How to Fiorm a Mens Pro Tour - Would this work ?

Structure Matters

Since the mid-60's until today, the Men have tried to establish a viable professional organization. In every instance, an inherent structural failure has occured. Whether from lack of sponsors, recessions, politics, ego's and the occasional Don Mackey's and BCA's, the men have failed to adopt the concept of We versus I. This has always led to cliques, antagonists, protagonists, and the disenchanted.

The players have always believed they were owed money for their participating, in addition to the additional money for competing. This is not possible in an open structure that has been attempted time and again.

The only structure possible is Ownership of Players by a Team Owner like you see in the NFL,NBA,etc. They are bought, paid, traded, cut, released, and retired just like the other Pro's. Unfortunately, their ego's are unable to grasp a concept of shared responsibility and group reward. It is all about I and Me and the Right Now.

Because there is only one player at the table for the performance aspect, it lacks the drama of true competition between parties. Table Tennis has two players competing head to head. Pool will never achieve that, Olympic recognition or Not.
 
I see this as a potential audience problem. People fill football stadiums at $50 and up per seat because of the excitement the game offers. To most folks, watching pool is as exciting as watching a physicist fill a test tube.

We're pool junkies who understand and appreciate the nuances of the game. Most folks aren't.

Sorry, but that's the way I see it...the audience just isn't there to make pool "big time". I mean, most tourney's of this area I've been to, even the players leave once they've been eliminated. Even they don't stick around to see the finals. :frown:
 
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pwd72s said:
I see this as a potential audience problem. People fill football stadiums at $50 and up per seat because of the excitement the game offers. To most folks, watching pool is as exciting as watching a physicist fill a test tube.

We're pool junkies who understand and appreciate the nuances of the game. Most folks aren't.

Sorry, but that's the way I see it...the audience just isn't there to make pool "big time". I mean, most tourney's of this area I've been to, even the players leave once they've been eliminated. Even they don't stick around to see the finals. :frown:
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It's not just at the small tourneys ~ it's the same way even at the APA Nationals (singles OR teams) . 90% of the eliminated players have no interest in how the event ends !
I do blame part of that , however , on the fact that spectators have no idea of the current players s/ls , current race , games/balls needed , etc . . . .
At least bowling alleys (some) have electronic scoreboards over the pins , so you can see the players names & scores . Maybe something like that would help . . . .:cool:
 
A organized pro tour will generate players.but players will never generate a pro tour.

bill
 
LeagueGuy said:
My thoughts on how to get a pro tour off the ground

First, we have to recognize that the funding for the tour in its early years needs to come from the players – both the pro’s and those who think they could be. We need to utilize the existing pool halls and use them to generate added money for the tour.

We also need to recognize that any possible TV exposure will only happen once we get the appropriate stability in place.

The assumption has been made that there are 800 or more players that would participate in a pro tour qualifying system and that money would be used to get the tour off the ground.

Here are the steps envision to follow to get a men’s pro tour going.

1) Someone must take control and become the self named – commissioner of the tour (a salary of approx $60,000-80,000 per year once it gets off the ground). It would be preferable if the APA or BCA could get this off the ground
2) Contact 8 locations halls across the US and set up dates for 32 qualifying events (4 at each of the hall) .These events would take place in Jan-March 2012
3) Each qualifier has 32 entries at $375 each. $25 to the tournament director (or pool hall), $350 to the tour prize fund. Top 2 at each qualifier would obtain their tour cards for 2012
4) After 32 of these are run – you have 64 carded tour players and 358,000 in funds (of which 300,000 is money added to the tour fund)
5) Locate 10 halls across the US to have your fist year – tour runs from Late march 2012 to Nov 2012 – the 8 halls used in step 2 get first right of refusal)
6) These halls BUY the rights to host a tour event. These right cost the hall $15,000. In return, the hall gets 32 entries into the event as well as control of all gate proceeds for the event. The hall would make money buy holding qualifiying events and selling tickets and in addition, 6 pros would be scheduled to appear in the evenings the Mon-Wed before the tour for exhibitions, autographs etc. At the end of the day, the hall should be able to generate a $5,000 or more operating profit for hosting the event. Of this money paid by the hall, $12,000 goes to the players fund, and $3,000 goes to the commissioner for expenses. salary etc.
7) Entry fees for the events are $750 per tour player. Thus with the entry fee plus $42,000 added for each event, you have a $90,000 payout at each event or ($900,000 for the tour first year). Pay out the top 32 with the winner receiving $25,000 and you have enough money added to have the top pros interested.
8) At the end of year, the top 32 on the money list keep their cards for year 2 and pay a fee of $500. You then run the same 32 qualifiers and qualify 64 more and then you have a 128 player field at each event for year 2 and your tour is now set up for subsequent years.
9) Throughout year 1 and beyond, the commissioner is always looking for sponsorhips.
10) The commissioner needs to work with the Turning Stone, DCC, US Open and other events to increase the exposure of not only the tour but also these one off tournaments as well
11) In year 2 or 3 once you have the tour stable and with a name and maybe some media coverage, you look for a TV deal that does not require the tour to pay money. Use a lower network.

These are just some thoughts on how to get a tour off the ground.
My question is, if it was properly organized, would this work ?

Leagueguy
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You thought of it, now go do it!
 
In the end money talks and you need money to make something of this caliber fly but I don't think the return would be that great in terms of profit.

As most people know you want to be able to invest the least amount of money and get the most you can in the return, now you may have to invest more money and the return will be even greater; however this rule only applies where the fan base is huge and money is coming in from everywhere.

UFC for example you could spend 100grand promoting a fight and get lets say a cool 1mil, but in the same fight you could spend 500 grand promoting and get upwards of 10-15mil from the fight. The fanbase is huge and the target audience is very large so lots more funding.

But with pool it has such a restrictive audience, to truly understand and enjoy a safety battle or get amazed by a slight masse 2 rail kick-safety; the general audience won't comprehend all these intricacies and thus the game won't retain as high fan base.

It's easier for people to throw money into a ring so two guys can barbaric on each other. Much easier to comprehend a KO than a kick safety, IMHO.

To make pool flourish we need the next generation to be much more intelligent, Like IQ 110's+
 
btoneill said:
Here's a new horse for Bill
beating-a-dead-horse.jpg
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There more than one horse in a herd, wonder if Scott is BCA certified :)

Wish I could write and express myself as good as Jam or Jay, but Scott and many here have no clue what the board of directors are capable of all we see from our perch is what they/BCA are NOT doing. They can choose any course of action they want to take to support our game as long as they stay within the guidelines of the non profilts laws, we all know where the BCA leagues and the Rivera came from. I know this for a fact, tomorrow they could change their course of thinking. For MANY years they had a player/program side run by John Lewis, and if anyone believes John Lewis isn't promoting play, well enough said. I appreciate Scotts feelings, but he's wrong, I too have the same annoying feelings as Scott, but the BCA has abilities Scott has no clue about.
 
jay helfert said:
You thought of it, now go do it!
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Jay, I would love to.

But unfortuneatley with a full time job and 2 kids under 7 it is just not feasable.

I am a marketing guy with a ton of ideas who loves the game and would love to see it flourish at the pro level.

My original, post was to see whether people think that this type of format would work. The majority of the responders have implied that there would be no interest in a tour where the startup funding comes from the general playing population.

Now maybe if we could get startup funding from somwhere (500,000 would do)

Leagueguy
 
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