Making Pool More Marketable.

[mnorwood]

Since I discovered YouTube I have been watching snooker. Over time I have found that I like to watch snooker much more than pool. Relatively speaking snooker is big money in England, because there it has a wider appeal with BBC viewers. I beleive that pool can change to boost its own popularity. Here are some suggestions that I think would help viewers buy into pool.

1. Make the table at least 10 feet long. The bigger the table the more space the viewer has to look at. The bigger table will make the game seem more difficult.

2. Make all the balls solid bright colars where the viewer can see them. Also drop the numbers off the balls.

3. Create a game where their is a point system. Rotation might work but it depends on people knowing what number coincides with a color. No score is kept during a 8ball/9ball game. Numerical scoring creates drama.

4. Make your players human. I have learned more about snooker players from watching YouTube than I ever have pool players watching espn.

9ball, 8ball, 14.1 will never sale. I think rotation would sale but equipment modifications will have to be made to make it more viewer friendly.

 

[jgpool]

Ideas

Since I discovered YouTube I have been watching snooker. Over time I have found that I like to watch snooker much more than pool. Relatively speaking snooker is big money in England, because there it has a wider appeal with BBC viewers. I beleive that pool can change to boost its own popularity. Here are some suggestions that I think would help viewers buy into pool.

1. Make the table at least 10 feet long. The bigger the table the more space the viewer has to look at. The bigger table will make the game seem more difficult.

2. Make all the balls solid bright colars where the viewer can see them. Also drop the numbers off the balls.

3. Create a game where their is a point system. Rotation might work but it depends on people knowing what number coincides with a color. No score is kept during a 8ball/9ball game. Numerical scoring creates drama.

4. Make your players human. I have learned more about snooker players from watching YouTube than I ever have pool players watching espn.

9ball, 8ball, 14.1 will never sale. I think rotation would sale but equipment modifications will have to be made to make it more viewer friendly.

You have some interesting ideas. It is good to think about improving things and I think all sports can be improved. As far as your ideas, hear goes:

1) ?

2) They have Casino balls for 8-ball.

3) I think you are right about the score. It is very important, but would 96 to 65 be any more exiting then 7 to 4?

4) This is the best idea out of the 4. Interviews and backround info if it's edited. Name recognition players are not known to the public anymore. They know the names of pool players who are not with us any longer. Willie, Steve, and Fats are the 3 that come to mind. The average person on the street would be hard pressed to name another player.

IMHO

 

[JoeyInCali]

Topless rack girls.
OK, world team championships again.

 

[cubswin]

get rid of video games as babysitters and make poolhalls the hangouts again and pool will be popular again.

 

[Blackjack]

Pool is a great game and it attracts millions of players around the world. The problem with pool's marketability is multi-dimensional. Here are the two main problems that have kept pool at a standstill for an extremely long time.

First - the players are geared towards financial survival - not marketing the sport. Everything takes a back seat to their financial well being - and the industry views this mindset as greedy, immature, and ungrateful.

Second - The industry is geared towards marketing their products - not the game of pool. The bottom line in sales is more important than the mass appeal of the profesional level of play.

These two factors have the industry and the players going in two completely different directions. Its as if they are separate satellites orbiting the same planet - but they just have different motives and priorities.

There is nothing wrong with the game of pool. The only thing that needs to be changed are the attitudes of the people involved in the game and the industry. Until these attitudes change and the until everybody realizes that they must compromise their stance and make sacrifices in the quest for progress, nothing will ever change.

These are the "internal issues" I was referring to when I questioned Kevin Trudeau's claims about how the IPT would revolutionize the game of pool. Throwing money at the players and flipping off the establishment didn't solve any of these problems. The only solution is for everyone to look at this with the maturity that only comes from LEARNING from the mistakes of the past. With everybody going in their own separate directions - we get absolutely nowhere.