The Best Way To Make Pool Popular

[dkingofnmkt]

run what you brung !

Yobagua,

When you say, "dig down into the heart of the drama of the game with quality sports journalist" do you mean doing in depth interviews? Something like HBO Sports' "Up Close and Personal"? I think something like that would be pretty cool. Some of these players have some interesting personal lives. Look at Jeanette for instance, all the back surgeries she's had. If people realized how much she goes through to be able to play the game, I think they'd be amazed and would tune in more. There are some others that have great stories too, not just the physical problems but how they had to pay their dues.

I also think Grady and the professor's ideas about ring games would be successful on TV as well. I'd certainly like to see them try it at least once or twice to see if it good catch hold. I loved watching it at the DCC tournament on my pc.

Great post Yobagua!

diito Yobaqua ! in college i played snooker for a number of years untill another sport caught my interest.that was drag racing.it started on the streets progressed to abandoned airfields and into, in more recent years,monsterous high tech venus.in recent years i returned to play pool (instead of snooker) and today i feel the same surgance of growth in popularity.drag racing was once frowned on and now attracts family participation ,dark dingy poolhalls are a thing of the past. we can make this work!!!!!!

 

[Snapshot9]

how to make pool popular

Pool is not boring to watch on ESPN. If the sport interests you, it is not boring (unless you aren't any good to begin with). I think Golf is boring and racing too.

Things to help Pool:

1) Professional Men's Organization
2) Televise celebrity tournaments
3) Have Semi-Pro leagues that pay something so many dedicated players can
win a substantial amount back in a year's time (10-25 k a year)
4) Get Billiards into the Olympics
5) More Pool classes in Colleges, along with Billiard Management Courses.
6) Junior Leagues associated with Public School system someway.
Scholarship funds for winners of Junior Tournaments (more so than now).
7) Have top 3-4 local billiard rooms have 2 cameras on prime 2 tables, and have it televised on local cable channels showing good tournament matches or matchups. Also a way to see who is at the local places from home. Needs advertising too.
8) 4 Pro tournaments a year where men and women compete together. That way we can see how well the women faire to the men. Some would do okay, some wouldn't. Make sure they were televised.
9) Pool at all levels needs sponsors. Since it is limited to amount of spectators, it must use internet and TV to promote.
10) Establish local mentoring programs on incremental scale - 1st 3 lessons free, 2nd 3 $10 each, next 10 $20 each. Taught by a minimum of 8 skill level that can teach (many players do not make a good teacher)
11) Good communication, locally, regionally, and nationally. By way of newsletters, newspapers, internet, TV, etc..

 

[Pelican]

Three things would do it - PROMOTI0N, PROMOTION, PROMOTION. When I was involved in racing you were unintelligent and backwards if you liked racing. Look at NASCAR today, the result of promotion. Somebody mentioned boring, nothing will put me to sleep like golf but somebody is watching and big bucks are being spent and made. It is going to take promotion and lots of it.

 

[Williebetmore]

Yobagua,

When you say, "dig down into the heart of the drama of the game with quality sports journalist" do you mean doing in depth interviews? Something like HBO Sports' "Up Close and Personal"? I think something like that would be pretty cool. Some of these players have some interesting personal lives. Look at Jeanette for instance, all the back surgeries she's had. If people realized how much she goes through to be able to play the game, I think they'd be amazed and would tune in more. There are some others that have great stories too, not just the physical problems but how they had to pay their dues.

I also think Grady and the professor's ideas about ring games would be successful on TV as well. I'd certainly like to see them try it at least once or twice to see if it good catch hold. I loved watching it at the DCC tournament on my pc.

Great post Yobagua!

Rick,
You are right. At the Viejas WPBA tournament, and for the week after, TNT had a camera crew following Jeanette. I think they are considering a 1 hour documentary. I hope it makes it to the air.

 

[Williebetmore]

Yobagua,
I couldn't agree more. This begs the question of when will we see a yearly straight pool tournament to find out truly who the best player is. For close to a hundred years we always had a "champ", someone who the public could identify as the best. The term "Number one ranked player" does not have the same cachet (in fact it reeks, and moreso if a computer, an arbitrary point system, or a panel of writers is involved). Everyone, casual player or fanatic would enjoy a good heavyweight round robin tournament, ending in a championship bout (boxing had it right until the different splinter associations diluted it). At least after a good straight pool match to a 1,000 you won't have to wonder who is the better player. Its only a short time until "artistic 9 Ball" will be a game where the judges will decide who played best, because the game itself surely does a poor job of identifying the best players.

 

[sjm]

Yobagua,
I couldn't agree more. This begs the question of when will we see a yearly straight pool tournament to find out truly who the best player is. For close to a hundred years we always had a "champ", someone who the public could identify as the best. The term "Number one ranked player" does not have the same cachet (in fact it reeks, and moreso if a computer, an arbitrary point system, or a panel of writers is involved). Everyone, casual player or fanatic would enjoy a good heavyweight round robin tournament, ending in a championship bout (boxing had it right until the different splinter associations diluted it). At least after a good straight pool match to a 1,000 you won't have to wonder who is the better player. Its only a short time until "artistic 9 Ball" will be a game where the judges will decide who played best, because the game itself surely does a poor job of identifying the best players.

I agree with most of what you say, Willbetmore. The absence of an objective world-wide ranking system is a problem, and makes it tough for the casual fan to know who the best is/are. The rankings we get to see tend to shortchange those that don't play in the US very often, most notably Chin Shun Yang and, on the women's side, Shin Mei Liu.

Still, though I'm a serious straight pool player and devout fan of the game, I disagree with your contention that "the game itself surely does a poor job of identifying the best players." The luck factor in nineball is obvious, but the case history says the best are the best, and whatever game is played, the same guys will succeed. When the straight pool era was transformed into the nineball era, straight pool greats Sigel, Varner, Rempe, and Hopkins were, almost immediately, counted among the greats in nineball, and they all have the nineball titles to prove it.

I really like your round robin idea, and it's used in the elimination rounds at the World Pool Championships to determine who reaches the elimination rounds, but to use it from beginning to end would take three weeks easily, unless you reduced the size of the field.

 

[Renegade]

As I've said in another thread, I think this sport really needs a Vince McMahon to turn things around, give it a bit of an edge like what he did for pro-wrestling and demolition derby. Think flashier costumes, cooler nicknames, glow-in-the-dark pool cues, lots of explosions, sexy women in skimpy outfits, in-fighting between players, and sexier women in even skimpier outfits!!!

But seriously, I think the demographic of pool afficionados is getting older. What the sport needs is to get more young people interested in it. The younger players like Alex Pagulayan and Corey Deuel can only make the game more popular. Think Tom Cruise in Color Of Money. When that movie came out every teenager in school wanted to be like him. We need more young players with personalities! Kids can't relate to Archer or Strickland or Souquet. Maybe Immonen or Hohmann, but still way too boring if you ask me. Perhaps if we can give everybody mics like what they do in golf so we know what the players are thinking while they're lining up a shot or warming up the chair. Maybe that's also why trick shot competitions are much more fun to watch. We get to hear the players and get a glimpse into their personalities. I used to think that pool players were a cold bunch but when I first saw them in trick shots, Ralf Souquet became a lot more cooler (being cold is way different from being cool), Earl wasn't that obnoxious after all, Alex was fun and Davis was just hilarious! I mean, all you professional guys out there know each other and all but what about the millions of televiewers who don't know much about the game? I think mics would do a lot to make the players more accessible to the masses. I don't think it would do much for Efren because he doesn't say much at all, but what the heck, his smile says it all!

And lastly, how about trading cards? I've been dying to get my hands on pool trading cards but apparently, no one makes them. Perhaps they can make it trump cards or something with lots of statistics and trivia. Kids like exchanging cards and info about their favorite players.

Well, these are just my two cents. Hope someone who can make a difference reads them.