The Smaller Pro Pool Gets The Easier To Fix

[Johnnyt]

This might be the time when someone with money, brains, and good business sense with connections in TV takes over pool. A takeover in pool would be real easy for the right person now. If this doesn't happen this year I believe pro pool will be dead and buried. Johnnyt

 

[dom_poppa]

It cannot be fixed and going to stay this way.

The leagues and bar boxes have an underground following with APA and other similar leagues. Those leagues tend to be doing well with very little advertisement.

Pool is not dead but like the big snooker tables of the past....soon 9 foot tables will go away and what we know of pool will be the bar tables.

 

[calibration]

We stink in Mosconi cup because our up and coming players cant shoot farther than 6ft, its because of these stinkin bar boxes. In Europe and Asia there going bigger tables with smaller pockets. On a world level were losing ground quickly..

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[boogeyman]

This might be the time when someone with money, brains, and good business sense with connections in TV takes over pool. A takeover in pool would be real easy for the right person now. If this doesn't happen this year I believe pro pool will be dead and buried. Johnnyt

What's with the extreme pessimism, Johnnyt? That's not like you.
I don't think one single person has to "save" pool.
The industry is quite sophisticated now, therefore it takes a plurality of
simultaneous inputs in order for the pool candle to burn brightly.

Pro pool dead this year if no takeover?

Pro pool isn't going anywhere, Johnnyt.
It's only going to get better over the next few years.
The pool industry (its various business cycles) is adjusting quite nicely as we speak.

 

[thubosky]

How much money is there to be made for the people who would invest their money? Just curious how much could possibly be made from the advertising if pool was on tv? Anyone know how much it brought in before when it was on tv?
Tim

 

[fast8ballin]

This might be the time when someone with money, brains, and good business sense with connections in TV takes over pool. A takeover in pool would be real easy for the right person now. If this doesn't happen this year I believe pro pool will be dead and buried. Johnnyt

I agree, just look at what the Simonis Tour is doing. They are becoming an advertising conglomerate for tournaments. www.simonistour.com

I wish them the best of luck as I think they have a great plan for the sport.

 

[CJ Wiley]

Pocket Billiards has the perfect "DARE" component, but.......

This might be the time when someone with money, brains, and good business sense with connections in TV takes over pool. A takeover in pool would be real easy for the right person now. If this doesn't happen this year I believe pro pool will be dead and buried. Johnnyt

The game is getting ready to spread it's wings.....the fact is everything that's been done in the last 12 years has led to where it is now.

The strength of the game is the strategic qualities and developing the "DARE" attribute that football, baseball, hockey and even poker uses.

Pocket Billiards has the perfect "DARE" component, but through the process of diluting the game's rules it's also changed the entire integrity of the game.......and here we are, with a game that has no value.

'The Game is the Teacher'

 

[Ralph Kramden]

Pool is not dead but like the big snooker tables of the past....soon 9 foot tables will go away and what we know of pool will be the bar tables.

That would be a sad state of affairs. Pool is much more than 8 ball... on a dinky bar table.

 

[Johnnyt]

Most are missing the point here. With the big promoters backing away from major open tournaments and pro players scrambling to make a buck to survive, the time is perfect for someome or some group to swoop down and be king of pool. That's what good businessmen do. They look for something that has just about hit bottom and get the whole thing on the the cheap. Johnnyt

 

[Tobermory]

I fear that "Dom-poppa" may be right. The future may be the bar box. It's odd that carom billiards on a small table (which is used to introduce younger players to the game) is actually quite fun, and challenging. You don't lose all that much of the quality of the big table game. And I was very impressed by the video recently of Jayson Shaw playing in that "black ball tournament," or whatever it is called. But I always feel that a lot of the challenge of the game has disappeared when I watch even very good players lay pool on a bar box.

As for "Calibration's" observation about American players not being able to shoot farther than 6', allowing for exaggeration, I have often feared that he also might be right.

 

[Johnnyt]

I fear that "Dom-poppa" may be right. The future may be the bar box. It's odd that carom billiards on a small table (which is used to introduce younger players to the game) is actually quite fun, and challenging. You don't lose all that much of the quality of the big table game. And I was very impressed by the video recently of Jayson Shaw playing in that "black ball tournament," or whatever it is called. But I always feel that a lot of the challenge of the game has disappeared when I watch even very good players lay pool on a bar box.

As for "Calibration's" observation about American players not being able to shoot farther than 6', allowing for exaggeration, I have often feared that he also might be right.

I've been saying this about the big tables getting less and less for years on here. As far as going to the BB's they need to tighten up the pockets to under 4" and bring the shelf out a bit. And of course Diamond or Ridgeback rails. Johnnyt

 

[galipeau]

soon 9 foot tables will go away and what we know of pool will be the bar tables.

I sure as hell hope not

 

[bdorman]

Most are missing the point here. With the big promoters backing away from major open tournaments and pro players scrambling to make a buck to survive, the time is perfect for someome or some group to swoop down and be king of pool. That's what good businessmen do. They look for something that has just about hit bottom and get the whole thing on the the cheap. Johnnyt

Agreed. But an investor also 1) estimates the potential upside, and 2) looks for the problems over which he'll have no control.

Pool would need to have a gigantic growth spurt to make an investment pay off (i.e. you could quadruple the "viewing audience" and you're still way, way short of any TV interest). Call us when you have 500,000 18-24 year old males watching.

On the other hand, there are dozens of issues in the pool industry over which an investor has no control. Not a good combination.

Bonus Ball tried. Sure, you can list a million things BB management did wrong. So what? Even if they'd gotten those things right, the outcome would have been very close to the same.

The only way for pool to grow bigtime is to become cool. And that is a crapshoot at the grassroots level; it has nothing to do with the pro-level, or even amateur-league level, involvement.

 

[Celtic]

It cannot be fixed

I agree with this.

Pool is much like the old house on the really nice lot. There is no value in trying to "fix" the old worn down house and it would cost you too much money to end up with a renovated but still "old" house. Instead you rip the house down and you build a new house on that awesome lot.

Pro pool as it exists needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch. There is nothing worth salvaging at this point.

The game needs a rebirth. We need to finally see 8-ball take the place as THE game. We need to finally get the professional equipment standards to a acceptable level of difficulty with smaller pockets and potentially a shift to 10 foot tables for pro competition. We need to see single elimination become the norm to speed tournaments up and yet allow for slightly longer matches. We need to see the creation of a proper ranking and seeding system once we get the tournaments, organization, and structure to finally allow it.

There is nothing to be "fixed". Time to start over and do it right this time.

 

[JustPlay]

Keep Dreaming...

 

[MitchAlsup]

I watched the semi-s and finals of the WPBA match last weekend. There could not have been more than 50 people in the stands (set up to accomodate about 250).

At that rate, there won't be a pro in pool in a couple of years. Just like professional hackey-sack never took off. Apparently nobody wants to watch or even pay to watch.

 

[JCIN]

I watched the semi-s and finals of the WPBA match last weekend. There could not have been more than 50 people in the stands (set up to accomodate about 250).

At that rate, there won't be a pro in pool in a couple of years. Just like professional hackey-sack never took off. Apparently nobody wants to watch or even pay to watch.

Winner. Pay the line.

Edit to add: Heres whats funny though. Our Youtube channel had over 1.2 million views in 2013. Somebody is watching its just a matter of figuring out how to turn that into money. Which is the same problem many industries are trying to figure out.