My Opinion of the Glass City Open. Fans perspective..

R

RunArak

Dead Account
Silver Member
I just wanted to see if anyone else thought that the GCO tournament was not very "fan friendly". For $45.00 VIP pass, per day your got a bleacher seat..
Not what I am used to seeing at other tourneys.
In comparison to other well run tournaments, I thought that this tournament had some of the poorest accomodations for the fan that I have ever attended.
The quality of play was still quite good with players such as Earl, Archer, Putnam etc... No complaints in this department whatsoever.
I talked to several of the vendors as well and they said that they have no plans on returning due to low turn out. I just think that the prices were out of line..
On a funny note, one player outside was moaning that he only cashed out with $67 in the Calcutta and it cost him $70.00 to buy himself. Pretty bad when you win less than it costs to buy yourself. Sounds like that may have been a poor investment.
The U.S. Open is much better bang for your buck, the Derby is outstanding but I felt that the GCO was poor in comparison. Just looking for the opinion of others that may have attended this year.

Peace,

Joe
 
Thanks for the feedback on the touranment and it's conditions. As far as the guy feeling sorry for himself: Just think of all of the other guys that DIDN'T cash that bought themselves in the calcutta. He is only short $3, they are short 100% of what they bought themselves for. Damn pool players, always the victims.
 
was still quite good with players such as Earl, Archer, Putnam etc... No complaints in this department whatsoever.
I talked to several of the vendors as well and they said that they have no plans on returning due to low turn out. I just think that the prices were out of line..


Peace,

Joe[/B][/COLOR][/QUOTE]


The $45 a day does seem high,even though there were many top notch players in attendance. Did you see any new or interesting products or vendors? The finals would have been worth the money to me.
 
Nothing new and exciting. Did get to see some good matches though. Archer vs. Basavich, Lil John vs Putnam, Strickland vs. Lapena and several more. I left on Sat before the last round. Long drive for me, 3+ hours each way. Hopefully the promoters will take the criticism constructively. It has the potential of being an awesome tournament. I would think that it needs to be at a roomier location. JMHO..
Joe
 
RunArak said:
Nothing new and exciting. Did get to see some good matches though. Archer vs. Basavich, Lil John vs Putnam, Strickland vs. Lapena and several more. I left on Sat before the last round. Long drive for me, 3+ hours each way. Hopefully the promoters will take the criticism constructively. It has the potential of being an awesome tournament. I would think that it needs to be at a roomier location. JMHO..
Joe
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That Al Lapena put my darkhorse in the losers bracket and he never could recover.
 
RunArak said:
It has the potential of being an awesome tournament. I would think that it needs to be at a roomier location. JMHO..
Joe
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I haven't been so I can't speak of the venue but I do know that a couple of people have mentioned to the tourney director that they've outgrown the facility & needed to hold it somewhere else. (Two different people told me that they had mentioned this to him). I can appreciate having a certain loyalty to the venue if you've been doing this for yrs & you have a great relationship but.... look at how many times the US Open has changed due to it outgrowing itself. Change isn't always fun but at times it's necessary. Sounds as if this is one of the scenario's where it's necessary.
 
RunArak said:
I just wanted to see if anyone else thought that the GCO tournament was not very "fan friendly". For $45.00 VIP pass, per day your got a bleacher seat..
Not what I am used to seeing at other tourneys.
In comparison to other well run tournaments, I thought that this tournament had some of the poorest accomodations for the fan that I have ever attended.
The quality of play was still quite good with players such as Earl, Archer, Putnam etc... No complaints in this department whatsoever.
I talked to several of the vendors as well and they said that they have no plans on returning due to low turn out. I just think that the prices were out of line..
On a funny note, one player outside was moaning that he only cashed out with $67 in the Calcutta and it cost him $70.00 to buy himself. Pretty bad when you win less than it costs to buy yourself. Sounds like that may have been a poor investment.
The U.S. Open is much better bang for your buck, the Derby is outstanding but I felt that the GCO was poor in comparison. Just looking for the opinion of others that may have attended this year.

Peace,

Joe
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Joe, I agree with you about the prices being very high. I have been to the US Open and all of the Derby City tournaments and the GCO is the worst by far regarding spectator accomodations. I couldn't believe that the "ring side" seats were $75 and there was supposed to be a waitress (none seen) and munchies (none seen). It's too bad that they have lost money on all the GCO tournaments and I think they will continue to unless they can find sponsors to help out financially. Gouging the spectators will only make attendance worse in the future. I have been to the last three GCO's and always felt ripped off there...never felt that way at any other tournament. The other tournaments mentioned have padded chairs instead of wooden bleacher seats. Also what really ticked me off was all the byes on Thurs. Since there were 88 players on a 128 bracket, there were 40 byes and all the top players had the byes so I watched alot of shortstops for my $45!! Had there been more entries, it may have been different. Snack prices were high too.....nothing like DCC!! Gregg Sullivan knows how to do it. Oh, and Accustats wasn't there at GCO...I wonder why?

curly
 
curly said:
Joe, I agree with you about the prices being very high. I have been to the US Open and all of the Derby City tournaments and the GCO is the worst by far regarding spectator accomodations. I couldn't believe that the "ring side" seats were $75 and there was supposed to be a waitress (none seen) and munchies (none seen). It's too bad that they have lost money on all the GCO tournaments and I think they will continue to unless they can find sponsors to help out financially. Gouging the spectators will only make attendance worse in the future. I have been to the last three GCO's and always felt ripped off there...never felt that way at any other tournament. The other tournaments mentioned have padded chairs instead of wooden bleacher seats. Also what really ticked me off was all the byes on Thurs. Since there were 88 players on a 128 bracket, there were 40 byes and all the top players had the byes so I watched alot of shortstops for my $45!! Had there been more entries, it may have been different. Snack prices were high too.....nothing like DCC!! Gregg Sullivan knows how to do it. Oh, and Accustats wasn't there at GCO...I wonder why?

curly
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Curly, you hit the nail on the head. I am normally the last person to complain about anything but when it is as bad as the GCO, I feel that I should voice my opinion. You mentioned some other things that bothered me such as 2 cans of soda and a candy bar for $4.75.. That is simply gouging the consumer. With the overall type of treatment given, I would predict that the GCO will once again, fall by the wayside as it did in the past. I was warned before going this year but went anyways. Not again.
Man are you right, Greg Sullivan could give Tom and Tom a point or two on how to run a successful tournament. I cannot wait for the Derby.. If not for the fans, there would not be very many pro tournaments. I am all for paying my share and a fair price but that was not the situation this time. Call the police, we've been robbed;). I felt need to speak my mind in this case.

Peace, Joe
 
RunArak said:
Curly, you hit the nail on the head. I am normally the last person to complain about anything but when it is as bad as the GCO, I feel that I should voice my opinion. You mentioned some other things that bothered me such as 2 cans of soda and a candy bar for $4.75.. That is simply gouging the consumer. With the overall type of treatment given, I would predict that the GCO will once again, fall by the wayside as it did in the past. I was warned before going this year but went anyways. Not again.
Man are you right, Greg Sullivan could give Tom and Tom a point or two on how to run a successful tournament. I cannot wait for the Derby.. If not for the fans, there would not be very many pro tournaments. I am all for paying my share and a fair price but that was not the situation this time. Call the police, we've been robbed;). I felt need to speak my mind in this case.

Peace, Joe
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Joe
I agree totally i thought overall the GCO was a joke and how bout those cue vendors remember the old days just a few years back when cues were somewhat affordable I hope nobody bought any custom cues off the vendors or at least if they did they got a free tube of KY Jelly to go with the purchase, It s amazing what some people think cues are really worth.
 
I been to the GCO the last couple of years with the exception of this one. The cost are way too high for sitting on bleacher seats. General admission is less but you have to sit on the far end of the room and the view is not very good if the match you would like to see is in the middle of the room or on the opposite end.

The GCO should just get rid of "VIP" seating and move the bleachers closer to the tables and just charge a fan friendly price to bring in the fans. Once the fans are there, they will buy the food, drink and rent rooms. Vendors need masses of people to market their products too. Other wise they will not be back to try and sell to only a few amount of people who just over paid for seating and will not spend any more money on cues, cases, etc..

The matches are great. The players are great. I don't understand with the last few years with low turnout from fans most due to high cost of viewing, that the directors of the GCO doesn't do something about it. Only hardcore enthusiest, players and fans attend these tournaments and pay the cost. With these high cost, how long with the GCO will last a tournament?
 
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JustPlay said:
The matches are great. The players are great. I don't understand with the last few years with low turnout from fans most due to high cost of viewing, that the directors of the GCO doesn't do something about it. Only hardcore enthusiast, players and fans attend these tournaments and pay the cost. With these high cost, how long with the GCO will last a tournament?
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I went the the GCO on Friday. I have to mostly agree with what you are saying. One thing though, if I decide not to attend next year, it will be because of the lousy seating more than the cost. Don't get me wrong, it is too expensive, but the biggest draw back for me was sitting on a hard wood plank for eight hours.

The players were great. I was sitting by the "players entrance" and I saw many players sign autographs and have friendly conversations with the fans. In particular, I saw Earl and Hillbilly sign things for several people and generally be nice to fans.
 
I made my second & last trip,anyone who was there knows why.I got there Fri.Nite kinda late& still had to pay $30 to sit on a damn board Nearly $100 for an average room& a buck fifty for a coffee.NA not again..I hope Tom&Tom reads these posts.
 
I have read each of the comments made in this forum and I will take some time to address the issues.
1) High Prices: It is a necessary evil as we have NO big sponsors...just a few little ones. We have tried every conceivable marketing plan to bring in sponsors and no one is biting. The ones we do have are mostly a product of putting the squeeze on the vedors in my partner's roofing contracting business to buy our banners. We have lost $11,000 in the three previous years...even though we have been packed most every night. With the exception of the ringside seating prices, all prices were the same price as when we started out. Additionally, the hotel took off 6ft on the short side to install airconditioning and we lost over 100 seats. In order to try to get the $25,000 added money we by 500 room nights from the hotel and try to resell them. We have to pay, up front, for the rooms and HOPE to hit it. Last year we were short 112 rooms and had to pay for them.
2) Seating: Because of the new layout (and I thank Jim Wyant for the design. Without him there would have been no 2005 Glass City Open.) we were able to provide, what we thought, desirable seating that some fans would pay a premium for and help make up for the revenue lost on the lost seating. As it turned out, we were right. With the exception of a few seats on Wednesday and Thursday, we sold them all out.
3) Fan appreciation woes: I believe my partner, Tom Elder, and I show our fans how much we appreciate them by putting our hard-earned money up and bringing in some the best players in the world. Locally, every year since we have resurrected the Glass City Opens we give away 1,000 $30 free passes for Wednesday and Thursday so a lot of people who could never see these top players get a chance to. As far as I am aware of no other promoters do this.
4) Getting a bigger venue: It is not possible to move it as we have no major sponsors. All costs considered, it takes over $100,000 to produce this event. As of this writing, we've never taken in that much. People have asked us how can we lose money when we are packed every night: It's very simple....it costs more to produce than we take in.

SUMMARY: While our venue isn't perfect, the prices are one of the highest in the country, and the seating isn't the greatest....we manage to produce a high-quality event that the top players and most fans love coming to. My partner and I love the sport and want to bring the best players in the world to a mid-size city so that you, the fans, get a chance to see some great pool. It is a tremendous dissapointment to us that to bring a high caliber costs so much money and demands so much of our time for so little reward. Each year gets a little better and we learn a little more on how to make it better. However, I suggest that some of you armchair promoters buy Tom and me out and possibly make it free to come to. We'll be the first ones in line.

Tom Gearhart
 
Tom...What exactly do you mean by 'you bring top players to the event'? Do you pay for these players airfare, accomodations, etc.? Or do you just have an event that is enticing enough for them to show up by the added money? Maybe if you are so overwhelmed you should scale back a bit. But please don't come on here and try to get people to feel sorry for you. I am sure that you are a smart enough business man that you make money each year or you wouldn't continue to do it. Not to be rude, but if you are not that smart and keep losing money, I'll give you some free advice. STOP.
Was there a calcutta (or player auction if that is what you must call it)? Did you take 10-20% from that?

As a pool fan, let me say I am glad that you hold an event such as this even though I have never attended. But like I have said on here time and time again---don't ever be embarrassed that you made/make money. You charge $45 because you can get it. Simple enough.
 
watchez said:
Tom...What exactly do you mean by 'you bring top players to the event'? Do you pay for these players airfare, accomodations, etc.? Or do you just have an event that is enticing enough for them to show up by the added money? Maybe if you are so overwhelmed you should scale back a bit. But please don't come on here and try to get people to feel sorry for you. I am sure that you are a smart enough business man that you make money each year or you wouldn't continue to do it. Not to be rude, but if you are not that smart and keep losing money, I'll give you some free advice. STOP.
Was there a calcutta (or player auction if that is what you must call it)? Did you take 10-20% from that?

As a pool fan, let me say I am glad that you hold an event such as this even though I have never attended. But like I have said on here time and time again---don't ever be embarrassed that you made/make money. You charge $45 because you can get it. Simple enough.
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Something was done very well if you look at it from a promotional standpoint.The event received very good exposure prior to taking place.I know a lot of interest was expressed here,and I suspect world wide. Johnny Archer earned a very nice victory.
 
SPINTHEBALL said:
Something was done very well if you look at it from a promotional standpoint.The event received very good exposure prior to taking place.I know a lot of interest was expressed here,and I suspect world wide. Johnny Archer earned a very nice victory.
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I wasn't able to make it this yr but I still plan on going next yr, regardless of what's been said here today. Some people hate Broadway shows.... I like them. Some people might not've liked GCO, but it just might be my cup of tea. ;) I enjoy tournaments & have yet to go to one that I didn't like. Sure I wasn't thrilled with the spectator set up at some but I still got to see some great pool. In the end, isn't that what it's all about? Watching great pool?
 
tomgearhart said:
I have read each of the comments made in this forum and I will take some time to address the issues.
{snip}
Tom Gearhart
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Tom,

Hopefully you take the comments posted both seriously and with a grain of salt ;)

As I said in my post, my only big complaint was the hard seats. Next year I will bring a padded portable "stadium seat".

On the cost side, the price did seem a little high, but since I did come to the event (and brought my son) I obviously did not find it to far out of line. However, had the price been a bit lower I would have considered attending 2 days instead of 1.

Since lowering the price outright does not sound feasable, I have another suggestion. Since you must guarentee the rooms, could you possible do a package deal next year? For example, with a room rental you get VIP tickets for the price of general. Even though it would not be a big difference in price, something like this would most likely have gotten me to stay over and attended another day.
 
I am not really pissed & understand that you need to make money,and I hope you take the criticism as constructve.One improvement I would offer are AM & PM or half day passes for half the money (as per DCC )it might even draw more people overall. Thanks for having it anyway!
 
then come to the Joss Event at Turning Stone

RunArak said:
I just wanted to see if anyone else thought that the GCO tournament was not very "fan friendly". For $45.00 VIP pass, per day your got a bleacher seat..
Not what I am used to seeing at other tourneys.
In comparison to other well run tournaments, I thought that this tournament had some of the poorest accomodations for the fan that I have ever attended.
The quality of play was still quite good with players such as Earl, Archer, Putnam etc... No complaints in this department whatsoever.
I talked to several of the vendors as well and they said that they have no plans on returning due to low turn out. I just think that the prices were out of line..
On a funny note, one player outside was moaning that he only cashed out with $67 in the Calcutta and it cost him $70.00 to buy himself. Pretty bad when you win less than it costs to buy yourself. Sounds like that may have been a poor investment.
The U.S. Open is much better bang for your buck, the Derby is outstanding but I felt that the GCO was poor in comparison. Just looking for the opinion of others that may have attended this year.

Peace,

Well if the GCO was that bad then be sure to come to the Joss Tour Event at Turning Stone Casino in February. Definately not a bad seat in the house and it is free to watch. No door charge. and anyone of any age can watch the tournament. And you only have to be 18 years old to gamble in the Casino. The last tournament was sold out with all the top players in attendance (Archer, Strickland, Reyes, Bustamonte, Wiseman, McCready, McCreesh, Feijen, Parica, Shawn Putnam just to name a few). and everyone raved about the venue. you can sit 5 rows up and watch any 5 or 6 matches you want. You would have to experience this venue to realize what i am saying. So come one come all and see how well the Joss Tour is run.....mike
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