Pool is becoming a rich man's sport

[Ken_4fun]

There are lots of levels of players and fans.

The elite players are playing with cues supplied by cue manufacturers hoping to use them as advertising. They get a paid salary and paid to offset entry fees and travel expenses. In the world of pool, those are the "rich" ones. IMO they play with subpar cues that they have "tuned" to their specifications. Even goof ball Earl who is batshit crazy had a lucrative contract and told fans how crappy Cuetek cues are and he was so good he could win even using one of their cues (Cuetek dumped him after several years).

Back years ago, it was somewhat common to see top players using with a Szamboti. Now I never see that. The most common cue I see is ANYBRAND with aftermarket shaft. That is about as cheap as you can get for a good playing cue for far below $1K.

I have a few nice cues, but in the world of collecting, I am about as poor as it gets.

I have shot trap and skeet, the over/unders are thousands, the reloading, travel, with no payouts is more expensive than pool.

My brother-in-law was in racing, and I remember him spending $40k just for a set of heads. Racing, even at the lower levels, is so expensive it truly is a sport that is only for those who are very well off. You are constantly repairing broken parts, and none of them are cheap.

Even at the amature level, leagues, or just your local bangers, typically play with predators, and Meucci cues for far less than $1k probably less that $500.

Nothing is cheap anymore. Last night my wife and I went to Outback, We each had one beer, and no desert, just an appetizer and our meals and it was $92 before tip. Five years ago that same meal would have been under $50.

Hard to find a "cheap" hobby. Professional pool players are just getting by, not getting rich. Nick Varner, maybe the best all around pool player in his time, and champion in multiple disciplines didnt get rich from pool. Now, he was successful in his business ventures around the pool industry, but it wasnt the big tournament payouts. Over the years I have interviewed, several Hall of Fame pool players who were either broke or just scraping by.

JMO
Ken

 

[rexus31]

This is all true.

20 years ago you could get on SWA for $79, get a car rental in Vegas for $29 a day, stay at Caesar's for $89, and play in an event. The days of cheap travel have left the building.

Lou Figueroa
so has Elvis

Bingo. Travel (not pool) is a rich man's game. LOL. I'm not rich but somehow afford to do both.

 

[rexus31]

My brother-in-law was in racing, and I remember him spending $40k just for a set of heads. Racing, even at the lower levels, is so expensive it truly is a sport that is only for those who are very well off. You are constantly repairing broken parts, and none of them are cheap.

How do you make $1M in racing? Start with $10M...lol.

 

[Poolhall60561]

Pool can be as cheap or as expensive as you want to make it.

 

[SBC]

Idk about rich man's sport.

I have a very good paying job and I don't travel for pool....because I have responsibilities.

I know plenty of scuffers who live with their mom or survives off the kindness of others finds their way to travel to play pool in events.

 

[Mark V]

Since when does playing pool mean having to emulate the top .01% of players or the road warriors?

Even in the cheapo days, top top level guys barely made more than the medium average American salary. Why do you think backers were needed in the first place.

Fewer rooms and more $ just to keep the lights on means it’s going to cost more.

Define in a $ amount of monthly disposable income what equates to rich. The solution to $ issues are to lower expenses and increase income. If pro speed is your goal, you’ll have to play a bunch, which takes away from time you could use to be making $.

Pool is a hobby that very very few can make $ off of. Just like foosball. Just like ping pong. Just like corn hole. You can make it as cheap or expensive as you’d like.

I’ve spent thousands on gear. My favorite stick is a wall stick I liked and bought off the room owner for $20. I had a local builder put a pin in it for $40. It’ll never be for sale. I play better with it that I do with any of my other sticks. I break with it… and I don’t hit ‘em soft. It has dings all over the butt, but the shaft wood is real nice. The pin placement is perfect and the wood grain matches flawlessly.

I take it to the bowling alley and play for a few hours or I go to a room 40 minutes away and play on big table. I walk in and hear the crack of the balls, look around and see a room full of people who are just like me, but not at all like me… and it’s zen.

I am extremely fortunate to make enough $ that the cost of my hobby doesn’t really factor in to the equation, but this is what I have chosen as my pool life. That’s as basic as it gets. That’s what I call pool.

 

[VTEC John]

Take your clown show somewhere else, you're delusional

Y''know, you can google everything I said in about 3 minutes.

 

[23DenaliBDE]

and a bag of pool equipment is equal to a bag of golf equipment.

Hi, My name is Golf. We’ve obviously never met.

 

[rexus31]

Pool is becoming a rich man's sport.The only people on the mosconi cup seem to have a lot of money and travel alot.The days of playing and travel cheap are over most pro players aren't traveling lack of money .Only the rich seem to be able to travel on the derby city classic the rich with fancy cues playing.The good players aren't traveling because of the lack of money. let's talk

Can you please cite your definition of rich including monthly or annual salary figures?

 

[Island Drive]

What’s going on with the forum these past few months???

Many enjoy complaining, makes them feel like it's the way to roll. If life was easy, no one would work.

 

[Bishop]

Anything popular belongs to rich people.

The only thing rich people don't want is to be poor.

A broken clock is right twice a day

 

[dendweller]

Average around $50-60 for “ok” courses, $175-250 for really good courses, up to $1,000 for some world class courses.

I am real fortunate, in my area courses have started a flex pass. You pay a little under 140 a month for all the golf you can play at a 45 hole course.

If I were in FL I'd probably thinking golf is way more expensive than pool too.

 

[7stud]

It's damn near impossible nowadays.
Photos with cautionary tales pop up if you clean a place out. So, you might as well leave town and cruise on down the line. That town's dead for you.
Can't make good coin bangin heads with the local hero once word gets out. Which in today's numbers, is B4 you've left the parking lot.

If you're desperate, JB is always good for a $30k score. To arrange a match, head to the aiming forum and post a thread with the title "CTE is SHITE"

 

[Rocket354]

Normally I’d push back on this with the idea that “just play with a house cue on a quarter tables”….but then you are spending a dozen dollars a night trying to get better. So let’s just buy a table and put it in the house. But hold up!


I will admit that in some styles of homes or apartments, it really is hard to find a place that can fit a 9 foot table. Let’s say you have a 14x18 ft room so 252 sqft. In Tennessee, you may be looking at $225 a sqft when buying a place.

That winds up being an EXTRA $56,700 on your house cost simply to accommodate a table. Then add the $5k or so to get a gold crown and light moved in and installed. When I bought my first house, I remember thinking I had to have space for a future table but then I realized this cost along with the higher property taxes for a higher appraised house. I don’t have a garage and I don’t really have a yard to build an external space.

So I’ll be playing out of the pool hall occasionally instead of every night.


Here’s the other side of the financial coin… on a bar table: $12 in quarters * 2 days a week * 52 weeks a year * 50 years = $62,400.

While at the pool hall on a 9 foot: $10 an hour * 3 hours a day * 2 days a week * 52 weeks a year * 20 years = $62,400

Just some of the costs that need to be considered in trying to advance your skill.

Not to pick on you, but this is just the first post of many that add up table time but not all its attendant costs.

The price for playing at your local bar is not just table time, but it's the cost of getting there and back, as well as the cost of being there rather than being at home (e.g., buying food/drink or plugging quarters into the jukebox or whatever). Then there's the value of your time for such travel.

The federal standard mileage deduction for 2023 is 65.5 cents/mile, meaning that is what they see as the average cost per mile of driving a car. So if your bar is four miles away, then you are paying $2.62 each direction in travel costs, or $5.24 every time you play pool. Two days a week, 52 weeks a year, 50 years is an additional $26,624.

If once a week you buy a lunch/dinner and/or drinks and tip (and/or jukebox, gambling losses, scratch-offs, etc), then even if you are "frugal" about it that's another $20/week, 52 weeks a year, 50 years = $52,000.

And if the drive is 15 mins, meaning 30 mins round trip, or an hour a week, so 52 hours a year at 50 years is 2100 hours = a little more than one full time year of work. How much do people earn for one year full time of work? Let's just call it another $50,000.

That playing twice a week for 50 years is now $62,400 + $26,624 + $52,000 = $141,024 in direct costs, or $191,024 if you count indirect costs (value of your time).

Comparatively, buying your own pool table is quite cheap.

 

[justnum]

A broken clock is right twice a day

Pool should be like Cheers or Friends or some place where you dont have to call ahead, just go and have fun. It is a room with table games and refreshments.

Similar to bingo night or football Friday night lights.

Pool is for people that want to meet other players. I dont care who you are, I just want to know if you can make the nineball or your chances of choosing safes over pots.

If you are lousy just say you are looking to practice. If you want to let your stroke out set up and try to hustle me.

Its better to have recruiters find new players.

 

[td873]

There are definitely rich people that play pool, but not everyone that plays pool is rich. I've been to lots of tournaments all over the place and the vast majority of players and spectators are just regular old working class people, not rich socialites. There's no real barrier to entry based on economics (other than arbitrarily self-imposed ones). IMO, the majority of pool players are the same people that go to football and baseball games, but don't own private boxes.

Being rich and playing pool can never be confused with playing pool and becoming rich...

-td

 

[DeadStick]

I am real fortunate, in my area courses have started a flex pass. You pay a little under 140 a month for all the golf you can play at a 45 hole course.

If I were in FL I'd probably thinking golf is way more expensive than pool too.

I get sticker shock every time I see our monthly club bill from our 4-course ClubCorp (now Invited) property here in Austin. It’s ridiculous. Averages like $1,800, and we still have to pay $26 cart fees or about $1,500/yr for the privilege of owning our own cart (“Trail fees”). And $6 domestic beers/$15 mixed drinks in the clubhouse. And of course the initiation fee is a sunk cost.

 

[dendweller]

I get sticker shock every time I see our monthly club bill from our 4-course ClubCorp (now Invited) property here in Austin. It’s ridiculous. Averages like $1,800, and we still have to pay $26 cart fees or about $1,500/yr for the privilege of owning our own cart (“Trail fees”). And $6 domestic beers/$15 mixed drinks in the clubhouse. And of course the initiation fee is a sunk cost.

Yeah, that's a rich mans club there. Way above my pay grade.

 

[fastone371]

Most high end bar tables are 75 cents a game.

I wish we had those, bar tables here are $1.50 per game.

 

[ALT_ESV]

Not to pick on you, but this is just the first post of many that add up table time but not all its attendant costs.

The price for playing at your local bar is not just table time, but it's the cost of getting there and back, as well as the cost of being there rather than being at home (e.g., buying food/drink or plugging quarters into the jukebox or whatever). Then there's the value of your time for such travel.

The federal standard mileage deduction for 2023 is 65.5 cents/mile, meaning that is what they see as the average cost per mile of driving a car. So if your bar is four miles away, then you are paying $2.62 each direction in travel costs, or $5.24 every time you play pool. Two days a week, 52 weeks a year, 50 years is an additional $26,624.

If once a week you buy a lunch/dinner and/or drinks and tip (and/or jukebox, gambling losses, scratch-offs, etc), then even if you are "frugal" about it that's another $20/week, 52 weeks a year, 50 years = $52,000.

And if the drive is 15 mins, meaning 30 mins round trip, or an hour a week, so 52 hours a year at 50 years is 2100 hours = a little more than one full time year of work. How much do people earn for one year full time of work? Let's just call it another $50,000.

That playing twice a week for 50 years is now $62,400 + $26,624 + $52,000 = $141,024 in direct costs, or $191,024 if you count indirect costs (value of your time).

Comparatively, buying your own pool table is quite cheap.

There’s so much bad math in here.

A deduction is not equal to an incurred cost. And that is used as a method to reduce taxable income when the driving is used as part of business expenses.

And then the idea of opportunity cost being comingled with yearly salary. If that’s the case then I miss out on $50k a year as well by sleeping.

And then, somehow accounting for scratch offs and losing gambling? Why not account for gambling on the football games when you play at home.

I think I’m back to just the tournament talks again.

Cheers man.