Kickstarter for a TAR Match

BrooklynJay

BrooklynJay

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
Kickstarter, for people who don't know what it is, is a website where artists can post their creative projects and people who are interested in the project can donate money to help fund that project.

It got me thinking...would this work for a TAR match? Would people donate to fund additional prize money for a matchup that they'd want to see?

Just thinking of some matchups I personally would love to see:

Hatch vs. Immonen
Wu vs. SVB
Orcullo vs. SVB
K.Fisher vs. GYK

And if 1,000 people all gave $10...that's might be enough loot to make it happen...


So my questions are...

Would this work?
Would you donate?
What match would you donate money to to see?
 
I'd add $100 for the following:

Souquet vs Strickland
Appleton vs SVB
O'Sullivan vs Strickland
Frost vs Strickland/SVB/Mika (1p)
 
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One of the guidelines for using kickstarter is the finished work has to be permanently archived and accessible to the public. Means putting it on Youtube afterwards would comply.

Here is one for $150, funding a kickstarter to make a how to kickstarter video.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/neilbarnard/neils-kickstarter-video?ref=small_projects

I think it could work. When Justin opened up one of the TAR matches, there were over 1,000 viewers. A donation on a sliding scale may work.
Donation A = credited as a donor
Donation B = livestream
Donation C = DVD copy of the match
Donation D = invite to watch the match live
 
People already do this by buying the PPV and the numbers should be much higher than they are. Its amazing how many people wont pay $20ish to watch two top players go to war with each other for fairly big money. If they wont pay to watch it, they wont pay to possibly watch it.
 
cleary said:
People already do this by buying the PPV and the numbers should be much higher than they are. Its amazing how many people wont pay $20ish to watch two top players go to war with each other for fairly big money. If they wont pay to watch it, they wont pay to possibly watch it.
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there's always a request from people for these "dream" matchups - opponent A to play opponent B on TAR. a lot of times these match ups don't happen because they can't find a backer to come up with the cash, timing, not enough incentive to play, etc. but, what if, instead it was more like a two person tournament? you don't just win the other person's money but also some added money. isn't that more incentive to play? if we can get a commitment from Orcullo that he would play SVB if 5k was added...would people donate to make it happen?
 
cleary said:
People already do this by buying the PPV and the numbers should be much higher than they are. Its amazing how many people wont pay $20ish to watch two top players go to war with each other for fairly big money. If they wont pay to watch it, they wont pay to possibly watch it.
Click to expand...

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The only reason I don't buy the TAR matches is because I am always busy when they are live. I wouldn't mind paying for a recording of the stream after the fact. It doesn't have to be a polished DVD. Just sell me a recording of the identical stream as it was broadcast, and I'm there.
 
Well I think that if nothing else it would give TAR more exposure. I think it's a great idea personally. Community driven backing instead of waiting for a backer to appear to fund the whole thing.

I am in for a $100 donation to see Kelly Fisher play a race to 75 against any other living female at any pocket billiards game.
 
I'd give a $100'for Strickland vs. O'sullivan. That would be epic. Forget the 10 footers, we're going to the 12'footers. Interesting to see how Earl deals with that
 
shinobi said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The only reason I don't buy the TAR matches is because I am always busy when they are live. I wouldn't mind paying for a recording of the stream after the fact. It doesn't have to be a polished DVD. Just sell me a recording of the identical stream as it was broadcast, and I'm there.
Click to expand...

I think there are many folks who feel as you do about the logistics of when they are able to watch a Ustream pool match. It's not that they don't want to watch it or that they don't want to spend the money. Rather, it's usually they are busy with commitments at the time the matches are aired live.

Pool public in America complain about gate fees at tournaments. It would be a big step for them to fork out enough dough to finance a pool match.
 
shinobi said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The only reason I don't buy the TAR matches is because I am always busy when they are live. I wouldn't mind paying for a recording of the stream after the fact. It doesn't have to be a polished DVD. Just sell me a recording of the identical stream as it was broadcast, and I'm there.
Click to expand...

I agree. I don't know what the logistics are on serving up such a huge file as about 16 hours of video is bound to be. Justin is aware of it and at least he is now able and willing to loop the previous day's footage up until the next day begins. That's a start.

Was really good for me in the last match or I would have missed Shane's 7 pack.
 
shinobi said:
I've said it before and I'll say it again.

The only reason I don't buy the TAR matches is because I am always busy when they are live. I wouldn't mind paying for a recording of the stream after the fact. It doesn't have to be a polished DVD. Just sell me a recording of the identical stream as it was broadcast, and I'm there.
Click to expand...

Let me ask you how many of the DVD's you have bought from TAR? I'm not being accusational, just curious because Justin talks about how the DVD's are almost not worth it to make because so few people buy them. If you didn't buy the PPV because of time constraint, did you buy the DVD that you could watch whenever you please?
 
In the above post I wanted to ask a specific question.

For the purpose of the thread, I don't think it would be feasible for the reason Andrew pointed out. You can't get people to buy the PPV now, how can you get people to pay for something that hasn't even happened yet?

A primary barrier is that everyone's idea of a dream matchup is not the same. Look at just the handful of posts we have at the beginning of this thread. The first two posts say I would love to donate some money to see the following matches...XXX vs XXX and YYY vs YYY.

If you look at the matches they suggested, each one of them lists 7 players and only Shane is common between them. No one will agree what is the match up they are willing to donate to.

I think the best way is what TAR is doing. Find two guys willing to play and see if people will pay for it. If there were just 2,000 people willing to pay for the PPV's, I would be willing to bet we would see many more of them going down. When there are only 100-200 willing to give $20, would there really be 1,000 willing to do the same for something that hasn't even happened?
 
brandoncook26 said:
In the above post I wanted to ask a specific question.

For the purpose of the thread, I don't think it would be feasible for the reason Andrew pointed out. You can't get people to buy the PPV now, how can you get people to pay for something that hasn't even happened yet?

A primary barrier is that everyone's idea of a dream matchup is not the same. Look at just the handful of posts we have at the beginning of this thread. The first two posts say I would love to donate some money to see the following matches...XXX vs XXX and YYY vs YYY.

If you look at the matches they suggested, each one of them lists 7 players and only Shane is common between them. No one will agree what is the match up they are willing to donate to.

I think the best way is what TAR is doing. Find two guys willing to play and see if people will pay for it. If there were just 2,000 people willing to pay for the PPV's, I would be willing to bet we would see many more of them going down. When there are only 100-200 willing to give $20, would there really be 1,000 willing to do the same for something that hasn't even happened?
Click to expand...

i think the issue has always been finding two players who are able to come up with the money and are willing to play for it on a stream. it's been the shane show because shane has alway been ready, willing and able.

the thought i had, as i was browsing kickstarter, was going back to the idea of the color of money match between earl and efren...where one guy put up the prize to see this match take place...but instead of one guy...what about a community of pool enthusiast? could a group, collectively, fund a matchup? would more players be willing to step into the box if there was added money? the azb/tar challenge of champions!

and, yes, finding the right matchup is always going to be up for debate. but that's part of the fun isn't it?
 
brandoncook26 said:
You can't get people to buy the PPV now, how can you get people to pay for something that hasn't even happened yet?
Click to expand...

If this gets sidetracked, the people offering up cash never get seen. But I'll answer this anyways as a person who hasn't bought the PPV. As was mentioned before, we can't always plan our lives around the events (blasphemy, I know.) I'd buy the DVDs and other swag, but there's no shipping outside of the US so I'm stuck without.

My solution is to fly down, watch the match in person and bring swag back myself. One way or another I will have a TAR golf shirt. Damnit!

PS: I added another match I'd add cash to: Frost v SVB/Strickland/Mika in 1P.



.
 
I think it is a great concept. IMO, this is something that can work, with the right momentum.

Like many good ideas, tho, execution is everything. How or who this is targeted is really the difference between it working or not. I'm thinking that this should be marketed to corporate sponsors just as much as individuals.


Eric
 
Cool idea

I have a friend who was able to fund a project through kickstarter and he was amazed at how much exposure he got. I think pool will still appeal to a fairly narrow audience, but you'll probably get some people that would never find their way to AZ Billiards.

I think its also a different dynamic from people buying a pay-per-view. If a match is already scheduled, and I want to see it, I buy it. I'm in no way invested in spreading the word...kickstarter can get a viral dynamic going.
 
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