Whether people realize it or not (and most don't it seems), this was basically the correct answer the last 5,462 times that "why can't pool attract viewers/why can't pool get in the Olympics/why can't pool make it on TV/etc" was asked and it will be the correct answer the next 50 billion times it is every asked again in the future until and unless there are very drastic changes made to the game itself and the way it is marketed.
Nobody likes watching pool. Even pool players don't like watching pool. Look around at the next tournament you are at, whether it is you local tuesday night tourney, or a big pro event, and pay attention to how many players are watching. Even the players playing the event don't usually stick around to watch for the most part. If even the participants of an activity don't want to watch said activity you know that it is serious structural flaws from a viewing perspective and there is little chance you are ever going to be able to get people that aren't even into that sport/activity to become viewers in large numbers.
I'm not sure that big viewing success can ever be done for pool, at least in the U.S., but among the best chance for success among current formats are the teams games (ala Mosconi Cup and World Cup of Pool style) and ring games, both of which offering more excitement and viewer engagement by far than most formats.
Then you have to encourage more audience excitement and engagement (ala Mosconi Cup and darts), and then develop and showcase your characters/players more and develop story lines (ala football and every other major sport on earth). To that last point, it was once said that if you want to get your wife more interested in football, all you have to do it tell her "this guy here, he runs a charity for autism, and that guy there, he went to jail for beating his wife, and that other guy over there, he has adopted 6 kids from Jamaica, and the other guy over there, he was in a bad car accident last year and had to go through months of hospitalization and physical therapy to get back to where he is now" and then all of the sudden she is shockingly now at least somewhat interested in football. And its true, not just for your wife, but for everybody who wouldn't normally necessarily be a fan of something. You have to give people a reason to want to care about the people involved one way or another and then suddenly they are interested even if they wouldn't have ordinarily been interested in the underlying activity.
And of course there is more, but until you give a format that is inherently exciting (and most just aren't, especially the pool and tournament formats in most common use) and then of course showcase and encourage that excitement, and until you can give people a reason to want to care (develop your characters and story lines, and of course something like having teams representing certain geographical regions [like literally almost every other major sport in the world] always goes a long ways in giving human nature a reason to want to care), then you will have almost no chance for success ever until you can at least get those very core basics first.
Last edited:
