How to fix pool!

cleary

cleary

Honestly, I'm a liar.
Silver Member
Everyone has ideas to fix pool... how all these ideas sound...

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I could watch this all day long. It reminds me of when my cat was recovering from anesthesia.
 
Straightpool_99 said:
I don't think any sport has been "fixed" as much as pool, in both meanings of the word!

First there was going from 10 foot tables to 9 foot tables. 4 inch pockets to 5 inch pockets, 5 inch to 4,5 inch pockets, cutting the legs of the tables to save on wood, deeper shelves on slates, bouncier rails. And now bar tables with bouncy rails, deep shelves and tight pockets. I'm sometimes glad the English are so damned conservative that snooker has been mostly left alone. Even though there have been some slight changes in equipment here too, they have been mostly good for the game.

Or how about the rule changes in 9 ball, 8 ball and 10 ball? Even straight pool has been cursed with constant changing of the rules, especially when it comes to fouls..sigh. Pool is not a good sport for tv and most of the bad changes have been made either to save on pool room space or materials OR to try to speed- or "jazz" up the game for tv. I sometimes wish people could leave the game alone, but I understand the desperation of people who see poolrooms close and disappear all around them.

I don't think there is any "one" thing that could change it all around for pool, but I do not think destroying the game in an attempt to appeal to the masses is the way to go.
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They keep fixing it so much, they keep it perpetually broken.

Back when I started playing, it was you, your cue and the table (no matter if you could play or what condition the equipment was in). There were pros back then who could do everything and you tried to watch them, learn something, and then hopefully be able to do it yourself.

Now if you take a new player in the pool hall they are overwhelmed with all the hype and BS.

They will tell you that you won't be able to make a ball unless you have a high-dollar custom cue with a special LD shaft. Then you need a break cue with a special high-dollar tip that only two guys in the world can replace...but rest easy...they'll give you a good price and take a year or two...or maybe never if you read some of the stories on here. However, don't worry...you can use your $600 jump cue while the tip on your break cue is being fixed. Make sure you get joint protectors too...you don't want something to damage your pin if your cue was to fall out of it's case in a plane crash or something.

Once you get that, you'll need a Magic Rack of some sort, because you know nobody can make a ball with a regular rack.

Oh, then you need lessons from some guy who never won a thing in his life, but went to ABC pool school and that will only be $400 for a couple hours and they'll teach you what a pool table looks like and where and how to stand.

After that, you'll be advised to join a league and play with other bangers for about $25 a night to hone your skills.

And after about 10 years of banging, they will move you up to an APA-3 and tell you that you are coming along fine.

:)

OH...and don't forget to buy a tuxedo. When they start the tournament to see if you move up to a level 4 you will need to look appropriate.
 
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Funny how pool and bowling share their ills together. Both sports are played by a ridiculous number of people. But people just don't like to watch it on TV.

How do you market or change the game to make people WANT to watch it? Answer that question and the dominos start falling in our favor.
 
DJ14.1 said:
Funny how pool and bowling share their ills together. Both sports are played by a ridiculous number of people. But people just don't like to watch it on TV.

How do you market or change the game to make people WANT to watch it? Answer that question and the dominos start falling in our favor.
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Semi-naked women. I think I just saved pool.
 
How do you market or change the game to make people WANT to watch it? Answer that question and the dominos start falling in our favor.[/QUOTE]

The games on Tv have become to clean you need to dirty it up a little.You want people to watch it ? Get two players to play 8 ball and 9 ball . This is the games the average joe play, you know the bangers. and lots of questionable shots because most of the bangers don't know the rules. than have the players argue about the rules wile there playing you need creative caricatures . You need a good guy and a bad guy . people will identify with one or the other take a side and bamb people are hooked on watching . Heck even put a woman in the mix that hustles both of them.

Popeye31
 
Popeye31 said:
How do you market or change the game to make people WANT to watch it? Answer that question and the dominos start falling in our favor.
Click to expand...

The games on Tv have become to clean you need to dirty it up a little.You want people to watch it ? Get two players to play 8 ball and 9 ball . This is the games the average joe play, you know the bangers. and lots of questionable shots because most of the bangers don't know the rules. than have the players argue about the rules wile there playing you need creative caricatures . You need a good guy and a bad guy . people will identify with one or the other take a side and bamb people are hooked on watching . Heck even put a woman in the mix that hustles both of them.

Popeye31[/QUOTE]



Ha!! So basically just film a bar league and put it on TV as a reality show... :-)
 
DJ14.1 said:
The games on Tv have become to clean you need to dirty it up a little.You want people to watch it ? Get two players to play 8 ball and 9 ball . This is the games the average joe play, you know the bangers. and lots of questionable shots because most of the bangers don't know the rules. than have the players argue about the rules wile there playing you need creative caricatures . You need a good guy and a bad guy . people will identify with one or the other take a side and bamb people are hooked on watching . Heck even put a woman in the mix that hustles both of them.

Popeye31
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Ha!! So basically just film a bar league and put it on TV as a reality show... :-)[/QUOTE]

That is EXACTLY what you need! Earl Strickland playing Scooter and bar bangers in a strip joint in Colorado or somewhere everybody can drink and smoke pot. Have rap music blasting out at eardrum busting level. Earl needs to be in a tuxedo and Scooter needs to be "hat on sideways, pants on the ground".

This will attract viewers and younger players. :)
 
Pool is alive and well...if you mean the millions of league players.
They grow every year....in APA, they have to to stay in the APA.
Leagues bring in dollars to pool rooms.
'Pro' pool is the problem. The games have been changed and changed ( mostly for the worst).
And we have to play under thoses bad changes...what a joke.
Nothing about pool will ever appeal to the 'masses'.
Pool is for pool players....and it used to be a great game.
But 1 foul 9 ball, jumping balls ( even in 1 hole...really??), short races, have led to the decline of old school pool.
Too bad. It was a great game
 
cleary said:
Everyone has ideas to fix pool... how all these ideas sound...

dV2CgPh.gif
Click to expand...

In all seriousness, there's no fixing pool.
By that I mean there's nothing "magical" that can be done to change its course.
Yes, one can institute new games (think Bonus Ball), "innovative" playing conditions
(10-ft tables), but those are short-lived influences.

What is needed is more participation. Isn't that what makes an industry work?
Well, as I have said before, the masses are NOT interested in this game. That's
the way it goes. I love pool. I will continue to play. Although I would love for the sport
to grow, I am realistic enough to quit wasting time trying to "save" pool and concentrate
more on making what we have a better quality product.

Do the same my friends.
 
jburkm002 said:
You have to find a way to either make the viewers love or hate the players and not the game.
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Exactly. Viewership for other sports dips dramatically when specific players or teams aren't playing. When the NHL strike occurred, we had reruns mostly to fill the hockey void. You would have expected it to be primarly OHL or AHL games being broadcast, but it wasn't the case as much as I would have thought. People wanted to watch the Montreal Canadians play, not the Hamilton Bulldogs.

Get people to interested in Shane as person and they will watch him play pool.
 
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