Kevin Trudeau.. Ray of hope or possible embarrassment?

[mnorwood]

I was reading about Kevin Trudeau and his plans to bring large prize money to the world of pool. My enthusiasm was dampened by the google search I did on him. He has been in trouble with the FTC. I am not passing judgement on the guys credibility because I do not know the first thing about him. However, a cursory review of his background raises questions. I am hoping someone in the pool world can shed some light on this issue and tell me if this guy and his interest in pool is legit. Will he be a messiah or is he just a con man?

 

[StraightPoolIU]

Well, he makes his living off of infomercials. What do you think? Oh man I just got done reading some of the stuff on the FTC site about the bans they have placed on him. The guy is a deffinite huckster getting rich off of the "sucker born every minute" philosophy. It'd still be awesome if the pool thing were for real, but I don't know how much credibility it'd be able to get from anyone with this guy's reputation.

 

[Timberly]

I would love nothing more than for this to pan out...that being said... This feels like the making of the North American Open Tour all over again... one tournament and pfffffffft! While the idea behind it is great, the realization might be another thing. I saw $$$ signs when reading about the NAOT. Once it went defunct (after 1 tourney wasn't it?) the truth came out. If I remember correctly one of the deals was that there would only be one player to a room or something like that and the tourney lasted a WEEK at a Hilton?!?!? I don't remember all the particulars, I just remember being quite surprised at hearing the final breakdown on how it was all supposed to happen. Here we sit again reading about this great endeavor that's supposed to bring big bucks to the pool world and the guy running the show is "questionable"?? I was wondering when someone was going to question the rest of the article when they mentioned that this was the first of quite a few high dollar match ups. (or however it was they worded it). People kept commenting on the players chosen for the show instead of the projections made for the show which interested me far more than just who was playing in the first one. I was skeptical when I first read it but now I'm even more so since I know the guy is questionable. Will I support it and watch it? Absolutely! Do I have faith in it and have I gotten my hopes up? Absolutely not! If I lived in that region, I would even go support it by going to watch it in person. Having put my support behind it, I still have my doubts. I hope I'm proved wrong.... JMO FWIW

 

[pete lafond]

I would love nothing more than for this to pan out...that being said... This feels like the making of the North American Open Tour all over again... one tournament and pfffffffft! While the idea behind it is great, the realization might be another thing. I saw $$$ signs when reading about the NAOT. :

One thing I am always cautious about is when people begin leveraging money to get an investment off the ground. If for example someone started a million dollar tour, began advertising and promoting to fool sponsors and investors into thinking it was something big. In the end when its time to tally up, the sponsors don't and the tour goes on. No one gets paid winnings and it turns into a flop. Was this good for billiards? or did it just set it back again.

 

[APAgeek6]

Cautiously rooting.

I have a VERY bad feeling about this. I certainly hope it works out well but I'm not holding my breath.

 

[pete lafond]

I have a VERY bad feeling about this. I certainly hope it works out well but I'm not holding my breath.

You know billiards is a great opportunity for some large consumer product manufacturer to get in cheap and help it take off. It's what is called a bargain. Why does a company just do that?

 

[coreyh]

Right now, I am very wary of this venture based on the vague wording in the press release. There is no location and no TV deal, and this event is 6 weeks away.

You usually see a press release to announce the concrete details of an event. I think we are seeing the opposite here. I would bet this press release is being used as part of the event negotiations. Kevin Trudeau's company can now go into negotiations with a link to this press release to prove the event is "real".

I'd love to fly to Vegas and watch some pool, but I'm not going to book a flight just yet. I hope we see another press release with more details soon.

 

[JustPlay]

I personally think Mike Sigel is directing this event. Sigel and Trudeau are personal friends and have been for a long time. If it wasn't for Sigel, Trudeau would not have any interest in pool. AZBILLIARDPRO, posted some inside information on this event in a thread I posted under SIGEL V. JONES, he had contacted someone close to the parties involved.

 

[macguy]

Well, he makes his living off of infomercials. What do you think? Oh man I just got done reading some of the stuff on the FTC site about the bans they have placed on him. The guy is a deffinite huckster getting rich off of the "sucker born every minute" philosophy. It'd still be awesome if the pool thing were for real, but I don't know how much credibility it'd be able to get from anyone with this guy's reputation.

He is a good friend of Mike's, they were at one of the BCA shows a few years back with a booth hustling some kind of thing, I don't remember what.

 

[JustPlay]

I was reading about Kevin Trudeau and his plans to bring large prize money to the world of pool. My enthusiasm was dampened by the google search I did on him. He has been in trouble with the FTC. I am not passing judgement on the guys credibility because I do not know the first thing about him. However, a cursory review of his background raises questions. I am hoping someone in the pool world can shed some light on this issue and tell me if this guy and his interest in pool is legit. Will he be a messiah or is he just a con man?

Sigel & Trudeau could be a great combination if they actually collaborated with the right people and formed a professional tour and a senior Tour with Steve Mizerak (not just a one time annual tournament).

However, for some reason, they think that a one time event is supposed to spark a great interest in professional pool. The event will happen and fade into the background and Sigel will be $100K richer. And we will talk about what a train wreck it was. I wish Sigel would have teamed with Allen Hopkins with this idea and come up with a better plan.

The Derby City Classic and the Skins games are great tournaments and could be built upon. How about a US Open one pocket tournament or Straight pool tournament(s)? 10-ball tour? A few million bucks that Trudeau is supposedly throwing at this IPT would go alot longer and strong if Sigel wasn't so greedy and narrow minded...I would have enjoyed a Sigel V. Strickland classic match up and it would have been a much better attaction.

The reason I thought of Strickland is that back in the 80's, Strickland and Sigel seem to match up the most in tournaments, before Reyes was around....