cuetime
New member
This is a long post and I apologize but I think it's important.
Given our limited resources, speaking for myself of course, I really believe that one of the best things that we can do to increase interest in Pool is to go after the young kids. This, of course, won't work in all rooms. It's tough if you serve alcohol and have a nightclub atmosphere. I'm refering more to the rooms that do not. In one of my rooms, we were running a Saturday Junior's tournament for kids 16 & under. We allowed the kids to play from 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm for $5.00. At 2:00 pm we started a 6-ball tournament and awarded small trophies, gift certificates and trinkets to the top 3 winners. If a kid brought in a new friend, we let him play for free that day.
Each kid would spend about $20.00 between table time, soda and food (we only had microwave sandwiches and snacks).
I had a wonderful woman player working that day and we gave one of my better players free table time to come in on Saturdays, run the tourney and give instruction to the kids. Parents loved us because we were the cheapest babysitters around and they knew that the kids would be safe and make new friends.
The kids, as they got more proficient, would get their parents to buy them their own cues (from me). Once they had their own cue, they wanted to play more often and would come in during the week. As they got older, they started playing in the adult tournaments and, of course, had to upgrade their equipment. We had, on average, 30 kids playing every Saturday!
Then I made a strategic mistake. The woman that worked for me had to leave. Not having a better option at the time, I had my 17 year old daughter (whom I love dearly) work Saturdays. While I don't know for sure, because other factors came into play around the same time, I believe that the parents didn't feel so safe anymore (I should have seen it sooner). The Saturday tournament died. Coincedently at the same time, Massachusetts implemented a "No Smoking Ban" (one of the "other circumstances"). One would think that that would attract more kids, but that has not been my experience.
That "Wonderful Woman" has now come back to work for us and we are working hard to reestablish the Junior's tourney. We prepared a flier that we hand out to every parent that brings a child in to play.
We have to "manufacture" customers. Parents see their kids becoming isolated. They're sitting in front of computers or TVs or in their rooms with their ipod headphones stuffed in their ears. We need to offer a safe, clean, friendly environment where kids can have fun and make new friends.
I really feel that allowing the Junior's tournament to fail was one of my biggest mistakes. The smoking ban hurt "big time" but I had no control over that. You have to concentrate on the things that you can control.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about this, as well as any ideas for attracting new players. It's a long process but if kids enjoy the game, when they grow older, they'll move on to the rooms that cater to the adult customers (have one of those also).
Given our limited resources, speaking for myself of course, I really believe that one of the best things that we can do to increase interest in Pool is to go after the young kids. This, of course, won't work in all rooms. It's tough if you serve alcohol and have a nightclub atmosphere. I'm refering more to the rooms that do not. In one of my rooms, we were running a Saturday Junior's tournament for kids 16 & under. We allowed the kids to play from 12:00 noon to 5:00 pm for $5.00. At 2:00 pm we started a 6-ball tournament and awarded small trophies, gift certificates and trinkets to the top 3 winners. If a kid brought in a new friend, we let him play for free that day.
Each kid would spend about $20.00 between table time, soda and food (we only had microwave sandwiches and snacks).
I had a wonderful woman player working that day and we gave one of my better players free table time to come in on Saturdays, run the tourney and give instruction to the kids. Parents loved us because we were the cheapest babysitters around and they knew that the kids would be safe and make new friends.
The kids, as they got more proficient, would get their parents to buy them their own cues (from me). Once they had their own cue, they wanted to play more often and would come in during the week. As they got older, they started playing in the adult tournaments and, of course, had to upgrade their equipment. We had, on average, 30 kids playing every Saturday!
Then I made a strategic mistake. The woman that worked for me had to leave. Not having a better option at the time, I had my 17 year old daughter (whom I love dearly) work Saturdays. While I don't know for sure, because other factors came into play around the same time, I believe that the parents didn't feel so safe anymore (I should have seen it sooner). The Saturday tournament died. Coincedently at the same time, Massachusetts implemented a "No Smoking Ban" (one of the "other circumstances"). One would think that that would attract more kids, but that has not been my experience.
That "Wonderful Woman" has now come back to work for us and we are working hard to reestablish the Junior's tourney. We prepared a flier that we hand out to every parent that brings a child in to play.
We have to "manufacture" customers. Parents see their kids becoming isolated. They're sitting in front of computers or TVs or in their rooms with their ipod headphones stuffed in their ears. We need to offer a safe, clean, friendly environment where kids can have fun and make new friends.
I really feel that allowing the Junior's tournament to fail was one of my biggest mistakes. The smoking ban hurt "big time" but I had no control over that. You have to concentrate on the things that you can control.
I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts about this, as well as any ideas for attracting new players. It's a long process but if kids enjoy the game, when they grow older, they'll move on to the rooms that cater to the adult customers (have one of those also).
