This article is meant to cause controversy and I hope there is a lot of it. These opinions and conjectures are from 45 years of playing the game and watching it go downhill due to shortsighted visions by people that can make a difference. I am old enough now to not care about whose toes I step on or if they are idiots in my estimation. I do care about this game and if I can change a few minds and outlooks then I’ve accomplished something.
My observations:
1. Of the approximately 50 million pool players in the United States, only .0001% (50 players) have a chance of winning a Pro tournament. Most tournaments are won by only 10 of those 50.
This is a fallacy. Beyond that statsically what are the odds of any of the 30 million basketball players to play in the NBA? Of the 50 million golfers to win a major or even make the cut to play in a pro event.
2. Compared to other major sports, overall, pool is a lower purse sport that is dependent upon entry fees to make the purse.
You can't compare pool to any "major sport", pool isn't even really a minor sport and most people don't think of it as a sport at all. And some sports don't pay as much prize money as pool does yet incur larger expenses to participate in them.
3. Better players want “perfect” conditions in which to play. “Perfect” conditions apparently are very tight pockets, new cloth, fast rails, absolutely true roll, etc.
This is a problem why?
4. Better players want to take the “luck” factor away. Please name a sport where luck is NOT a factor.
None. But all sports seek to reduce the luck as much as possible.
5. The professional game for spectators is boring. There is no “WOW” factor, except for SVB never missing a jump shot, the amazing Efren Reyes, Alex Pagulayan having fun and the antics of Earl Strickland.
Pool competes with so many other distractions that even if the players were Bunjee jumping onto the table for each shot pool would still have just a tiny tiny market share as far as viewership goes.
6. The Break is too big? It is, only in the pro and top amateur game.
Actually, Accu-Stats proved that the break isn't as "big" as people believe it is.
7. Lesser players (as opposed to pros) are needed in tournaments to increase the purse size.
Without sponsors to pick up the bill the prize money has to come from somewhere.
8. The “ball in hand” rule is too huge of penalty.
What's the solution?
9. The game is not better or worse depending upon the equipment used. It is just played with different strategies.
How is this bringing pool down?
10. Pool Rooms that don’t have a junior league system are dumb. Where are your next players coming from?
Agreed. Some states and cities have laws forbidding minors from going into pool rooms that serve alcohol.
11. The BEF needs to hire a full-time presenter and team up with table/cue/accessory manufacturers to persuade school systems into the lifetime sport aspect of pool.
Agreed. The BEF/BCA has no money. Why don't we have our own grassroots volunteer organization to do these things? Because everyone wants someone else to do it.
12. The majority of players just want to make the ball.
Um, ok.
13. There are no current hard statistics to be found on playing ability (with the exception of the IPT).
AccuStats. League ratings. Not for lack of trying though as many people have tried to do pool stats over the years.
14. The IPT tournaments caused more excitement in pool and brought more players back to pool since “The Color of Money”.
Um, not really or it would still be in business.
15. Media coverage for pool sucks.
There is nothing to cover. Pool is fringe activity. People in general are not intrested and uninteresting things don't get covered.
16. There have been no technological advances for broadcast media specifically for pool in decades. (If there ever has been any.)
Huh? Obviously you have missed the Mosconi Cup and snooker coverage.
17. There is no real men’s tour because they can’t get along and do what is good for the game.
Something like that among other things.
18. The WPBA is falling apart because they can’t get along and do what is good for the game.
Something like that among other things, which includes a worldwide financial meltdown two years ago that forced everyone to rethink their spending, including casinos.
19. What is good for the game will be good for the professional players.
Will it?
20. They don’t make the cups smaller in golf for the pros.
And they don't make them bigger for the amateurs either.
21. Why is most of the industry table specifications based around those 50 players?
Who says they are? Have you read the only "industry" table specs any time lately?
22. There are shot selections that can’t be considered with the 4.5 inch pockets that are reasonable with larger openings.
Have you ever watched snooker? Even now when snooker is declining it still has far larger purses and far larger audiences than pool events. They haven't suffered because of tiny impossible pockets. A snooker pro considers 4.5" pockets with straight cut corners to be like throwing a bb into the ocean.
23. I see players who can’t make straight in punt shots espouse the virtues of tight pocket tables. (Monkey see, monkey do.)
So what?
24. No matter the table set up, (pockets, cloth, etc.) the better player is always the better player even if they lose 1 in 20 because the table isn’t to their satisfaction.
This has what to do with the state of pool?
25. Why do manufacturers allow their products to be sold on the internet undercutting the room sales which the room needs to keep in business? Without the room, there is no business.
Because room owners won't stock. Accessory sales are just a part of the room's revenue, a small part. Any room owner can compete EASILY with the internet. Nothing is stopping them from offering the same goods at the same prices but with personal service. I personally feel that if rooms would set up their own websites and put all the products on there and have a kiosk set up right there on the counter with that website available to all with a huge banner sayign that they will match any price found on other sites then they would sell a lot more and put a hurting on the internet only stores.
26. By my count using the Yellow pages, in 2003 there were approximately 5000+ rooms. Currently, there are about 3500 rooms.
And? There are also less video arcades, internet cafes are gone, go kart tracks are down, etc... etc..... video game console sales are up, so is participation in online games, such as World of Warcraft and online poker. Poker rooms are up. Ebb and flow.
27. If the BCA is now currently a trade organization by their own admission. Why are they allowed to choose players that represent the U.S. in world events?
Because the BCA funded the WPA and as such is the North American representative of the WPA.
28. The BCA strayed from its historical mission by becoming a trade organization. STUPID. This move has caused much disarray in pool.
Yes they did. But as I recently found out they did put a lot of the money they earned from the trade show into other programs to try and promote the sport. Once the trade show revenues fell so did the available money. Another issue is the lack of insurance. No one will insure the billiard industry. So without being able to buy into group insurance the BCA lost the majority of room owner members and with it their membership fees.
29. Valley Tables/Leagues and the creation of the John Lewis run BCA (not BCAPL) pool leagues were two of the best things that happened to pool.
And those things still exist. One of the few bright spots left in pool. Not exactly a good example of what's wrong with pool.
30. In 1986, Resorts, Int. in Atlantic City put on the first “Last Call for 9-Ball” tournament and had 364 players. Last year’s US Open only had 237 entrants.
So what? Actually the last US Open had a full field didn't they? DCC in January gets more players in each division than the 1986 event and has done so every year since it's inception 12 years ago. And the Last Call for 9 Ball had some movie money being tossed around as well.
31. No smoking laws put a hit on the pool rooms. There is nothing that can be done now, the laws are hardly going to be repealed especially over the plight of such low status pool rooms. Deal with it and go after the new customers.
Some rooms have stayed successful despite those laws.
32. New customers will not stay if they can’t make balls.
33. According to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association (SGMA) study in 2008, Billiards/Pool ranked 10th in the country for participation at some 17,178,000 players that averaged playing 13 days a year. .
And this means what?
34. Participation growth is stagnant or in decline.
And? Too many other things to do in life besides play pool.
35. I get sick when I see a BCAPL player go to the national tournament, play on a Diamond table, hit a long rail ball into the 1st diamond by the pocket and can’t figure out why it isn’t going.
Huh? So you're saying Diamond is a reason pool is dying?
36. I don’t like the way the game is played today.
Ok. Well that's it right there, that's why pool is declining.
37. Every game on TV has stats and player background to back-up the announcers ---except pool. Did Accu-stats forget their mission? Player stat sheets should be part of every tournament and sent in to an independent national entity. Players then ranked by the hard stats.
I think Pat Fleming found a better way to make money. And he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008 because of it. Again you are asking for something that requires a ton of work and no one wants to pay for it. NO ONE.
38. I hate when I hear someone say the cure that pool needs is another blockbuster, epic movie. A movie would help the pool business but wouldn’t cure ills.
Really? The last blockbuster did WONDERS for the sport. Pool rode that wave for 15 years.
39. All the “fighting” rules need to be changed.
Lost me on this one.
40. Grow pool from the bottom up, not the top down.
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Agreed. How do you suggest that this be done?
