I am not doing it to make me a profit just to try to get a tour together that will benefit a tour and at the end pay about 250k to the points leader.
if I win the lottery
- Thread starter fasted71465
- Start date
I know that you're not the first person to make a thread like this.
Its very commendable of you to think like this.
But seriously, if I or anyone else were to hit the big one, Pro Pool is the last thing that would be on anyones minds. Do you think that any of the Pros will give you any respect for it. I'd be packed and on a fast jet to Europe to travel or whatever.
Pro Pool would be the furthest from my mind.
There are tons of people that have the resources to do this already but put their money toward more charitable organizations. If they really cared that much about the game, it would have been done already.
I mean, certain people have actually done or tried exactly that before and look where that got them.
Myself, I would just as soon drop a couple of Mill on our local Humane Society and spread some around to Animal Rescue Orgs and The Children's Wish Foundation.
That said, considering that we no longer have a pool hall where I live, I would also open a nice one for the locals and leave someone else to run it. It would be non profit and maybe pop in once in awhile to micro manage it.
Its very commendable of you to think like this.
But seriously, if I or anyone else were to hit the big one, Pro Pool is the last thing that would be on anyones minds. Do you think that any of the Pros will give you any respect for it. I'd be packed and on a fast jet to Europe to travel or whatever.
Pro Pool would be the furthest from my mind.
There are tons of people that have the resources to do this already but put their money toward more charitable organizations. If they really cared that much about the game, it would have been done already.
I mean, certain people have actually done or tried exactly that before and look where that got them.
Myself, I would just as soon drop a couple of Mill on our local Humane Society and spread some around to Animal Rescue Orgs and The Children's Wish Foundation.
That said, considering that we no longer have a pool hall where I live, I would also open a nice one for the locals and leave someone else to run it. It would be non profit and maybe pop in once in awhile to micro manage it.
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That is the last thing I would do. Those so called "leaders" have led to the sport being where it is today. If you want it to go somewhere else you need new people because it is really clear the old guard of people in charge of this sport are way to set in the old ways and have no clue what to do to get the sport out of it's rut.
I've written it out a few times....I've spent a lot of time daydreaming about this.
I have a few different theories, and ideas, on how to do it. Slow, sustained growth, over a few years, to create a base to establish the real thing.
I would involve a lot of the current structure, and help it grow, as well.
And I would also try to take meetings with some of the movers and shakers, to bat the ideas around.
I think it could work. I hope that I have the opportunity to try....now, for that winning lotto ticket
I have a few different theories, and ideas, on how to do it. Slow, sustained growth, over a few years, to create a base to establish the real thing.
I would involve a lot of the current structure, and help it grow, as well.
And I would also try to take meetings with some of the movers and shakers, to bat the ideas around.
I think it could work. I hope that I have the opportunity to try....now, for that winning lotto ticket
Oh yeah......it's so much better to sink it into pool
.Wow is all I can say....and I love the game as much as the next guy!!!
Maniac
I think about the only way to really dive in there and "save pool" would be to drum up personal involvement to the common guy who likes pool...Do something like a Scotch Doubles Pro-Am tournament where you have an auction to see who you get to play partners with...Take the money from that and pay the pro's...Why pay 40-50 bucks to watch something when for 100 or so you can pick up your cue and participate with your favorite pro...You'd need some television backing to make it work as that would be the hook for Joe 6-pack to get interested...That's what happened to poker after Rounders came out....Literally anyone could play and have a shot of being on ESPN...
If I had a couple of million to burn, I would focus on a way to get the average common player a way to get real excited...Too many folks focusing on a pro tour when what they should be looking at is how to get people interested in playing the game themselves....You figure that out, and the money will flow into the pro game and itt will find a way to work itself out...
If I had a couple of million to burn, I would focus on a way to get the average common player a way to get real excited...Too many folks focusing on a pro tour when what they should be looking at is how to get people interested in playing the game themselves....You figure that out, and the money will flow into the pro game and itt will find a way to work itself out...
I didn't say to give them the reins and see what they do with it.:wink: I said to "brainstorm" and thereby get a lot of good ideas, some bad ideas, what for sure hasn't worked out, who to watch out for, what to expect. One could learn a whole lot in a meeting like that.
Then...with that knowledge, start putting some ideas down on paper. In the end, one person would be running it as an owner.(me, it's my money:wink
But, I would also not be just a dictator. I would have a slew of others, in other business, advertisement, ect. to guide me. As far as the players go, it would be "These are the rules. Abide by them, or get fined, or hit the door." Just like any other business is run. I figure it would also include training camps, programs to get the juniors started so there would be some kind of future. Get it in more schools and colleges. It wouldn't be just a pro tour and that's it. Some kind of program to progress from amateur to pro, and a reason to want to do so. It wouldn't be just a "now" program, but a long lasting endeavor. Most likely, I would never see the real fruition of it.
What would a Pro Player do if he were to hit the big one.
Probably a lot of things, losing it gambling would be priority one most likely.
But investing it for the good of his or their sport, I doubt it.
Probably a lot of things, losing it gambling would be priority one most likely.
But investing it for the good of his or their sport, I doubt it.
A lot of what I would do has already been mentioned above.
1) The professional game should be 8-ball. That is what the general public know, that is what they understand, and that is what they play.
2) The rules would be open after the break, no jump cues, and otherwise closely follow the BCA rules already in existence.
3) The professional game needs to be played on professional equipment under professional conditions. The tables would be 10 foot diamonds and the pockets would be cut exactly like the Fatboy rails that TAR once used. Much as the professional golf tour is played on tougher then average conditions and a pro riley snooker table is tougher then a normal snooker table in most places the tour would have very tough tables. This fact would be made very clear during the initial stages of the tour so that the general public understand these are not bar boxes.
4) The game needs a proper professional designation. Professional status in the game needs to be earned through a qualifying school. In the start of a tour that I built I would run qualifiers for EVERYONE. Not a single person in the world would be "invited". Earl, SVB, Mika, Wu, I don't care who they are they need to qualify through a series of international qualifier events I would run.
5) Once you are qualified as a tour professional and win your players card you do NOT have to pay to enter tournaments. Each professional player who has earned their cards has automatic entry.
6) Qualifiers for individual events would be run prior to events where single entry into single events could be won. Those players winning the entry do not have to pay to enter the main event but the qualifiers would be paid entry and the income from the qualifiers would be put into the main event purse.
7) Winning a single event automatically earns a player without a tour card their card for the remainder of that year and the following year.
8) Rankings are kept, events are seeded, and at the end of the year the bottom 25% of tour card holders lose their cards and must go back to the Q School tournaments to re-earn their professional tour card (unless they won an event). The people losing their cards are replaced by the same number of people coming from the Q school.
9) The tour would have a maximum of 128 professional tour cards available worldwide.
10) Events would be single elimination, seeded, and matches would be races to 13, win by two, alternate break, lag for first break. Finals would be race to 17, win by two, alternate break.
11) Sponsorship deals with key industries such as airlines would be made that would allow for reduced/free economy airfare for the players on the tour.
12) The tour would be international. The events would be spread across the world. At the beginning the tour would be kept small (6 events for the year, two in America, 2 in Europe, and 2 in Asia) and would be allowed to grow and expand slowly. At it's peak the tour would aim to have 24 events per a year including 4 majors, 3 regional majors (American, Asian, and Europe) and a tour championships/world title.
13) Due to the difficulty of attracting TV involvement in the sport atm the use of online streaming would be used and heavily marketed across many popular online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, ect...
14) It would be attempted to have the streaming be free to increase the viewership and advertisement/sponsor numbers. feasibility of free streaming would have to be assessed and if it was determined that it would not be possible the viewing of the tour would be sold by the event with a greatly reduced pricing plan to buy the entire season.
15) As the popularity and viability of the tour grows it would be marketed to TV interests for "live only" broadcasts.
16) An 8-ball league would potentially be created to build an associated amateur system that would then be connected to the professional tour. The league would allow for the potential to win your way into individual events and at the end year tournaments would give the possibility for people to win their professional tour cards. The league system would include a small amount of money from league fees to go to the professional tour and in turn the league players would have access to the tour streams (if they were PPV) included in being a member of the league system. Entry into the end of the year singles events to attempt to win the tour cards would also be included for all league members and would have been paid for as a part of the league fees.
17) Creating avenues to bet on the outcome of matches/events would be sought out and encouraged. Things like the European betting houses would be approached and encouraged to support/sponsor the league due to the mutual benefit it could create. Betting through the casino books in Vegas would also be sought out.
18) Throwing of matches, betting on matches by the tour players (even not their own match) would be against the rules of the tour and anyone caught doing it would receive a lifetime ban from the tour, period. One strike and you are out on this.
19) Marketing and imaging of the tour/sport would be done by professional marketing firms and people who do this type of thing for a living. Management of the tour would be done by professional management firms. This would NOT be done by the people in the pool world who think they can actually do this type of thing and have proven time and time again they simply cannot.
20) There would be a lot of working on how to properly present the sport. I am unsure of if showing a single match is actually the way to go for pool. I think doing a mix of live and recently taped clips of various matches might be preferable as a spectator sport (Which pool sucks at being atm and which is it's main problem). Something closer to what golf does, showing clips of shots from all over the course and from all of the players instead of following around a single golfer including their walk to the next shot (which in pool is almost what we do when watching slow players look over a shot for 2+ minutes). Those two minutes would be better spent showing highlights from other live matches where the action is not in a lull. It would cost way more money to set this up and pay the added staff that would be needed but the payoff in a far better to watch product could be huge is the general public caught onto it and actually liked it.
*****************************************************************************************************************
The trick is getting the general public to take notice and thus allow for the added sponsorship options that would arise were the game to become more popular. I believe 8-ball if the ONLY option, rotation pool has simply never caught on with the general public, it is still a niche that only pool fans/players know of and we NEED more of the non-pool fans to take notice and start watching the sport.
1) The professional game should be 8-ball. That is what the general public know, that is what they understand, and that is what they play.
2) The rules would be open after the break, no jump cues, and otherwise closely follow the BCA rules already in existence.
3) The professional game needs to be played on professional equipment under professional conditions. The tables would be 10 foot diamonds and the pockets would be cut exactly like the Fatboy rails that TAR once used. Much as the professional golf tour is played on tougher then average conditions and a pro riley snooker table is tougher then a normal snooker table in most places the tour would have very tough tables. This fact would be made very clear during the initial stages of the tour so that the general public understand these are not bar boxes.
4) The game needs a proper professional designation. Professional status in the game needs to be earned through a qualifying school. In the start of a tour that I built I would run qualifiers for EVERYONE. Not a single person in the world would be "invited". Earl, SVB, Mika, Wu, I don't care who they are they need to qualify through a series of international qualifier events I would run.
5) Once you are qualified as a tour professional and win your players card you do NOT have to pay to enter tournaments. Each professional player who has earned their cards has automatic entry.
6) Qualifiers for individual events would be run prior to events where single entry into single events could be won. Those players winning the entry do not have to pay to enter the main event but the qualifiers would be paid entry and the income from the qualifiers would be put into the main event purse.
7) Winning a single event automatically earns a player without a tour card their card for the remainder of that year and the following year.
8) Rankings are kept, events are seeded, and at the end of the year the bottom 25% of tour card holders lose their cards and must go back to the Q School tournaments to re-earn their professional tour card (unless they won an event). The people losing their cards are replaced by the same number of people coming from the Q school.
9) The tour would have a maximum of 128 professional tour cards available worldwide.
10) Events would be single elimination, seeded, and matches would be races to 13, win by two, alternate break, lag for first break. Finals would be race to 17, win by two, alternate break.
11) Sponsorship deals with key industries such as airlines would be made that would allow for reduced/free economy airfare for the players on the tour.
12) The tour would be international. The events would be spread across the world. At the beginning the tour would be kept small (6 events for the year, two in America, 2 in Europe, and 2 in Asia) and would be allowed to grow and expand slowly. At it's peak the tour would aim to have 24 events per a year including 4 majors, 3 regional majors (American, Asian, and Europe) and a tour championships/world title.
13) Due to the difficulty of attracting TV involvement in the sport atm the use of online streaming would be used and heavily marketed across many popular online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, ect...
14) It would be attempted to have the streaming be free to increase the viewership and advertisement/sponsor numbers. feasibility of free streaming would have to be assessed and if it was determined that it would not be possible the viewing of the tour would be sold by the event with a greatly reduced pricing plan to buy the entire season.
15) As the popularity and viability of the tour grows it would be marketed to TV interests for "live only" broadcasts.
16) An 8-ball league would potentially be created to build an associated amateur system that would then be connected to the professional tour. The league would allow for the potential to win your way into individual events and at the end year tournaments would give the possibility for people to win their professional tour cards. The league system would include a small amount of money from league fees to go to the professional tour and in turn the league players would have access to the tour streams (if they were PPV) included in being a member of the league system. Entry into the end of the year singles events to attempt to win the tour cards would also be included for all league members and would have been paid for as a part of the league fees.
17) Creating avenues to bet on the outcome of matches/events would be sought out and encouraged. Things like the European betting houses would be approached and encouraged to support/sponsor the league due to the mutual benefit it could create. Betting through the casino books in Vegas would also be sought out.
18) Throwing of matches, betting on matches by the tour players (even not their own match) would be against the rules of the tour and anyone caught doing it would receive a lifetime ban from the tour, period. One strike and you are out on this.
19) Marketing and imaging of the tour/sport would be done by professional marketing firms and people who do this type of thing for a living. Management of the tour would be done by professional management firms. This would NOT be done by the people in the pool world who think they can actually do this type of thing and have proven time and time again they simply cannot.
20) There would be a lot of working on how to properly present the sport. I am unsure of if showing a single match is actually the way to go for pool. I think doing a mix of live and recently taped clips of various matches might be preferable as a spectator sport (Which pool sucks at being atm and which is it's main problem). Something closer to what golf does, showing clips of shots from all over the course and from all of the players instead of following around a single golfer including their walk to the next shot (which in pool is almost what we do when watching slow players look over a shot for 2+ minutes). Those two minutes would be better spent showing highlights from other live matches where the action is not in a lull. It would cost way more money to set this up and pay the added staff that would be needed but the payoff in a far better to watch product could be huge is the general public caught onto it and actually liked it.
*****************************************************************************************************************
The trick is getting the general public to take notice and thus allow for the added sponsorship options that would arise were the game to become more popular. I believe 8-ball if the ONLY option, rotation pool has simply never caught on with the general public, it is still a niche that only pool fans/players know of and we NEED more of the non-pool fans to take notice and start watching the sport.
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Live responsibly my friends.
I would hire Morgan Freeman and reenact the last 20 minutes of Shawshank Redemption.
I figure $2,000,000 covers hiring him, a film crew, a few postcards to send friends to show where I crossed over and some beach front property in Zihuatanejo.
I don't always win $2,000,000... but when I do, I get busy living instead of get busy dying.
I would hire Morgan Freeman and reenact the last 20 minutes of Shawshank Redemption.
I figure $2,000,000 covers hiring him, a film crew, a few postcards to send friends to show where I crossed over and some beach front property in Zihuatanejo.
I don't always win $2,000,000... but when I do, I get busy living instead of get busy dying.
you would just see a bunch of people grab your money and run
Oh yeah......it's so much better to sink it into pool
Wow is all I can say....and I love the game as much as the next guy!!!
Maniac
Thats true but has nothing do with what I was referring to. You have to read a thread in context to respond properly.
Get Mr. Cruse to pass the torch
Reading through this post there are some very good ideas. I think what pool needs is fans when you have a strong fan base money is easy to come by. How do you get more fans?
Pool has to become cool again. Poker became cool after the movie Rounders came out then Moneymaker it was a one two punch to billiard halls all over the country.
IT TIME TO MAKE A GREAT BILLIARD MOVIE!!!
Tom Cruse its time to pass the torch that was handed to you by Paul Neumann.
Reading through this post there are some very good ideas. I think what pool needs is fans when you have a strong fan base money is easy to come by. How do you get more fans?
Pool has to become cool again. Poker became cool after the movie Rounders came out then Moneymaker it was a one two punch to billiard halls all over the country.
IT TIME TO MAKE A GREAT BILLIARD MOVIE!!!
Tom Cruse its time to pass the torch that was handed to you by Paul Neumann.
If I could find some well known actors that play pool, that would for a lower salary to help pool, and make a movie that goes like Earl sitting in an old folks home broke and remembering back when he was 10 and on up to being a champion and try to dig deeper into his life story.
Now you have just hit on something that has mystified me for years. Not making a movie but lending their names to tournaments. I could never understand why there was never a Paul Newman straight pool tournament or Jackie Gleason tournaments. We tried years ago to get Gleason to run a tournament along with his Inveraray golf tournament. He was not even interested and we would have been putting up all the money, we just wanted his name. There are tons of celebs who play pool but none ever get involved.
James Caan, Peter Falk, Fred Astair, and many more were and are avid players and often showed up at tournaments. I once sat with Forest Tucker at the US open and went to dinner with him later. He loved pool. I wonder if no one has really explored this possible hook that could get pool a little more main stream? There is no doubt if the US Open 9 ball tournament had a celebrity name attached it would get national news coverage instead of just the obscurity of the pool subculture.
I had a idea the other day after checking out some of the college pool teams play. Wouldn't it be interesting if pool followed the model of other college/pro sports. You have a college team, that plays other teams and they get recruited to play for pro teams. Every pro team fields 5 players per match, they have a set schedule, contracts, players get traded etc. Maybe even play various games in a match like 9 ball, 10 ball and straight pool.
I would think that if there was able to be something along these line that it would be much easier to get serious sponsorship and maintain it. I would love to have a favorite pool team and root for them. :thumbup: It might sound crazy but I think it has as much of a chance as anything else out there these days.
Edit: You could even pick the best players at the end of the year (like a all star game) and they could be the Masconi cup team.
I would think that if there was able to be something along these line that it would be much easier to get serious sponsorship and maintain it. I would love to have a favorite pool team and root for them. :thumbup: It might sound crazy but I think it has as much of a chance as anything else out there these days.
Edit: You could even pick the best players at the end of the year (like a all star game) and they could be the Masconi cup team.
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RingKing,
I believe there is a lot of truth in what you say but first I think we have to ask ourselves why we sit here with no representation today. If you truly go to the root of that question and answer it. You will know when you discover it because it will occur to you...why didnt I think of that before?
What do you think it was?
If I were to venture a guess I would say; We currently have little representation because large sponsors like to spend there advertising funds on campaigns that reach more than the current middle class middle aged male demographic that I would argue makes up a mojority of current billiard fans?
Am I close?
I would buy a Bentley and a house with a pool and surround myself with young gold diggers and partake in pleasures of the flesh, screw pool.