Bob, I think the advantage of the break WOULD BE removed. Also removed is the greatest thrill executed in our sport: "The Break-And-Run". For comparison, it would be like taking the home-run out of baseball, the ace out of tennis, the run-back out of football, the hole-in-one out of golf, the block-start out of swimming and track. The logic given is that players cheat and it cannot be stopped.
The strategies of this proposal are yet to be discovered. I imagine new problems more plentiful and bigger than the original.
The break is skillful, fun, and exciting. I say keep it that way.
Your baseball, tennis, football examples have a fundamental feature missing in the pool break and run: they access the skill DIFFERENTIAL.
--A home run by a world-series batter
against a world-series pitcher
--A super bowl run back
against a super-bowl defense
--Acing a serve
against a Wimbleton-final opponent
are all irresistible force vs immovable object, King Kong v Godzilla situations. The home run, run-back, and ace elevate with the competition so that as fans we can see them as the ultimate home run, the ultimate run back and the ultimate ace. Running a 9-Ball rack is just running a 9-Ball rack. It doesn't elevate with the competition.
How exciting would the Super Bowl be if each team kept doing runbacks against a third-party practice squad, and we were just waiting to see which team happened to falter first?
It is rare we can get the best players in the world to be in the same place at the same time for a few hours. Any time we use when they are together that doesn't actually depend on them being in the same place at the same time is valuable resource squandered.
Watch audiences--even those sitting at the bar watching a stream in a poolroom-- and ask yourself two questions: (1) when do they pay attention, and (2) why do they pay attention?
(1) For the "when," I think you will generally notice that fans go to the bathroom, chat with each other, and take out their phones, when top players have control of the table with balls spread out. They pay the most attention when they hear the crack of the break.
(2). This gets to the "why." There are two reasons to be interested in what is happening. One is mere outcome-based interest. We care about ANYTHING that affects the outcome of who wins because we have anointed the outcome as important. There could be a clown that comes in and flips a coin and awards ball-in-hand to one of the players at random times in the match. We would be intensely interested every time we see the clown. Our interest in the break has some things in common with this. Outcome-based interest is low-lying fruit.
Content-based drama is when we have successfully pitted one player's finely honed world-class skills against another's. It is when a player has to assume risk to gain control of the table or avoid losing control. This is where it matters that two world-class players are in the same place at the same time.
Imagine Skyler rolls out to a position for which Jayson sees a cut shot for which he is 70% but the cueball will fly around. He is afraid to pass it back because he fears Skyler would prefer a two-rail bank with some potential two-way benefit. Jayson's sweating. The announcers are explaining the situation. The fans are riveted. This is content-based drama.
For promoters to expand the fan base, they must get us--the knowledgeable fans-- to be excited by content-based drama, not merely outcome-based drama. The latter doesn't translate to new people.
