I keep hearing people say that pool doesn't have corporate multi-million dollar sponsorships because of players acting up and or getting into trouble etc...
Then I hear the counter arguments that other sports have just as many people acting up and that golfers are fined for acting up etc...
Then counter arguments that the other sports that have bad players or poor sports etc... is different because there's millions or billions of dollars involved...
One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
There is ONE reason and one reason ONLY that pool doesn't have huge corporate sponsorship and only limited sponsorship from corporations directly involved in the billiards industry.
It's that there's no money in it. If there was money to be made from professional billiards all the antics in the world wouldn't stop them from being involved.
Then you can argue that the reason there is not more public interest in professional billiards is the public perception of billiards, this is a misnomer...
It's the disinterest in professional billiards that maintains the negative public perception. If people were interested in professional billiards, then it wouldn't matter.
Now the crux of the issue. How do you induce interest in professional billiards???
No easy answer to that one. It's difficult to compare pool to a lot of the other successful sports with large corporate sponsorships to know how to properly market professional billiards. Golf is the most oft cited sport when comparing billiards to other sports but it really isn't valid.
You can't really compare team sports because as of now (might soon change) pool isn't really a team sport; however, Leagues are typically a team sport and for all of the people stating that we need more league involvement in supporting a professional tour, this can create more comraderie and interest. Also when you look at one of the most successful billiards events (Mosconi Cup) It is a team based sport.
I think that one of two marketing strategies could possibly work; however, either strategy would require substantial capital outlay which increases the risk.reward ratio making it difficult to get someone involved.
The idea that getting billiards televised is the answer is ridiculous. No other sport has gone to TV and been successful when so little physical interest in coming to see it live was there.
Whichever marketing strategy works will require successfully marketing billiards to a live audience before televised billiards can ever be successful.
Now on to the possible marketing strategies. You can do it one of two ways, both requiring capital injection, one requiring more capital injection with a bigger risk than the other.
The first (and the most likely to succeed IMO) is setting up city based teams with team names and emblems similar to baseball, basketball and football. Pilot programs of this to test their viability would cost far less than the second option. Having a team designated to a specific city with proper print, radio and word of mouth advertising can go a long way toward increasing public interest.
Many people root for their home team solely because they are from their city and have an emotional connection to the team. Create that with billiards and you might be surprised what may develop.
The second option is to mass market and promote a boxing style arrangment. This has been popular of late with the matchups between Shane and Earl, JOhnny and Earl, and Earl with just about anyone....
Notice a theme there. People want to see Earl. Some because of his talent, some because of his antics and some because they want to see a world class player fall. To have success in this style of arrangment requires one of two things.
1) Mass Marketing and promotion (requires a HUGE capital investment)
2) Name recognition ( Ain't gonna happen with pool anytime soon without major changes first)
I personally feel that both of the above marketing strategies are potentially capable of restoring success to professional pool and if I gain the means to pilot a program I will. I think that if a team based organization is started and becomes successful, then the name recognition for the second becomes more viable.
If you can get a nationwide team structure that is profitable built up, (the same way that these other successful sports did it by the way, gradually over time), then the networks will be chomping at the bit to get the rights to it and corporations will be fighting to become involved as well.
The bottom line is that people are people and some people will always act up in ways that turn some people off and creates more interest and controversy for others. It doesn't hurt the sport or prevent a sport from being successful, the only thing that does that is a lack of a customer base and the lack of profitibility in being involved and outlaying capital.
Kevin Trudeau proved that putting it on TV without proper marketing or anything to create interest is a losing proposition and this has made it that much harder to generate corporate interest but the market is definitely out there if the proper strategy is utilized.
Just my two cents worth....
Jaden
Then I hear the counter arguments that other sports have just as many people acting up and that golfers are fined for acting up etc...
Then counter arguments that the other sports that have bad players or poor sports etc... is different because there's millions or billions of dollars involved...
One has absolutely nothing to do with the other.
There is ONE reason and one reason ONLY that pool doesn't have huge corporate sponsorship and only limited sponsorship from corporations directly involved in the billiards industry.
It's that there's no money in it. If there was money to be made from professional billiards all the antics in the world wouldn't stop them from being involved.
Then you can argue that the reason there is not more public interest in professional billiards is the public perception of billiards, this is a misnomer...
It's the disinterest in professional billiards that maintains the negative public perception. If people were interested in professional billiards, then it wouldn't matter.
Now the crux of the issue. How do you induce interest in professional billiards???
No easy answer to that one. It's difficult to compare pool to a lot of the other successful sports with large corporate sponsorships to know how to properly market professional billiards. Golf is the most oft cited sport when comparing billiards to other sports but it really isn't valid.
You can't really compare team sports because as of now (might soon change) pool isn't really a team sport; however, Leagues are typically a team sport and for all of the people stating that we need more league involvement in supporting a professional tour, this can create more comraderie and interest. Also when you look at one of the most successful billiards events (Mosconi Cup) It is a team based sport.
I think that one of two marketing strategies could possibly work; however, either strategy would require substantial capital outlay which increases the risk.reward ratio making it difficult to get someone involved.
The idea that getting billiards televised is the answer is ridiculous. No other sport has gone to TV and been successful when so little physical interest in coming to see it live was there.
Whichever marketing strategy works will require successfully marketing billiards to a live audience before televised billiards can ever be successful.
Now on to the possible marketing strategies. You can do it one of two ways, both requiring capital injection, one requiring more capital injection with a bigger risk than the other.
The first (and the most likely to succeed IMO) is setting up city based teams with team names and emblems similar to baseball, basketball and football. Pilot programs of this to test their viability would cost far less than the second option. Having a team designated to a specific city with proper print, radio and word of mouth advertising can go a long way toward increasing public interest.
Many people root for their home team solely because they are from their city and have an emotional connection to the team. Create that with billiards and you might be surprised what may develop.
The second option is to mass market and promote a boxing style arrangment. This has been popular of late with the matchups between Shane and Earl, JOhnny and Earl, and Earl with just about anyone....
Notice a theme there. People want to see Earl. Some because of his talent, some because of his antics and some because they want to see a world class player fall. To have success in this style of arrangment requires one of two things.
1) Mass Marketing and promotion (requires a HUGE capital investment)
2) Name recognition ( Ain't gonna happen with pool anytime soon without major changes first)
I personally feel that both of the above marketing strategies are potentially capable of restoring success to professional pool and if I gain the means to pilot a program I will. I think that if a team based organization is started and becomes successful, then the name recognition for the second becomes more viable.
If you can get a nationwide team structure that is profitable built up, (the same way that these other successful sports did it by the way, gradually over time), then the networks will be chomping at the bit to get the rights to it and corporations will be fighting to become involved as well.
The bottom line is that people are people and some people will always act up in ways that turn some people off and creates more interest and controversy for others. It doesn't hurt the sport or prevent a sport from being successful, the only thing that does that is a lack of a customer base and the lack of profitibility in being involved and outlaying capital.
Kevin Trudeau proved that putting it on TV without proper marketing or anything to create interest is a losing proposition and this has made it that much harder to generate corporate interest but the market is definitely out there if the proper strategy is utilized.
Just my two cents worth....
Jaden
