Idea for pro pool

[ccshrimper]

Sorry if this has been brought up before or it's a stupid idea but I haven't seen it.

Most tournaments I've been to will add more money based on player attendance. This is great for smaller tournaments because enough weak players show up and spend money. For major tournaments the real money comes from the spectators so I was thinking why not base money added on spectator attendance? For the US Open to be successful it helps if they have a full field of players but the real money comes in from the spectators. 256 players is great but not if only 100 spectators are watching the match.

IMO, this would make the players interact with the fans more. Pros could offer lessons to whoever attended a major tournament and would have to help promote the tournaments themselves. If every top pro could convince 5-10 extra people (or more) from their area to attend each major tournament by offering a one day pool clinic when they returned home it would greatly benefit the major tournaments. In the long run, this would give pro players the experience of tutoring to help them after they retire also.

I'm sure there are other things the players could do to help attendance besides lessons. This makes it fair for the players and promoters. With poor attendance and guaranteed added money, the promoters can get hijacked. Then, if they lower the added money so they don't go bankrupt the players feel they got cheated.

Just an idea and I doubt the players and promoters would ever agree to it.

 

[The Renfro]

I think you would likely find the promoters would buy into a gate percentage calculation. The hard sell would be to the players since they want "guaranteed" money so they can calculate risk vs reward....

It would definitely give the players a vested interest in promoting events with the promoter which may be exactly what needs to happen to kick professional tournaments into a real gear.......

One thing Barry needs to do is to allow clinics, exhibitions, lessons ect... in the outer convention areas... I know in the past he has frowned on anything that would keep someone entertained outside of the actual tournament room... I would like to see it be more of a circus with all sorts of things to keep people entertained and showing up..... Heck I might even go as far as putting live entertainment into the buffet area....

Another thing Barry could do would be to run a free shuttle between Q-Masters and the convention center from the time the tournament starts until the last match is over.... I know it's only a short drive but lots of people travel long distances and with friends.. I know I have shuttled several people to and from Q-Masters during the event and If I wasn't driving they wouldn't have gone and spent money at Barry's they would have ran around the corner to grab a bite.. I would also bet that the shuttle would be carting people over from Q-Masters that might not have came to the tournament that night otherwise.....

 

[ccshrimper]

I think you would likely find the promoters would buy into a gate percentage calculation. The hard sell would be to the players since they want "guaranteed" money so they can calculate risk vs reward....

It would definitely give the players a vested interest in promoting events with the promoter which may be exactly what needs to happen to kick professional tournaments into a real gear.......

One thing Barry needs to do is to allow clinics, exhibitions, lessons ect... in the outer convention areas... I know in the past he has frowned on anything that would keep someone entertained outside of the actual tournament room... I would like to see it be more of a circus with all sorts of things to keep people entertained and showing up..... Heck I might even go as far as putting live entertainment into the buffet area....

Another thing Barry could do would be to run a free shuttle between Q-Masters and the convention center from the time the tournament starts until the last match is over.... I know it's only a short drive but lots of people travel long distances and with friends.. I know I have shuttled several people to and from Q-Masters during the event and If I wasn't driving they wouldn't have gone and spent money at Barry's they would have ran around the corner to grab a bite.. I would also bet that the shuttle would be carting people over from Q-Masters that might not have came to the tournament that night otherwise.....

Very good ideas! Players need to understand for the bigger paydays down the road, they will have to put some work in and not just on the pool table.