Lost Among The Threads

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Lost Among The Threads

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Lost among the threads in the I.P.T. section is this gem by Jake (jjinfla)..
I thought that it might get more responses in the Main section.
http://forums.azbilliards.com/showthread.php?t=41998

Professional Pool is Dead

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It is time to face the facts, men's professional pool is dead. Why? Because the demographics just are not there.

AZB lists around 6800 members. Not a whole lot. And how many of them are double listings? But that is most likely just about all the people who care about men's professional pool. Well, half of them might.

The IPT ran 4 matches/tournaments featuring the top players in the world and the public could care less. A half a million dollar payment to first place and no one cared. The news media sure didn't care. Not even a mention on any newscasts.

So it is time for the pros to face the facts. They are in a sport that does not attract fans. They play in dirty, smoke filled rooms and are looked down at by the general public. The public's image is that they are out of work pool bums and hustlers. The only time a pool room will make the news is when someone in it is shot.

Ewa and Mitch have a pretty good idea showing pool in a different light. Making it fun and enjoyable and showing off the pros having fun. Of course I would not expect them to invite Corey back he just doesn't fit the right image.

More people went to watch the Saints play last night then will go to watch the pros play in the next ten years. There just is no interest in watching the pros play.

Jake




Doug
 
I limited it to Men and I should also have limited that statement to just America since I have no idea the status of pool outside the States.

Jake
 
I agree with Jake. There are some people out there who feel that there is some way for pool to get as big as the NFL or NBA. It just will never happen. However, I do believe that pool has evolved from where it once was. On that same note, we will probably never see it as big as it was in the 20's, when Greenleaf was around. All of us on this forum know what is going on in the pool world, but that is not the case for everyone, including pool players. I have ran into quite a few people who do not know what the IPT is, and these are people who play pool. Now, that's pretty bad when the "best thing to ever happen to pool" is not even known by people who are interested in pool. Like Jake said, I don't know the status of pool and men's professional pool around the world, but it does seem to be hurting in the U.S. I wish pool the best, but I think it is going to always be hard to shed the stereotype of the common pool player.
 
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I mostly agree. Even established snooker events are losing viewership and sponsor dollars because of it.

The way pool would only have a chance is if a much larger % of the population played so that the small minority who like pool enough is willing to watch it.

Never going to or extremely unlikely to happen.
 
rossaroni said:
... but it does seem to be hurting in the U.S. I wish pool the best, but I think it is going to always be hard to shed the stereotype of the common pool player.
Click to expand...

I agree with all the previous posters for the most part, but I disagree that it is about stereotypes and images. Unlike those of us here, most of the population does not enjoy pool. Furthermore, most of those who do enjoy playing once a week don't care enough to watch it or for that matter to make an effort to improve their game. Just my observation.
 
Kinda' sad isn't it? I suspect even bowling has a larger audience. Just like the "Jazz era" in music, the heyday of pool, from the 20's through the 40's, is lost and gone forever.:(
 
catscradle said:
I agree with all the previous posters for the most part, but I disagree that it is about stereotypes and images. Unlike those of us here, most of the population does not enjoy pool. Furthermore, most of those who do enjoy playing once a week don't care enough to watch it or for that matter to make an effort to improve their game. Just my observation.
Click to expand...
I did not mean that the stereotypes are the biggest factor that halt pool's growth- just one. There are a lot of people playing pool, but like you said, most are not interested in watching it. I always thought that it would have cool if McCready and a top tournament player (Strickland or Sigel) would have played after the COM. They could have marketed it kind of like when Fats played Mosconi.
 
I have to agree with Jake on this one. Pool just isn't a spectator sport. It's only chance is TV, but not in it's pure form. Maybe something like the team theme they just had on. Maybe one celeb, one pro, and one avg. Joe or Jane. Johnnyt
 
Just because the world didn't take notice of a tournament that was virtually held in secret, doesn't mean that pool can't garner interest. Macguy was right when he was complaining about a lack of advertising. The King of the Hill tournament served as advertising only for those who subscribed to OLN or Versus as it is called now. Other than that, I would never have known about the IPT had I not checked AZ Billiards a year and two months ago.

It's not that people were not interested in the pool tournament, although that is very possible. It is that they didn't know about it. I have talked to pool players in my city and quite a few of them didn't even know about the IPT and even more of them were not aware that a tournament offering half a million dollars for a first prize was being held the next day. If the casual fans were not aware, how would you expect anyone but the most passionate fans to be well informed. And up to this point I suspect it has been the latter, for the most part, that have been attending the events and following the IPT's every development.

Granted this doesn't prove anything other than the public wasn't even given a fair opportunity to show disinterest. In reality they were disinterested by virtue of the fact that they did not venture onto the internet to check the latest news in the world of pool. Only small percentage of fans do that with pool or any sport I imagine.

As far as 6800 members on the AZ forum, I don't think that is representative of anything other than the number of fans of pool who are also internet and forum users. Other than myself there are only a handful of posters on AZ Billiards from Canada. But that doesn't mean there are only 10 or 20 pool fans in Canada, that would be absurd.

All I am saying is that there is not enough information thus far to state that pool can or can not become popular. As far as the cheques being late, there was a poster who put forth the idea that there are complications as a result of the sale of the IPT. I think this is a reasonable explanation, but we will see if it is true.

But take this with a grain of salt, it's just my opinion.
 
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