Dear Barry,
I just got back from the 39th US Open and the pool matches I saw, especially the finals, were among the best I’ve ever seen! Every year, I’m blown away by the capabilities of these players from around the world.
That’s not what this letter is about, though. This is about the future of pool and your tournament.
I heard you say, several times while you had that microphone in your hands, that corporate America needs pool and pool needs corporate America. While I think the latter is sort of true, the former is so far from the truth that I wonder what your reality looks like.
Corporate America is only interested in something they can either sell or at least make a buck off of. They can’t do either with pool. Oh, maybe some beer or distillery can but why would they when they have the NFL, MLB, and NASCAR? What demographic could they possibly be missing by not having pool? Until pool is able to identify that missing demo, pool has absolutely nothing that Corporate America needs or wants. (Full disclosure: I work in Corporate America and have even been a Marketing executive for a time. I know this group.)
If you want pool to grow (you also stated this several times) so that these professionals are playing for real money (I think you said $500,000 purse at one point) then it has to happen at the grass roots level, first. You’ll need to bring more spectators into the system, and get the non-pool fan to embrace it. How can you do this? You need to focus on your two customer bases, the fans, and the players.
Me? I’m a fan. You know me. I’ve been attending for the last fourteen years. I usually get there first thing Thursday, with a VIP Seat ($160 or so) and stay all the way until Sunday morning. I stay in the host hotel (so you get credit for the room nights you’re committing to and don’t get dinged for not hitting your nut) for 3 nights. I shop with the vendors on site, buy from the concession stands. ($2 for an 8 oz bottle of water. Really??) Eat at several local restaurants for dinner. And spend a great deal of time at Q-Masters with my friends where I buy more food, drink, and table time. My total at Q-Masters this year was around $200.
All in, I spend about $750 to come see your tournament. I drove there but some of my friends flew so you can add a lot more for them.
For that, I get to see the best players on the planet play the game we love. But to do so, I have to sit in the most uncomfortable ways for hours on end. The seating is so impossiblycramped that you can’t move. The set up is so bad that it’s difficult to see the entire table. (I’m lucky I suppose; several of my friends that purchased ring side seats were moved to other locations against their wishes. Seriously!? WTF?) And my seat was probably one of the better ones.
(And how no one was injured on those stairs is beyond me. In only 3 days, I saw/heard at least 4 people go crashing to the floor, having tripped over something. No one was smart enough to tape off the edge of steps and risers so that they were more visible? Who did you get to set the place up, homeless people?)
Let’s say that you get all this fixed and return to a more intelligent setup where there is plenty of room for the spectators and the players aren’t bumping butts in the pit when playing next to each other. (Yep, that happened.) Oh, you might also want to come up with a way to pay the players on time. (Do you do the accounting with an abacus? Seriously, anyone that knows how to work Excel and understands cash flow can help you perform better in this regard.)
Let’s say the result is that many more people come to enjoy the event and that word of mouth starts to get around so that Corporate America sends someone to Chesapeake to check it out.
If they get there on Saturday, finals day, and arrive for the first match they’ll get to see you walking around in rumpled gym shorts and a dirty t-shirt! I’m sure they’ll just be lining up to talk to you, as the promoter of the event, in that outfit.
Seriously, have you never heard of dress for success? Successful people are drawn to others who are also successful, not to those wearing something that should only be worn in the privacy of one’s own home. Or perhaps to a rock fight.
And then, they’ll get to experience your public speaking skills with the microphone. I get that it’s your event, but everything is not about you! You need to hand that off to someone that will pass as a professional or at least get someone to write your script that has a clue about what will sound professional. (And then don’t ad lib; you’re not good at it.)
If you can fade all of that, there is a microscopic chance that Corporate America could have an interest in promoting pool. It will require someone with a great deal of vision, who can see past the warts, and has a genuine interest in the game. I don’t know of a soul like that but I’ll keep looking.
In the meantime, if you want your current fan base to continue to come you need to change so many things. I’m not saying that you have to accomplish all of them but I’m not coming back until I can be assured that I have a comfortable place to sit that I’ve actually selected and that the players are being paid to perform when they should be.
Otherwise, I’m as stupid as they are for continuing to show up and enable your behavior.
Best regards,
Brian in VA
I just got back from the 39th US Open and the pool matches I saw, especially the finals, were among the best I’ve ever seen! Every year, I’m blown away by the capabilities of these players from around the world.
That’s not what this letter is about, though. This is about the future of pool and your tournament.
I heard you say, several times while you had that microphone in your hands, that corporate America needs pool and pool needs corporate America. While I think the latter is sort of true, the former is so far from the truth that I wonder what your reality looks like.
Corporate America is only interested in something they can either sell or at least make a buck off of. They can’t do either with pool. Oh, maybe some beer or distillery can but why would they when they have the NFL, MLB, and NASCAR? What demographic could they possibly be missing by not having pool? Until pool is able to identify that missing demo, pool has absolutely nothing that Corporate America needs or wants. (Full disclosure: I work in Corporate America and have even been a Marketing executive for a time. I know this group.)
If you want pool to grow (you also stated this several times) so that these professionals are playing for real money (I think you said $500,000 purse at one point) then it has to happen at the grass roots level, first. You’ll need to bring more spectators into the system, and get the non-pool fan to embrace it. How can you do this? You need to focus on your two customer bases, the fans, and the players.
Me? I’m a fan. You know me. I’ve been attending for the last fourteen years. I usually get there first thing Thursday, with a VIP Seat ($160 or so) and stay all the way until Sunday morning. I stay in the host hotel (so you get credit for the room nights you’re committing to and don’t get dinged for not hitting your nut) for 3 nights. I shop with the vendors on site, buy from the concession stands. ($2 for an 8 oz bottle of water. Really??) Eat at several local restaurants for dinner. And spend a great deal of time at Q-Masters with my friends where I buy more food, drink, and table time. My total at Q-Masters this year was around $200.
All in, I spend about $750 to come see your tournament. I drove there but some of my friends flew so you can add a lot more for them.
For that, I get to see the best players on the planet play the game we love. But to do so, I have to sit in the most uncomfortable ways for hours on end. The seating is so impossiblycramped that you can’t move. The set up is so bad that it’s difficult to see the entire table. (I’m lucky I suppose; several of my friends that purchased ring side seats were moved to other locations against their wishes. Seriously!? WTF?) And my seat was probably one of the better ones.
(And how no one was injured on those stairs is beyond me. In only 3 days, I saw/heard at least 4 people go crashing to the floor, having tripped over something. No one was smart enough to tape off the edge of steps and risers so that they were more visible? Who did you get to set the place up, homeless people?)
Let’s say that you get all this fixed and return to a more intelligent setup where there is plenty of room for the spectators and the players aren’t bumping butts in the pit when playing next to each other. (Yep, that happened.) Oh, you might also want to come up with a way to pay the players on time. (Do you do the accounting with an abacus? Seriously, anyone that knows how to work Excel and understands cash flow can help you perform better in this regard.)
Let’s say the result is that many more people come to enjoy the event and that word of mouth starts to get around so that Corporate America sends someone to Chesapeake to check it out.
If they get there on Saturday, finals day, and arrive for the first match they’ll get to see you walking around in rumpled gym shorts and a dirty t-shirt! I’m sure they’ll just be lining up to talk to you, as the promoter of the event, in that outfit.
Seriously, have you never heard of dress for success? Successful people are drawn to others who are also successful, not to those wearing something that should only be worn in the privacy of one’s own home. Or perhaps to a rock fight.
And then, they’ll get to experience your public speaking skills with the microphone. I get that it’s your event, but everything is not about you! You need to hand that off to someone that will pass as a professional or at least get someone to write your script that has a clue about what will sound professional. (And then don’t ad lib; you’re not good at it.)
If you can fade all of that, there is a microscopic chance that Corporate America could have an interest in promoting pool. It will require someone with a great deal of vision, who can see past the warts, and has a genuine interest in the game. I don’t know of a soul like that but I’ll keep looking.
In the meantime, if you want your current fan base to continue to come you need to change so many things. I’m not saying that you have to accomplish all of them but I’m not coming back until I can be assured that I have a comfortable place to sit that I’ve actually selected and that the players are being paid to perform when they should be.
Otherwise, I’m as stupid as they are for continuing to show up and enable your behavior.
Best regards,
Brian in VA
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