IPT in the Pool Room?

[Tom In Cincy]

In a very unscientific poll I took this weekend at our Monthy One Pocket and 9 Ball events, I asked a few players what they think about the IPT.

To my surprise everyone I asked knew about it. What was surprising, almost all of them told me that they had heard the news from a friend that frequents the internet pool forums.

The players were consistantly causious in their opinions of the IPT. "Wait and See" attitude. No one was really excited.

Tournament flyers are one way of posting news, there are a couple of west coast newspapers ("On the Break" and "On the Wire") that are filled with flyers and ads for upcoming tournaments.

There have been some feature stories of the Mike Sigel vrs. Loree Jones bout in Vegas in August with a small write up of the future of IPT.

I've printed out the list of 43 and 150 players and posted it near the tournament desk, where most players look for news. Austin Murphy and Tony Chohan play out of Hard Times in Sacramento.

I would like to see some HUGE flyers available for Pool room to post and also noting local Pros on the list. Bios would be nice.

Promoting this event in the pool halls has to help generate more interest. Millions of Dollars in a POOL tournament has to draw some attention from the playing public.

The amature players (200,000+ of them that play on a weekly basis) may not spend much time in a pool hall as much as they do in a Tavern or Bar.

Am I missing something? are the average pool players not a target for this event? Viewers are what sponsors are really interested in... the NUMBERS are all important.

 

[nfty9er]

You are absolutely right

Like you I have posted everything I can about this new tour. It can only help everyone in the business in the long run. In this day and age maybe more than The Hustler and The Color of Money combined. I was at Hard Times for the Pechauer final last month and I found in talking with several top players they were still mis informed about the ipt. Still too many rumors and misconceptions about what was going on. I straightened a few out on how it works but not everyone has access to this information on a computer. We do need more publicity. But I have confidence it will get out there.
You are not missing anything.

 

[Skippy9Baller]

I was at the pool hall (All-Star / Frederick,MD) Saturday and asked 2 or 3 "regulars" about the IPT. They hadn't heard anything about it. These are players that are in-tune with the regional pool tours and regional players. It is ashame that they know nothing about this huge event. It seems to me that the IPT could leverage the people on the internet and local poolrooms to get a "grass-roots" buzz going. Maybe they have some larger-scale plan for advertising on a national level.

I don't understand why there hasn't been more of a campaign to promote these great events. The only thing I have seen is press-releases, but is it really enough to create interest in the general public?

 

[rackmsuckr]

In a very unscientific poll I took this weekend at our Monthy One Pocket and 9 Ball events, I asked a few players what they think about the IPT.

To my surprise everyone I asked knew about it. What was surprising, almost all of them told me that they had heard the news from a friend that frequents the internet pool forums.

The players were consistantly causious in their opinions of the IPT. "Wait and See" attitude. No one was really excited.

Tournament flyers are one way of posting news, there are a couple of west coast newspapers ("On the Break" and "On the Wire") that are filled with flyers and ads for upcoming tournaments.

There have been some feature stories of the Mike Sigel vrs. Loree Jones bout in Vegas in August with a small write up of the future of IPT.

I've printed out the list of 43 and 150 players and posted it near the tournament desk, where most players look for news. Austin Murphy and Tony Chohan play out of Hard Times in Sacramento.

I would like to see some HUGE flyers available for Pool room to post and also noting local Pros on the list. Bios would be nice.

Promoting this event in the pool halls has to help generate more interest. Millions of Dollars in a POOL tournament has to draw some attention from the playing public.

The amature players (200,000+ of them that play on a weekly basis) may not spend much time in a pool hall as much as they do in a Tavern or Bar.

Am I missing something? are the average pool players not a target for this event? Viewers are what sponsors are really interested in... the NUMBERS are all important.

I have a sponsorship deal with On the Wire to write exclusive articles every month about our experiences in the IPT and to track our players from the west coast, so hopefully, there will be some more exposure from at least one paper.

I know BCA members get the updated emails because they got an early ticket email with the special order phone number a day ahead like we did.

You are right though, not enough tavern and league players know anything about it. Unless you are on a forum, are an international or BCA player or go to the IPT website, you could miss that there will be TV coverage in Nov. and Dec., much less the tournament schedule.

I am willing to put flyers around!

 

[SPetty]

Am I missing something? Are the average pool players not a target for this event? Viewers are what sponsors are really interested in... the NUMBERS are all important.

It's my belief that the target audience is NOT your average pool player, but just your average person. I believe the IPT is trying to get pool in front of the average, normal, non-pool-playing person for the kind of numbers that they would need to make this thing worthwhile.

So, that being said and speaking as a non-pool-player, have I seen anything about the IPT? Nope.

But it could be that they aren't as interested in the live aspect of the tourney as they are with the televised stuff that comes after, so maybe we'll hear something about it when the tourney is over.

 

[SPetty]

I know BCA members get the updated emails because they got an early ticket email with the special order phone number a day ahead like we did.

I'm pretty sure that it was the APA members that got the early ticket emails.