Pool has a "FATAL FLAW"

[Tommy Joe]

I think equal offense scenarios are fun to play but as spectator sports it would be like watching batting practice.

The tete a tete in pool is above the heads of casual viewers and players. Football is easy to understand, baseball, golf, etc...The thing is they are all competing against people. Pool is a great game against people but it's not that exciting to watch when one player can take over the game and keep the other player powerless.

The question is: Do you want to entertain current fans or build a bigger fan base? If you want to entertain current fans then stay true to the game. If you want to build a new fan base then nothing is off-limits, but don't count on pool players to support you as fans.

I like pool and wish it were on tv more often. But I'm not dedicated to it. Not all games are built for mass spectator appeal. If it changes, I'm ok with that, because in the end all changes in everything are good (once they're over with).

But I do have an opinion. More than one actually, but I'll stick with one for now. I think the game of pool, for tv at least, could borrow a page from the trick shot format - shot challenges, race to 10, whatever, where one player sets up a shot, maybe even one requiring position for the next shot (which he must make to win or break even on that challenge). No props on the table, just one guy explaining a his shot, then shooting it, maybe with two or even three chances per challenge, then turning the table over to his opponent. This would not be trick shot shooting, they would be actual shots, banks and so forth, many requiring positions. These type events would never replace pool, and I don't think they should, but I noticed that while I'm not in love with the televised trick shot competitions, I do like the idea of borrowing a page from their book with top players challenging each other to make certain shots.

Other than that I have nothing to add because the truth is that if you like something, you should be content with that alone, and if it becomes popular that's good, and if it doesn't, that's just too bad, that's the way I look at it.

TJ

 

[Island Drive]

I like pool and wish it were on tv more often. But I'm not dedicated to it. Not all games are built for mass spectator appeal. If it changes, I'm ok with that, because in the end all changes in everything are good (once they're over with).

Other than that I have nothing to add because the truth is that if you like something, you should be content with that alone, and if it becomes popular that's good, and if it doesn't, that's just too bad, that's the way I look at it.

TJ

:thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Paul Schofield]

The OP is not about viewing the game. It is about playing the game. In this "interactive age", pool has been left behind. I read here over and over that pool is not a spectator sport. This is so true in it's current form. Pool is a dryball game. If poker is a spectator sport, certainly pool could be, but not in its current form. The right human dynamic is key.

Pool has to be a platform for an interesting human dynamic in order for it to be watchable.

 

[flyvirginiaguy]

Is Ten Ball with tiny pockets the answer to improving interest in the game? I don’t think so.

I do agree with this totally.

But billiards used to have many many viewers. You have to show it as a fun game to play again. Pros today DO NOT make the game look fun. Robots. I think the only flaw pool has is how it has been managed and the lack of properly promoting the sport the past many years, and that is as a very fun family oriented sport anyone can play.

 

[krupa]

If poker is a spectator sport, certainly pool could be, but not in its current form. The right human dynamic is key.

Pool has to be a platform for an interesting human dynamic in order for it to be watchable.

Pool and poker are really not comparable at all. Personally, I think there are two reasons people watch poker: (1) the money and (2) the fact that they also play and can yell at the TV what the player should do. If the viewer makes the correct call, he feels good as if he, himself, won that money.

In other words, watching poker is vicarious entertainment.

vi·car·i·ous
adjective \vī-ˈker-ē-əs, və-\

3 : experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another <a vicarious thrill>

Pool is not as vicarious because knowing what shot to shoot is only a part of the game, you have to then be able to make it. Sure, plenty of people watch pros and say "I could take these guys" but that's not the same as the vicarious pleasure people get from watching poker.

Again, these are my own opinions and based on nothing more than the fact that I can't explain people's interest in watching poker any other way.

 

[wineslob]

Pros today DO NOT make the game look fun. Robots.

I have to agree here. I watched the final table (Kim/Corr) a couple weeks ago and while I like seeing the level of play, neither player gave the match(s) any "pizzazz". Why the game (on TV) has become this way, I don't know. I'd like to see some "humanity" from the players.
The endless "personal interest" crap about the players didn't help either.

 

[Celophanewrap]

So how do you propose to fix it?

Full contact team billiards.
sounds like a winner...

 

[Paul Schofield]

Here is the best example of the Fatal Flaw.

http://www.eaba.co.uk/eaba/?p=5784

I wonder if this game is played anymore.

 

[Masirib5]

I guess this "fatal flaw" as you call it was not detected way back when pool was king, reported in the papers, and pool players made a darn good living. Pool halls were thriving, fans wanted to watch, and pool legends were just that. And then this "flaw" was discovered, and poof,it was all over. Heck, I'd pay a few bucks and then some to watch Mosconi, Lassitar and quite a few others run balls, even hundreds of balls !!

Baseball must have fatal flaw as well, since it's the only sport that when you are on offense, you DON"T have the ball. How could that possibly work. All the other sports when on offense they present the ball to you in a gift basket to move forward and try to score. Basebal, the defense controls the ball and tries not to let you touch it. It is also the only sport where the ball does not score, but the man scores. A second flaw. Baseball is most likely doomed me thinks.

And the defense in Baseball has ball in hand!!!! Ha!

 

[popman]

Pool doesn’t have a glass ceiling.

The reason why pool doesn’t work as a spectator sport is because it’s not so much of a game of sport as it is an art. Art is not adversarial. It’s art. People try to make a sport out of something that is not really a sport. Pool is more of an exhibition than a sport. One player exhibits ones skill then the other person is allowed to do likewise.

All the “sports talk” ie: matchups, winning / losing, statistics and record keeping is nothing more than the talk around the table rather than what’s happening on the table.

In what “sport” do you see the participants take a break when they want to? In what “sport” do you see the player enjoying a cigarette while his “opponent” is playing?

When players try to make an art into a game of sport the whole thing becomes hard and difficult to comprehend and to watch because there is no systematic play at all. The interaction is purely judgmental and based on how the participate thinks and feels at any given moment.

How the game is played seems to change with who is playing and how they react to the situation at hand resulting in pool broadcasts becoming too hard to follow unless the watcher is well versed and educated in the games.

There is also cultural differences.




In the U.S. people want their spectator sports simple and easy to understand and followed up with a lot of physical action. This is the American culture.

In other parts of the world people tend to be more intellectual. Snooker and three cushion games do well because it’s geared for the intellectual rather than the physical.

This also is demonstrated in other areas. Take politics.


In the U.S. people hardly care about it. However in Europe people do care about it…a lot.

In France when the government proposed cut backs in social services the people took to the streets. In the U.S. when the government proposes cutbacks in social programs, the public yarns.


When the employers want to expand the work day in Europe the people will debate it. In the U.S. the people just do it and say nothing. If they do say something about they’re considered to be a liberal commie pinko and worse yet, a European Socialist!


In conclusion, pool is an art that people try to make into something that is not.

 

[ND Fan]

I think the reputation pool has has kept it down as much as anything. But there just aren't aren't enough players any more. I can relate I played 3 cushion for a period of about 15 years pretty regular (well, everyday ) I haven't played in well over a year, hardly anyone to play and the room I used to play at sold one of their two sogaards. I honestly think what pool needs is another movie... seriously, the Color of Money came out and pool had a resurgence like no other. Pool halls are dying because no one is playing. If you want to benefit pool find a backer and quality director, producer. A good pool movie is a shot in the arm this game needs,

 

[(((Satori)))]

I saw a couple of posts talking about how kids are into video games and stuff and pool is no longer attractive to them.

I doubt this. I think kids love the game. The problem is, where can they play it? Is mom going to drop Jr. off at the local poolhall? I don't think so. When I was a kid we had a youth center in both neighborhoods I grew up in and they both had pool tables. Is there anything like this for kids these days?

 

[Ralph Kramden]

Here is the best example of the Fatal Flaw.

http://www.eaba.co.uk/eaba/?p=5784

I wonder if this game is played anymore.

Would you promote this game in Erie? I hope not... it certainly would be a fatal flaw.

What I hate on TV is the Simonis "pocket cam". If there's a tough position shot they
show the OB coming into the pocket, not how the player got shape on the next ball.

I'd rather see shots from the overhead camera. Even a novice would be impressed.

 

[Ralph Kramden]

I saw a couple of posts talking about how kids are into video games and stuff and pool is no longer attractive to them.

I doubt this. I think kids love the game. The problem is, where can they play it? Is mom going to drop Jr. off at the local poolhall? I don't think so. When I was a kid we had a youth center in both neighborhoods I grew up in and they both had pool tables. Is there anything like this for kids these days?

There are tables in the Boys and Girls Clubs.... but most equipment is poor. There aren't
Instructors to really show the kids how to play. You could learn a lot in the old poolrooms.