The image of pool suffers from several things. One of my pet peeves is the lack of a dress code. You look like a bum and you are going to be treated like a bum.
How to improve the popularity of pool?
- Thread starter Chalk & Awe
- Start date
Based on the way people dress today at any time and any place, (mostly dumpy), what should the dress code be to go into a pool room or facility that has pool tables? The same as a bowling alley? (are they also on the decline or an upswing)
Agree.
Rooms, leagues, tournaments, quality equipment, junior programs...
By just about any measure, I think that recreational pool is stronger now than any time in the last 50 years that I've been in and around it.
Any ideas based in reality? Fones and video games ain't goin nowhere.
My problem is when tournaments are streamed more so than just walking into a pool hall. TurningStones semi annual tournament has a strict dress code. Others should take note. When I see Tony Chohan wearing a smock that looks like a nascar entry or graffiti on a wall I shake my head. It must be a cultural thing. Once again snooker players have a more formal presentation. You don’t need a vest but look presentable.
I agree. Neither is the generation that’s obsessed with them.
L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
Zar is correct, cell phones and video games aren't going anywhere. At the very least the video games in pool rooms or billiard clubs as some like to call them should be made to be silent while in operation. One would think with all this empty building space caused by online shopping these day that more pool rooms could get into some of that. For instance here in Redwood City there's been a K-mart empty building with a huge weed over grown parking lot empty for at least a couple of years now. Now if Bill Gates was a pool player who knows what he could do with that place.
Short of all this and back to reality, pool in schools at an early age is mandatory. San Jose state used to offer classes related to pool/billiards at one point but no longer does now unfortunately.
I just stumbled across this thread from about 10 years ago. It's about the Jack and Jill pool room started and owned by
Weenie Beenie in Arlington, VA. ALL the top players in the country, hustlers, and regular working stiffs played at Jack and Jill at one time or another. https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/jack-and-jill-cue-club-in-arlington-virginia.338026/
How can that be duplicated now based on how society has changed with their likes and dislikes? All of us are here on this forum
because we love to play pool, watch pool, bullshit about pool, argue about pool and how to play it, and everything that goes along with it.
Bowling has taken a big hit in popularity, players, profit, and continues on the decline. Why not pool? What does it have to offer the younger breed of older kids in their teens over and above what's available to them? How about those in their 20's trying to scratch out a living in their new jobs after getting out of school? If you're a male, is it a place to go meet females? If you're a female, is it a place to go meet males? Maybe, but they better know how to at least hold a cue and stroke the CB without putting a hole or tear in the cloth. I went to pool rooms regularly but if I had a chance to play pool or get laid, guess which won out? When you're that age, perpetual horniness goes on around the clock. That has NOT changed.
From a business standpoint, it's quite an investment with a slow return. It's harder and harder to even find space or an existing building that's large enough to hold a good number of tables to make it profitable. How about the cost of the tables
themselves? Can they be leased or are they purchased? Either way there has to be enough play coming in to cover the nut.
For a property owner it makes more sense to build upward for offices, apartments, or condos instead of one level for a pool
room. Much greater regular income with less chance of short-term failure.
Weenie Beenie in Arlington, VA. ALL the top players in the country, hustlers, and regular working stiffs played at Jack and Jill at one time or another. https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/jack-and-jill-cue-club-in-arlington-virginia.338026/
How can that be duplicated now based on how society has changed with their likes and dislikes? All of us are here on this forum
because we love to play pool, watch pool, bullshit about pool, argue about pool and how to play it, and everything that goes along with it.
Bowling has taken a big hit in popularity, players, profit, and continues on the decline. Why not pool? What does it have to offer the younger breed of older kids in their teens over and above what's available to them? How about those in their 20's trying to scratch out a living in their new jobs after getting out of school? If you're a male, is it a place to go meet females? If you're a female, is it a place to go meet males? Maybe, but they better know how to at least hold a cue and stroke the CB without putting a hole or tear in the cloth. I went to pool rooms regularly but if I had a chance to play pool or get laid, guess which won out? When you're that age, perpetual horniness goes on around the clock. That has NOT changed.
From a business standpoint, it's quite an investment with a slow return. It's harder and harder to even find space or an existing building that's large enough to hold a good number of tables to make it profitable. How about the cost of the tables
themselves? Can they be leased or are they purchased? Either way there has to be enough play coming in to cover the nut.
For a property owner it makes more sense to build upward for offices, apartments, or condos instead of one level for a pool
room. Much greater regular income with less chance of short-term failure.
DaWizard
Well-known member
2 small additions:
Here in Holland pool isnt seen as shady. It's seen as a leisure/bar sport. Like darts or bowling.
Online the pool games do pretty well, I believe. I think some pool playing apps have millions(?) of users. Online players can't pot a ball, but the game does entertain many. How to get them to play irl?
Here in Holland pool isnt seen as shady. It's seen as a leisure/bar sport. Like darts or bowling.
Online the pool games do pretty well, I believe. I think some pool playing apps have millions(?) of users. Online players can't pot a ball, but the game does entertain many. How to get them to play irl?
I'd 100% pay to watch a streamed tournament with hookers and blow. Hell, I used to pay way more than a streaming charge to go to The Derby back when it was at the Executive West, which was basically an event with hookers and blow and more. I'll be the first to say that it was "starting" to get "a little" out of control there towards the end at the Executive West. But, at the risk of sounding like a back-in-my-day oldie, I have to say that there were some glory years in there where it was perfectly wild. It had just the right amount of insanity.
*I used the quotes for those who went to that event and saw what was happening. For those who never went and are wondering, it got a bit sketchy towards the end.
But I mainly liked your comment about pro pool, leagues, and poolrooms being three different things.
I don’t think pool is becoming more or less popular with the public. Status quo.
The pro game, on the other hand, is getting better and better, as noted.
What could make it more popular? Pool is still reasonably popular. About 50,000 new tables are sold each year. There are at least several million now in US homes. I see lots of used tables sold on ebay and Facebook all the time. Lots of homes actually have a big enough basements to fit at least a 7-ft table, especially in the Northeast and Midwest.
While pool halls still have a downscale rep, that’s not the case with tables in homes. Go on Houzz and you’ll see tons of fancy tables in homes.
The one thing I think could make pool more popular is Matchroom getting the Mosconi Cup on mainstream TV. With a few tweaks, it possibly could be a big hit. Sort of like the Ryder Cup.
Americans are patriotic and love us against the world. Jason Shaw is the perfect villain. Like it or not, the Mosconi is the only vehicle that could capture the attention of a decent portion of the public.
The pro game, on the other hand, is getting better and better, as noted.
What could make it more popular? Pool is still reasonably popular. About 50,000 new tables are sold each year. There are at least several million now in US homes. I see lots of used tables sold on ebay and Facebook all the time. Lots of homes actually have a big enough basements to fit at least a 7-ft table, especially in the Northeast and Midwest.
While pool halls still have a downscale rep, that’s not the case with tables in homes. Go on Houzz and you’ll see tons of fancy tables in homes.
The one thing I think could make pool more popular is Matchroom getting the Mosconi Cup on mainstream TV. With a few tweaks, it possibly could be a big hit. Sort of like the Ryder Cup.
Americans are patriotic and love us against the world. Jason Shaw is the perfect villain. Like it or not, the Mosconi is the only vehicle that could capture the attention of a decent portion of the public.
Minimum dress code should be:: Business casual.
a) button shirt,
b) semi-dress trousers
c) leather shoes
L.S. Dennis
Well-known member
For some sort of organized tournament I'd agree with this but not for just casual play in a pool hall.
That's hardly done anywhere. You can't even get grade school and high school teachers to dress like that.
Perhaps that is one part of the answer.....put a Starbucks in the pool room (or Starbucks like set up)......I have never been in a pool room with a good coffee bar....I have traveled to neighboring states for tournaments in the past....The routine is almost always the same in the morning on the way to the pool room.....Where is the Starbucks.
I have been to Vegas for BCA with people everywhere.....Where is usually the longest lines.......The coffee bar
Chalk & Awe
Registered
"There was an age of billiards, and it has been over for so long that most of us have no idea how huge billiards once was. For many decades, starting in the mid-19th century, billiards was the one of the most popular amusements. A hundred years ago, there were 830 pool halls in the city of Chicago. Today [2015], there are 10."
How Once-Popular Pool Halls Ushered in the Age of Plastic
Roman Mars’ podcast 99% Invisible covers design questions large and small, from his fascination with rebar to the history of slot machines to the great ...www.slate.com
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You can't possibly use the words "Starbucks" and "good coffee bar" in the same sentence…
Big tournaments like that are played throughout the day though.
Most pool, especially league play is in the evening. I just don't see that much coffee being drunk to justify something like that.
But again, I completely disagree with this entire notion that pool is somehow dying.
