That’s very true too. 100% true-it’s unwatchable for people who don’t play.
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Fatboy
How to save professional pool...no, really.
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Fatboy
We have 2 pool rooms in Los Angeles(so it seems-it’s more in reality) these days. I’ve watched them all disappear here as well.
Vegas is one of the few places pool has grown proportional to the growth of the city/market.
I like the un-sanitized version of pool the best. Real gambling joints. Like what my friend thought he saw in the pic. Is what I like, always have and always will. Fancy and pool ain’t my thing. I love fancy places, just not for pool. Monaco is wonderful, not for pool.
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Fatboy
Fair... but I don't play darts but I watch snippets because I'm in awe of the crowds. I don't play tennis but I enjoy the suspense of opponents holding serve when their backs are up against it. I don't play soccer and rather slit my wrists then watch it, but I can respect the conditioning those athletes have.
You'd be hard pressed to find people that have never held a cue. Yet >90% of them don't watch pool because there's nothing inspiring about the game. No crowds cheering, no extreme physical conditioning, no suspense watching a guy plod along doing the same thing they see at the corner bar on the coin op.
The bracket fillers that make the top 25% do so because they draw other bracket fillers....happens all the time.
The cream always rises to the top.
How many surprise winners or finishes are there in pro pool? Or even locally?
And it’s hard to understand a hard from an easy shot in pool for someone who’s never hit a ball.
Darts has a running score like snooker and specific well defined targets on the “out” chart so people can attest see what number they are throwing the dart at. You can’t explain cheating the pocket to anyone who has never played. Triple 20 anyone understands.
Same thing every time. Pool isn’t watchable
Other games are, that’s why they have audiences and we don’t. It’s not a accident, or lack of awareness
Fatboy
Half the beauty of pro pool us you can post 200 bucks and play the best players in the world. You gonna do that in the NBA, golf or Nascar?
Pool is a fringe sport and it's best that way. The bigger pool gets, the bigger cut corporations will take. Players will see little difference.
Pool is a fringe sport and it's best that way. The bigger pool gets, the bigger cut corporations will take. Players will see little difference.
Agreed on darts. I shared this story here before, but on a recent visit with family we watched some pool and then (DAZN) just for grins some darts. The family members don't partake in either. But darts was the much bigger hit. The crowd was boisterous and chanting, the match was only maybe 20 mins long, it was the finals of a tournament, and the ending was great as it was the #1 player in the world vs some guy with a ranking in the 30's and they were neck and neck with each player just needing to hit a specific double to check out and barely missing. You rarely see players at this level miss, and much less often twice in a row, but it must have been 4 or 5 near-misses each back and forth. It was actually exciting to watch. The underdog pulled it off, too.
Pool was much more tame by comparison. I, personally, enjoyed it more, but most of the time was spent with me explaining to my family the rules and why a player might do something one way vs another. It was an intellectual curiosity for a while, but it never hit the excitement or enjoyment factor that the darts match did; it never came close. And at two hours per match, eventually people wanted to do something else.
Ultimately, I'm not sure there's any way to "fix" pool without changing it to something else entirely. Which would make it broken for any of us aficionados.
Way too true !!
The question one has to ask is:: why is snooker so much more watchable then pool.
a) a frame is at least 38 strokes
b) there are no frames where the player stroking the first shot runs out
c) foul rules are better
d) the safety rules are better
e) the players have a dress code
f) the audience is participatory AND respectful
h) is suspect adding colors back to their spots after being sunk also add character, too
That’s been my experience as well.
One thing I will add, I was thinking about this a bit more.
When I was a kid and couldn’t play, but I knew I wanted to play and was fascinated by pool Fats and Mosconi did those exhibitions in NYC. I watched them and loved it. And I didn’t know what shape was or anything about pool.
I was interested in pool first off, and the colorful characters in pool got my attention-Fats in particular. That had appeal to me.
Would I have been interested in a milk drinker running 7364 racks and never saying a word? Unlikely. We need colorful people in pool. Thorp at Mcup this year was fun!
Daz got suspended for saying F*ck afternlosing something this last year.
Expressionless, emotionless robots running racks will not sell pool.
Fatboy<——-not a milk drinker
The smoke filled, sleazy billiard emporiums are dying. Witness the closure of room after room.
Change is good. In 10 years, kids who are 14 now will be 24 years old. They'll have sharp eyes. And...they will be completely under the spell of Modern Pool. They'll comb their hair straight back...they'll wear hand made shoes, silk trow and cashmere sweaters. And they WILL NOT SMOKE.
Pool is not dying. We are. Maybe it's time to hand over the reins.
I hated the smoke, I’ve never smoked in my life. That’s the last thing you’ll ever catch me doing. I’d slam H first-zero chance of that either. But I like needles more than smoke
OK, so we can admit that the Old Guard is dying. What will we leave our ancestors, a broken down, disjointed and failing system, or a real path to the future of pool?
One couldn't have put it better.
Yea but the PAT is not a difficult test of your game this is so you can get into the PGA of America program for Teaching and working in the Golf world. It would need to be more like the actual Tour with Monday Qualifiers $450 entry to enter & top 5 get into the actual tournament. But this again leads to we need an actual organized tour with events scheduled to make this happen. I wish there was a Tour that was set up nicely how the PGA is or even the PBA something has to change.
We took it all.
What’s to leave behind?
Let them build what they want, it’s their future.
Not ours to build
Fatboy
Of course it’s self serving MR isn’t a charity it’s a for profit business. As is predator and everyone else.
That’s what makes the world go around
The PAT is a fair test. It does what its name implies, it TESTS A PLAYERS ABILITY TO PLAY THE GAME. There are plenty of guys playing the game of pool right now who are capable of a 6-pack, but I would be happy to bet that of the +/- 2000 players whose names are on the 2022 Pool Money List, about 1900 of them can't.
Standards of excellence are designed to separate the men from the boys. Passing your PAT in golf shows the members of the snooty Country Club in Denver that you can beat anybody in the club. Being a member of The PGA tells people that you know your shit. It is not uncommon for Club Pros to qualify for and play in the PGA Championship.
A PAT for pool players would separate the men from the boys. Nobody wants to watch dead money. People want to see The Big Guns. People want to get autographs that are worth a shit. In order to do that, you need to identify the really great players, and then ORGANIZE Them. Then, while they are slowly resuscitating a dying game, a chosen (by the players) group of staff and administrators will go to work promoting them. This much I know, "if you build it, they will come."
The funniest thing to watch is denial. A road map for success has already been published and proven by the PGA. Copy the winners and sometimes you can be a winner, too.
"Great oaks from little acorns grow."
Standards of excellence are designed to separate the men from the boys. Passing your PAT in golf shows the members of the snooty Country Club in Denver that you can beat anybody in the club. Being a member of The PGA tells people that you know your shit. It is not uncommon for Club Pros to qualify for and play in the PGA Championship.
A PAT for pool players would separate the men from the boys. Nobody wants to watch dead money. People want to see The Big Guns. People want to get autographs that are worth a shit. In order to do that, you need to identify the really great players, and then ORGANIZE Them. Then, while they are slowly resuscitating a dying game, a chosen (by the players) group of staff and administrators will go to work promoting them. This much I know, "if you build it, they will come."
The funniest thing to watch is denial. A road map for success has already been published and proven by the PGA. Copy the winners and sometimes you can be a winner, too.
"Great oaks from little acorns grow."
Who built it for you?
True Eric. But knowing the usual MR approach (be like a steam locomotive on its track, and take no prisoners) there's more to that. And yes, profit is the main goal. Regardless, sometimes.
Hoping for the good
