Why Pool is not a major sport.
- Thread starter jimM
- Start date
One other thing
From the NY side, I can video the games and edit them with commercials of anyone that is a sponsor and then play them on you tube, go4pool.net and go4pool.com. There are a few other places they can go also. I could also edit video from other places if it was sent to me. Could be fun. I can make it like a descent production, even with the limited equipment that I have.
I guess the next thing is to find people in other cities who are willing to try something like this.
My first thought is that the opponents shouldn't be farther away than a few hours so you could go on Saturday morning, play for 2 hours and come home the same day. Would save a lot of money.
Also, your team can be big, as long as they live in the city. So you won't get stuck without enough players.
From the NY side, I can video the games and edit them with commercials of anyone that is a sponsor and then play them on you tube, go4pool.net and go4pool.com. There are a few other places they can go also. I could also edit video from other places if it was sent to me. Could be fun. I can make it like a descent production, even with the limited equipment that I have.
I guess the next thing is to find people in other cities who are willing to try something like this.
My first thought is that the opponents shouldn't be farther away than a few hours so you could go on Saturday morning, play for 2 hours and come home the same day. Would save a lot of money.
Also, your team can be big, as long as they live in the city. So you won't get stuck without enough players.
And darts fills the stands and gets more TV time then pool. Huge crowds of people drinking beers and having a good time, tv audiences seeing the crowds having a blast and getting interested.
Imagine for a second darts without the crowd, played in a small room with few people watching, general silence or small amounts of clapping, watch the TV ratings plummet.
I have always said that pool is marketed totally wrong. Poker managed to embrace its gambling image and draw a ton of interest that led to billions of dollars of revenue. They have the characters dressed as they want to be dressed, they have the ex porn star doing interviews, they show the attitude, tempers, money, lifestyle of a gambler, everything that makes poker a draw. They did not try to hide the reality of their sport, they embraced it, and it paid off for them huge.
Pool is presented in about the most boring fashion you can present this sport. I love the game, and the presentation of the sport often bores me to bloody tears.
Stigma
Social stigma is a severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are perceived to be against cultural norms.
Pool has been 'stigmatized' over the last 70+ years as being the lazy man's game. Gambling has been the only way to make any money at pool, and when the 'chumps' started playing better, the gambler would find other chumps.
Have you ever seen a TV show or Movie that protrayed Pool in a positve light? Why is that? You know... it is what everyone else thinks pool is. The Stigma is only found to be more accurate when the Flim and Broadcast industy feeds this to the public.
Tournaments are realitively new compared to the Stigma that the public dumped on pool in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Johnston City then started its own brand of Stigma in the early 60s with the Gambler's Jamboree.
There isn't an easy way to keep score with who is winning a tournament. You have to be able to read and understand brackets... believe it or not, there are still a lot of players that have no idea how to read a Double Elimination bracket.
Only a hand full of players know the rules and some TDs only know the rules that the players tell them... can you believe that?
Pool dosen't have a product to sell, let alone ask for sponsorship.
Only the League systems have a benificial product that sells to the public.
The brightest spots for the Pros in pool is the yearly Vegas events, DCC and the OPENS and Turning Stone.. Hopefully Texas will bring pool up another notch. I sure hope so.
Pool needs a new format for not only the pros but for the general public to quickly understand and want to get out and play pool.
I wish I could say that this would happen in my life time, sadly, I don't think so.
1998 the BCA wanted pool to be included in the Olympics.. what a joke..
Social stigma is a severe social disapproval of personal characteristics or beliefs that are perceived to be against cultural norms.
Pool has been 'stigmatized' over the last 70+ years as being the lazy man's game. Gambling has been the only way to make any money at pool, and when the 'chumps' started playing better, the gambler would find other chumps.
Have you ever seen a TV show or Movie that protrayed Pool in a positve light? Why is that? You know... it is what everyone else thinks pool is. The Stigma is only found to be more accurate when the Flim and Broadcast industy feeds this to the public.
Tournaments are realitively new compared to the Stigma that the public dumped on pool in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Johnston City then started its own brand of Stigma in the early 60s with the Gambler's Jamboree.
There isn't an easy way to keep score with who is winning a tournament. You have to be able to read and understand brackets... believe it or not, there are still a lot of players that have no idea how to read a Double Elimination bracket.
Only a hand full of players know the rules and some TDs only know the rules that the players tell them... can you believe that?
Pool dosen't have a product to sell, let alone ask for sponsorship.
Only the League systems have a benificial product that sells to the public.
The brightest spots for the Pros in pool is the yearly Vegas events, DCC and the OPENS and Turning Stone.. Hopefully Texas will bring pool up another notch. I sure hope so.
Pool needs a new format for not only the pros but for the general public to quickly understand and want to get out and play pool.
I wish I could say that this would happen in my life time, sadly, I don't think so.
1998 the BCA wanted pool to be included in the Olympics.. what a joke..
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And I would be willing to bet that the majority of those tables is seeing 8 Ball played. John Q Public in general doesn't really know pool beyond 8 Ball. They have no clue as to 7, 9, 10 Ball....Banks, 1 Pocket and the like. They're not gonna watch what they do not play, know, or understand. It's a simple truth.
As much as 8 Ball is reviled, it is the most recognized game among the masses. Standardize the rules, from homeroom to barroom, to poolroom...and you might have a fighting chance.
Lisa
Your a little off here, in talking with Rory Mueller/Mueller Sporting Goods in Lincoln NE last yr. I asked him about the number of in home tables in the US, he said approx 5 million.
If it draws flies, don't blame the flies. Clean it up and the flies go away. There is no future in our present demopgraphic.
rorywayne
Banned
How about this, instead of all you woofin end on end about all of you have all the answers to this salvation, how about we do this like old time religion, cut the s*** and raise the cash.
You all tithe 10% of what you make, into a central fund, that funds the new pro pool tour, which funds pro pool teams in all the major cities, and insures the top 50 pros now make a 6 figure income.
17 pages of nonsense and baloney, it goes on and on, and its all a giant waste of time. You all are woofin in the wind, for something that is never going to happen. If you dont put your money up, why should they?
You sit around and dream of them doing it for you. Dream on.
If you want it done, do it your self, or it wont get done.
Once more, there is the truth, and you cant handle the truth, when you get the truth here, you kill your messengers.
Then you dont have to listen to the truth any more, then you are happy. :thumbup:
You all tithe 10% of what you make, into a central fund, that funds the new pro pool tour, which funds pro pool teams in all the major cities, and insures the top 50 pros now make a 6 figure income.
17 pages of nonsense and baloney, it goes on and on, and its all a giant waste of time. You all are woofin in the wind, for something that is never going to happen. If you dont put your money up, why should they?
You sit around and dream of them doing it for you. Dream on.
If you want it done, do it your self, or it wont get done.
Once more, there is the truth, and you cant handle the truth, when you get the truth here, you kill your messengers.
Then you dont have to listen to the truth any more, then you are happy. :thumbup:
I do consider myself a pool "fan" and I like to watch pool on TV or attend an espn event to watch good pool not to learn, but to enjoy the excitement of the match. We pool fans do exist, but there aren't many of us. Almost all the pool shooters I know have zero interest in paying attention to professional pool. They might know who some of the big names are, but that's about it. Professional events have to do much more to entice people to care about watching pool matches. Big money prizes? Flashier events? Promoters have to make it more exciting then in the past. Focus on the fan experience and what they want, and what everyone else wants (players, promoters, etc.) will follow. Work with the amateur leagues... They have so many potential fans.
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Just humbly reminding all this is not for nothing, it's just people expressing their opinion about something they love.
People who have already given much more of 10% of what they make to the federations and the industry..
People who have chosen not to leave their job and become Pool professionals, who have chosen to enjoy playing and would like to see the sport they love grow.
Regular people that have a life and do not do drugs..
Petros
People who have already given much more of 10% of what they make to the federations and the industry..
People who have chosen not to leave their job and become Pool professionals, who have chosen to enjoy playing and would like to see the sport they love grow.
Regular people that have a life and do not do drugs..
Petros
My suggestion is to stop inventing new games.
I think that fragmentation is a HUGE issue as to why no one can sponsor pool. Why doesn't the whole industry get behind one game and throw all the weight into that?
At least the IPT had a good idea with using 8-ball since it is the game that most people associate with "pool".
If I hear the 30x million figure one more time ..............aaaaarghh!!!!
For the last time playing a casual game of pool once a year does NOT make a person a recreational player.
No more than driving 150mph once a year makes me a race car driver.
That silly number has caused more people to invest into pool gadgetry than anything else. I bet it's been worth at least 200 booth sales for the BCA since it began to be publicized.
Part of the problem IS the denial that we live in that our sport (and it is a sport) is somehow worth being paid attention to in a world where there is so much more going on.
Pool is a NICHE activity where a small percentage of the population are truly "recreational" players.
This is a joke right?
Typically the customers don't create the product that they consume.
Why don't the pro players go out and do lessons and exhibitions and clinics and challenge matches to raise the startup capital? I would bet that if they, as a group started really trying hard to get out and barnstorm and network then they would find the money to fund a pro tour and get it on TV.
Why don't "they" tithe towards insuring their future?
I have said this often enough in the past. What can a group of 50 to 100 people all with a world class skill do if they really want to?
When the USA hosted the Women's World Cup of Soccer the women of the USA's team got out there and hustled their asses off to sell tickets and fill stadiums. In some cases they filled pro football stadiums with MORE people than the pro football teams drew.
No involvement means no commitment.
If the pros truly WANTED a pro tour then they would have one. They don't want one bad enough yet.
And how many of those are just glorified laundry tables?
How many families own a ping pong table or a foosball table or a dart board?
We have major gaps between the occasional player, the recreational home player, the competitive amateur player and the professional player. There is very little overlap here.
The one thing however that the "billiard industry" as a whole overlooks is that the single thing which would spur more people to play and thus consume billiards products would be consistent television.
That's what the industry worldwide should focus on producing. If we were to produce a broadcast worthy product that could be seen consistently on television then we would see pool growing. We should do this without reliance on casinos or other outside industry "help". First make the product, hone it refine it, get it on TV.
Build the fan base, build the audience by giving them something consistent to rely on. I don't play poker. Well I do but I SUCK.
However there was a time when I watched The World Poker Tour every week. I was fascinated by the characters, the action, the strategy. I knew all their names, where they came from, their bios etc....
Once I was in a pool room and EVERYONE was playing poker. I tried to get someone to play me in pool and no one wanted to get up. So I put in my $20 and got in the game. I won the first tournament and lost the second and won the third. My road partner asked me where I learned to play poker and why didn't I say I could play (I can't) before when we were on the road. I said Wednesday nights on the Travel Channel......
Anyway, the point is that to encourage people to become fans they need to be able to see pool consistently and get to know the players.
As I said before I have been out to dinner with WPBA pros and seen how the public reacts. They are recognized and asked for autographs.
However these days the networks have enough content. They expect something amazing if you want it on their channel and they want you to foot the bill.
Takes an awful lot to get any content on TV these days. And when you do then you have a lot of competition.
No easy answers.
This is reference to a post made by D C 6 Pocket (I think #41)
JB Cases - I want to hear what D C 6 Pocket has to say. I have not read one new idea on this thread other than from this guy. Not only does he have an idea, he bet his time and money on it. This alone deserves notice. He may not have the answer but he may have a partial answer. My ears are listening to any new idea.
My suggestion is to stop inventing new games.
I think that fragmentation is a HUGE issue as to why no one can sponsor pool. Why doesn't the whole industry get behind one game and throw all the weight into that?
At least the IPT had a good idea with using 8-ball since it is the game that most people associate with "pool".
If I hear the 30x million figure one more time ..............aaaaarghh!!!!
For the last time playing a casual game of pool once a year does NOT make a person a recreational player.
No more than driving 150mph once a year makes me a race car driver.
That silly number has caused more people to invest into pool gadgetry than anything else. I bet it's been worth at least 200 booth sales for the BCA since it began to be publicized.
Part of the problem IS the denial that we live in that our sport (and it is a sport) is somehow worth being paid attention to in a world where there is so much more going on.
Pool is a NICHE activity where a small percentage of the population are truly "recreational" players.
JB Cases - I want to hear what D C 6 Pocket has to say. I have not read one new idea on this thread other than from this guy. Not only does he have an idea, he bet his time and money on it. This alone deserves notice. He may not have the answer but he may have a partial answer. My ears are listening to any new idea.
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I'm tempted to red rep this post, simply because you've come across as nothing but a pessimistic annoyance throughout this entire thread. Don't have anything good to say? Then keep it to yourself and go contribute to threads where you have something worthwhile to say.
I will however respond to your comment. Not all of us sit around and talk all day. I've been busting my ass to help improve this game for 2 years now. What have you done?
I laughed when I read this ... but this might be the best idea so far! Get 5 or 6 aspiring players, reasonably attractive young people, throw em in a house, follow them around the local tourneys, and the practice table, throw in young-person romantic complications, etc. That would mean only ONE of them could look like your average shlub and a couple of them have to be chicks. Be fun, maybe give some of the clueless majority an idea about what it takes to be decent at the game.
Which leads me to my own point. Cluelessness about pool is maybe the biggest problem. As posters have said, if you don't play, you don't get it. How does the game do reasonably well in the UK and Asia? I'm not exactly sure, but I believe that, at least in Asia, you have organizations that teach the game properly to large numbers of young people, which forms a way bigger fan base than you can find here.
Just one factor, but we all know that the first 1000 people you walk up to on the street, probably the first 10,000, couldn't tell you anything more about the game than the worst barroom banger.
High-level pool is a subtle game. Heck, baseball is too subtle for the majority of TV viewers these days. But educate more people from youth, then employ those HD cameras that Matchroom uses, and maybe more people could appreciate it.
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