I like you, I really do, even though we argue about artemis cushions, but I think this whole idea is nuts.
First, the money from the initial event will come from a percentage of the profits of glue for cloth installation? Even if there is 300% markup in the glue, how much can you possibly pocket in dollar amount selling glue? You know full well, only a very small percentage of "player's" mechanics will ever switch to your system. The vast majority of tables installed will still be junk brand home tables, installed by mechanics who don't even play pool. No way those mechanics will buy your glue instead of the staples. So the total number of glue gallons you sell will be very small.
In contrast, Simonis cloth is probably on more tables than any other in the world. They sponsor every tournament under the sun it seems. There is probably more dollar amount profit from cloth than any other table component. Because its a high dollar item, and it is replaced frequently. Yet, with all of that potential dollar profit, Simonis is not coming out with their own tour.
Next, expecting "legit pool players" like us on this board to fork over registration fees, or room owners to fork over 500 to authorize a table sanction fee, is never going to happen. Pool players are notoriously cheap. When we had the IPT, BEFORE he stiffed everyone, they could not get the players to put up any money to play in qualifiers to fill the spots. And we are talking about the TOP players. Pool players are not cheap when it comes to buying equipment. We are cheap when it comes to paying table time, and registration fees.
You want amateur players to put up some cash to try out a qualifying ghost performance test? Never going to happen. Why, besides the cheap part of pool player's, the bigger part is pool player EGO! Pool players do not want to know how bad they really are. I was running an experiment over the Xmas break, at a Player's room in Philly, to see how much harder different size pockets and tables are, in real life scenarios. I wanted a range of players to play 10 racks of the ghost, on 4 different tables, and count up total balls made. I told them I'd pay their table time, and I was running an experiment. I had 3 takers after asking 20 players. All 3 QUIT, because they were disappointed at their actual ghost scores, and didn't want to give me the data. All because the scores don't lie, and their ego is bruised.
Another example of EGO is our yearly straight pool challenge, and 9 ball challenge, here on the forums. Its the same small handful of players year after year who put up a score. From the thousands of members we have here. Why? There is that ego again. People don't want to post a score unless they are a runout player.
Next, you talk about PPV. That model is dying. When we have the FREE joss tour final event stream by AZBTV, the MOST it has ever gotten is about 1800 unique and live viewers for the final marque match. If it was ppv, it might have gotten 100 viewers. And you expect your tormenament matches to get 50,000 PPV views?
Next, you want to simultaneously stream 8 tables, and let the viewer pick the match? That was done on a few WPA world championships. It sucked, imo. One table, with quality commentary, and multiple camera angles, is much better than a far away overhead view of 8 tables with no sound.
Furthermore, lets say the idea was gold, you would need a large team to do everything you want. Even the website you want. You think someone will just give you one for free, and keep it up to date? We have so many crappy websites in the pool world. Because we are not website people. We are pool players. And the true website people want to be paid in real cash, and don't care in the slightest if your idea is good or not. You won't find a webmaster who is also a pool player and passionate about your idea, to do your website for free, and keep it relevant as the technologies change. They only want the cash, not the dream.
I used the website as an example. But, the exact same thing is applicable to all of the hired help. The camera operators. The streaming operators. The build out of your football stadium. The advertising. The referees. The scorekeepers. etc, etc.
I admire your enthusiasm. I just think this particular scenario won't work. Don't let a debbie downer like me in this case stop you, though. ha ha. If you let someone like me stop you, then you yourself are not so confident on your own idea
