No one is making money off of pool right now, except those few that can operate and/or service globally and take advantage of what is still a modest niche market in every region. That's pretty much equipment manufacturers, distributors, etc.
Pool and golf, which from my understanding is also on the decline in the US as well, are both "upper-class" games or sports. Both were exclusive to royalty and the wealthy in their very beginnings. Both of these, not only can require significant and on going investments to play, but they also require heavy expenses and overhead for the industry to operate and maintain. As a result, they both are very dependent on certain economic conditions, and no surprise that they are on the decline...not just in the US, but world-wide as well.
They also both require a heavy consumption of various natural resources, all of which are finite resources, and getting more and more scarce.
What's a little ironic...is that they are both viewed at totally opposite ends of the social spectrum. One group is considered low-life's, the other's a bunch of old, rich, white, men. Both ends being viewed mostly negatively in a social sense.
Nit,
Interesting Post. Yes both take up a fair amount of natural resources and have a fair amount of expense to maintain. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sports Bars transition to stand alone buildings if Pool is going to be the selling point because ownership is more desirable if rents are so high. The decline is world wide and does follow the trail of disappearing disposable income in a general sense.
What I find also ironic but is certainly not true in every case is that most room owners don't do a lot in the area of personal marketing. They might take out an advertisement from time to time and Im sure that's quite expensive and low in production of prospective clients.
A poster here I was talking to told a story of losing an Alcohol license for 5 months and he was able to double his business by doing things to draw attention to his business on a personal level. He went door to door in the surrounding neighborhood to businesses introducing himself and offering a free something to get people to come in.
He put things in the Parking Lot like antique trucks in front of his place to draw attention to the place.
I think the market is still there, its just that people have lost the ability to go out an get it for some reason.
In my theory based on this mans story it seems all he did was place invitations and throw out Pool as bait and it worked.
Its so simple its almost laughable. Instead of placing expensive advertisements an owner could just invite people to come play for free and make it fun for them and that lets Pool become the advertisement itself. Some you get and keep as customers and some you don't.
I'm not the smartest guy in the world but I would think if I had a Pool Room I would do everything I could to get people in it because there are so many things trying to get peoples attention nowadays.
So that's what I based my Pool Club ideas on because if a guy who went from no alcohol could double what he previously had in customer base when he did have alcohol, he was doing something right. It obviously worked well.
I think it would be a really cool way to change the game for pool. It's simple Recruit the demographic that you want in the rooms through invitations. What is even better is you could invite Groups in. Those groups could be civic groups, seniors groups, High School and College Clubs, Womens groups, Corporate Office Groups, the list is endless. You can just call them up and say...Hey come here, for free for your day on Saturday afternoon then when they get there have a plan in place to make sure their time is FUN!
What I think is even better is for sponsorship to get involved in that process. I can see that this would be a great way for Pool League systems who generally ask the Room Owner to donate the table for their matches to help the owner get new business.
This would put the Pool League systems in a position of power with the Room Owner were they to choose to do so.
What do you think a room owner would say to a Pool League System that was helping him with table time for Public Pool Club when he asked if he could run some teams out of the place? I would think it would be a resounding Yes!
