Why doesn't the Snooker format work for "USA" billiards?

[George the Greek]

Before Barry and MR got involved snooker in the UK didn't have the greatest reputation either. It was a game played in smoky parlors full of drinking middle aged men and punks with no jobs.

It was tough back then for sure and you either worked in a factory tried to hustle a buck in the bar/poolrooms. Barry Hearn had the hindsight to grow the game and at one time had the top 8 in his stable and made them multi millionaires with Steve Davis leading the pack today at roughly $35 mil. Pot Black brought the game to households and everybody got glued to their TVs.

 

[George the Greek]

Money. Lots in snooker, almost none in US pool.

It's a shame considering more people play in leagues, local tourneys and buy all pool related merchandise.

 

[Monti]

It was tough back then for sure and you either worked in a factory tried to hustle a buck in the bar/poolrooms. Barry Hearn had the hindsight to grow the game and at one time had the top 8 in his stable and made them multi millionaires with Steve Davis leading the pack today at roughly $35 mil. Pot Black brought the game to households and everybody got glued to their TVs.

The problem with applying that to pool now is that we have a plethora of streaming options
Back then in the Uk there were 4 , maybe even still 3, channels, so you were obliged to watch stuff you wouldn’t have normally chosen.
Now you have to make people want to watch it first.
It was similar with darts, shows like bullseye brought that along - as well as some seriously naff prizes given away by “Bully”

 

[telinoz]

It's a shame considering more people play in leagues, local tourneys and buy all pool related merchandise.

Yep, but they are all private businesses.
APA, BCAPL, VNEA, etc..

Hundreds of thousands of players.
But, not for use to promote the game at a higher level.

Even Snooker has barely started to connect grass roots, amateur game to the professional circuit.
The WSF (World Snooker Federation) only been around a few years.
Sanctioned by the WPBSA.
It needs more connections to Snooker leagues to add more links and paths.

Can you imagine a global pool league for Amateurs, that has openings for singles tournaments where the winner gets a spot on a WPA pro tour (Matchroom, Predator etc supporting).
One global database of players, even a global ranking system.
It could potentially add a lot of money into the game.
Anyway, it is a dream and one that won't happen I feel.

 

[Island Drive]

Yep, but they are all private businesses.
APA, BCAPL, VNEA, etc..

Hundreds of thousands of players.
But, not for use to promote the game at a higher level.

Even Snooker has barely started to connect grass roots, amateur game to the professional circuit.
The WSF (World Snooker Federation) only been around a few years.
Sanctioned by the WPBSA.
It needs more connections to Snooker leagues to add more links and paths.

Can you imagine a global pool league for Amateurs, that has openings for singles tournaments where the winner gets a spot on a WPA pro tour (Matchroom, Predator etc supporting).
One global database of players, even a global ranking system.
It could potentially add a lot of money into the game.
Anyway, it is a dream and one that won't happen I feel.

This was my hopes with MR, qualifiers for entry into a pro event.
Break the USA into Quadrants and have events at nice pool rooms.
But instead, they started supporting the Jr Players, which really surprised me.
Many places won't allow underage players in a pool room, especially after 8 pm.
I know if I was a parent raising a kid to become a pro player, this environment would not suit me well.
They obviously know something we don't.
Hopefully from their experience with Snooker men.
Humm, do they still have women's pro snooker?

 

[telinoz]

This was my hopes with MR, qualifiers for entry into a pro event.
Break the USA into Quadrants and have events at nice pool rooms.
But instead, they started supporting the Jr Players, which really surprised me.
Many places won't allow underage players in a pool room, especially after 8 pm.
I know if I was a parent raising a kid to become a pro player, this environment would not suit me well.
They obviously know something we don't.
Hopefully from their experience with Snooker men.
Humm, do they still have women's pro snooker?

The Woman's tour is under the https://www.womenssnooker.com/


This is all of them under WPBSA:

On any site, they have made it easy to navigate to each organisation.
So, you can check them all out.

This is from Barry Hearn and Matchroom originally making Snooker more commercially viable.
It took some battles, but once he was able to get the WPBSA to trust Matchroom, they created the WST for the professionals and added loads more tournaments and prize money.
Since then, they have solidified these other organisations to fill the gaps.

But, still missing a WSF World League in my opinion to fit that last part of the jigsaw puzzle.
If they did that, amateur Snooker would be connected more than just tournaments.

All of this can be replicated for pool.
But, the big issue with pool has always been choosing a leading game.
Too many rulesets, table sizes, specs, long list....
This has been discussed on here and elsewhere many times.
But, maybe Matchroom will be the ones to force a standard game.