I think that's a little pessimistic.
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.
1) a young, charismatic phenom. A 16 year old "Tiger" that stomps world beaters without cracking a sweat, that is 100% dedicated to a long career in just pool.
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.
