What we have here, is a failure to communicate.
The pool bums with no immediate future want some sugar daddy to come along and save them. Give me a job, support me, save me. I say, wake up, your profession pays you squat, peanuts, find a real job and quit dreaming and begging.
Go drive a truck, Go back to school like Steve Lillis did, get an education, and find a new way to make a living.
I hear now: Give me 2 million dollars and I’ll give you a tour. Oh please, give me a break. Just drop a dime and call up Gates or Turner. We already hooked on Billionaire, he sank millions into his lost cause, and could not sell it to TV or make money on that, others will see that. These bums, will run it the same way all the other ones did, and the end result will also be the same, failure.
You already said, it won’t make money the first two years. So I am going to shell out 4 million dollars over 2 years just to support you pool bums and not make a dime off it. Why? I will invest that money in my company and expand it. I am not stupid, we all know this can’t make money or ever have any ROI, and the guys who will run it will steal me blind like Mackey. That is their model, what they do.
They con pool rooms into putting on pro events, they lose 25K, they say, well next year will be better, it takes time to build these up, next year then again lose another 25K and they never host another one. That is the core problem. None of these promoters, who are carneys with good teeth, could care less about any one making any money other than them. They could not organize and put on a successful circle jerk with a tribe of monkeys.
Once a hustler, always a hustler. Once a stree rat, always a street rat. Once a hooker, always a ho.
The fact that nobody in the industry will fund this, means, they know these bums cannot be organized and led into any successful operation. All then have done since 1966 on their tours, is screw up and go broke and fight with each other and sub divide the game into smaller groups. Why should they change, now? Lone wolves, hustlers, are tigers that never change their stripes.
And a bunch of guys on a chat fourm are going to fund a new tour? Send you money to:
A pool player, a road warrior, a card player, a stake horse, a gambler, a pool room owner
You will never see any tour and your money goes into this guy’s retirement fund. I can’t wait for this con to launch and get underway. That could even be better than the $90 aim DVD that should have sold for $12.
How many sent money to Crane? All the do is woof in the wind and run their mouths.
I am not comparing Jay to Mackey, I am comparing all of them to Mackey. What are most of these promoters really like, carneys with good teeth? What has happened on at least 3 tournaments, recently, they stole the money, never paid the players, or dragged out payments, they were nothing but thieves.
The PBT, the IPA and the UPA all did this to the players. The owner of the US open went to prison for selling drugs and has stiffed many pros on payments, some never got paid. It’s the biggest disgrace I have ever seen and it keeps getting worse.
If I am going to run a tournament in a pool hall, pay out 25K to 75 suckers, who are going to be mostly roadies druggies pool bums and hustlers, they Jay’s my man to do that.
On his web site he describes him self as:
Jay Helfert is and has been successful as a pool player, a road warrior, a card player, a stake horse, a gambler, a pool room owner
It takes one, to run these guys.
But to run a multi million dollar tour, I am saying the last guy you want running it is:
A pool player, a road warrior, a card player, a stake horse, a gambler, a pool room owner
Give a pool hustler 2 million, he will steal half of it and run it into the ground within a year, I have seen them do this, many times before, that is what hustlers and gamblers do, steal your money.
You hire professional managers, skilled people, and an honest professional accountant. You want honest businessmen, people of honor and integrity, and you don’t find that in the pool world very often.
The first mistake this guy is making is under funding the project, the mistake 90% of any new business does, which is why most of them go under, in 1 to 2 years; they just can’t turn the corner and run out of money.
2 million, hell that would just be my payroll. First, I would use very few of the current pros, only the young and good looking ones. The 300 lb Kid Delicious, Earl who can’t keep his mouth shut, or Efren who has no teeth, would not be on my tour. Nor would the over 40 Lee’s and Allisons, plus they would be too high priced. I would start over, find better looking young models and make them into new stars. And, there would be no Monica Webbs who dress and act like men. None of the above fit the new image I would be selling. I would basically start over, find, train and put out 24 matinee idols, handsome guys chicks will dig on TV, and their mothers as well, that will sell, who will be trained in how to talk, act, and impress corporate possible future sponsors and I’ll train them to play close to pro levels.
The women’s tour when it began on TV, most including Lee, played at about an APA 6 level, and since they all played at the same level, nobody could really tell that, or cared since they were chicks. It took those years to get 4 or 5 now playing at men’s speed. A new tour of men could go the same route. Our current systems only advances our players out of pool halls and bars, and those coming to the top are hustlers and gamblers, the kind I can’t sell to corporate America. So I would just stop using them.
It would be like a baseball team, I hire them, they are on my payroll, and they follow my directions. The top 10 I pay a flat salary of 100K, so every week the pro makes $1,923 and he can now support a family. the 2nd 10, 50K, the last 4 are there on their own nickel until they can out play and displace a top 20 player, then they move up into his slot, and the paid guy, is let go. This keeps the top 20 practicing and getting better, and like in baseball if they don’t, they get sent down and a new rookie moves up. You only need a tour of 30, no more. In time, that number could increase.
They all dress in the same colors and outfits, like pro golfers, neat, clean, no tattoos, long hair, beards, and ear rings. Each one has to be the ideal boy next door image every mom wants her daughter to marry. I would enforce strict conduct rules, and if one of them pulled an Earl and went ape on the floor, I would fire him. Every player has to pee in a bottle, once a week, to insure they are drug free.
I would also carry a ladies division, 6 hotties, all smoking, dressed in tight clothes, but nothing vulgar. Nobody over 25, I would pay them 50K each.
I would use advanced marketing techniques to make brand new stars, everyone would admire.
Once the tour, and the cities establish teams, those salaries could be increased but there would be caps to insure it does not run away like it did on other sports teams.
I, me Pancho, as the new Pool boss gets 200K, plus a 50K Xmas bonus, I tell you, give it to me, or I’ll just steal it from you Holmes. Figure in my staff, the TD, and I am already over 2 mil. Because everything I would do, would be first class.
Also, I have found, put 6 pool players in a room and they will argue all day long, we should use blue or green chalk, these people can’t agree on anything. I would not have this big board I would be ass kissing to who would drive me nuts and kill the entire thing off. The only way this can work, is I would have to be sole dictator, nothing less than Adolph Hitler, my rule would not be questioned by the players. In fighting, arguing, takes all of these tours apart.
Prize money, the winner in every big monthly event, will play for one million. That then has a chance to get us on TV like Poker, for the same reason. I hand the winner in private, a fake million dollar bill, just to keep it legal. There is no prize money really played for, same in baseball, in my tour, it’s all an illusion, and you can’t tell me Poker is not cheating big time on these moneys as well. Look at Wrestling, it is phony as a 3 dollar bill and nobody cares. Poker, it’s a million in chips, nobody said that was one million usd. Ok, I know, the world championship where a thousand guys buy in for 10K is for real, I have played in it.
Hopkins tried to copy that, none of our broke bums have 10K to pony up.
Now I have to pay the travel expenses of 30 moving them around the country, and real fast, you are up to 4 or 5 million needed to pull this off. And to save money, it has to evolve into each city having their own team based there, and like baseball, they all visit each other now and then, and each city, has a weekly tournament, just like Golf does where fans come by and buy admission to see the matches.
Each city has its own small arena, stands around the tables, a full time coach teaches the pros in daily work sessions on wed-thur, the weekly tourney runs Fri-sat-sun and the players have off Mon-tue and the area is then wide open for the locals to rent tables, or have league matches there. Local players can come by for lessons, and rent the tables when they are not in use. It could become the center in that city for pool, with a full pro shop, the works. They get the gate and this thing has to get on TV and also be sold via live steam set ups and pay for view.
So give Pancho 5 million, and I’ll give you a tour, that will smoke, and have the potential, to pay off with mega bucks when it expands into teams in all the major cities. And of course my half mil, is guaranteed in case you pull the plug early, my golden parachute is paid for in advance in my bank. Pancho never work for Gringos on the come.
To close, give 2 mil to the hustlers and gamblers, they will only steal and blow it. If you can’t get somebody to fund this thing right, hire the right people to pull it off, then it’s not a good investment.
Some any of you zillionaires out there, who likes pool, dude, you give old Pancho a call and we will get this bad boy humpin right away. And dude, 5 mil, to you, this is chump change, you can write that small amount off on your taxes.
Pancho can show you now, how you can buy the entire pool world, for 10 cents on the dollar. Everyone is now for sale, cheap. Now is the time to buy in, at the bottom, where pool is on its ass, then bring it out and make it happen, part of my plan is to produce a new color of money type film, movie, centered around the tour, making it so glamorous, then pool takes off into another expansion and we clean up.
:grin-square: