Midwest Open Review

cardiac kid said:
Hi Sam,

As I posted elsewhere at AZ, I think some people are trying to embarrass the event on behalf of other billiards sanctioning groups. They might not have approved it, but there are too many repeat posts for a simple complaint. Its so sad! Like you, I appreciated another great event to play in. I've played for 45 years and never played in a perfect tournament. Something always challenges the organizers!
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I might agree here......If a tournament doesn't go just according to Hoyle most people will complain or point it out and offer suggestions. In this case i have seen an exhorbitant amount of complaining only, even on other forums. If I was upset I might respond complaining but realize I have other choices like not attending next time, or by offering my suggestions to help make it work better if the event has great potential. Most people will offer suggestions unless they want to get back at someone. So I wonder if those people repeatedly complaining are focused on any of Bob and Eydie's pool politics. I would not put it past anyone who have taken different sides with Bob and Eydie to push a lame issue so hard. No one wants to put on tournament that doesn't meet expections. I ran the perfect tournament a couple of times and no one gave praise.
 
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Zims Rack said:
I agree totally! However, I wasn't comparing Jacoby and Dominiak to Schick, Ginacue, etc. I was just stating that, IMO, that price range is going to see very minimal attention at a venue such as the MidWest Expo. Yet, the vendor(s) complain that "no one's buying anything here, I'm not coming next year!" What do you expect when the cheapest cue you're selling is around $1,000.

Zim
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Weren't there some less expensive cues over on the outside wall? I think Pool Dawg had some less expensive production cues and Diviney(sp?) out of Iowa had some interestin "butterfly spliced" cues at $290/$300.

PatH
 
Diveny has some dynamite looking cues for the price! PoolDawg had some Action, Cuetec a couple Vikings, but they weren't complaining about the sales. JabCues.com and Connoisouer of Cues were complaining about sales! That's who I was referring to.
Just something I noticed!
Zim
 
I agree with the statement regarding sales. I dont think that that event is the place for the top of line custom cue makers. I dont see people bringing that kinda cash just for an 'impulse' buy. Seems to me that someone who is going to purchase a 3000.00 cue will take some time and think about it. Who knows how many people looked at cues there that didnt purchase, but will look into buying one at a later date.

I for one am an impulse buyer at events. I purchase gimmicks, books, videos, shirts, and maybe low line cues if I feel the impulse. I dont think that I am alone with this. Not too mention that alot of the players are trying to keep their last penny to get into action.

IMO
 
My thoughts: I worked this show for Fury(Sterling Gaming).

There were enough vendors there to provide something from everyone. Mueller's had just about every gadget out there. We had cues from $115 to $550 and the other vendors had cues from $40 - $10,000. As a player you could get clothed in the very best quality gear from Ride The Nine, get cool shirts from Run Out and others, get your cue fixed by Bludworth or Jacoby. Fury had four of their Pros on hand for challenge matches. Strickland was available for public lessons. In short, the amount of vendors and the things they had for sale were more than adequate for the event.

From the vendors perspective however, and this was discussed with the Romanos by me, it seemed as though there just weren't enough people with free time to browse and shop. I dubbed this event mini-mania because it seemed as though most of the people there would rather miss a meal then miss a mini. The consumers seemed to be short on time between matches and holding their money very close to the vest so as to have money for the minis.

While we at Fury feel as though we could have done a better job of presenting a more unified appearance we just feel as a vendor that we did an awful lot to entice people to the booth with very poor results. The Romano's were VERY gracious with letting the vendors make announcements and pumping the vendors several times a day and no one cared. I don't think that our pros played ten challenge matches throughout the event, we ran a total of 5 break contests and 1 speed pool contest. In contrast, at the APA in August we ran about 10 a day on average.

So, in conclusion, as a player I think the event was fantastic. A little scheduling glitches here and there but for the most part it was a few thousand pool players playing pool pretty much non-stop for four days. As a vendor the show was well short of making either the revenue or the contacts to consider it a success. That said, we will probably do it again as we believe that this show needs time to become established and tweaked to be comfortable to all who attend. We had a good time depsite the dismal sales and are happy to have made some new friends and visited with old ones.

Eydie and Bob have vowed to make some more changes and try and do an even better job next year. We will be there to see it.

John Barton - Fury Cues/Sterling Gaming
 
TAP! TAP! TAP! Well said John! I think most of the vendors would agree with your entire statement!

Zim
 
I thought that it looked like there was not a lot being sold. I think your analysis of the situation is probably right on the money (for lack of a better phrase :) ) . People were there to play pool more than to shop. I didn't buy anything and that was primarily because I didn't want to carry it around with me. I came to watch good pool.

So.....what can be done to entice more "shoppers" to attend? Do players usually spend freely at tournaments or is the sales volume dependent on attracting shoppers? Should the venders be set up in a seperate area to entice shopping? (that doesn't sound like a good idea) I have a friend in the business and he didn't even set up because he had heard that not much business was being done. I want this event to be a success so we have some major pool going on in Il. I don't think there had been a pro tournament in the Chicago area for over 5 yrs prior to this and I want to see more!!
 
Hi John,

Great post!!!!! I got the best smile of the week(end) when I saw your spelling of my last name on the list of Blud's ticket buyers. I'm not even disappointed I didn't win. Blud's a great guy and a credit to his profession. Would have bought more tickets but ran short of cash. Pel, congradulations on your winning ticket. John, thanks for promoting the "raffle". Blud smiled throughout the event even though his heart was heavy. You're a great friend. Much success to you.
 
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