Schmidt video release November

[jrctherake]

His approach actually makes sense to me.

Everyone has already stated he won't make much money here if he puts it on Youtube or sells DVDs. We know that. And selling the rights directly doesn't make him much either. Let's assume that he makes 10K either way. So what he has doesn't hold huge traditional market value.

So why sell? If you owned a car that you spent your entire life restoring and someone offered you next to nothing for it, wouldn't you rather just keep it? Well, John has spent his life in a quest to achieve a world record on camera. I don't blame him for not wanting to disperse it for pennies. I believe this is the same reason that Jay hasn't released Earl's 10 rack run for the million (which I would LOVE to see, Jay, PM me if I could ever do a 'private showing'!).

In the meantime, if he creates a tour from city to city and conducts 'tours' of his run in person, I see him filling up rooms. A chance to spend the afternoon with a US Open champion walking you through a record breaking straight pool run and doing Q&As? I'd support that. Not sure how big the groups would be, but if it was 10-20 people I'd chip in $1-200. I'd guarantee I'd learn something from that session and if I could have a good time, witness a record run, meet some friends, and pick up a few nuggets, for me that's worth taking a day off work.

Even if most people aren't interested that's fine with him. As long as he gets enough people in every city for him to tour the country and use this as a draw, why wouldn't he? Maybe he can't pull it off, but at least it's a good try.

It would fly in Huntsville, Alabama. I know at least 40ish people there that would love it.

Now, they may not pay $200 each but, I'm pretty sure they would do $75 each for an exhibition for a couple hours.

Also, I think John should capitalize on "giving lessons".

Right now he should be able to charge a premium.

Anyways, he wouldn't make a lot from any one room unless he was able to schedule a couple lessons at each. In that case, yeah, I think it would be very profitable.

We have to remember what the average pro player makes a year. Its not much and I'm pretty sure John doing exhibitions coupled with lessons would be more profitable that chasing "maybe" money from tournaments where you facing a room full of world beaters for the same small piece of the pie.

Jeff

 

[iusedtoberich]

I have two experiences with traveling exhibitions put on by top pros. Both in the Philly burbs.

The first was about 1997 at a room called Alpha Billiards. It was a new room, maybe open for a year. Business was good. Mostly filled on the weekends, 2 weekday tournaments that each drew about 32 consistent players. The owners hired Nick Varner to do an exhibition. They hired/invited a professional cameraman, advertised, etc. The gate was 20 a head to get in. There were maybe 15 people that paid, I was one of them.

The next was also in Philly suburbs, 15 minutes away from the first room, in maybe 2000. The room was Drexeline Billiards, owned by a pro btw. Business was about double the first room (super good, waiting list on the weekdays as well as the weekends). He hired Grady Mathews to do his exhibition. Free admission. Maybe 100 people showed up to watch him. I was one of them.

I don't know what other people's experiences are with paid and free pro exhibitions. Or how time and the general pool decline has changed it. The first room above closed up about 2010 or so. Business all dried up. The second room has about 1/3rd the business now as it did in 2000. And at least 5, maybe even 10 other Philly burbs rooms closed up due to business drying up in this time span.

 

[ShortBusRuss]

The constant is pro pool players are a group that think thier craft belongs with the likes of other sports and that never has been the case and never will be the case


1

Factually incorrect. Ralph Greenleaf used to be one of the highest paid entertainers in the world. Giving pool exhibitions on the Orpheum Circuit, he made the modern day equivalent of $34,000.00 a week. Even as his career flagged, he had the equivalent of a $100,000.00 a year income giving exhibitions at pool halls.

 

[jrctherake]

Factually incorrect. Ralph Greenleaf used to be one of the highest paid entertainers in the world. Giving pool exhibitions on the Orpheum Circuit, he made the modern day equivalent of $34,000.00 a week. Even as his career flagged, he had the equivalent of a $100,000.00 a year income giving exhibitions at pool halls.

True. But, out of how many people that were trying to make a living doing the same?

Consider ^^^^^^^^^^ and we are right back to pool players are IMO, some of.....if not the lowest paid professionals on the planet.

Jeff

 

[pvc lou]

Joe Rogan likes pool and lives in California. Maybe try selling him the rights and let him put it on YouTube. Maybe even go on his podcast. I think it would be worth a try.

 

[Black-Balled]

Just do a search for John Schmidt on Facebook and take a look at the comments. They are nothing like on here, probably 95% positive.
His first showing is probably going to be in Ventura, Ca. and after that he will have a good idea if his plan is a good one.
My personal guess is he will have a very good or great turnout and make a big chunk of money in Ventura. This will be followed by his cross country tour.

He's living in a fantasy world if he thinks a tour is going to break even, much less make him money.

 

[JazzyJeff87]

He's living in a fantasy world if he thinks a tour is going to break even, much less make him money.

Yeah I’m pretty disappointed in Johan Schmidt. He straight pooled really well that day but since then he’s been making mental errors. Now the whole thing has skidmarked its way almost into a brick wall and I don’t even really care anymore I’ve just gotten used to having a thread about the run to soak up my attention when I needed a break from work or whatevs. Isn’t there some stigma about pro pool players always shooting themselves in the foot when opportunities arise?

 

[sjm]

His approach actually makes sense to me.

Everyone has already stated he won't make much money here if he puts it on Youtube or sells DVDs. We know that. And selling the rights directly doesn't make him much either. Let's assume that he makes 10K either way. So what he has doesn't hold huge traditional market value.

Most interesting post in the thread. The premise that the run as a video product isn't very marketable in the first place is a fresh new point of view, but to view this as the explanation for John's actions requires the assumption that John knew all along that the run would not sell.

Personally, I don't believe this, but if your theory is correct, John's spending half a year trying to make the best video possible with the best possible player commentary actually makes sense.

However it goes, I wish John well in the aftermath of his great achievement.

 

[jimmyg]

I just had to....

 

[WoodyMPW]

This will be followed by his cross country tour.

Oh boy. Maybe he can team up with the Rubik's cube record holder. Tickets will be going through the roof on stub-hub.

 

[terryhanna]

Looks like John may have changed his mind about how he's going to release this video to the public.

 

[Bob Jewett]

... Ralph Greenleaf used to be one of the highest paid entertainers in the world. Giving pool exhibitions on the Orpheum Circuit, he made the modern day equivalent of $34,000.00 a week. ...

I suppose that might be true, and it could be researched in show bills of the time, but I heard something different from a person who was Greenleaf's manager at times. What he said was that the vaudeville gig lasted a couple of weeks.

 

[jasonlaus]

Most interesting post in the thread. The premise that the run as a video product isn't very marketable in the first place is a fresh new point of view, but to view this as the explanation for John's actions requires the assumption that John knew all along that the run would not sell.

Personally, I don't believe this, but if your theory is correct, John's spending half a year trying to make the best video possible with the best possible player commentary actually makes sense.

However it goes, I wish John well in the aftermath of his great achievement.

Outside of the few diehard here and any 14.1 forum who's going to buy it?

How would they even know about it?

The game died a long time ago, hell, all pool games died a long time ago as far as PRO pool is concerned.

The only good thing going for it is there seems to be many more events the last few years(not 14.1), problem is, the public doesn't care. All they rember about pool is that Black Spider lady. Lol

How many people are going to sit through a 4+ hr video which wont start on time, and then stay in town for a lesson? Not many.

Hope it works out for him, but I just dont see(enough) people taking off work, traveling to wherever he shows up, paying who knows what to see it, and then taking a lesson from him, or watching him try to run balls.

Hope I'm wrong

 

[terryhanna]

Looks like John may have changed his mind about how he's going to release this video to the public.

He prolly saw all the comments on this thread lol

 

[Eric.]

We want the florydory...


Eric

 

[spartan]

Always Azb's fault

-------------------------------------------------------------------
one less reader (supposedly) of the 626-related threads and all other azb threads:
John posted the following on his facebook page about an hour ago:
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john schmidt i will never ever look at or open azb again. It's keyboard haters hiding behind screen names. Screw that torture brother. They can buy danny harriman dvds lol
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:d

 

[ChicagoRJ]

I have said that if all the posters on AZ were actually casting a vote for or against JS...
...JS would win by a landslide.
But I guess he wants universal acclaim...which nobody gets.

Absolutely right. If JHC was running for dog catcher, he's still only get 80% of the vote. Just the way folks are.

Think about Cal Ripken Jr. He was a first ballot HOF'er. He has the longest playing streak in baseball, and will NEVER be broken. He was Rookie of the Year, Won a World Series, .336 hitter in playoff games, 19 consecutive All-Star games, hit over 400 home runs, over 3,000 hits, has 2 MVP's, won 2 Gold Gloves, and was respected by his team, other teams, and the media and fans adored him. Played for the same team his entire career, and not so much as a jaywalking ticket.

Yet, on HOF election day, 8 dudes voted against him... I mean, WTF else did the guy have to do ?? LOL

 

[arnaldo]

John has over 3,500 followers on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/mr400.john.schmidt

If he prices the forthcoming DVD shrewdly (IMO) at $39.95 (or less) and 10 to 20 percent of his followers pop for it, he's guaranteed between 14 to 28k from them alone and plenty more from years of future followers who pile on. And besides pool, he's deeply passionate about dirt biking, fast cars, and guns and about a dozen other interests, all of which have Facebook forums which he follows and posts to regularly -- so, he's widely recognized (and largely admired) as a personality in those arenas of name exposure as well.

None of those potential buyers of the forthcoming 626 DVD will give a fig about any moments of inaction that will have obviously been edited out for continuity, or for any other innocent reason.

John will likely have been correctly advised that the finished 626 video product will be evergreen, with decades of direct revenue, and ancillary revenues that will stem from it.

And as a Brooklyn-based agent might say: The nationwide personal appearances tour "couldn't hoit".
(Provided that his handlers are astute enough to consistently prearrange "sports & personality" TV and newsprint reportage for every personal appearance.

Arnaldo

 

[dabarbr]

This is an unexpected development, but John needs to handle this as he sees fit.

Perhaps he feels that those who attend the private viewing will publicly and boisterously rave about what they saw to the point that others become even more excited to watch it than they had been.

Whatever his plan, I wish him good luck with it. He deserves to be able to monetize his amazing effort to the greatest extent possible.

I totally agree with you. I would love to be at one of those private showings.
I'm sure he also must have plans to do something like Mosconi did with his poster. He made one for each ball that he ran. I have number 98 of 526. There is a handsome profit to made with 626 posters. Good luck John.

 

[ChicagoRJ]

Just curious what would have happened on ball 666. Do you shoot it ONLY if you have an easy shot for 667, so you don't get stuck at 666 ? Or just shank it and stick at 665? Or do you roll the dice, in a devil-may-care attitude ?