chump change compared to poker
so what
when you were a kid, what made you want to pick up a cue and hit balls, probably wasnt for dollars
Prize money
- Thread starter Keith thompson
- Start date
so what
when you were a kid, what made you want to pick up a cue and hit balls, probably wasnt for dollars
Poker is bet your own. Even when guys trade pieces etc… Hovland’s entry fee into the Valspar was $0.
And if a golfer shows up with new equipment he doesn’t have to fade all the BS about not needing to buy new stuff if he isn’t good.
You make it sound like an easy decision…it’s not……you can get what you want, but you can’t want what you want.
Of course, you are right, but jacking up the prize money before you have the revenue to support it is the error made by Trudeau and the IPT in 2006, and the result was a tour that crumbled under its own weight in year one.
As you rightly point out, making pool more exciting is the key to revenue growth. Whether that means avoidance of dominant players is arguable, but yours is an excellent post. Well said!
Without pool i'd have never experienced: cheap hotels(and cheaper women), killer weed, blinder Bolivian coke, road trips to Podunkville,USA, and a cast of characters not even HunterThompson behind window-pane acid could concoct. I love golf but its fkng boring compared to pool.
Can you imagine the tens of millions of dollars parents have spent on their children to become professional golfers or tennis players only to miserably fail? There are only a 150 or so men and women who get their PGA or Tennis rankings which allow them to compete for the aforementioned prize money. Playing professional pool clearly has meager prize funds compared to other professional sports. But, what sport allows you to compete with the greatest in their sport for a few hundred dollars? It ain't golf or tennis............
PGATour is only one avenue to play pro golf. From the KFTour down to regional mini-tours there are lots of ways to make $$ at golf. I've known a few guys that played small college golf and then played mini-tours. Nothing glamorous like PGATour but they made a pretty decent living. Hell, even mini-tour golf pays better than what 90% of pool players will ever make.
Maybe instead of worrying so much about what some other sport gets for prize money and tv coverage, the smart thing to do would be to take a hard look at why these other sports are getting what they are, and how pool, and its organizations could change or improve as to what they put out to the viewing public.
The answer isn't just to have someone with deep pockets offer a bigger prize fund for the players. When you watch basketball, baseball, football, or golf, no one is watching those sports on tv because of the prize money or their salary.
The good thing for pool is, at least around by me, it is more popular than ever, leagues have waiting lists, there are so many weekend tournaments that for some, it's hard to choose what to attend.
This is not pro pool though. While they appear to have more tournaments to attend also, viewership seems limited to for the most part a pay per view viewership that caters to a very limited viewer base.
If an increased and tv viewership is what you really want, is pool really interested in deviating from how it is put out now?
Growth in pool and viewership, will never happen from a bigger prize fund only short term fix, but from making pool a more acceptable sport for our youth. If our youth continues to have limited access to pool as a sport, they and their families and friends will never have an interest not only in pool but ever watching coverage of it as a sport. This would be a long term fix, but for sure the fix for pool growth is not just someone with deeper pockets to only fund prize money for the pros.
The answer isn't just to have someone with deep pockets offer a bigger prize fund for the players. When you watch basketball, baseball, football, or golf, no one is watching those sports on tv because of the prize money or their salary.
The good thing for pool is, at least around by me, it is more popular than ever, leagues have waiting lists, there are so many weekend tournaments that for some, it's hard to choose what to attend.
This is not pro pool though. While they appear to have more tournaments to attend also, viewership seems limited to for the most part a pay per view viewership that caters to a very limited viewer base.
If an increased and tv viewership is what you really want, is pool really interested in deviating from how it is put out now?
Growth in pool and viewership, will never happen from a bigger prize fund only short term fix, but from making pool a more acceptable sport for our youth. If our youth continues to have limited access to pool as a sport, they and their families and friends will never have an interest not only in pool but ever watching coverage of it as a sport. This would be a long term fix, but for sure the fix for pool growth is not just someone with deeper pockets to only fund prize money for the pros.
No PGA entry-fee but it costs roughly 6grand/week(more for the top dogs) to stay out on tour. Most pros pocket around 40k for every 100k won after exp/taxes. Unless you're getting the big sponsor deals its not all wine-n-roses as some believe. The lower tier guys struggle just to stay out there.
Bravo! Great post.
Pool is as much a niche sport as bowling and the prize money more closely aligns with it. That said the bowlers are making more than their pool counterparts by a fairly large margin. Mostly because a billionaire now owns the Pro Bowlers Tour. They have about a dozen tournaments a year with first prizes of 100K and many others with smaller purses, with maybe 40-50K on top. Enough that the best bowlers are earning in the 250-500K a year range. We're gaining on them though, thanks to the rivalry between the WPA and WNT. The prize money in pool has definitely grown appreciably in the last two to three years, and that's a good sign. As someone else said earlier, as the prize money goes up so will grow the sport, and I see that happening right now. More new rooms are opening this year than in the last ten to fifteen years.
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That’s all me!
I don’t give a rats ass about cash anymore. I’m all about doing what I want and being where I want to be in my schedule.
Lunch by the pool a few minutes ago.
Back to backgammon!
Cheers
Fatboy<——-missed yoga class today
billiards_watch
Well-known member
Forget yoga class LOL. Those are curse words in my household.
Thanks for offering such an upbeat assessment of things.
2024 PBA ranking list. Money varies because some events pay more. The ranking is a points deal.
Pasta AND sushi? I think I can support this
Pool Players are their own worst enemy, they are like Union Members who think the Union bosses, and Business Representative care about their members. They don't, they are the parasitic leaches lives of stupid people believing the UNION BS.
Nice spread dude!!
bigger prize pools make richer and more people interested. cant argue that. how to get them is the hard part of the equation.
four ways work. so those need to be pursued.
1. get more entries
2. charge more per entry
3. get sponsor money or media money.
4. charge sponsors for their products to be advertised on the air, including on players clothing.
four ways work. so those need to be pursued.
1. get more entries
2. charge more per entry
3. get sponsor money or media money.
4. charge sponsors for their products to be advertised on the air, including on players clothing.