What if pool had NBA levels of money involved?
- Thread starter DaWizard
- Start date
Can't compare pool with the big spectator sports.
What if...
DaWizard
Well-known member
In this timeline it has become just that! Madison Square Garden with a table in the center. Replays on the screen. Screaming girls when SVB rushes to his limousine..
What would different in pool culture? Money games, amateur league, media coverage, internationally, cues & tables, etc
No
As an academic exercise pool can be more fun if you trade cash in for chips.
Go to the floor, gamble in games or gamble on players or gamble on shots.
Each section as a numbers person to take bets.
Imagine $5K chips enter 2PM stay till 2AM, 12 hour closed room event.
Second round of buying is at 10PM. Gamble as much or as little as you like.
Then law enforcement arrests everyone. No cell phone and no leaving.
Big sponsors belong at televised events. Money matches belong at private events.
Go to the floor, gamble in games or gamble on players or gamble on shots.
Each section as a numbers person to take bets.
Imagine $5K chips enter 2PM stay till 2AM, 12 hour closed room event.
Second round of buying is at 10PM. Gamble as much or as little as you like.
Then law enforcement arrests everyone. No cell phone and no leaving.
Big sponsors belong at televised events. Money matches belong at private events.
smiling_Hans
Well-known member
I want to play along but it’s honestly hard to imagine.
In sports you have good looking athletes in the best shape of their lives with bravado.
In pool you can have fat fucks yielding and expensive cue with a beer in their hand.
Hard to imagine to be honest what it would be like.
In sports you have good looking athletes in the best shape of their lives with bravado.
In pool you can have fat fucks yielding and expensive cue with a beer in their hand.
Hard to imagine to be honest what it would be like.
They’d all be taking a knee during the national anthem
It would never have developed into the NBA no matter how popular. Pro (and college for that matter) football, basketball, baseball, plus golf and auto racing are big scale. 10,000 to 100,000 people can sit close enough to actually see the event and when it is broadcast it is compelling television. Pool can't even be viewed from as far away as a boxing match and boxing died by trying to move to PPV, which is all anyone ever talks about with pool.
I am 100% content simply playing pool. I would not care if pro pool ceased to exist.
I am 100% content simply playing pool. I would not care if pro pool ceased to exist.
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2000 people in the audience is already happening. If you go way back -- like 100 years -- you had similar but there were fewer distractions. Giant screens with replay fix part of the viewing problems.
people on the street would sport hearing aids and ouschan-style combovers. die hard fans would tattoo the viking logo on their forearm
Assumption: Pool has had top tier money for decades so it’s now been engrained for generstions.
1) Few of todays top pros would still be top pros, especially the sub Fargo-800 club. Since pool is now a sport in every American middle school and high school the American talent pool swells 10-fold and a huge chunk of the hyper coordinated kids migrate to pool.
2) Scandals emerge in the college pool scene, as scholarship pool players gamble under the table which is against their agreement with their University - but much like envelops being handed to college basketball players, it’s kinda just understood that it’s part of the deal.
3) The USA’s system of publicly supported sports in schools means that the U.S. regains its Mosconi Cup advantage.
4) When SVB posts pictures of his plane ticket to Dubai on social media, it won’t be a seat in row 67J.
1) Few of todays top pros would still be top pros, especially the sub Fargo-800 club. Since pool is now a sport in every American middle school and high school the American talent pool swells 10-fold and a huge chunk of the hyper coordinated kids migrate to pool.
2) Scandals emerge in the college pool scene, as scholarship pool players gamble under the table which is against their agreement with their University - but much like envelops being handed to college basketball players, it’s kinda just understood that it’s part of the deal.
3) The USA’s system of publicly supported sports in schools means that the U.S. regains its Mosconi Cup advantage.
4) When SVB posts pictures of his plane ticket to Dubai on social media, it won’t be a seat in row 67J.
IF it did, it would have viewers. It would be cool though, no doubt.
NBA has 30 teams each with between $100M and $200M cash flow per year each so figure on $45B in cash flow per year for pool.
Give 45 tournaments per year at $1B prize money per event (winner takes $250M, and so on throughout the top 100 players)
At $1B prize money, you would get fields of 512 players per tournament.
And somewhere around 1,000 pros could make a living simply playing and teaching pool.
Praying it's just a movie so I could: wouldn't watch. La la society, nightmare in general...
The first thing that would change is that every person with great hand-eye coordination would try pool and as many who try to become NBA pros will aspire to be pool pros. As in the NBA, for every one person that makes it, thousands who aspire to it won't reach pro level.
Try to imagine a world in which there are thousands of Fargo 800+ players. Only a couple of hundred of them will be deemed elite, worthy of the ardent fan's attention, but every single one of them will have sponsorship and a decent living. The others, just like in golf, baseball and tennis, might have the opportunity to compete at a lower level, but where far less money is made.
To me, the biggest difference between the world proposed and the one in which we live would be the level of play, for I suspect that very few of those having the aptitude to play exceptional pool ever set out on a course to see if they can. That would all change if pool players made "NBA money."
Try to imagine a world in which there are thousands of Fargo 800+ players. Only a couple of hundred of them will be deemed elite, worthy of the ardent fan's attention, but every single one of them will have sponsorship and a decent living. The others, just like in golf, baseball and tennis, might have the opportunity to compete at a lower level, but where far less money is made.
To me, the biggest difference between the world proposed and the one in which we live would be the level of play, for I suspect that very few of those having the aptitude to play exceptional pool ever set out on a course to see if they can. That would all change if pool players made "NBA money."
I look at the necessary revisions to the culture. Not gonna be pretty.
disclaimer
i have not read any replies
but my attitude about "what if " threads is this
"what if my grandmother had balls
she would be my grandfather"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
if mental masturbation gets you off
and fantasy conjecture is your vice
i do not want to stop you from getting your rocks off
but it is a waste of time and energy
just my humble opinion
and
i could be wrong
i have not read any replies
but my attitude about "what if " threads is this
"what if my grandmother had balls
she would be my grandfather"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
if mental masturbation gets you off
and fantasy conjecture is your vice
i do not want to stop you from getting your rocks off
but it is a waste of time and energy
just my humble opinion
and
i could be wrong
Should clarify that I refer to the viewing culture. Big sports is ingrained in society's formative phases - education. It harnesses the mob mentality and teaches that teamwork is the way while quietly teaching conspiracy. The viewers are predisposed to the expense. Big bux wins again...