1) Has he ever given serious thought to the notion of the Mosconi Cup becoming Team Europe vs Team America, and including Canada in the mix to attempt to make the teams more even.
It would seem that a country vs a continent is not really working, the USA is clearly outclassed. Can we perhaps see Team USA given some help and become Team America?
2) The Mosconi Cup is likely the most viewed pool event by the general public. The general public (not the small niche of zealot pool fans on AZB) in both America "and" Europe tend to largely favor 8-ball as a game they play and understand.
What are Lukes thoughts to 8-ball being the game in the Mosconi Cup potentially increasing the viewership and interest outside of the niche of pool fans and into the broader general public who might take notice of the Mosconi Cup on a TV at the pub if it was 8-ball being played?
3) It is hard to argue that the game of pool is dying in most regions of the world atm. If there is one area that seems to have steady and growing support for pool it is in Asia.
Would it be possible in the future to see the Mosconi Cup format change to include 3 teams playing in a round robin format with Team Asia joining Team Europe and Team USA/America?
The format as an example could be like this
Match 1: Team America vs Team Europe 5 vs 5
Match 2: Team Asia vs Team Europe 5 vs 5
Match 3 Team Asia vs Team America 5 vs 5
Match 4: Team Asia vs Team Europe 1 vs 1
Match 5: Team America vs Team Europe 1 vs 1
Match 6 Team Europe vs Team Asia 1 vs 1
ect....
A team is eliminated when they lose 8 matches and the event then becomes between the two remaining teams.
Thus if the score becomes
Team America: 5 loses
Team Asia: 4 loses
Team Europe: 8 loses
Then Team Europe would be eliminated and the event would continue with Team America playing Team Asia in the remaining matches.
Team Asia would need to win three matches from there (thus giving Team America 8 loses) before Team America wins 4 matches (thus giving Team Asia 8 loses).
The maximum number of matches that could be played in a format like this would be 23 matches (two teams with 8 loses and the winning team with 7 loses). Similar to the potential maximum number of matches in the current Mosconi Cup 2 team format,
The potential growth of the Mosconi Cup viewership, TV deals, and Asian sponsorship/advertising deals when you open up the Asian market to the event could be quite significant and the above would give a very easy to understand format and a very dynamic and exciting event.
:thumbup:
