The Biggest Crime Commited By The Ipt

[8-ball bernie]

what was the biggest crime commited by the ipt? was it they didn't pay us at reno? maybe, what i think the biggest crime was is this~~ they never ever promoted the ipt,other than the pool world arena. shame on them, for that, was a bigger crime then not paying us! there is short term gain and long term,short term, is maybe the ipt players can have groupies,pool fans, what have you,the big picture was pool becomes an offical sport reported on the news,and in newspapers,but the ipt dropped the ball,they really did. when a movie comes out from hollywood, they spend 15 million on the movie and 25 million on advertising! think about that! no, my friend-- the real crime here wasn't efren didn't get his half a million,yes that hurts,the crime is the ipt didn't care enough to promote the ipt,they never took the money from the qualifyers, the $2,000 a pop, and throw it the hell back in to promotions.

they could have: put signs up at the venitian,on taxi cabs,bus stops, television commercials,regis,letterman,versus commercials,they could have taken the money,they had when they had it and put it where it would count, making pool a big deal, but no! no promotion,no nothing,that was the real crime, do you realise that right now, if you were' to ask 100 pool players in pool rooms throughout the world, how did you like the ipt? 90 out of 100 wouldn't know what an ipt is! and furthermore, if you asked 100 non pool playing people,not one would have heard of it. people, that was the real crime,no backing, no promotion, no advertising,no nothing, the ipt failed not because kevin didn't pay,no sir, because there was no word of the ipt except in the few in the know in the pool world, ipt failure=no promotion, where does that leave us? square 1 pool is deader than when the ipt started, next time a millionaire wants to take pool to the next level, let's see how much they are willing to put back into it with massive huge advertising dollars!

 

[macguy]

what was the biggest crime commited by the ipt? was it they didn't pay us at reno? maybe, what i think the biggest crime was is this~~ they never ever promoted the ipt,other than the pool world arena. shame on them, for that, was a bigger crime then not paying us! there is short term gain and long term,short term, is maybe the ipt players can have groupies,pool fans, what have you,the big picture was pool becomes an offical sport reported on the news,and in newspapers,but the ipt dropped the ball,they really did. when a movie comes out from hollywood, they spend 15 million on the movie and 25 million on advertising! think about that! no, my friend-- the real crime here wasn't efren didn't get his half a million,yes that hurts,the crime is the ipt didn't care enough to promote the ipt,they never took the money from the qualifyers, the $2,000 a pop, and throw it the hell back in to promotions.

they could have: put signs up at the venitian,on taxi cabs,bus stops, television commercials,regis,letterman,versus commercials,they could have taken the money,they had when they had it and put it where it would count, making pool a big deal, but no! no promotion,no nothing,that was the real crime, do you realise that right now, if you were' to ask 100 pool players in pool rooms throughout the world, how did you like the ipt? 90 out of 100 wouldn't know what an ipt is! and furthermore, if you asked 100 non pool playing people,not one would have heard of it. people, that was the real crime,no backing, no promotion, no advertising,no nothing, the ipt failed not because kevin didn't pay,no sir, because there was no word of the ipt except in the few in the know in the pool world, ipt failure=no promotion, where does that leave us? square 1 pool is deader than when the ipt started, next time a millionaire wants to take pool to the next level, let's see how much they are willing to put back into it with massive huge advertising dollars!

As much money as it seemed to the very poor pool community, in the grand scheme of things, the IPT was just nickel and dime when you come right down to it. KT was just trying to be a big fish in a very, very little pond. He impressed a few people but in the long run turned out to be little more then a small time phony. Their entire two year budget would not have paid for a month or two of real promotion, much less pay prize money.

That's why it looked like such a joke to some of us from the start. It seemed from the start they were blowing a bunch of smoke up the collective asses of the pool players. Thankfully a few players at least got a few bucks out of the deal before it collapsed.

 

[8-ball bernie]

this is true. the whole thing was put together so fast there was no real cement behind it all,just smoke up the butt.

 

[ScottW]

they never ever promoted the ipt,other than the pool world arena.

What do you call all those ads on OLN (now Versus) for the IPT shows? :/

 

[macguy]

What do you call all those ads on OLN (now Versus) for the IPT shows? :/

Invisible, to the general public. Probably produced by OLN for themselves at no cost and no input from the IPT. When I want to sell a property, I usually find it best to put the sign outside the house and not nailed the inside living room wall. They didn't even go after the kind of exposure they could have gotten for free such as Regis. There was a little bit of a hook for the women to be now playing against the men.

That could have been played up before hand to get people, the general public I mean, to follow the tournaments to see how the women do. The young kid could have been used to some extent in the same way. This takes a publicity machine, they boasted the WM agency when they started. Who knows what that meant, just more smoke. They picked a buzz word people would recognize but who knows now after seeing how they did stuff if the WM agency ever even heard of the IPT.

Honestly, the money they talked about wasn't enough to do much of anything, it was all committed to prize money, how did they expect to get this thing off the ground? Hindsight is always 20 20, but you start looking at this thing and it looks even more and more ridiculous by the minute. You do an autopsy on it and it becomes horribly clear the plan was incredibly flawed, almost impossible for it to have succeeded on any level.

 

[8-ball bernie]

true,what ads on versus, there aren't any ads on versus! correct me if i'm wrong please, but they don't even promote it on versus,what does that say?

 

[cueball1950]

true,what ads on versus, there aren't any ads on versus! correct me if i'm wrong please, but they don't even promote it on versus,.......
"what does that say?"

Bernie... i totally agree:
What that says Bernie is that they need to hire you to get the word out for them. You could go from board to board to board and make many many many posts in the respective forums and get just as much publicity as KT and the IPT did... You know what... I am going to send them an email and demand that they hire you for their Public Relations... Would'nt that be great?. ; ...mike

 

[BlackDragon]

the biggest crime was that players weren't responsible for the IPTs success.
Kevin was. Theres no allegiance by players. They're guns for hire to the highest bidder. Chewing on the greenest pasture then moving on.

 

[ccn7]

the biggest crime was that players weren't responsible for the IPTs success.
Kevin was. Theres no allegiance by players. They're guns for hire to the highest bidder. Chewing on the greenest pasture then moving on.

The IPT is kinda in limbo right now, I wouldnt say its been that great a sucess to date. I dont think it was up to the players to make it a sucess anyways, they showed up played their matches, and did what KT asked of them. The players may not have been responsible for the IPT sucess in your mind, but i do know in my mind its not that players that are gona make the IPT fail.KT is.Your opinion is respected

 

[jimmyg]

Since you asked, my opinion

In my opinion, the biggest offense committed by K.T. and the IPT was the deceptive and underhanded manner in which KT totally misrepresented the real goals and intentions of the Tour from the very beginning.

I don't believe that KT ever intended to market pool to anyone other than the already existing hard core pool community from the onset. The complete lack of a broader marketing effort lends credence to that theory. Of course, if it turned out that there WAS a broader market for pool, all the better for the IPT, but I do believe that KT was correct in knowing that there wasn't a market for his product beyond the existing pool playing base.

I also believe that part of his plan was to eventually gain total control over the entire pool industry by locking in all the better players and also by destroying as many other tours as possible, making the players completely financially dependent upon the IPT.

The qualifiers was the "key" to his being able to fund the prize money. All the other projected revenue from advertising and sponsorship, product sales, membership fees and video sales, along with whatever other income streams he would be able to develop would be the income that would bring the IPT well over the top financially.

I also believe that KT was never serious about the $100K annual income guarantee, it was always a total lie and a ploy, simply a carrot to dangle before the players to help get them fully "on board".

At this point, after the fact, we can all see that every aspect of the "plan" failed. The qualifiers, didn't quite cover the prize money, the sponsorships and advertising never materialized and nothing else ever fell into line. Basically the entire business plan was flawed and failed. And of course KT resorted to his tried and proven methods of doing business, lying and cheating everyone that gets involved with him at every level.

Given KT's history, all of this should have been expected and there would not have been as much pain and disappointment to so many people.

Anyone that would choose to continue to have any business dealings whatsoever with KT, after this experience, does so foolishly, and at their own risk.

Jim