Gray Cloth at the Mosconi Cup

[MitchAlsup]

Pool on television is difficult to follow when you can’t distinguish which ball is which , when the ball manufacturers truly find out what colors manifest themselves best on television it will be a quatum leap for everyone. And our sport.

In 1970 color accuracy was "not all that good", the phosphors, color encoding,... all conspired to make pool balls hard to distinguish.
During the 1980s the mfgs figured out which rare earth phosphors produced the best colors, and much of the problem went away.
Then when Cathode Ray Tubes were supplanted by (first) LCD (then later LED) (around 2004) we got to the point where original colors (primaries and blends of primary colors) actually are well reproduced on (ahem) TV.
But by this time, there were a dozen color-sets that various people had vested interests in pushing. Right after the time when it became irrelevant.

 

[coolidge]

Can’t please everyone...I hate gray cloth...it’s just me, I go blind on it.

My buddy and I visited the Golden West Billiards factory last week. They had the grey cloth on a showroom table. Our first reaction was say that looks really nice, followed quickly by it's harder to focus. Maybe the lack of contrast vs the eye popping tournament blue they had installed on a nearby table.

 

[Pool Hand Luke]

Gray cloth was easier on my eyes and the only "black" ball was the 9, which with more contrast, was easier to see on gray cloth than white might have been.

If I had a table and could choose my own cloth color I would lean toward tennis court green with a white ball set. Black or natural wood rails.

 

[Dead Money]

I will add: I think the unique 9 ball is cool.

I suspect part of the change is the organizers and ball maker know many would want a set and buy them. It would be a neat collectible to own, especially if you could get the different players to sign them.

 

[cjr3559]

Here’s a MR event from 2018 in comparison to this year’s MC. The contrast and color saturation is eye straining.

Even the ‘21 US Open is a challenge to watch. Blue is good until it’s overdone. Everything from the table, floor, and background ambient light is blue. Makes me drowsy.