What's wrong with our sport as I see it, and how to correct it.

[realkingcobra]

Ok, now that there's a way to support some pro tour stops, how do we go about putting the on? First of all, I'd NEVER rent pool tables and have them delivered and set up in casinos, why would I, and in the process of that broken system...blow a bunch of money on every event. Add it up, 12 events a year @ $10,000 minimum per event equals $120,000 and not 1 player has made a dime yet!!!

What the hell do I need casinos for when there's already plenty of pool rooms in this country with at least 8 9ft Diamonds in them, there's where you host your tour stops for the Pros! Keep the money in house so to speak, stop blowing it on renting tables and casinos!! There isn't a pool room in this country that would turn down a FREE tour stop on a Saturday event!

But, I taking up a Saturday in a pool room, the room owner still deserves to earn something, so to watch the Pros play would require a mandatory $20 spectator cover charge, which goes to the room owner, but it goes to the room owner in the form of a $20 bar & food tab, which means the viewer is prepaying for his/her food and drinks in advance. It's done by way of a credit voucher, which is not redeemable for cash, or change back.

Now, I understand that a lot of you would NEVER pay a cover charge to watch the pros play because you're just as cheap as everyone you accuse of being cheap, but I don't need any of you to show up, the event is going to happen anyway, with, or without you.

Now, 16 Pros are going to show up at every pro tour stop, but I'm not going to exclude the local player from competing, so each pro will play their first match against a local player, under the same rules they'll be playing by. BUT, all local players will be required to have a skill level test on file prior to being picked to play, and have enough playing time on file with the BTRT rating system, or they won't be qualified to compete. And their names will be drawn by a raffle. First 16 losing players receive no pay, the remaining players all get paid.

 

[realkingcobra]

Each tour stop would pay out $24,000 to the remaining 16 players, which would be paid out of the glue sales fund, the remaining sales income stays in my account for another step in this process.

 

[realkingcobra]

The reason I'm starting out this way is to first, establish tour stop locations, second is to establish the change in 10b tournament playing rules, third, to establish 64 top Professional player, don't matter where they're from, that way there is a depth of Pros to draw from as to always have 16 pros playing every tour stop.

 

[realkingcobra]

The next step is probably the .ost important step of all, and that's to build a Gunslingers Restaurant Lounge and event center housing 32 pool tables, 16 7fts and 16 9fts, with 16 more of each in storage. Then the event center can switch between 32 7fts & 32 9fts depending on the tournament format. All 32 tables will have Dish Networks broadcasting live, viewer can change tables by changing channels, Dish adds the world pool channel to their additional channel options for $4.99 a month, I get a fee per customer. Then, with the phone app, anyone with a phone can watch the events live, choose any table to watch, for a $2.99 a month fee.

 

[realkingcobra]

Now that the pro events are being played in an actual event center, and viewership is available to anyone in the world at any time during the live events, the membership fees are then the way to build more event centers around the country, and the funds needed to increase the pay checks in the pro division.

 

[realkingcobra]

The world viewing audience moves into the position of being the sports sponsor. When you've got the Chinese Taiwanese Russians Filipinos Japanese European players, the best in the sport playing at the same time, in the same place....I don't worry about what Americans are paying to watch because I don't care if they watch or not, the rest of the world will. The viewing audience will put up millions every week to watch their countries best to see how they're doing against the rest of the worlds players. And when crowning a world champion, they never lose their title in a tournament again, tournaments provide number 1 contenders to take on the reigning world champion in a title match, mandatory every quarter of the year, but a world champion can always put their title on the line I ANY challenge match they accept otherwise.

 

[realkingcobra]

As more and more event centers are built, more tournaments are available to take place in the women's, juniors, seniors, mixed doubles....what ever.

 

[realkingcobra]

better check that one

[yes, it's a small percentage, but not that small]

Jul. 2018)

Net margin is calculated as Net Income divided by its Revenue. Walmart Inc's Net Income for the three months ended in Jul. 2018 was $-861 Mil. Walmart Inc's Revenue for the three months ended in Jul. 2018 was $128,028 Mil. Therefore, Walmart Inc's net margin for the quarter that ended in Jul. 2018 was -0.67%.

NYSE:WMT' s Net Margin % Range Over the Past 10 Years
Min: 1.02 Max: 3.89
Current: 1.02

 

[realkingcobra]

better check that one

[yes, it's a small percentage, but not that small]

Evil Walmart makes a lot of money, right? We hear that all the time even though the retail giant’s profit margin was only 3.12% in the most recent quarter. Interestingly, we never seem to hear as much about the much higher profit margin of Apple, the “darling of the progressives.” In the most recent quarter, the computer behemoth with a market capitalization ($725 billion) that exceeds the value of the entire stock markets of Mexico, Thailand and Russia, had a whopping profit margin of 24.2%. No wonder its market cap is so astronomical

 

[PhilosopherKing]

The world viewing audience moves into the position of being the sports sponsor. When you've got the Chinese Taiwanese Russians Filipinos Japanese European players, the best in the sport playing at the same time, in the same place....I don't worry about what Americans are paying to watch because I don't care if they watch or not, the rest of the world will. The viewing audience will put up millions every week to watch their countries best to see how they're doing against the rest of the worlds players. And when crowning a world champion, they never lose their title in a tournament again, tournaments provide number 1 contenders to take on the reigning world champion in a title match, mandatory every quarter of the year, but a world champion can always put their title on the line I ANY challenge match they accept otherwise.

Are you aware of the track record many these countries have when it comes to respecting copyrighted material and intellectual property?

 

[realkingcobra]

Are you aware of the track record many these countries have when it comes to respecting copyrighted material and intellectual property?

Yes, I am, and I'm not worried, china don't copy glue anymore than they copy paint.

 

[jrctherake]

10b tournament playing rules.

You may have already said and I missed it. What would the 10 ball rules be?

Wooden triangle or templates?
Rack your own or opponent or third party?
Checking racks or asking for another rack?
CB placement on break, in or out of box and how much?
Measles ball, red circle....etc?
Any sort of rack pattern such as the 2 and 3 at corners or up front?
Alternate break or winner break?
Lag for break?
Call shots, call safes?
Shot clock?
Jump cue allowed?
Breakcue weight......heaviest allowed?
Always on 9' table?
Always diamond table?
Felt gets replaced before each tournament? If not, how often? How to gauge worn felt?


I know there's a ton of questions but I'm extremely curious, not to mention, extremely optimistic.

Rake


Edit:

Dress code

 

[jay helfert]

By having a ton of viewers, lots and lots of them, a percentage of whom that were not previously Starbucks customers who will go try it and end up becoming long term customers. As mentioned in my previous post, everything rides on getting lots of viewers, and that doesn't change no matter what the other details of the business model are. If you can't get the viewers, and lots and lots of them, it will never be a major success.

Nobody else has been able to figure out how to get viewers in many decades of trying, and I think it is pretty clear that nothing similar to the current pool games and formats will ever work. On a percentage basis, the vast majority of pool players don't even want to watch pool, and out of the very few who do, only a very small percentage of those are actually willing to pay anything at all for it. The general public cares about watching pool a whole lot less than pool players do, and pool players couldn't care less about watching.

First of all, you are 100% correct! How many eyes will see something is the yardstick that potential sponsors are looking at. Interestingly enough the highest rated television show that was pool related was when Fats played Mosconi decades ago. The ratings were so high they reprized it two more times and even morphed from there into The Legends of Pool that did well on ESPN for two seasons.

In today's pool world, the highest rated television shows are all produced by Matchroom, and are always broadcast to an international audience. The only reason we don't see it here in the USA is because no domestic network will buy the feed, so they are left with the internet (ESPN 3) or in this case, Facebook.

What pro pool in the USA is left with for their limited audience is the internet, which is becoming more and more a very viable substitute for broadcast TV, or one could buy the air time on a lesser cable system. All the infomercials you see on late night TV are there because someone paid for the air time and produced the show independently. An hour of air time could cost between 30K and 60K, depending on the time of day it's broadcast and what network you buy time from. The WPBA was forced to pay the production costs (around 50K) on most of their tournaments for years to be on ESPN.

The bottom line is that it can be done if there is adequate funding to make it happen. As Glen said, a prospective sponsor wants to know that it's worthwhile to make such an investment, and they can expect X number of people to watch the show(s). This is why most internet pool broadcasts we see are being sponsored solely by billiard related companies. The numbers (in the thousands) are worth it to them. The repeat viewings on Youtube and elsewhere are also taken into consideration by prospective sponsors.

Pat Fleming and Accu-Stats sell (and have been for years) their shows to several Asian markets where pool is more popular, such as China, Taiwan and the Philippines.

Later on I'll tell you how the pool players shot themselves in the foot when they had a golden opportunity to have regular programming on ESPN. Of course, in their infinite wisdom they did this more than once!

 

[realkingcobra]

You may have already said and I missed it. What would the 10 ball rules be?

Wooden triangle or templates?
Rack your own or opponent or third party?
Checking racks or asking for another rack?
CB placement on break, in or out of box and how much?
Measles ball, red circle....etc?
Any sort of rack pattern such as the 2 and 3 at corners or up front?
Alternate break or winner break?
Lag for break?
Call shots, call safes?
Shot clock?
Jump cue allowed?
Breakcue weight......heaviest allowed?
Always on 9' table?
Always diamond table?
Felt gets replaced before each tournament? If not, how often? How to gauge worn felt?


I know there's a ton of questions but I'm extremely curious, not to mention, extremely optimistic.

Rake


Edit:

Dress code

Rake, I'll list all the rules when I get time, but they're seriously going to get some people's attention! Such as each player after a game has started, gets one lifeline during a game at anytime, that means they have an option to push out to a safety after declaring they want to use their lifeline.

10b on the break counts anywhere, but spots back up, player gets the win, but if the same player fails to pocket the 10b again for an early win, or last for a win, and let's the opponent to the table to shoot, and the opponent pockets the 10b early, or last, then the opponent gets awarded a win in that rack as well as the breaker did. If the breaker makes the 10b on the break, and pockets it again legally, then the breaker is awarded 2 wins in 1 game.

 

[jrctherake]

Later on I'll tell you how the pool players shot themselves in the foot when they had a golden opportunity to have regular programming on ESPN. Of course, in their infinite wisdom they did this more than once!

I've been told a couple different things by several people down through the years about exactly what your talking about.

I don't want to let the cat out cause I'm sure some of the information I was given was incorrect but, I'm 100% sure that part of it was correct.

Talk about killing the goose that laid the golden egg....

Rake

 

[Oze147]

Once again, as I said it in the thread we had a few month ago: I wonder how players, who already play on established tours and tournaments will see this development.

To attract an international field, it is not about competing against the leagues and tournaments in the US, but the structures in Europe or Asia.

IF you can compete against a Eurotour tournament, which offers prizemoney, MC points and ranking points for qualifying for European and World Championships, already existing sponsorship deals, online streaming with commentary and sometimes live coverage from TV, THAN you can start thinking about attracting international pros.

Besides that, the biggest player of all has made his first step to the US already, which can be blessing or curse.
If Matchroom decides that it wants to go its own way, it will be hard times for any other pool promoter, because they will simply overpower other competitors. However, if they are interested in some sort of collaborations, that is where the money and the future of US pool will be.

 

[Nick8400]

What does you having a job and paying for your own pool have to do with growing the sport as a whole?

 

[Nick8400]

I just wish I wouldn’t have to watch the best players play on the bar box every weekend.

 

[xianmacx]

Congrats on the new line of product Glen. With your standards, they will all be top notch.

The only way pool will become a spectator sport is if they are sniffing your new glue. Pool is too damn boring to watch.

Ian

 

[claymont]

The pool rooms in my area hardly cover seating for the players during tournaments. If I was a paying customer, I'd expect seating at least. Also, tournaments are too long(and they usually end at very late or early hours of the day) for most people except for the most die hard pool spectators. Foods usually limited at these tournaments also. Pool rooms discourage or ban outside food and drink for the most part.

Ok, now that there's a way to support some pro tour stops, how do we go about putting the on? First of all, I'd NEVER rent pool tables and have them delivered and set up in casinos, why would I, and in the process of that broken system...blow a bunch of money on every event. Add it up, 12 events a year @ $10,000 minimum per event equals $120,000 and not 1 player has made a dime yet!!!

What the hell do I need casinos for when there's already plenty of pool rooms in this country with at least 8 9ft Diamonds in them, there's where you host your tour stops for the Pros! Keep the money in house so to speak, stop blowing it on renting tables and casinos!! There isn't a pool room in this country that would turn down a FREE tour stop on a Saturday event!

But, I taking up a Saturday in a pool room, the room owner still deserves to earn something, so to watch the Pros play would require a mandatory $20 spectator cover charge, which goes to the room owner, but it goes to the room owner in the form of a $20 bar & food tab, which means the viewer is prepaying for his/her food and drinks in advance. It's done by way of a credit voucher, which is not redeemable for cash, or change back.

Now, I understand that a lot of you would NEVER pay a cover charge to watch the pros play because you're just as cheap as everyone you accuse of being cheap, but I don't need any of you to show up, the event is going to happen anyway, with, or without you.

Now, 16 Pros are going to show up at every pro tour stop, but I'm not going to exclude the local player from competing, so each pro will play their first match against a local player, under the same rules they'll be playing by. BUT, all local players will be required to have a skill level test on file prior to being picked to play, and have enough playing time on file with the BTRT rating system, or they won't be qualified to compete. And their names will be drawn by a raffle. First 16 losing players receive no pay, the remaining players all get paid.