Pool Table Manufacturer Tournament

[JoeyA]

Maybe, the big name pool table manufacturers should sponsor a $10,000 entry fee pool tournament.

Each manufacturer could have one of their best tables at the tournament site and would send their champion of choice to compete.

Diamond
Brunswick
Olhausen
Gabriel

Anyone else?

The manufaturers could have the commentators chat about their tables the entire tournament and the players could all have a piece of the pie. The mfgs get lots of good advertisement, maybe hooking up with ESPN for a big to do. The Seminole Indian Tribe could sponsor the location and all would be right in the world for a while and maybe get sponsors who make the dough to put up a few bucks.

Thoughts?
Joeya

 

[Jude Rosenstock]

Maybe, the big name pool table manufacturers should sponsor a $10,000 entry fee pool tournament.

Each manufacturer could have one of their best tables at the tournament site and would send their champion of choice to compete.

Diamond
Brunswick
Olhausen
Gabriel

Anyone else?

The manufaturers could have the commentators chat about their tables the entire tournament and the players could all have a piece of the pie. The mfgs get lots of good advertisement, maybe hooking up with ESPN for a big to do. The Seminole Indian Tribe could sponsor the location and all would be right in the world for a while and maybe get sponsors who make the dough to put up a few bucks.

Thoughts?
Joeya

Yes, I agree. Any time you can get a company to give a pool player 10k, you've come up with a great idea.

 

[AuntyDan]

Increasing manufactuer sponsorship is always going to be good, as at present it's about the only form of major external finances for Pool tournaments. This harkens back to the 1930's, when Brunswick had a roster of sponsored Pros (including a young whipper-snapper called Willie Mosconi) who'd travel the country playing exhibition matches.

Unfortunatey I can see 2 obvious problems with this suggestion:
1) The players can only play on one table at a time in one televised match. I guess they can rotate each match, but whose table does the final get played on?

2) Companies like Brunswick and Diamond are used to getting exclusive sponorship rights at major tournaments. I'm not sure their marketing departments see this as being advantageous to them in any way, as it will dilute their branding.

The way I could see this succeeding would be in conjunction with the BCA, who are the trade group all these manufacturers belong to. Perhaps this could be organized as a special event at one of their national trade expos. To do this would require someone with good contacts with both the BCA, the manufacturers and some top Pros, plus the willingness to actually work to make this happen. Anyone have a suggestion who this person could be?