Nothing New In Men's Pro Pool For Years

[JB Cases]

No, it is simply honest.

The reality is that this game at the professional level has gone nowhere not in the last 6 years, but in the last 20 years. We have fewer events then the past and when inflation is taken into account (as it must be) the money in each event is normally lower as well.

Professional pool's only saving grace is the increase in popularity in Asia and Europe, which managed to offset the plummet in popularity the sport has seen in America where the sport as a whole MUST expand and show positive growth, which is the opposite of what it is doing right now.

The amature game has stayed relatively stable. I have been going to the amature events in Vegas for almost 2 decades now and the tournaments are not a whole lot bigger then they were in the past. We have WAY better tables in the BCA nationals now due to Diamond which is the only positive change I have seen in my entire time in this game, which spans back to Johnny Archer being a kid winning his first professional event. The VNEA in Vegas on the other hand has been crushed in that same amount of time, their popularity and attendence is a small fraction of what it once was.

I have made countless posts on how things could be done to improve the outlook of the sport and possibly set it off on a positive trend of popularity and participation. Not going to bother writing that stuff here. Nothing is being done and the sport is in stasis and when you are not growing while the whole world grows around you then you are eventually going to disapear under the mass of all that other stuff.

Pool is a small tree not growing while the whole forest grows around it, eventually pool will die from a lack of light as it dies under the mass of the other trees that grow bigger and bigger all around it. Not alot of people seem to be noticing though or they don't care enough to put a real effort into changing that course of events.

This sport as a whole is on the same path as the Riviera, and at this point the amature level of the sport is virtually the ONLY source of fans and support the sport has for the industry. Which makes sense, since the amature level is in stasis as I mentioned above so is the support for the professional level of pool and thus professional pool itself is going nowhere.



That happend, did you miss it?

BTW, Kieth's post is spot on as well. Snooker has managed to struggle on for years because of Alex the Hurricane Higgins and Ronnie O'Sullivan type of players. Players that show personality and fire and yeah at times are even controversial. If you take those guys out and have the same faceless guys with no personality all wearing the same vest-suit playing the exact same style you can kiss that sport goodbye, and that sport is bloody well close to that atm, they are litterly living on the health and hopes of a single top player atm who manages to keep people interested. Yes a guy like Hendry can help a sport as well, each McEnroe needs their Conners to compete against and show the contrast in style and approach. That is why a guy like John Daly looks so entertaining, he is a bright light of contrast and entertainment in a sea of otherwise fairly bland players. Even Tiger has shown a vast amount more fire and aggresion on the course then people have previously shown, swearing and throwing clubs is not unheard of from him, but that emotion is prefferable to a bland robot (stealing Kieth's word, it fits) playing the game.

But all of that is pointless as well if the sport does not get more then the 10,000 people who actually give a shit atm. We could have the most interesting lineup of players on the planet, this sport actually DOES have alot of characters to market much like Poker does, but atm we have no outlet to actually market the sport and get people to notice.

I agree 100%

Why can't we have Johnny Archer on the morning radio telling us about all the action games and the path to becoming a pro?

Players are boring and bland and don't know the first thing about marketing themselves.

The men should all hire Jeanette Lee as their marketing coach.

One thing that has always made me GAG - literally throw up is that (unnamed UPA "pro") told me about doing corporate exhibitions as a "professional player" and what he was getting for it. I have beaten this "pro" every time I have played him and I would kill myself if I ever referred to myself as a professional player or as having anywhere close to the amount of talent to be able to compete with real pros.

But the fact is that the real pros won't STAND UP and be counted. The American professionals won't define for themselves who should be in their ranks and exclude those who haven't earned the right to be considered as professionals.

Thus we have the situation where the real pros live a meager existence while the fake ones get to run around and pretend to be professionals.

Last night I went to the pool room and excitedly told the owners of the pool room that a 16 year old Chinese girl just beat Karen Corr for the World Championships by running six racks in a race to 9. Do you think that they cared? Not enough to announce it to their pool room full of people playing.

It's ****ing sad when no one in the pool room even cares.

 

[markgw]

Well, here's how I see it. The entertainment aspect is the thing lacking in pool.

When I used to play at all the tournaments, there'd be 800 people watching my game, and there'd be 30 people watching other games. Why is that? It's because people like entertainment as well as seeing good pool.

There's a couple people that might disagree. There's always going to be that couple of knockers, but you got them anywhere you go, if you catch my drift.

As far as the IPT and Kevin Trudeau goes, I think it was the best stepping stone to market pool in a positive way. He's the first guy that came out of the woodwork, knowing he would probably lose money from the start, and ended up losing millions, only to get bashed and slammed from every angle.

All the robots with no personality are killing the game, and believe me, I hate to say it, but about 80 percent of the pool players today on the circuit with their garbage pail personalities won't do anything to help. If they do anything at all, it's all for themselves. If they all tried to unite with one another and work together, not talk bad about each other behind people's back, backstab this player, backstab that player, they might have a chance. Until they recognize that, pool is what it is today.

I'm in total agreement with the personalities and excitment are way lacking. Just speaking for myself, I love to see some color in a players personality. An example; I used to love watching Morro, Keith and Earl of old. You were always getting your moneys worth in the excitment area. Keith was the master at this and always drew the largest crowds like he said because they knew they were going to see a great show. I remember watching Keith play for 3 days straight and I never saw anyone come with some of the shots he came with, when he had too. But what made it great is before he had to make a near impossible case shot, he would tell the crowd, "Watch this one folks"! Sure enough he would drill in the money ball and leave everyone thoroughly entertained. I miss that aspect. The pool playing itself these days is at a very high level though and you have to appreciate that. But I sure miss those legendary personalities like Keith had, but it might be asking abit much because I do think God broke the mold after Keith M.

 

[dlabout]

I was wondering about this very subject just last week. I recall the days when the Men were organized and televised. The last match I saw on TV was some trick shot competition. I went looking for the governing body or bodies for the Men’s pro pool and couldn’t find anything. Some of the web sites hadn't been updated since 2008. I think the defining moment for the WPBA was to align them selves with the APA. Now I'm no fan of the APA format but to have an ingrained audience for the WPBA hasn't been a bad thing for the WPBA. And the women seem to have a unified voice in their future but the men are all over the map. As a kid watching the matches on ABC sports between Willie Mosconi and Minnesota Fats was a thrill. My understanding at the time was the BCA was the governing body for all of pool. Where is the BCA now?
Has America suffered with the stigma of the Pool Hall image vs. Europe always considering Billiards to be a gentleman’s sport? I've found that when offering to help a young person improve in the game that their parents have an image of the pool hall as being a seedy place. In fact when I show them places like Table Steaks South here in Denver, they are surprised at how very nice and well light the place is. I think that comes from Billiard hall owners like Frank who have worked hard to elevate the standards of their establishments and believe that they are making an impact on the sport.
People like Laura Smith are working very hard to get young people involved in our sport and pair them with players that can help them. I'm sure her biggest complaint is that most don't know about her efforts with the BCA Junior nationals and those that do have a hard time figuring out how they can help.
We as a community are what is wrong with Billiards in America. We spend money and time improving our games but who among us has gone to our Billiard hall and asked what we can do to promote events and get more people interested in our game? Who has taken the time to mentor a young player and helped them past the bumpy road of learning our game?
I too have been complacent in helping our sport. I contacted Laura last year in an effort to help but never felt I was making an impact. I will make a commitment to do more this year. If I want our sport to thrive again it must begin with ME.

 

[CocoboloCowboy]

I've have followed pool tournaments and the players for the last 6 years on here (AZ) and other forums. I've come to the conclusion that pool is what it is now, is what it has been for years, and will never be anything else but a game. There might be some hope for amateur pool but pro pool is stuck in time. When the few remaining sponsors get tired of the chopping, dumping, and all the other BS that goes on at the top level of men's pro pool they will disassociate themselves with it and only fund amateur events. Johnnyt

Pool need a Dress Code, Code of Conduct, Image make over for any BIG TIME ADVERTISERS to JUMP on Poo like they do Golf, Tennis, NBA, NFL, etc. IMHO!!!!!

 

[metallicane]

They need someone to run it that isn't just interested in padding their bottom line. Greed is usually what makes most things come apart.

 

[Bigtruck]

They need someone to run it that isn't just interested in padding their bottom line. Greed is usually what makes most things come apart.

Too many people "just doing it for fun" and not making sure it is a feasible business model is what's hurting the sport.

Earning a fair profit is not greed, it's smart and lasting.

Ray