Just wanted to weigh in on this interesting discussion...
Kids vs. adults. This could end up at cross-purposes. Pool being a more "adult" game would indeed discourage kids. But at the same time, a bunch of silly kids would discourage adults. How many adults would participate in golf or bowling, for example, if they were constantly crowded by noisy, silly kids, or a pool room with loud rap playing? Especially higher level players who want a peaceful place where they can concentrate on their shots.
Image. This is a hard one. There are different ways to approach pool. You can play it at home. The wealthiest people in the world have pool tables in their mansions. So do the $50,000-a-night penthouses in Las Vegas. Every city has at least one place that sells fancy, high dollar pool tables and equipment, and they tend to stay in business. And... probably 90% of their customers take the dust covers off their tables twice a year.
But most people don't have a pool table, so they have only one option: go to a pool room. A lot of pool rooms tend to be rather seedy places, with seedy and seedy-looking people. It depends, some are worse that others. But in general, you won't see many BMWs parked in front of Bubba's Pool Hall. Nor will you see Mom and Dad and the kids all piling into the car to go play pool.
Other pool rooms are connected with sports bars or night clubs, where you'll have a bar area with a bunch of TVs showing sports, and a pool table area on one side.
There's also scarcity to deal with. A big city of half a million people might have 2 or 3 pool rooms, maybe 4, and at least a 2 of those won't be places where most people would go. So if you don't have a pool table, the ONLY option you have is to go to a room, wherever that may be.
I remember a big, popular pool room in a city of several hundred thousand. Big place, nice music, good tables and equipment. Waitresses bringing you all kinds of hot food to eat while you played (wings, pizza, etc. and a full bar). Nice, eh? No. It's in a high-crime area. The typical patrons, well, let's say they're not people you would want knocking on the front door to pick your daughter up for a date. Neither are the hookers strolling back and forth past the front door. That's the nearest pool room to where I live, about an hour's drive away.
And there's NOTHING you can do about that. I mean, what do you want Fast Eddie's to do, implement a dress code? They'd go broke in a week.
Appeal. Another tough one. To people who grew up with modern, intense electronic entertainment and extreme sports, shooting pool, especially if you're not very good at it, is about as exciting as watching paint dry. You stroke a ball, it goes into a pocket. Click, click, thump. Yeah. Real heart attack stuff, eh? Pool on TV is boring, as well. The people good enough to be on TV just make shot after shot after shot. Yawn. They're skilled, but for 99% of the viewers out there, there's really nothing to see on a TV screen, certainly nothing to stop them from clicking the "Channel" button on the remote.
This is the same situation a lot of "traditional" pastimes are in, such as electric trains, ham radio, model airplanes, darkrooms, or playing checkers. These activities are fading, too, for much the same reasons pool is, although they still have their "niche" fans.
Even if you get past all this and become a "serious" player, you're most likely going to play alone most of the time. My wife loves to shoot with me on our table here at home, but she's lucky to hit the cue ball with the cue. My kids couldn't care less about it. Go to a mall and watch 500 people walk past. How many of that 500 do you think are serious, regular pool players?
Likewise, there's not much of a support system in place for playing pool. You don't see "pool shops" in the mall, or pool magazines on magazine racks, or pool stuff being advertised on TV commercials or in magazines.
One thing that might kick up its popularity would be for a big celebrity to publicize it. Say a president that liked to shoot pool in the White House. People nowadays are so obsessed with celebrities, something like that could have an impact. Or maybe a good Hollywood movie, but that's unlikely.
I hate to say it, but for the time being, I think pool is going to continue to be another "niche" activity, not something that's going to become a major American pastime.
Kids vs. adults. This could end up at cross-purposes. Pool being a more "adult" game would indeed discourage kids. But at the same time, a bunch of silly kids would discourage adults. How many adults would participate in golf or bowling, for example, if they were constantly crowded by noisy, silly kids, or a pool room with loud rap playing? Especially higher level players who want a peaceful place where they can concentrate on their shots.
Image. This is a hard one. There are different ways to approach pool. You can play it at home. The wealthiest people in the world have pool tables in their mansions. So do the $50,000-a-night penthouses in Las Vegas. Every city has at least one place that sells fancy, high dollar pool tables and equipment, and they tend to stay in business. And... probably 90% of their customers take the dust covers off their tables twice a year.
But most people don't have a pool table, so they have only one option: go to a pool room. A lot of pool rooms tend to be rather seedy places, with seedy and seedy-looking people. It depends, some are worse that others. But in general, you won't see many BMWs parked in front of Bubba's Pool Hall. Nor will you see Mom and Dad and the kids all piling into the car to go play pool.
Other pool rooms are connected with sports bars or night clubs, where you'll have a bar area with a bunch of TVs showing sports, and a pool table area on one side.
There's also scarcity to deal with. A big city of half a million people might have 2 or 3 pool rooms, maybe 4, and at least a 2 of those won't be places where most people would go. So if you don't have a pool table, the ONLY option you have is to go to a room, wherever that may be.
I remember a big, popular pool room in a city of several hundred thousand. Big place, nice music, good tables and equipment. Waitresses bringing you all kinds of hot food to eat while you played (wings, pizza, etc. and a full bar). Nice, eh? No. It's in a high-crime area. The typical patrons, well, let's say they're not people you would want knocking on the front door to pick your daughter up for a date. Neither are the hookers strolling back and forth past the front door. That's the nearest pool room to where I live, about an hour's drive away.
And there's NOTHING you can do about that. I mean, what do you want Fast Eddie's to do, implement a dress code? They'd go broke in a week.
Appeal. Another tough one. To people who grew up with modern, intense electronic entertainment and extreme sports, shooting pool, especially if you're not very good at it, is about as exciting as watching paint dry. You stroke a ball, it goes into a pocket. Click, click, thump. Yeah. Real heart attack stuff, eh? Pool on TV is boring, as well. The people good enough to be on TV just make shot after shot after shot. Yawn. They're skilled, but for 99% of the viewers out there, there's really nothing to see on a TV screen, certainly nothing to stop them from clicking the "Channel" button on the remote.
This is the same situation a lot of "traditional" pastimes are in, such as electric trains, ham radio, model airplanes, darkrooms, or playing checkers. These activities are fading, too, for much the same reasons pool is, although they still have their "niche" fans.
Even if you get past all this and become a "serious" player, you're most likely going to play alone most of the time. My wife loves to shoot with me on our table here at home, but she's lucky to hit the cue ball with the cue. My kids couldn't care less about it. Go to a mall and watch 500 people walk past. How many of that 500 do you think are serious, regular pool players?
Likewise, there's not much of a support system in place for playing pool. You don't see "pool shops" in the mall, or pool magazines on magazine racks, or pool stuff being advertised on TV commercials or in magazines.
One thing that might kick up its popularity would be for a big celebrity to publicize it. Say a president that liked to shoot pool in the White House. People nowadays are so obsessed with celebrities, something like that could have an impact. Or maybe a good Hollywood movie, but that's unlikely.
I hate to say it, but for the time being, I think pool is going to continue to be another "niche" activity, not something that's going to become a major American pastime.
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behave like a gentleman, people who see poolplayers that behave good, they will assimilate pool to nice people (some basic psychologie 
)
and sorry if there are some grammatical mistakes but i hope the mainidea comes through
