Not to me it is not. If something is on TV in one place and is not even aired at all in my own country I have zero problem watching it online for free. This thing is being played in America at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, it is called the "Mosconi Cup", Mr. Mosconi WAS American, and it is not even available to watch on American TV?
That's not Matchroom's fault. Talk to American TV for that. ESPN broadcasts spelling bees and hotdog eating contests.
I will be paying for the Oscar vs Raj TAR as that is a proper exclusive PPV. If I cannot find a free stream of the Mosconi Cup I wont be watching it at all. I refuse to pay for something that SHOULD be available in America on live cable TV and that is being seen live in countries across the friggin Atlantic ocean on live cable TV.
I guess you have never heard of tv blackouts for football, basketball, and baseball games that happen in a city where the rest of the USA can watch them on tv but the fans in the city have to go to the game to watch it. Again this is not Matchroom's fault so you are casting blame where it doesn't belong.
It is not a matter of money in this instance, it is a matter of principle. I will happily be shelling out $35 to TAR for this weekend for TAR 32, I will not pay Livesport.tv $15 for a live stream of the Mosconi Cup. I know that my money that I spend on the TAR match helps promote an important part of this failing sport, I don't think the $15 I could spend on the stream of the Mosconi Cup would help promote this sport in the slightest and IMO livesport.tv is the WRONG outlet for an event like the Mosconi Cup which SHOULD be on live TV and by paying livesport.tv for the steam I am basically encouraging them to keep doing what I think is the completely wrong thing to do. Basically NO Americans will see the Mosconi Cup live, there is zero chance of people catching this live in a bar and pool getting any promotion from this event whatsoever on this side of the Atlantic, that sucks.
Come on really? This is your reasoning? Wow. Look when the IPT was in swing I asked the pool room to put it on and the POOL PLAYERS at the bar asked that the channel be changed to a basketball game. The US Open was shown live once on ESPN - do you see any major uptick in pool? Guess what, Americans have 500 channels plus on-demand tv/movies to choose from. Live pool on television is just another blip on the dial. Even IF the Mosconi Cup were shown live in HD it wouldn't make a dent in the consicousness of the USA.
These are the types of things taking place that draw the game away from America and build the sport in areas like Europe and Asia. It is this type of stuff that is causing the death of pool on this continent, and then the Europeans have a tournament where they send 5 European pros to drill the USA and prove how well they are taking the sport over by promoting the growth of the sport in Europe while the sport in America continues to die.
And you think that withholding your $15 is the answer? But watching the stolen feed is ok? I mean I think it's ok to watch a feed that would be freely broadcast anyway but the fact is that it's still stealing.
Cable TV is not free. Satellite TV is not free. If you don't have it you can't watch. It's all PPV because you MUST pay a monthy fee to access the signals.
And gee what about the 10x where the Americans "drilled" the Euros? It's seriously silly in my opinion to connect the plight of pool in the USA with the Mosconi Cup. Pool is dying in the USA because AMERICANS can't get off their collective asses and promote it jointly.
But pool isn't even really dying. With some 300,000 active league members it's doing just fine. Kelly Fisher and Valerie Finnie are about to open a new 50 table room in Charlotte, new rooms open all the time. Rooms close all the time. It's the same cycle that all business and activities go through.
In America it's movies and television shows that drive trends. Pool is not "great" in Europe or Asia. It survives and endures because it's a great game but no one is actively promoting "pool". A few players have some backing by government but there isn't a giant apparatus in place to develop players for domination.
So please stop with this red herring nonsense. The Mosconi Cup has become an institution. We should all be thanking Barry Hearn for producing an event with as much continuity. And it's also cool that he keeps bringing it to the USA and trying to get it on American TV live. He could hold it entirely in England and the players would still show up. Instead of *****ing you should be ENCOURAGING room owners across the USA to pay the $15 and show it in their pool rooms LIVE on USA time.
We should all be putting it on Facebook and Twitter and everywhere and trying to get as many people as possible to watch.
IF you are TRULY concerned about promoting pool that is.
Which I really doubt.
Edit: I used the share button above to put it on Facebook. All of you who want to see pool grow should do the same.
