straybullet said:
This where you lost me.. I really like what you said in your post.. before this.. why would anyone care about his book? What does it have to do with pool? Maybe I'm still missing something. Am I? I understand he has a lot of money, but is the success of the IPT depending on whether or not a book sells? I spoke with someone about this the other day and they brought up Lorenzo Fertitta who bought into the UFC. That was an interesting deal where they found money attached to political connections within the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It might be apples and oranges, but if you do a little research on that deal, you will see that they covered all of their bases. Less than 10 years ago they had no platform and they were trying to shut them down. Look at them now. Compare that to what Mr. Trudeau is doing with pool. It is an excellent comparison to what is going on with pool right now. Building anything on shaky ground could be very dangerous. I'm not persecuting him, I'm just being realistic. I think its great what he's doing. I just don't see how he is going to make money from this. That's what business is about - making money - not giving it away.
Kevin has stated that he is doing this to promote his book and companion website. So far the book has reportedly sold 3 million copies and this info was over a month ago. Kevin has also stated that other businesses are interested in getting in on the action and that he sees no need to share the avenue since if the vehicle is lucrative for them then it is better to use it for
his businesses. So it's simple math to figure that he's already made enough off of the book sales to fund the tour for the first couple years at least. The tour by itself is not what is intended to make money at the beginning. Right now it is intended to help sell more books.
If all goes well then the tour will be a self-sustaining entity after two years. And if not, then hopefully the sales will continue to be enought to fund it. You can be sure that Kevin is not just giving money away. He is investing it iinto building what he thinks will become a viable property. If he builds a tour which proves that it can generate signifigant viewership then he will have a self-sustaining entity which will draw other big time investors to it.
Just like anyone else who starts a venture, this one has a plan and a model for success. It's funded to a point and then the market will decide if it can flourish or not. Better than the pipe dreams that so many other ventures in pool have been built on.
You would probably agree that there were those who wondered if Walt Disney wasn't nuts to spend the money he did building Disneyland. But your paycheck is proof enough that it took a man of vision and means to do it.
Hell, my boss employs 18 people because he thought it woud be cool to put a laser pointer in a pool stick and invest in that.
I don't know about the UFC, but I think it is a pretty good comparison in that it took entrepeneurs with vision and means to take a marginal sport with little recognition and low payouts and turn into a profitable and attractive property with well compensated stars. And, as far as I know, the IPT isn't under the jurisdiction of any state's athletic commission's rules because pool is not really recognized as a sport in the good ole' USA. The WPA/BCA woud know about that.
John
