This has Charlie Williams written all over it.
Pool returns to ESPN….
- Thread starter kling&allen
- Start date
of all things going on in the pool world this must surely be the most unexpected, lol
And they've done so well promoting the whole project ahead of time. 
As far as it being on ESPN it totally fits. Something they can control and own and discard when the time comes. Taped at ESPN in Orlando? Authenticity unimportant.
Kinda like the Galveston World Classic and the Ultimate 10-ball. Both held in Texas and both were one-and-done.
WobblyStroke
Well-known member
plus that super pro bridge techniqueI'm still not sure it's not a joke. Look at the cue they're using in the promotional picture lol
Oh okay you got me on that one. Well played
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
I think Earl did something like that, Something like race to 5, and if it took him longer than 30 minutes to beat you, you didn't have to pay. I guess if I was playing SVB it wouldn't really be gambling regardless, but I can't imagine he'd drop more than 1 in 10 sets.
tomatoshooter
Well-known member
And the red cloth makes the table look like it came out of a bordello.
Bonus Ball is not new to Johnny. He was a BB team member about 10 years ago. Here's a thread that shows the 12 3-man teams formed in late 2012 for the World Professional Billiard League: https://forums.azbilliards.com/threads/offical-wpbl-bonus-ball-teams-and-rosters.292615/
wasn't johnny part in developing the game?
Mixed emotions here. The participants are friends and seeing them succeed would greatly please me. All four of them have brought positive attention to pro pool and if this is a nice payday for them, that's fantastic.
The choice of Bonus Ball is, however, troubling. A decade ago, an event producer reckoned that what pool needed was a new game unfamiliar to all using equipment equally unfamiliar. Through their actions, neither serious players nor casual fans agreed, and the venture's shelf life was very short. Bonus Ball is a very skillful game and I watched it at the beginning, but it was ultimately unwatchable.
ESPN, a television network in decline that has laid off dozens of well-known and highly capable sports journalists of late, is probably not pool's best chance to attract positive attention. I'm guessing that ESPN, in its current form, is on the endangered species list and may not exist a decade from now.
Yes, this new release features two of the most beautiful women that ever picked up a cue, but I doubt that will be enough to capture the imagination of either the serious or casual viewer. Hope I'm wrong.
The choice of Bonus Ball is, however, troubling. A decade ago, an event producer reckoned that what pool needed was a new game unfamiliar to all using equipment equally unfamiliar. Through their actions, neither serious players nor casual fans agreed, and the venture's shelf life was very short. Bonus Ball is a very skillful game and I watched it at the beginning, but it was ultimately unwatchable.
ESPN, a television network in decline that has laid off dozens of well-known and highly capable sports journalists of late, is probably not pool's best chance to attract positive attention. I'm guessing that ESPN, in its current form, is on the endangered species list and may not exist a decade from now.
Yes, this new release features two of the most beautiful women that ever picked up a cue, but I doubt that will be enough to capture the imagination of either the serious or casual viewer. Hope I'm wrong.
In the past when EPSN did "The Ocho" for the day, they did Florian Kohler's Skill Con from Vegas that was done a number of years ago. It would be interesting to see the numbers of that versus the numbers this bonus ball feature will draw.
I know ESPN is in the news for having laid off numerous on air personalities. I have a friend that’s a behind the scenes producer for ESPN. He was eager to get pool back on ESPN. I asked if he was involved with this. Turned out he was also laid off after 23 years. He said it’s the largest layoff in the company history totaling 7,000 people. I’ve always thought trying to get pool on regular broadcast TV was like trying to get on ESPN after it hit the iceberg. I think Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Hulu, or Peacock would be a better home to strive for.
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We shouldn’t get too excited, this is just a joke day of programming for ESPN2. The pool is on after the mullet fashion show, pinball tournament, marble racing, pillow fighting, and air guitar championships.
https://www.tvinsider.com/network/espn2/schedule/ (Go to august 4)
https://www.tvinsider.com/network/espn2/schedule/ (Go to august 4)
The Ocho day does pretty good numbers, which is why they keep doing it every summer. This is probably better exposure than some random Sunday during the fall. I'd long hoped Matchroom could broker a deal to show a chopped down version of the US Open or World 9-Ball finals.