You're kinda off, matchroom would use anything that gives them $$ -- its all about $$ here.
And I do acknowledge cloth has to do with the speed of the balls but also the table plays a massive role in it, especially how the rails play...in diamonds they play like crap, the pockets are crap, and the speed of the rails and table will be super-crap adding up all things into perspective.
Matchroom loves $$ more than loving to grow pool, if they want to grow the game of pool they'd bring back the classics such as
1- Green cloth.
2- Classical ball colors.
Both of which have been criticized roundly in the past for making it extremely hard to see which balls are where on the table, when streaming or on television.
Yeahhhh... No thanks.
4- Normal racks (Not this shady paper racks).
Which slowed the game down and resulted in a ton of clusters. Also, one player or the other often gets the chance to manipulate the rack to their favor, whether rack your own, or rack for opponent. You hate template racks because you probably never did the work to build a repeatable break.
5- Classic cueball without the stupid "red dots".
The entire point of this was to make it easier to see what english the player is putting on the ball, and they are fantastic for this, and increases enjoyability of watching the matches.
6- Players should wear classic ties or bowties.
Mmmm, maybe. Maybe the only remotely helpful suggestion you have made so far.
7- the arena on the tv table should be massive and the crowd should be seated at least 10 meters away (Not like the new arena where ppl surrounding the players and table like crazy make the game look so cheap).
This is the way it was set up at the European Open Championship, and fans HATED it. I took my wife up for the tournament, and ended up leaving the same day to drive back home (2 1/2 hours), because it was difficult to really watch the matches.
I know I have more suggestions but why should I bother, ppl won't listen to me and then there are other people who would have different opinions.
Well, they're generally not gonna listen, be ause so many of these are hot takes that in so many words, equates to "I want pool to be exactly what it was when I was a young man, and I want the tables to play exactly like they did when I was competitive."
I grew up playing on Gold Crowns too. The difference is, at 48, is that I am still competitive. Gold Crowns back in the day tended to have slower cloth, so they were hard to break and make a ball in unless you had a VERY good break. As such, more balls stayed on the table, and the layouts were more random, so THAT part of the game was good, from a player's perspective, but NOT from a viewer's perspective.
Fast forward to the modern "Diamondized" game. Faster cloth, faster rails, smaller pockets to make up for the rails/cloth, results in table layouts just as challenging as playing Gold Crowns. I was watching a bunch of European Open matches on the 4" pockets, and noted that the nature of the game kinda reminded me of playing on Gold Crowns when I was in my early 20's. Less balls made, and 1 ball not just sitting up in front of a pocket off the break. Requiring one to play safe off the lowest ball right after the break, sending the CB multiple rails to safety as the first shot after the break. Dumb players who shoot dumb shots get punished pretty severely. Players are forced to LEARN to play the game properly, because despite what you say, when taken as a whole, it is NOT easier to play on Diamonds as compared to older Gold Crowns.
And as far as "making the game look cheap"? Playing on old arse tables on TV/stream is what makes the game look cheap.
