Is being a "Touring Pro Player" a decent kind of living?

Is "Touring Pro Player" a decent kind of living?

  • Yes

    Votes: 21 12.6%
  • No

    Votes: 146 87.4%

  • Total voters
    167
I guess some people consider being rich only how much money you have. But if they are making enough money to keep them comfortable and they get to goto a job they love every day they are certainly richer then most of us.
 
What you seek is what you get, - it´s good if that´s what you want.

Whoever tries it, want´s it.

Yes.

For me - No.

Regards

Chrippa
 
The best of the best just break 100k a year. Not bad but at the same time its not a guaranteed salary. The problem is you have to place top 5 in most of these events to make any type of money considering all the money that you invest into the event.

So my answer is no. But I dream of the day our top players will receive great endorsements in the future from sponsorship's and the payouts of tournaments greatly increase. I hate to be pessimistic but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
 
I imagine it's just about as good a way to make a living as any of several passions. There is room at the top for only a select handful of individuals. Even in sports with extremely high top salaries, those just below this level survive on air and morning dew.

Minor league baseball players average about 1% that of their major league brethren. Starting salary for an Class A full-season baseball player is about $1,000/month. Try that for a single season.

Successful musicians, fine artists, writers, and actors can receive money beyond their wildest dreams, but the vast majority of them make basically nothing to live on. Without their efforts to succeed in their field, the world would be deprived of millions of retail clerks and wait staff.

Bottom line, you do what your passion drives you to do. A "decent living" is not defined by how much you make, but on the quality of your happiness. If pool is what floats your boat, get it into the water and set sail for the horizon. Otherwise, you may live to regret it.
 
I have heard a whole lot of people with "good" jobs say they wish they had the freedom to live like a pro player does. I have heard just as many pro players say they wish they had the security and stability of a working man. Neither really are willing to do what it takes to live the life of the other.

You pay your money and you take your chance....
 
With the payouts in pool today being the same as they were in the '70s and '80s, yet the cost of living has quadrupled, it is why playing pool professionally is not a lifestyle that affords a "decent kind of living." :frown:

I mean, sure, you can eat at McDonald's, share hotel rooms and sleep on the floor, and do other things to make it work economically, but who wants to live like that? Well, some pool players who are passionate about playing pool are willing to give up a roof over their head, the possibility of a loving family, medical/retirement benefits, et cetera, to do what they love most. God bless 'em. :smile:

I'm sure most know this, but I need to emphasize the fact that when you read about pool winnings on the Internet, how much a player cashed, it may be misterpreted to look like they pocketed a big chunk of change. When you add in expenses, entry fees, split purses with backers, savers, and let's not forget taxes, $100,000 could be pared down to about $35,000.

$35,000 is not a "decent kind of living" when you have to depend on coming in first, second, or third place to break even for expenses at most pool events.

The pool player who is high on the todem pole today is everybody's hero. Twenty years from now, if they can't win as they once did, they are discarded as yesterday's trash in the American pool culture. There is no respect for pro pool players or pool champions in this country.
 
The vast majority of the best players to ever play this game died without enough money to bury them. A happy medium is to have a business/job/career that affords you a living and enough time to pursue pool at a relatively serious level. But I suspect that's not what the OP was asking about. In any realistic scenario, your career/business provides the "decent kind of living", while pool is nothing more than a hobby.

If you could be among the top ten players, and you didn't pi$$ away your money gambling in other pursuits, you could make a decent living--for a few years. Then, you'd find yourself a mediocre pro with more money going out than in, and no career/family/education to fall back on, too old to really get a new start. Every young shortstop that I run into that starts talking about "going pro" gets my opinion...I used to know a young soldier years ago who shot two balls below me, but got it into his head that he would leave the Army and "turn pro". He didn't have enough bread in his GI Bill yet to get a college degree, and had a young family to support. It didn't turn out well. Unfortunately, most 20 year olds don't look further out than next year in terms of their future.

Whether we like it or not, there really isn't a "profession" as a pool player, never has been. It's a myth. If you're really into it, find a related career in or around the industry, and pursue the playing part as a sideline. Don't quit your day job unless you like living out of a car (if you're lucky) and washing up in public restrooms.
 
I don't think it's anywhere near twenty years, Miss Jam. If the statistics provided by AZBilliards.com are correct the typical professional player fades much sooner than that.
In addition, their so called passion for the game, coupled with their willingness to sacrifice for it's cause, is, I believe, a misstatement. The fact of the matter is that the typical professional pool player has invested so much time in learning the game (many, if not most, since early childhood) to the point where it's simply all they know, and there's little left to fall back on.
 
no... unless your at the very top..

expenses just for travel and lodging, food will set you back, you'll be losing money if your not at the top.
 
This is a good point. To get to the highest levels, one typically must play a massive amount in their 20's. This is typically the time people go to college and then work on the base their career is built off of.

By the time a pool player gets to a top level, they are in their mid to late 20's and a lot of times 30ish to 35. At this point, they have become wise enough with age to start figuring out "oh shit, this sucks, what am I going to do with the rest of my life?"

Now they have a real dilemma, do they "start over" and learn how to do something else or keep going since they've invested so much time?

Its not a fun place to be at. I've been playing poker full time for about 5 years. I'm now 30, and deciding if I want to continue with this path or "start over." I have the luxury of having a much better income than a pool player, so I couldn't imagine the "crisis" one would be in at 30-40 and realizing they spent all their time learning a "trade" that has no future at the moment.

Good post. Reminds me of Hatch's comments/sentiments on the TAR podcast he was on (with Dechaine).
 
No, unless you're in the select few that have decent sponsorships. I'd love to travel and play more tournaments if there were huge purses involved. The reality is that there's not very much money to be made for all the top players. I'm blessed to have a great job and there's only 3 to 5 pros that make more annually. That's not to brag, that's just to show how bad the state of pro pool is. With all the great players around the world, there should be at lest 100 players banking 6 figures on the final money list of the season. We need another pool boom to help get it going in the right direction, but most of the youth these days are just worried about video games and cell phones. Hobbies such as pool are an afterthought, so another boom is unlikely anytime soon. It could happen so I'm not gonna give up on it, but at the same time I'm not gonna hold my breath.
 
How much would you have to budget to put a Touring Pro Player on the road for a year?
How much will a Touring Pro Player have to earn to get a return on your investment?
 
I guess some people consider being rich only how much money you have. But if they are making enough money to keep them comfortable and they get to goto a job they love every day they are certainly richer then most of us.

I agree right up to the point that something goes wrong. If they get sick, in an accident, can't play at the same level they once did. What do they have to fall back on? Though i think the line between "decent kind of living" and "rich" is very long indeed. What constitutes a good living now days money wise $100k, $150k $200k+? Rich, at least a few million and i'm thinking over 2 or 3.. thoughts?
 
No, unless you're in the select few that have decent sponsorships. I'd love to travel and play more tournaments if there were huge purses involved. The reality is that there's not very much money to be made for all the top players. I'm blessed to have a great job and there's only 3 to 5 pros that make more annually. That's not to brag, that's just to show how bad the state of pro pool is. With all the great players around the world, there should be at lest 100 players banking 6 figures on the final money list of the season. We need another pool boom to help get it going in the right direction, but most of the youth these days are just worried about video games and cell phones. Hobbies such as pool are an afterthought, so another boom is unlikely anytime soon. It could happen so I'm not gonna give up on it, but at the same time I'm not gonna hold my breath.


Does anybody know how much a good sponsor contract is?
 
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