead.

Rant over

So how long have you been playing the game?

 

[mvp]

what I'm seeing is the good players [the older ones] are quiting, including myself. And the tables are filling up with LOTS of younger players. as the younger ones get better they start to call out the older guys. We either get back into it with something to prove or whatever motivates us to play hard again. but around here the older guys only come out a few months and disappear again. Im not seeing the poolhall rush like in the 80's but the quality of players is tons better now.

 

[Masayoshi]

Pool isn't going anywhere.
I have never before heard anyone speak of pool dying before this site.
Around these forums it seems as if it's the cool thing to say.
This notion is absurd. Pool is alive and well, I'd even say picking up steam.

The people saying pool is dead or dying probably don't go out. The majority of bars have tables, the majority of those tables have a waiting list from the moment the bar opens. These bars are filled with 20-30 y/o people. What it takes to get people interested are the vets of the sport going out and schooling these young people. It lights a fire that soon forms addiction.

So go out and spread pool instead of hiding at your house with your personal table and complaining how pool is dead.

Rant over

Pro pool is dead and the booming bar scene you describe killed it. Pool is no longer a hobby or competition, it is what you do while you are getting drunk. You might charge 'vets' of the game to mold these people into pool players, but the 'vets' of the game generally prefer to play in actual pool halls rather than bars with pool tables, unless they are drinking themselves or looking to make some money, neither situation really conducive to sharing the game with others. The 20s and 30s crowd you describe is mostly absent from pool halls.

 

[Quesports]

Why do the readers of this forum see news weekly of pool halls closing? Where are all the players that used to go to the pool halls? Why do pool halls give specials to get people in the door? When was the last time you went to a pool hall and had to get on a wait list for a table?

 

[mvp]

the pool halls are closing because of rising cost, no one will pay the $$$ needed to pay the overhead. stuff cost more and people make less now. So even with the people supporting the halls they need to charge $20 an hour to make a profit. If they dont profit from it they close doors, that simple.

 

[Banks]

Pro pool is dead and the booming bar scene you describe killed it. Pool is no longer a hobby or competition, it is what you do while you are getting drunk. You might charge 'vets' of the game to mold these people into pool players, but the 'vets' of the game generally prefer to play in actual pool halls rather than bars with pool tables, unless they are drinking themselves or looking to make some money, neither situation really conducive to sharing the game with others. The 20s and 30s crowd you describe is mostly absent from pool halls.

So, what you're saying is that society's lack of regard for the game is because more people are playing in bars? That's like saying nobody plays checkers because they associate it with barbershops.

People don't pour money into pro pool because it can put most people to sleep faster than a pill. I've probably had as many people sweating some of my crappy games in a bar as I've seen watching some of those pros in youtube videos. It isn't the fault of the bars, it's dying because it's portrayed as a stuffy, old game for stuffy, old people. Next time I go to the APA web page and see a bunch of pictures of old people in a library setting, I'll remember to follow up on this thread.

 

[Pushout]

I was back where I learned to play two years ago and there were no, repeat, NO young players and barely any of the old ones. Where I used to live pool is a dying game, no doubt about it.

 

[dom_poppa]

Pool is dead. At least these 9 foot tables are. I have seen gutted out pool halls that got rid of normal tables for bar players. They replaced them with the 7 foot tables.

I have been playing pool for a long time and I remember the days of waiting list for a table and there would be 20 plus tables in a room. This was with all 9 foot tables and one snooker table.

Today? I can't remember the last time there was a wait list. I just walk up and grab a set of balls and be on my way.

The only reason why I see a wait list today because bars only have enough room for one table. There is still not that demand.

 

[dom_poppa]

Also, yes I go out and play but it's against inferior players on small 7 foot tables that they don't take care of.

It's not about going out or not, when you have that experience, you don't want to go out and play.....but I would be glad to travel away and shoot some mean pool with someone on a 9 footer. I don't mind. It's just that nobody plays anymore and if they did, they are the bar players.

 

[poolguppy]

I agree, there seems to be no shortage of players even in my small town, theres a line of people waiting to play every evening, and more and more of them are getting their own cues. Those of you who think people prefer bars now just to get drunk are completely wrong, when i was doing pool halls, cheapest around was 8 bucks an hour for two people. If you are just talking, eating your sandwich, going to the bathroom, watching the game on tv, you are paying 8 bucks an hour the whole time, thats why i eventually stopped going to them. In bars you pay by the game,(and if you are winning other people are paying, Ive played 3 hours of pool with as low as 1 dollar cost before) if you wanna take a break, you sit down and enjoy a beer and watch some one else play, and everyone waiting for the table watches the game and everyones into it and it makes it funner, if you lose, your off the table, so you try harder. not every bar is a dive, and ive seen quite a few good players rotate through . If pro pool is dying its because more people want to play than watch from the stands

 

[Pidge]

Hmm, my pool hall and others I attend seem to be always busy. Not just busy with serious players, but with people who want to get better, just having a bit of friendly competition with their buddies and recently guys who fetch their girlfriends on dates. I'd say 80% of players on the pool tables are my age in the 18-25 category. Another 15% are in the 26-35 category. On the snooker tables its split differently. I'd say 50% aged 18-40 and the other 50% aged 41-98...yes there's a 98 year old who loves nothing more than a game of snooker, what a legend!

The amateur scene is buzzing around these parts I'd say. As for the pro game? I'm not sure as I don't know much about where pool was in the 70s and 80s. Has the average tournament payouts dropped? Has the number of high payout tournaments dropped? Has the standard and number of pros dropped? I'd say no to all of the above but then again like I said I know little of pool in the 70s and 80s seeing as it was way before my time. Sure pool isn't on TV much today but with thanks to the internet the number of streams today means live pool is being watched more than ever before. I know being a pro player isn't the most financially stable job out there, and many lesser known pros struggle to make a living but hasn't it always been like that? In any individual sport there are the elite few, or in pool the elite 10-20 that clean up all the big money in tournaments so anyone behind them are going to struggle to make ends meet by just playing in tourneys.

Snooker on the other hand has seen a severe decline in the sports popularity. In Steve Davis' heyday snooker was the most popular sport in the UK and he was the highest paid sports person here too in terms of money from sponsors. Prize money hasn't dropped and may have even risen since then and first place for the Snooker World Championships is insane. You don't see many new players taking to the game despite how much money is in the game for one reason...its hard! They will play pool because its more social and easier for the new comer. It gets a fraction of the TV time it did, even though there are major tournaments with big name players every month. Shame really.

So yeah, I agree with the OP - pool isn't dead or on its last legs at any level.

 

[Crawlers]

Why do the readers of this forum see news weekly of pool halls closing? Where are all the players that used to go to the pool halls? Why do pool halls give specials to get people in the door? When was the last time you went to a pool hall and had to get on a wait list for a table?

All I see is negativity!
The pool hall in town has 4 9' tables and 12 8' and 3 7's.
Constantly full with a wide range of ages.
I waited Thursday for an hour to get on a table, And could not get on the 9's all night. Those guys wouldn't leave...

Played pool since I was 10 or so, seriously for about 2 years.
What needs to be done is advertisement. Apa needs to get their name out there and let everyone know that anyone can join.

 

[Quesports]

All I see is negativity!
The pool hall in town has 4 9' tables and 12 8' and 3 7's.
Constantly full with a wide range of ages.
I waited Thursday for an hour to get on a table, And could not get on the 9's all night. Those guys wouldn't leave...

Played pool since I was 10 or so, seriously for about 2 years.
What needs to be done is advertisement. Apa needs to get their name out there and let everyone know that anyone can join.

The questions I posed are not negative at all just questions. You may want to make them seem negative and that's fine with me. There are large cities here in America where pool halls are just about non existent, perhaps it would be an interesting exercise to ask where pool is booming in America? I have played pool since 1966 and have never seen pool halls closing as fast as they seem to be today. BTW I completely agree with you about advertising, most pool halls just stick a note on the door and consider that marketing & advertising.. JMO!!!

 

[macguy]

Pool isn't going anywhere.
I have never before heard anyone speak of pool dying before this site.
Around these forums it seems as if it's the cool thing to say.
This notion is absurd. Pool is alive and well, I'd even say picking up steam.

The people saying pool is dead or dying probably don't go out. The majority of bars have tables, the majority of those tables have a waiting list from the moment the bar opens. These bars are filled with 20-30 y/o people. What it takes to get people interested are the vets of the sport going out and schooling these young people. It lights a fire that soon forms addiction.

So go out and spread pool instead of hiding at your house with your personal table and complaining how pool is dead.

Rant over

That is true and I would be one of the first to agree, but pool has gone through a few changes. Many of the older players on here, I have been playing for more then 50 years, will know what I am talking about. Pool for the longest time had a real advantage because it was teamed up with bowling. Bowling alleys had pool rooms in every bowling alley and they were in like every city of any size in the country.

No matter where you were in this country you were just a short drive from a pool room. Brunswick lanes always had rooms that had like 20 and 30 Gold Crown tables. Usually well maintained and family oriented. That is not to say many were not hardcore. The famous Congress billiards in Miami you can read about in Freddys book was in fact a bowling alley. As were many of the action rooms around the country. Pool basically had a free ride on the coat tails of bowling and this went on for many years. It was really something, you would go to the pool room and not leave all night. The bowling alleys had everything. Full service bars as well as restaurants. You would be in the pool room and you could get anything from an ice cream sunday to a steak dinner. What today rivals that?

Even back when pool was really going good the stand alone pool room was a tough racket and they often closed or moved as costs went up or landlords wanted to develop the properties. It is not just today. The bowling factor will never come back and there is nothing to replace it, In fact bowling alleys themselves are closing all over the place. There used to be 6 or 7 in my town and every one had a pool room, today there is 1 and it has a few bar tables.

The new thing is the bar, you can always depend on finding a table or two in a bar if you want to play. For many players today, bar pool is pool. Good bad or otherwise it is a evolution that has taken place and at least for now bar pool is the face of pool. I am not sure I can see what will bring back the classic pool rooms in the future. The COM fostered a number of new rooms but they began closing as fast as they had opened as time went by. Mostly due to bad business plans from the start, Many were just not sustainable due to the high cost they had. This was very foreseeable and it was never a surprised to me when I would see one close.

Pool is not dead but it is different.

 

[Masayoshi]

So, what you're saying is that society's lack of regard for the game is because more people are playing in bars? That's like saying nobody plays checkers because they associate it with barbershops.

I wouldn't say that. Even if society didn't regard pool well, with a large player base, pool could be successful. Take poker, for example.

People don't pour money into pro pool because it can put most people to sleep faster than a pill. I've probably had as many people sweating some of my crappy games in a bar as I've seen watching some of those pros in youtube videos. It isn't the fault of the bars, it's dying because it's portrayed as a stuffy, old game for stuffy, old people. Next time I go to the APA web page and see a bunch of pictures of old people in a library setting, I'll remember to follow up on this thread.

Pool can be made interesting to watch in professional tournament format. If there was a large fan base of serious players, somebody would find a way to satisfy their needs. Look at golf. As it stands, 99% of pool players start out in bars and never go further than that, which leads to most people thinking that that is all there is to pool.

 

[Pushout]

The room I used to play in hosted the New York State 9 Ball Championship from 1978 until some time in the late '90s. It now exists due to dart players, and I think, an after hours poker game. Caps in Syracuse, NY closed after 35 years in business. It may not be dying everywhere but don't think for one minute that it isn't in others. If you are where it's going strong, pray you don't have to move somewhere that it's dying or already gone:frown:

 

[macguy]

That is actually true. I put on quite a few tournaments in pool rooms. You may have some of the best players in the country there and people will not pay a dime to watch. They just don't care. They would call wanting to know when the tournament will be over so they can come in and play. No interest in seeing Buddy Hall or Mike Sigel play, none.

Pool seems to not really be a very good spectator sport, not even by players. People like to play pool not watch it. I once in an interview and made the comment, "Pool is like fishing, everybody likes to fish but no one would pay to watch someone else fish". It became the headline of the article.

 

[JAM]

Pool rooms are closing in large numbers. It started with the smoking bans of a decade ago. They just don't make money on pool tables alone. They have to sell alcohol, food, and be in a good location to be successful.

Snookers in Providence, RI is an example of location being ideal, smack in the middle of over 30 universities and colleges. People come to Snookers to socialize. It's a meeting place, and pool is alive and well. But Snookers has music in one room with dancing. They also have EXCELLENT food. So each of this room's amentiies complements the other.

With no "real" pool room to go to, the next generation will not play pool like my generation did at the neighorhood pool room, which truly was a gathering place for regulars, like a club house.

In today's pool world, the egos of some industry members are so big that they clash with one another, whether it's a new league, a new product, a new anything. Any new entrant into the field gets scrutinized to the nth degree.

Though women now are accepted to compete in tournaments and play pool, it's still very much a man's game in many circles.

Pool should be fun. Social shooters, recreational players, amateurs, this is where pool shines the brightest today.

Social media, you would think could be helpful to the pool industry to gain more people, but to date, I have not seen anyone use it the way the TV shows do to promote their brand. This may be the gateway to the future for pool. Time will tell. :smile: