Something that is need in the Valley, a "Website Dedicated to Phoenix Pool Tournaments", keep it current, and the World of the Valley of the Suns Pool Player wll come to you. This is something that is so needed, I am happy it is up and running. Good luck my friend!
Yeah that is great news. I am moving there soon and plan to play alot of tournaments. One stop shop is always good. Loved your thread on shoot the bull as well.
Yeah that is great news. I am moving there soon and plan to play alot of tournaments. One stop shop is always good. Loved your thread on shoot the bull as well.
How did you get this effing job? Bust my ass all my life and you get a job like this? Do you need an assistant ?
I can just see you trying to keep from breaking out in tears of joy when
the boss called you into his office and said ," Listen Argonath. Here's your next assignment. I want you to spend the next ten years going to every bar with pool tables in the Phoenix Valley. I know it will be tough on you but you'll just have to man - up to it. Oh, of course we will give you a car and an expense account . Good luck , son." AARRRRGH ! WTF:banghead:
Wow!!!!!!!....you have no idea what Cowboy just got you into......I hope you have an assistant that likes making phone calls...By the time you get all the weekly tournaments listed.....they will have changed.
A serious suggestion would be to list a "disclaimer" at the top of that page and also the hosting venues phone number suggesting that the player calls in advance before driving accross town just to discover that there will be no tournament "that night"
There are so many weekly tournamemts in this town that many of them don't actually go off on a weekly basis....or ever.....as soon as someone usues your guide and goes to a "non" tournament....your page will lose it's credibility.
(These are just a couple of "the little things" that Coco conveniently leaves out)
Another thing to think of is how are you acutally pushing this page out to the public???? It seems like everytime someone does something pool related, they go striaght to the Az forum and or the local pool rooms (bars)....the thing is....all of those people already know where they are going to play...they don't really need a tournament "guide" like you are creating.
I added your guide as a favorite.....but in reality I will hardly ever use it....
I can already go to Azpoolscene.com for local info and/or AZBilliards.com for National info.
Wow!!!!!!!....you have no idea what Cowboy just got you into......I hope you have an assistant that likes making phone calls...By the time you get all the weekly tournaments listed.....they will have changed.
A serious suggestion would be to list a "disclaimer" at the top of that page and also the hosting venues phone number suggesting that the player calls in advance before driving accross town just to discover that there will be no tournament "that night"
There are so many weekly tournamemts in this town that many of them don't actually go off on a weekly basis....or ever.....as soon as someone usues your guide and goes to a "non" tournament....your page will lose it's credibility.
(These are just a couple of "the little things" that Coco conveniently leaves out)
Another thing to think of is how are you acutally pushing this page out to the public???? It seems like everytime someone does something pool related, they go striaght to the Az forum and or the local pool rooms (bars)....the thing is....all of those people already know where they are going to play...they don't really need a tournament "guide" like you are creating.
I added your guide as a favorite.....but in reality I will hardly ever use it....
I can already go to Azpoolscene.com for local info and/or AZBilliards.com for National info.
Do you want a prediction?
AZPoolScene.com has been running for over 6 years. We've done all the same things that you are starting to do right now. There has been many people involved over the years. We've had about 20 different Tournament Guides and in the end they all fail. The room owners will tell you this and that but in the end it will be you chasing each and every single one and dragging the information from their hands. And to add on to what BRKNRUN said, the 1st or 2nd time someone leverages your site for information on a tournament and they make the trip out there to find the bartender knows nothing about any tournaments, you'll lose more than 1 customer of the site.
We created www.MyPoolScene.com and offered numerous rooms to setup a free website and see if this is something they could use for their business. I heard the same things, we'll send over some stuff, sounds good we're in, ..., but it's the same thing. All these rooms are busy, they need someone in each room each week to extract all the information and do all the leg work.
MyPoolScene.com has a calendar that links any and all tournaments together, not much different than the one you already have. We have over 10,000 unique visitors every month to AZPoolScene.com, a Forum for players to communicate, find leagues, post up new tournament ideas, buy and sell products, etc. etc.
We also have a special section for the Arizona Rating Committee Members to allow them an online source of communicating with each other, talk about players skills levels, check ratings from anywhere, etc.
On any given week there are between 70 - 84 weekly tournaments that are advertised. Most of them attract less than 10 players, mostly only the regulars. Many of them never run and get no players. The 8-10 successful tournaments are known to any persons that play pool in the valley. I say "successful" because it has to be the same exact format, the same size turn-outs and competition every single week to be maintained. Most if not all of these 70-80 tournaments are $5 entry fee, most pay out 200% and most are handicapped to weed out the top players and keep the drinkers in the rooms.
There are a few things that remain constant each and every month. Kitty's has Scotch doubles the last weekend, Kolby's has 1 pocket the same weekend. Metro will run 2 events and usually the same as Northern Lounge's tournaments because the rooms don't get along. The OX has tournaments for the lowest rated players. They get a good group of fun people each and every week and they don't need to do anything to change it. (Great place). Metro has a good Friday and Saturday night that has been going strong for ever. Deli Sports runs a great Saturday tourney. Bullshooters doesn't and won't have any good tournaments. Mostly just one off tournaments, which I've personally ran many of. The DCT and the AWBT will both frequent the room and numerous players call it home. There is no action and on most nights is filled with the "drinking" crowd. Mike has a very successful business and the dart, poker and drinker crowd is it. Down in Tempe/Chandler, there are a few good places that cater to the same people, Groggy's, Time Out Lounge, etc. they have small tournaments and regulars. Scottsdale has nothing worth talking about. Kolby's is the premier room in the state, I wouldn't recommend any first timer or wannabe hustler to go there without being ready to go home broke. Stingers runs leagues and has monthly tournaments, Karaoke scares people away and they don't have 9 footers any more. I could go on for days...... Yuma, Prescott Valley and Tucson have some great pool players, many of which frequent the valley every month.
Oh yeah, for whatever reason, everyone seems to like playing Scotch Doubles. If a bar doesn't add at least $500 to the pot they will barely get enough players.
To keep up with just a tiny bit of the Arizona Pool Scene and how it changes every week will take knowing the players, following tournaments, writing tournament stories, running leagues, meeting with owners on a regular basis, being apart of the Rating Committee, etc....
Side note: Aligning yourself and/or taking any advice from the Cowboy will lead you to a dry well!
George is a good guy (aka 12310bch, aka George the Jump)!!!
And hey, both AZpoolscene.com and AZbilliards.com are great sites with great information as well.
Can there be too much information? Maybe, but if there are 1.2 million potential people who enjoy shooting pool in the Valley, but only a small percentage of that actually play alot then most probably wont be keeping up to date on alot of billiard sites.
Do you remember just a tad more than a decade ago an ameteur name Varkyoni and the year after Moneymaker took poker and made it massive mainstream. So much that most bars play poker at least once a week in their places.
Now... how much money does it cost to play in a real tournament? Quite a bit, but how about many tourneys for ameteurs are there that only have a $5.00 entry fee?
For that price, and with the right promotion and marketing, how many people can we get in the Valley to come join the fun as they did in Poker in less than a decade?
Argonath is trying something new for him, he has an idea, and a lot of people say he is going to fail. That is really too bad. Think the idea has merit, but only time will tell. He is trying to put up a guide with information on places to play pool, the places many do not know about, and help these places get business. I see zero wrong with that idea.
I wish him good luck with his idea. Think it will work if the information is current and accurate. Some people like to try new places, and some are stuck in the same rut!
I think we all understand that this idea is new, TO HIM. We know it's not new to you, cause I can still remember about 50 Personal Messages you had sent to me asking me to try and maintain the weekly tournament calender. I had already made the effort for over a year of maintaining even a monthly guide. You would need a team of 10-12 people to maintain a weekly guide and even then you'd have a hard time getting the non-active pool players to even want to look for it online. Phoenix is a funny place for pool. Players looking for tournaments use the word of mouth technique, leverage facebook, emails and phones to talk directly with friends that know if the tournament is running. I get tons of messages every week, via email and text, to find a tournament that they can count on to be worth going to.
I wish him luck as well! But unless he wants to dedicate his entire week each week to the tournament scene, tracking down every owner, tournament director and going to see if tournaments are successful and running as advertised each week, I just don't see it happening. It's the nature of the beast. And I'll say it again, the 1st time someone reads about a tournament and heads across town to find out that they don't have a tournament and haven't for weeks, you lose all credibility! Sorry to say it, and I wish there was a better way.
People are not on here to tell him he's going to fail, we are trying to help by saving you all the time and effort.