If you were a Billionaire, what would you do for the game of Pool ?

I'd start a pool room.

I'd start a free junior program complete with professional instruction out of my pool room. I'd give free table time to any junior any time and any day of the week, as long as they respected/followed the rules. I'd also give free table time from noon to 5pm Monday-Thursday, and free all day Sunday to everyone else. $3/hr every other time. There would be a weekly 9-ball, 8-ball, 10-ball, and 1-pocket tourney every week, with minimal entrance fees (3-5 bucks). I'd also have a junior 8-ball, 9-ball, and 10-ball tournament rotating weeks, for free.

Get the younger generation involved and interested in pool. That's the best thing you can do for this sport. Without a new wave of future players, we're dead in the water.
 
An idea: Pool's version of "Iron Chef".

Hire 3-6 nearly over the hill well known top professional players as the staff (3 men, 3 women) and call them the Iron Player. {Earl, Efren, Masse, Alison, Jenette, Karen}

Every week invite an up and comming professional player to play his/her pick of the staff pros. {Corey, Mika, ..., Jasmine, ... }

Roll some dice before each rack to see which game is being played that rack. {8-ball, 9-ball, 1-pocket, 2-racks of 14.1,...} 6 to 11 prespecified games to roll into.

There would be some 'liberal' interpretations of the rules to encourage the 'specticle' (jumps do not come with a penalty of BIH for a simple miss, for examle), sharking is legal, minimal or absent audience, TV cameras in abundance... Accumulative time clock--start inning with 30 seconds, any time not used is added to the next shot (assuming the ball gets potted).

Race to the end of the hour! That is; its a format designed for TV and entertainment in a fixed time schedule.

Opponents accomodation and bills covered, no prize money. The whole purpose is for the love of the game.

If an Iron Player looses 5 matches in a row, he gets retired and another is chosen.
 
me too

As an earlier poster said, I would probably hire Jay as organizer/director and sponsor an organization which would facilitate professional pool tournaments.
 
I would

create a world series of poker type tournament series once a year that awarded bracelets. (also with more focus on the all round aspect of it. the all around would have its own prize pool and top 3 players would earn bracelets) I think the wsop should be more like this.

there would also be qualifiers with added money / added money by sponsors / i would make the tournaments with better formats then they usually have less luck oriented. maybe like a high roller $5k buy in 15 ball tournament with races to 9 best 2 out of 3 sets double elimination with 100k added on a 10x5er / $500 buy in race to 5 single elimination one pocket on the barboxes with 10 k added / also i would have possibly most tournaments any one could think off of any format on any size table.

also would create a world tour with different events of all kinds around the world. also would have just pro tournaments where someone has to gualify to be a pro to get on the tour like top so many ranked and the pros would get a set salary and get bonuses extras for the higher there ranking is plus money for finishing in individuals tourneys. definitely have championships for every discipline.

i would try to bring up pool in every way pre college schooling /college level/ amateur/ pro. I would try and create more business around it. i would help my home town of jasonville indiana and create a pool hall. and maybe even have the final tables of each event there from the big series.

well this is all i will put for know i could keep going forever though maybe

i love pool and hope it gets better good luck to all with there ideas endevors etc.
 
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If I had a Billion!

There are some decent ideas on here but a lot of them are just spending money.

The goal is to establish an infrastructure that will support the pool world (and the pro players) over the future years.

It would not take that much. I work 60-80 hours a week on these type of promebles and I think we have a major part of the problem solved.

It is the USAPL.

Where the amateurs play in a nationally handicap system (that boasts over 70% hill-hill matches in over 2 million previous scoresheets). 50% payout on the local level with a national event in Vegas. The league operator can make a good living doing this when he grows the league.
50 cents of each players fees goes to a 'pro pot' which will be used to support pro players and events.

As this grows, more pros will support the USAPL concept and then when we get 60,000 players like we have in the BCAPL, we will have $30,000 a week going toward pro events.

All this needs is a couple more years to grind our way there - or to sponsor a pro tour with the condition the pros support the USAPL. But that would probably take $1 - $3 million per year over a 2-3 year period.

Still a lot of money BUT this one will be sustainable. This is only the 'short' version. With the right sponsor, this could cost nothing to accomplish.

BTW - we are always looking for USAPL loeagaue operators. You get protected territory for free!

Mark Griffin, CEO
CSI - BCAPL - USAPL
 
MitchAlsup said:
An idea: Pool's version of "Iron Chef".

Hire 3-6 nearly over the hill well known top professional players as the staff (3 men, 3 women) and call them the Iron Player. {Earl, Efren, Masse, Alison, Jenette, Karen}

Every week invite an up and comming professional player to play his/her pick of the staff pros. {Corey, Mika, ..., Jasmine, ... }

Roll some dice before each rack to see which game is being played that rack. {8-ball, 9-ball, 1-pocket, 2-racks of 14.1,...} 6 to 11 prespecified games to roll into.

There would be some 'liberal' interpretations of the rules to encourage the 'specticle' (jumps do not come with a penalty of BIH for a simple miss, for examle), sharking is legal, minimal or absent audience, TV cameras in abundance... Accumulative time clock--start inning with 30 seconds, any time not used is added to the next shot (assuming the ball gets potted).

Race to the end of the hour! That is; its a format designed for TV and entertainment in a fixed time schedule.

Opponents accomodation and bills covered, no prize money. The whole purpose is for the love of the game.

If an Iron Player looses 5 matches in a row, he gets retired and another is chosen.
Click to expand...


Really cool idea ! except i would add allowing your everyday pool players to be able to challenge an Iron player and get appropriate weight
 
I would have races to 1, $10M winner-take-all events. Players would pay $500 to enter and the event would take as long as it takes to play through the brackets. We'd have great food, live entertainment and strippers on trampolines.

The finals would match up each player with a naked chick. There would be a 10 second shot clock. If you don't get the shot off in time, a buzzer would sound and you would be forced to tag the stripper in where she plays the rest of the game on your behalf.

Man, just give me a billion and pool would be bigger than golf.
 
A billion might not be enough

1)Go with the one idea of putting a nice chain of halls across the country.
2)Buy a motel chain that would have one in every town with your poolrooms so you could do free rooms & meals for traveling players.
3)Buy Espn & make sure to put pool in top spots to reach more of a audience.
4)Wine & dine the hell out of potential sponsors maybe even going in half with them to make em commit.
5)Probally go broke but would enjoy the hell out of the ride all the way down :wink:
 
houmatroy said:
1)Go with the one idea of putting a nice chain of halls across the country.
2)Buy a motel chain that would have one in every town with your poolrooms so you could do free rooms & meals for traveling players.
3)Buy Espn & make sure to put pool in top spots to reach more of a audience.
4)Wine & dine the hell out of potential sponsors maybe even going in half with them to make em commit.
5)Probally go broke but would enjoy the hell out of the ride all the way down :wink:
Click to expand...

I'd think with $1B you wouldn't need sponsors or espn.
 
I think I would put out contracts on all the beat players in the world until I was the best player left - would probably only have to get rid of 100,000 players or so.
 
Jasmin Ouschan vs. Jeanette Lee

Lingerie Match

Race to... my bedroom ;)

If that isn't picked up for prime time TV somewhere, the game is officially dead beyond our wildest dreams!
 
If

If I were a billionaire, I would do the following for the game of pool:
1. Create a business model.
2. Hire Sports Attorneys(Agents) on retainer to handle the player related side of the Professional Program.
3. Gather with other Millionaire/Billionaire Friends to discuss the foundation of the newly formed Professional Pool Players League(Copyrighted).
4. Assign the Team Home Cities to the Owners.
5. Create a Draft. Max 10 players per roster. 7 Active and 3 Reserve per Team. Salary Cap will apply.
6. Contract exclusive broadcast rights to an Internet Stream. No broadcasting via Analog, Satellite, or PrivateTelevision.
7. Formulate a Benefts Package for the Players.
8. Owners will construct small arenas that are architectually designed to accommodate best viewing capability.
9. Provide Marketing and Public Relations support to Teams/Players/Owners for product distribution in their demographic.
10. Develop a sustainable Junior Level Program for Player Development and Education.

There is a lot more to this, but that would be a good beginning. The main message being, it is not a free ride for the pro's. They must either Perform or be Traded/Cut. I learned a lot about this from dealing with the NFL Players Group while I was with the BCA. As I have stated in other posts, the game of pool must make a complete paradigm shift from the past, or it will never be more than it is today.
 
right off the bat with no thinking invovled I would do everything in my power to get the mosconi cup in its entirety on ESPN so that pool popularity would absolutely explode
 
Desmondp said:
Tough call, because just throwing money as prize money wouldn't fix the grass roots problems with the game

I would however organise a World Cuesports Championships, Invite only, plus qualifiers. 2 million dollars to the winner, 750K to runner up and another million in prizes to the rest of the field.

A event which consists of all cuesport disciplines including

Snooker
9 Ball
Bank pool
English 8 Ball
3 cushion
maybe One pocket


Anyway a balance which would give participants from any discipline a chance of winning

Would invite all world champions and Top 2-3 from each discipline, invite only field no bigger than 16

So you would include

Ronnie O Sullivan
Neil Robertson
Gareth Potts
Mick Hill
Darren Appleton
Efren Reyes
Earl Strickland
Wu Chia Ching
3 cushion world champ, dunno who that is
etc etc
Click to expand...









I'm guessing that at least that much money or more has been spent to turn soccer into a viable , profitable sport in the United States and Canada , and i think it is still probably being subsidized by other countries here . If there is any growth here it is because of immigrants or the children of immigrants.

I'd guess millions of kids play organized soccer here but it hasn't translated at the gate . People keep talking about reviving pool when it never has been big in the sense that people make a good living at it with the exception of a few gamblers .

I read these stories about The Rack in Detroit and from the stories it seems one man funded the whole short lived era , the guy they called Jew Paul , everyone else was just gambling with the money they won off him . Besides that when straight pool was the mainstream tourney there weren't that many.

I think pool is healthy , millions play it , companies make money off it , and people socialize around it . Go to the chat at some of the streams , people talk about everything and anything there and alot unrelated to pool.


The beer companies ought to sponsor a couple of pool tours , they sure profit from it a lot . You can play sandlot football and baseball and many other sports , and kids get free coaching paid for by you at public schools.
No sandlot pool though .
 
Billions for pool

cajunfats said:
If I were a billionaire, I would do the following for the game of pool:
1. Create a business model.
2. Hire Sports Attorneys(Agents) on retainer to handle the player related side of the Professional Program.
3. Gather with other Millionaire/Billionaire Friends to discuss the foundation of the newly formed Professional Pool Players League(Copyrighted).
4. Assign the Team Home Cities to the Owners.
5. Create a Draft. Max 10 players per roster. 7 Active and 3 Reserve per Team. Salary Cap will apply.
6. Contract exclusive broadcast rights to an Internet Stream. No broadcasting via Analog, Satellite, or PrivateTelevision.
7. Formulate a Benefts Package for the Players.
8. Owners will construct small arenas that are architectually designed to accommodate best viewing capability.
9. Provide Marketing and Public Relations support to Teams/Players/Owners for product distribution in their demographic.
10. Develop a sustainable Junior Level Program for Player Development and Education.

There is a lot more to this, but that would be a good beginning. The main message being, it is not a free ride for the pro's. They must either Perform or be Traded/Cut. I learned a lot about this from dealing with the NFL Players Group while I was with the BCA. As I have stated in other posts, the game of pool must make a complete paradigm shift from the past, or it will never be more than it is today.
Click to expand...

Carl,
A great post - nice to hear from you and it is really one that would/could work.

Mark griffin
 
First off, If I had $1 Billion, thanks to whoever gave it to me. lol.

As for helping the pool world, I think that I would do several different things in order to ensure the pool boom takes off in a way that can be sustained:

- Sports are fueled by interest, and in the past movies like The Color of Money, and The Hustler have given the pool world a huge boom in interest from all ages. Just as the Karate Kid series boomed martial arts. I think a modern, up-to-date pool movie is well overdue. Back in the day, you had to "video edit" shots to make them look cool. The modernization of movies, greenscreens, and down right movie-editing would allow for the shots to be uncut, and still amazing. The purpose of the movie for the pool world would be to make people say, "I wan't to do that, and I want to get good at it." The problem with the premise of the previous movie booms is they both promoted the "shady" part of the game. The Drinking, gambling, dark smoky pool rooms, etc. I don't think that would work in today's society. The movie would have to depict, maybe a college student whos' ambition is to beat every pool player around, he is obsessed with the game. (aren't we all) Show him playing all different types of games, 10-ball, One Pocket, 14.1, banks, everything. etc.etc. without getting into a bunch of messy details and writing a whole script for the movie. Using that to get more people interested.

- After the movie was released and people were getting the "fever," I would generate a season of my new reality TV show cleverly named, "The Roadie: Life on the road with a hustler" It would star 2-3 different players on the road, backed by me and my billions, going into random pool rooms (who we could charge for the free publicity) and play matches for cash, cues, cars, anything of interest. (kind of like pinks where people race cars for slips.) Find the network to sponsor the show and cover travel and production. We could host each player in a different city, a couple cities, or travel. Aside from regular matches playing all different games, we could have your typical prop bets, shot bets, break bets, all the stuff you normally see in a pool hall. Shoot some of the rail action and sweating thats going on. Show people that there is money in pool.

- Getting the college sports programs involved. If you can get a college scholarship for golf, why not pool. I would sanction, support, get sponsors for, the CSSPL, College Student Scholarship for Pool. We all know they have pool tables in the dorms, well, why not have a college pool team that travels and competes against other schools. Winner of each year gets entry to a Nationals tournament. Of course put together by me and my billions.

- I would buy out the BCA, APA, etc.etc. leagues and set up an national business entity called the United Billiard Association which would oversee all official billiard operations, tournaments, rules/regulation changes and enforcements. All rules, leagues, etc would still exists and be ran like normal, just with a common oversight that can make decisions for the betterment of the sport.

- I would start a Professional Pool Players Union(P3U) that would organize, sponsor, insure, and ensure players were being treated fairly, decently, and not being "suckered" into selfish, self-motivating/profitable deals. The protection, independence, and attraction of the top caliber players is a must. Ensuring that the players are organized and protected will be attractive to those players skeptical about pool organizations, promoters, directors, etc. because of past horror stories that I am sure we have all heard.

- I would start my own cue production and billiard supply company that would make everything from common house cues to high end-custom inlayed cues. I would contract this company to provide cues to the college pool rooms, cues for the movie & reality show production, and I would push to be the premier supplier for cue sports internationally.

I think I have typed enough, my mind is racing, fact is, I am not a billionaire. It would take a VERY rare set of circumstances for someone to have the money in order to effect the pool industry on a wholistic level. Even more rare for that person to not initially be so selfish as to seek fast, quick gains. The gains will come if and only IF the revolution of pool is done delicately, correctly, with a lot of thought, and selflessly.

JMHO
Carl
 
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