If bonus ball was 9 ball, would it have worked?

For Bonus Ball to work they needed to get some sort of para-mutual betting going on it for funding. There was many things that went well with it such as the team aspect, shot clock, along with the production/arena. Vegas was not the right place for it, initially I thought it would be okay there but way too much competition. I believe they should have went with nice golf style polos instead of hockey jerseys and also bonus ball would have been fine if they coupled it with either 9 or 10 ball and also 8 ball.

Teams would play 3 different games to get points so now you get a mixture instead of being introduced a new game which can be and was confusing to pool fans. Slowly let them enjoy the game and give it a chance while still enjoying the ones we already know. There were plenty of mistakes made but I learned some things that were successful and worked well as I mentioned earlier but also the players will come together they have shown.
 
If the organizers believed in Bonus Ball as a concept then what they should have done is just organized a couple of 5000-added BB tournaments in various parts of the country. That would have got far more people playing it than the pro league format they went with.
 
I still believe the concept of city against city would have worked much better than a bunch of Pros sitting in Las Vegas wearing different shirts. Once you have a dozen cities, sooner or later you might have 50 cities, who knows.

Getting the numbers up to support Bonus Ball is "JOB 1"....
 
ceebee said:
I still believe the concept of city against city would have worked much better than a bunch of Pros sitting in Las Vegas wearing different shirts. Once you have a dozen cities, sooner or later you might have 50 cities, who knows.

Getting the numbers up to support Bonus Ball is "JOB 1"....
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It was city against city but to do the production you need to have an arena and setting them up in each city was not very cost effective. Some would say have it in a pool hall in different cities but you could not have the production quality going from room to room that you have in a controlled setting.

Bonus Ball is done, I learned a good deal from the experience and can't say I have the answer. Perhaps pro pool just doesn't have the fan base it needs, amateur pool is played by many people but I doubt 10% of them know who the US Open or World Champion is.

Pro pool can be bought and I have said this before for around $1,000,000 a year, if you can add that much money each year having say ten $100,000 events then you can have a tour. Maybe a company could use it for some sort of advertising purposes like the Pepsi Pool Tour.

They would need about 10,000,000 views to do so which is not hard to get if you think of say YouTube which over the course of a year probably could gather that many views if you have ten events worth of matches with some of the worlds best players along with all the views on the live feed. Just day dreaming over here. :smile:
 
Fast Lenny said:
It was city against city but to do the production you need to have an arena and setting them up in each city was not very cost effective. Some would say have it in a pool hall in different cities but you could not have the production quality going from room to room that you have in a controlled setting.

Bonus Ball is done, I learned a good deal from the experience and can't say I have the answer. Perhaps pro pool just doesn't have the fan base it needs, amateur pool is played by many people but I doubt 10% of them know who the US Open or World Champion is.

Pro pool can be bought and I have said this before for around $1,000,000 a year, if you can add that much money each year having say ten $100,000 events then you can have a tour. Maybe a company could use it for some sort of advertising purposes like the Pepsi Pool Tour.

They would need about 10,000,000 views to do so which is not hard to get if you think of say YouTube which over the course of a year probably could gather that many views if you have ten events worth of matches with some of the worlds best players along with all the views on the live feed. Just day dreaming over here. :smile:
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I agree with most of what you said.... BUT as far as production quality goes, we have streamers all across the land that feature Pool Playing .... that's OK for me.

I don't care about Bonus Ball, but I do care about Pro Pool & "The Game"...
 
Fast Lenny said:
It was city against city but to do the production you need to have an arena and setting them up in each city was not very cost effective. Some would say have it in a pool hall in different cities but you could not have the production quality going from room to room that you have in a controlled setting.

Bonus Ball is done, I learned a good deal from the experience and can't say I have the answer. Perhaps pro pool just doesn't have the fan base it needs, amateur pool is played by many people but I doubt 10% of them know who the US Open or World Champion is.

Pro pool can be bought and I have said this before for around $1,000,000 a year, if you can add that much money each year having say ten $100,000 events then you can have a tour. Maybe a company could use it for some sort of advertising purposes like the Pepsi Pool Tour.

They would need about 10,000,000 views to do so which is not hard to get if you think of say YouTube which over the course of a year probably could gather that many views if you have ten events worth of matches with some of the worlds best players along with all the views on the live feed. Just day dreaming over here. :smile:
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For $1 million a year a company like Pepsi could find a hell of a lot better marketing avenues than pool. That's part of the problem.
 
ceebee said:
I agree with most of what you said.... BUT as far as production quality goes, we have streamers all across the land that feature Pool Playing .... that's OK for me.

I don't care about Bonus Ball, but I do care about Pro Pool & "The Game"...
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Every live stream out there mine included is not a real production worthy of a big name sponsor sadly. When you look at Mosconi Cup then you see a true production with a crew IMO that is TV worthy also. Bonus Ball got on ESPN3 like Mosconi is played on there because the quality was at a higher level which we don't see in pool. Live streams most times are fixed angles and no real crew. It still is good for the game though and I am glad to do my part.
 
boogeyman said:
Good perspective, vjmehra.
However, your suggestions chip-away at the "sport concept" of Bonus Ball.

If you play races to five, then you take away the need for the shot clock, a very
important component of Bonus Ball.
All you need is a simple "digital flip card" system to keep score.

Bonus Ball HAS to be played with points, (like other major sports).
Your overall suggestions basically relegate Bonus Ball to races and scotch doubles.

Not as dynamic as Bonus Ball's original team concept.

Anyone else wanna do better?
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But Mosconi Cup races to 5 have a shot clock, that seems to work well, being (I'm guessing) the most popular pool tournament on tv (in terms of number of viewers).

As an alternative, here we have the snooker shootout, which is a 1 frame / 10 minute snooker match, why not do that with straight pool?
 
Fast Lenny said:
Every live stream out there mine included is not a real production worthy of a big name sponsor sadly. When you look at Mosconi Cup then you see a true production with a crew IMO that is TV worthy also. Bonus Ball got on ESPN3 like Mosconi is played on there because the quality was at a higher level which we don't see in pool. Live streams most times are fixed angles and no real crew. It still is good for the game though and I am glad to do my part.
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Are you able to make a living with your streaming or are you just having a good time...?
I may be wrong, but Bonus Ball maybe dead with their format.

I just made a suggestion for the players to represent cities across the nation. Players across the nation will build rivalries, rivalries will build the streaming. If you get pool players interested in city rivalry & people watch, just maybe you will build a fan base & hopefully sponsors will follow, especially pool n billiard companies.

It's just an idea, others may have ideas to. Anything that helps Pool, I enjoy.

So far Bonus Ball hasn't enjoyed success. I hope it lives & becomes a great success.
 
ceebee said:
Are you able to make a living with your streaming or are you just having a good time...?
I may be wrong, but Bonus Ball maybe dead with their format.

I just made a suggestion for the players to represent cities across the nation. Players across the nation will build rivalries, rivalries will build the streaming. If you get pool players interested in city rivalry & people watch, just maybe you will build a fan base & hopefully sponsors will follow, especially pool n billiard companies.

It's just an idea, others may have ideas to. Anything that helps Pool, I enjoy.

So far Bonus Ball hasn't enjoyed success. I hope it lives & becomes a great success.
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Were any of the Chicago team players actually from Chicago? I doubt it. Team play and all the other suggestions are valid, but they don't solve the problem that pool doesn't have viewership...plain and simple. No one's going to watch it just because the team represents their city, or is playing a different game, or is wearing a different style of shirt.

I give Bonus Ball major props for trying. But it was a gigantically uphill battle.

Here's a game that has a chance: Demolition 8-Ball. Each player has a cue ball on the table. There's no such things a "turns" at the table, both players shooting at once. Everything is legal; hit the opponent's ball right as he's getting ready to shoot, push the opponent out of the way on your way to your cue ball (penalty if you weren't "going for your cue ball" and just shoved your opponent), etc. That's one way to make pool entertaining. Of course, WE won't consider it pool, but we're the audience that has failed to watch traditional pool.
 
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bdorman said:
Were any of the Chicago team players actually from Chicago? I doubt it. Team play and all the other suggestions are valid, but they don't solve the problem that pool doesn't have viewership...plain and simple. No one's going to watch it just because the team represents their city, or is playing a different game, or is wearing a different style of shirt.

I give Bonus Ball major props for trying. But it was a gigantically uphill battle.

Here's a game that has a chance: Demolition 8-Ball. Each player has a cue ball on the table. There's no such things a "turns" at the table, both players shooting at once. Everything is legal; hit the opponent's ball right as he's getting ready to shoot, push the opponent out of the way on your way to your cue ball (penalty if you weren't "going for your cue ball" and just shoved your opponent), etc. That's one way to make pool entertaining. Of course, WE won't consider it pool, but we're the audience that has failed to watch traditional pool.
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I guess I'm just different.... If they were having a match game, at Magoos, in Tulsa, with another city's team & they were streaming the match. I would be there to watch & support the Tulsa Team in person. If Tulsa was playing away, I would be watching the stream.

In Tulsa we have a large pool player base & when a big tournament is played, you can't get in the place. Magoos sometimes rearranges the floor plan so that viewing is easier for lots of fans.


I think if Tulsa were playing Tampa, with Denver & San Diego in the hunt, that you could possibly have fans from all 4 of those cities, plus your frequent fans watching.
the match. I think that is better than 18 people in the stands in Las Vegas.

AND you could have at least 4 matches (4 teams) playing in other cities, at the same time.

It's just my opinion, but everybody has a nose & an opinion. AND, I've been wrong before.
 
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