I may not be the most informed member of this forum, obviously not the most active, and certainly not the most skilled as a pool player. What I do have is a passion for sport and competition, and a true desire to see those skilled enough to compete at the highest level, to have the means financially to pursue perfection.
That being said, I wandered back on here after an 'i'm too busy to pick up a laptop for entertainment' stretch to see the uproar concerning the ABP. What a sh!tshow this is!! Here's my perspective on it, and please correct me if I've got this wrong, because the threads I have read have always seemed to turn to silly fighting and 'barry is great for the sport/I love the US open' vs 'the pros deserve better and barry isn't telling the truth'. And the press releases from both parties seem alternately heavy handed/clueless about what the future actually holds.
So onto my opinion of the issues...
1) the pros aren't paid enough to play/do get dicked around regarding payouts.
2) a good cross section of the promotors are either clueless about marketing, lazy, turned off by organization at a level higher than grassroots or completely happy having to sweat the bottom line.
3) The WPA is the closest to a strong organization with a semblance of structure and weight that I have heard of in pool in quite some time.
4) There may be a braintrust behind the WPA, I read comments from a handful of pros on one of their press releases that mentions them as board members or other official titles (J/A as president). That's fine, but make sure you keep outside sources as a policing mechanism in place to quell fears from sponsors/promotors that they have the engine worth hitching carriages full of money to.
First off, the ABP needs someone like Barry Hearn to captain this ship. You run the risk of HURTING sponsorship opportunities unless you have a strong, knowledgable marketing head there, nothing can hurt them more than becoming more disorganized and disjointed because of a lack of clear-sighted management.
You need an actual plan for an american pro tour with a major sponsor (what the hell is wrong with getting a casino or online betting company to fork over some of the money they print every day, the UFC sure didn't get harmed by big casino investment, and their reputation was even more sullied than pools). Aim big, swallow your pride and allow the sponsors to have a say in how the format will work. Look at how snooker keeps on ebbing and flowing in the UK. Or how darts has taken off (prize money wise). It's all in marketing the players and placating the sponsors and television audiences.
If you can conglomerate the regional tours, even better. Sharing the sponsorship dollars while streamlining the production of these events is necessary not only for making them profitable, but for accountibility. You need a strong regulatory force in pool, with strong repurcussions for throwing matches, skimming matches or behaviour unbecoming of the game even at the regional level. How else are you going to get sponsorship dollars from a casino if the bookies in vegas won't even put a line up on the players for fear of thrown games.
And finally, create some actual personalities in this sport. Fair enough, you guys can argue till your blue in the face as to whether Earl is good for the sport (keeps people watching, always has something to say) or terrible for the sport (obnoxious at times, always has something to say even when he should probably shut up). But he's a personality. So is alex, but how many people know who the hell they are in america? Start marketing much better, start looking for stars in the regional tours to sell to prospective major sponsors, start tearing up the concrete, going door to door until there's proper TV sponsorship, proper event sponsorship and proper player sponsorship.
If i'd have heard about the ABP movement right at the beginning, i'd have been thrilled and waited with baited breath for the next move, the announcement of sponsors and promotors who were willing to put all the effort, time and passion into creating an actual tour, while fixing the stark problems in the pro game right now (disorganization, numerous organizations, lack of policing, lack of television involvement), and so far all i've seen is a fight over tournaments posting the purse before the first ball is racked.
That's a good point. It should have been on the 2nd page of their list of issues and solutions to the problems with professional pool, not their rallying cry.
The ball is squarely in the court of the ABP braintrust right now. They've done all this organizing, all this rallying, I just hope they don't waste it all taking on one person and his tournament.
That being said, I wandered back on here after an 'i'm too busy to pick up a laptop for entertainment' stretch to see the uproar concerning the ABP. What a sh!tshow this is!! Here's my perspective on it, and please correct me if I've got this wrong, because the threads I have read have always seemed to turn to silly fighting and 'barry is great for the sport/I love the US open' vs 'the pros deserve better and barry isn't telling the truth'. And the press releases from both parties seem alternately heavy handed/clueless about what the future actually holds.
So onto my opinion of the issues...
1) the pros aren't paid enough to play/do get dicked around regarding payouts.
2) a good cross section of the promotors are either clueless about marketing, lazy, turned off by organization at a level higher than grassroots or completely happy having to sweat the bottom line.
3) The WPA is the closest to a strong organization with a semblance of structure and weight that I have heard of in pool in quite some time.
4) There may be a braintrust behind the WPA, I read comments from a handful of pros on one of their press releases that mentions them as board members or other official titles (J/A as president). That's fine, but make sure you keep outside sources as a policing mechanism in place to quell fears from sponsors/promotors that they have the engine worth hitching carriages full of money to.
First off, the ABP needs someone like Barry Hearn to captain this ship. You run the risk of HURTING sponsorship opportunities unless you have a strong, knowledgable marketing head there, nothing can hurt them more than becoming more disorganized and disjointed because of a lack of clear-sighted management.
You need an actual plan for an american pro tour with a major sponsor (what the hell is wrong with getting a casino or online betting company to fork over some of the money they print every day, the UFC sure didn't get harmed by big casino investment, and their reputation was even more sullied than pools). Aim big, swallow your pride and allow the sponsors to have a say in how the format will work. Look at how snooker keeps on ebbing and flowing in the UK. Or how darts has taken off (prize money wise). It's all in marketing the players and placating the sponsors and television audiences.
If you can conglomerate the regional tours, even better. Sharing the sponsorship dollars while streamlining the production of these events is necessary not only for making them profitable, but for accountibility. You need a strong regulatory force in pool, with strong repurcussions for throwing matches, skimming matches or behaviour unbecoming of the game even at the regional level. How else are you going to get sponsorship dollars from a casino if the bookies in vegas won't even put a line up on the players for fear of thrown games.
And finally, create some actual personalities in this sport. Fair enough, you guys can argue till your blue in the face as to whether Earl is good for the sport (keeps people watching, always has something to say) or terrible for the sport (obnoxious at times, always has something to say even when he should probably shut up). But he's a personality. So is alex, but how many people know who the hell they are in america? Start marketing much better, start looking for stars in the regional tours to sell to prospective major sponsors, start tearing up the concrete, going door to door until there's proper TV sponsorship, proper event sponsorship and proper player sponsorship.
If i'd have heard about the ABP movement right at the beginning, i'd have been thrilled and waited with baited breath for the next move, the announcement of sponsors and promotors who were willing to put all the effort, time and passion into creating an actual tour, while fixing the stark problems in the pro game right now (disorganization, numerous organizations, lack of policing, lack of television involvement), and so far all i've seen is a fight over tournaments posting the purse before the first ball is racked.
That's a good point. It should have been on the 2nd page of their list of issues and solutions to the problems with professional pool, not their rallying cry.
The ball is squarely in the court of the ABP braintrust right now. They've done all this organizing, all this rallying, I just hope they don't waste it all taking on one person and his tournament.