Players Attempting to Unionize?

Pool players that want to unionize are going to shoot their selves in the foot again and again.

At the current time, there is a lot of high paying tournaments, and the calcuttas are at record levels.

History will tell you that you can be cut off when you demand more added money, paid entry fees, etc.

Richie Florence and several other players in the 70's got together and told the Stardust they wanted $50,000 added monies.

At the time, the Stardust was adding $25,000 TWICE a year for their tournaments.

So, what happened ? Stardust cut out their tournaments then and there.

Growing the pool tournaments popularity and prize money involves a lot of different things. Dress codes, sponsorship and more.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot again. Grow slowly, look and act professional. Use shot clocks, great commentators and

make it watchable to the general public. Learn from England's snooker tournaments, if possible. My .02 cents worth.
 
Each organization forms it's own.
Views??Perspectives??Representation of pool.
Laundry li$t
Are there true actions, to form a pro tour and feeder systems?
Nope they have a different vision, or whatever business vision they have.
They form their business model, intermix different formats, and the Shootout.
They have different rules.
Good fix for a junkie, but for the sport???
I don't think so.


Standardize Play...................................................

And the rules.
Pick ONE game, MR chose 9 ball.
All 256 player MR events and others, should have same rules and game formats.
 
Island Drive said:
What did Snooker due to get to where it is?
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A TV station tried showing it (just after color TV took off) and it was a massive success.

The money followed from that.

My understanding is the administration has been very hit and miss (I don't know a massive amount about it), but the public interest in the game (and a couple of rival TV stations bidding for TV rights) made the game successful regardless.

Barry Hearn and Matchroom followed the game's popular success (and probably enhanced it a bit), they weren't the cause.
 
Barry Hearn was/is a very interesting guy though. Some of the things he did for the psychology of the players he managed (and their opponents) look *incredibly* insightful (especially for a guy who wasn't a psychologist or a player), and it'd be interesting to know how much was deliberately designed that way, and how much was just fortuitous psychological effects of things he did for other reasons.
 
Do tournaments actually produce revenue?? I hate to sound silly, but, I will: From what I see , there aint no money being made by ANYONE hosting the tournaments, HOW DO THEY EXPECT TO PAY THE PROS AND HOW CAN THE PROS EXPECT TO BE GETTING PAID WHEN THERE IS NO MONEY BEING MADE TO PAY OUT???!!! The pros passing their money to eachother via entry fees and added money IS BULLSHIT.

Our industry operates at a discounted rate, their is no RETAIL or expectations of real profits for most pool businesses, ESCPECIALLY POOL EVEN PROMOTERS!! I appreciate the idea that 714 is proposing, but I think its putting the cart in front of the horse at this point.....

TFT
 
Note that most of the snooker tournaments are sponsored by betting apps. BETTING is the reason that snooker gets the attention it does. Hopefully, as sports betting takes over the USA, the sportsbooks will include pocket billiard fixtures. As I understand it, Judd Trump's matches at the US open last year were available to place bets.
 
well...
that will teach me for not paying much attention to all this tournament play - poor table conditions?
I thought diamond and those communists-built rasson predators solved all that stuff where pros shouldn't need to adjust to the laws of physics.

It will be the first time in the history of labor where it the union created something from 0 too 1, so, such a thing could be a start of the new world order, we are told it is a done deal, this new world order. Unions only exist because someone created value without them

Everything organized labor engages in degrades to elite status of minority mediocrity, bureaucrats being the prime example for the 20/20 constitutional election calamity, Las Vegas and so on...
 
Island Drive said:
I know Joey, I called Don to see if it was OK play in a WPA event I was invited too, he told me NOT to go, so I didn't.
Only because of my peers.
From Rempe to Fleming they were ALL on board.

On a bad ship.
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Killed the ESPN deal and it went downhill from there
 
Tournaments must be look at this way, when a Bar holds local tournment & says they are adding money is real or 🐂💩❓

Recall one such event were guy wiser then me said count number of total game played until event ends. Multiply $.50/game into bar box.

Then the $500.00 was added from bar box fee, and bar was in black $200.00 plus sales of food n drink.
 
Pin said:
Barry Hearn was/is a very interesting guy though. Some of the things he did for the psychology of the players he managed (and their opponents) look *incredibly* insightful (especially for a guy who wasn't a psychologist or a player), and it'd be interesting to know how much was deliberately designed that way, and how much was just fortuitous psychological effects of things he did for other reasons.
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Thx, but there had to be something.
It could of been the production crew of the earlier events, and the maturity of European culture that appreciates great sporting events.
 
Island Drive said:
What did Snooker due to get to where it is?
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they tried in the noughties, formed a union, iirc barry hearn stronghanded it and now it doesn't exist. it's always doomed to fail in an individualist sport like pool, snooker.

i've heard JJ and svb talk about this for a while, i'm not sure what exactly they're after. standardized rules?
 
thenuke said:
Pool players that want to unionize are going to shoot their selves in the foot again and again.

At the current time, there is a lot of high paying tournaments, and the calcuttas are at record levels.

History will tell you that you can be cut off when you demand more added money, paid entry fees, etc.

Richie Florence and several other players in the 70's got together and told the Stardust they wanted $50,000 added monies.

At the time, the Stardust was adding $25,000 TWICE a year for their tournaments.

So, what happened ? Stardust cut out their tournaments then and there.

Growing the pool tournaments popularity and prize money involves a lot of different things. Dress codes, sponsorship and more.

Don't shoot yourself in the foot again. Grow slowly, look and act professional. Use shot clocks, great commentators and

make it watchable to the general public. Learn from England's snooker tournaments, if possible. My .02 cents worth.
Click to expand...
You seem to have assumed that the purpose of the union would be to strong arm event producers into raising prize funds. Perhaps you are privy to things I'm not.

If you're right about the primary mission of this union, I'm with you on this. At a time when total prize money available in our sport is skyrocketing, it's hardly the right time for the players to be ruffling any feathers on prize money (or even, possibly salaries) and if they do, the event producers, whose events are already oversubscribed, may even retaliate by lowering prize funds or eliminating events.

The focus needs to be on increasing demand for the professional pool product, and if that is achieved, the money will come. Far too many players tend to overlook that they must play a large role in helping to present pool as professionally as possible.
 
Island Drive said:
Thx, but there had to be something.
It could of been the production crew of the earlier events, and the maturity of European culture that appreciates great sporting events.
Click to expand...
I really think the success was because snooker happened to fit what TV viewers wanted / responded to at that time - it wasn't a case of some ingenious trick somebody came up with to force the success, people just did the basics of implementing it well, without screwing up a good thing.

I think there are lots of reasons even snooker couldn't be like that again though - with so much media now, you can't capture a passive audience who just want to watch *something*, whatever's best from 4 TV channels. Then there are advertising restrictions for tobacco and gambling, affecting the money, fewer non-working housewives (who surprised people by loving snooker), and they'd probably be less interested in smart young men in suits than they used to be!
 
jhs5210 said:
Note that most of the snooker tournaments are sponsored by betting apps. BETTING is the reason that snooker gets the attention it does. Hopefully, as sports betting takes over the USA, the sportsbooks will include pocket billiard fixtures. As I understand it, Judd Trump's matches at the US open last year were available to place bets.
Click to expand...

This is my hope as well. I'm not a Brit and don't know much about snooker, but snooker betting appears to be popular and promoted by the handful of London betting shops I've seen.
 
Formula 1, a sport that probably only has golf, tennis and heavyweight boxing in the same financial ballpark at the individual level has a drivers' association.
 
kling&allen said:
This is my hope as well. I'm not a Brit and don't know much about snooker, but snooker betting appears to be popular and promoted by the handful of London betting shops I've seen.
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They tried doing this with pool players in the US and the players dumped.
As any Vegas Bookmakers...............if they will pick a side on a pool match. :) LOL
 
With pro pool prize funds being the highest they've been in recent memory, I can only hope they aren't unifying to rattle that cage. IMO, I think they are organizing to create some sort of standardization around the pro game including format, equipment and being/acting "professional". There needs to be an "official" table with "official" table specs based on quality of play, not how much that manufacturer is spending in sponsorship dollars. There also needs to be a standard set of balls as well so the casual fan can follow along as SJM mentioned. Formats should be standard as well. Everyone knows professional baseball is a nine inning game comprised of 3 out half innings and three strikes is a strikeout, four balls is a walk. Imagine if those standards changed from city to city?
 
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