[CocoboloCowboy]

I see Pool has gone into a major slum, and seem not to be recovering like other thing have in the past, I ask onestly will Pool as a hobby, sport, pastime, ever be big in the U.S.A. AGAIN. Or just continue to spiral downward toward being just a sport, or game that was.

[huebler]

I think it will recover, but maybe not for awhile.

I have a 17 year old son and an 11 year old son. Both are crazy for video games (and I am too, and play with them often), but both have an interest in pool since we got a table in the house 1.5 years ago.

Three of my older son's friends (out of maybe 8 in the pack) have tables in their homes as well. The older boys play often, and close to as many hours as they now put in on the video games. I think there is something to be said for a real, tactile game that you just do not get from video games. Still, chasing girls ranks above pool for these guys, as it should!

The sport needs another movie to really surge again. 9-Ball:The Movie is trying to be that, we will see. Check out this link for a list of pool movies: http://www.thebillia...vie-cinema.html

[MitchAlsup]

I have seen several sports with the participation levels similar to pool go through 20-year + slumps.

I suspect that pool will recover rather quickly WITH the economy (but no chance before). Rational--TV viewers. Pool on TV is cheap to produce (relative to baseball, football, auto racing) and its pretty interesting to the sports minded viewer.

Now, will the MONEY come back--that, my friend, is a different story.

[FASTLARRY]

MitchAlsup, on Jun 12 2009, 05:24 PM, said:

I have seen several sports with the participation levels similar to pool go through 20-year + slumps.

I suspect that pool will recover rather quickly WITH the economy (but no chance before). Rational--TV viewers. Pool on TV is cheap to produce (relative to baseball, football, auto racing) and its pretty interesting to the sports minded viewer.

Now, will the MONEY come back--that, my friend, is a different story.

I think kids are going into computers and games and that is what's killing the game off. When the old crowd dies off, the game tanks big time.

That is what nobody has yet to figure out but me, the ones dying off are not being replaced by a new freshman class, so every year, it keeps getting smaller.

[CocoboloCowboy]

FASTLARRY, on Jun 12 2009, 10:45 PM, said:

I think kids are going into computers and games and that is what's killing the game off. When the old crowd dies off, the game tanks big time.

That is what nobody has yet to figure out but me, the ones dying off are not being replaced by a new freshman class, so every year, it keeps getting smaller.

Think your insights is correct, the old guy die, and the New Guy are in to Video Games. In the Philippines Pool is big, and i feel still in a growth mode.

[FASTLARRY]

CocoboloCowboy, on Jun 13 2009, 12:25 AM, said:

Think your insights is correct, the old guy die, and the New Guy are in to Video Games. In the Philippines Pool is big, and i feel still in a growth mode.

Its a 3 rd word country, they are dirt poor. Pool is cheaper, which is why its popular. Efren and kids like him grow up living in a tree, or sleeping on a floor with no bed, they have no ipod, no laptop and cant afford to go to an arcade or dave and busters and blow 50 bucks riding high tech games. They have to gamble on rotation and win, to eat. Look around here, what do you see, little fat puggy fookers, a bunch of nerds, how many ribs do you see sticking out?

[FASTLARRY]

[quote name='FASTLARRY' date='Jun 13 2009, 11:38 AM' post='26475']
Its a 3 rd word country, they are dirt poor. Pool is cheaper, which is why its popular. Efren and kids like him grow up living in a tree, or sleeping on a floor with no bed, they have no ipod, no laptop and cant afford to go to an arcade or dave and busters and blow 50 bucks riding high tech games. They have to gamble on rotation and win, to eat. Look around here, what do you see, little fat puggy fookers, a bunch of nerds, how many ribs do you see sticking out?
You spend more to feed your dog every day than the average philly over there makes.


So unless every year, a new freshman class does not take up the game, as old timers like me die off, the game will die off, like English Billiards and many other games have over the years. Where did my Hulu Hoop go, and my pacman? People move on to new things, and today, there is so much new things coming on line its hard to keep up.

Pool is the past, video, computers, they are the future.

[FASTLARRY]

So many things doomed the growth of the sport. Many were self induced where the leaders shot it in the foot. Espn making the industry to pay to get on TV and then doing a total shitty job and using it as a filler. The failure to sell the sport to prime time TV, and the IPT put up millions to make that happen, and they passed. The stupidity of the BCA not to push pool into gambling on TV like poker did. They then let poker gut the sport.

The failure to get pool as a sport in the high schools, and as a respected varsity sport in college. The failure to get into the Olympics. The failure to establish a BCA teachers school, they only had 100, and maybe 20 that knew squat, and they needed 10,000. I could go on until the fookin cows come home, but why? It's been a total circle fook from day one, with people thinking they had all the answers, and they were fookin nitcompoops. I could list 20, 50 other things, but why? Its a waste of ink, and my time.

As the good doctor said on startrek, he's dead, Jim.

I have my 2 gold crowns in my home, like I give a she-yit what these clowns do any more.

I rest my case that this is true, by looking at where we are now.

[CocoboloCowboy]

FASTLARRY, on Jun 13 2009, 04:38 PM, said:

Its a 3 rd word country, they are dirt poor. Pool is cheaper, which is why its popular. Efren and kids like him grow up living in a tree, or sleeping on a floor with no bed, they have no ipod, no laptop and cant afford to go to an arcade or dave and busters and blow 50 bucks riding high tech games. They have to gamble on rotation and win, to eat. Look around here, what do you see, little fat puggy fookers, a bunch of nerds, how many ribs do you see sticking out?

Fooking "A" you hit the nail on the head Pool is a poor guy game, and I was poor as dirt when I took it up in 1954 ish. It was at the Boys Club in Miami Florida, and we play for pennies, and a nickel once in a while.

But you know we had FUN, and there was no FOOKING POOL O TICKS, and or a RATING or Handicap System. Those were GREAT FOOKING DAYS!!!!!

[CocoboloCowboy]

FASTLARRY, on Jun 13 2009, 04:38 PM, said:

Its a 3 rd word country, they are dirt poor. Pool is cheaper, which is why its popular. Efren and kids like him grow up living in a tree, or sleeping on a floor with no bed, they have no ipod, no laptop and cant afford to go to an arcade or dave and busters and blow 50 bucks riding high tech games. They have to gamble on rotation and win, to eat. Look around here, what do you see, little fat puggy fookers, a bunch of nerds, how many ribs do you see sticking out?

Fooking "A" you hit the nail on the head Pool is a poor guy game, and I was poor as dirt when I took it up in 1954 ish. It was at the Boys Club in Miami Florida, and we play for pennies, and a nickel once in a while.

But you know we had FUN, and there was no FOOKING POOL O TICKS, and or a RATING or Handicap System. Those were GREAT FOOKING DAYS!!!!!

[FASTLARRY]

Its always been the place where people out of luck, out of work, have nothing else to do, nowhere else to go, would hang out all day long. With a little luck you can even make a few bucks if a chump walks in.

Me, I go by the country club and play 18, or 3 sets of tennis, go by Bally's health club and swim and work out, I have memberships, to many things and places. Upscale corporate people do not hang out at pool halls during the day. Neither do their kids. I don't hang out in a pool hall where I practice, I hang out in Dave and Buster's.

Part of the problem with pool was our growing prosperity during the 90's which allowed a much larger portion of the population to upgrade into many of these upscale past times which in times past were closed to them economically or socially. Hell in the 50's and 60's a black or jew could not walk on my golf course. Things changed.

And where we had 4 or 5 things to do and sports, suddenly we had 25 on ESPN. Everything expanded and pool got squeezed. It's a complex answer, with so many answers. Pool never changed, never got hip, it was like bourbon street in new orleans, it just kept shoving out the same old tired bull shit it have been shoveling since the 50's and they wonder why people left the game.

Take Ty Cobb to a modern baseball park and he would not even recognize what in the hell is going on.

[Pelican]

You migfht get a little spurt if the movie 9 Ball does any good. I see where they signed Janette Lee to costar with Jennifer Beretta. I doubt it will be anything close to "The Hustler" or "The Color of Money". Lets face it, Lee and Beretta have nicer tata's than Newman but are not going to have the fan draw he does. Maybe it will be good enough to stimulate interest for a little while.

Pel

[CocoboloCowboy]

Two oldest grand some had the opportunity to play Pool this pass weekend with me, they passed and chose to play WII Game, of Smack Down v/s Raw because video games give instant gradufiction

[FASTLARRY]

CocoboloCowboy, on Jun 17 2009, 07:42 AM, said:

Two oldest grand some had the opportunity to play Pool this pass weekend with me, they passed and chose to play WII Game, of Smack Down v/s Raw because video games give instant gradufiction

I rest my case. Lose the upcoming generation, you lose the game.

[Pin]

While there are tables in bars people will play.

I read somewhere pool enjoys the biggest number of participators of any sport in your country (eand I expect it's not too dissimilar here in the UK).

But few of those participators take it seriously or want to watch much of the professional game.



If bars start losing their pool tables, then you guys should worry. Otherwise you should enjoy being the biggest sport in the country!

Increasingly, my feeling is that pool is a sport really well suited to taking part and having fun, but not well suited to supporting a professional game.

Why try to force pool to be something it's not? We can feel proud to be part of something so big, and accept that part of the trade off is that the professional game isn't that appealing to many (or able to organise itself very well). As I see it, if you had to choose between the two, it's better to be involved in a great participator sport than a great spectator sport.

(Not to say we should give up on the professional game. Just appreciate what we do have.)

[FASTLARRY]

Damn fine attitude and post.

When dealt a lemon, make lemonade.

[IROCK]

I am not sure that having different sized tables does not have something to do with it. I grew up playing on 4x8 tables. Rarely were any tournaments to be found, but did a lot of gambling playing 9 ball. Got married and moved to Chicago, tournaments everywhere and always played on 4 1/1x9 ft. tables and got very use to them. Now here in Wi. everything is bar tables, there is a big difference in all them when playing top quality pool. You have to get use to which one you are playing on. Are there any U Tubes of the top pros playing matches on bar tables. I would love to see a tournament with the top pros playing on them. I know some of them don't really like them.

[FASTLARRY]

IROCK, on Jun 22 2009, 02:23 PM, said:

I am not sure that having different sized tables does not have something to do with it. I grew up playing on 4x8 tables. Rarely were any tournaments to be found, but did a lot of gambling playing 9 ball. Got married and moved to Chicago, tournaments everywhere and always played on 4 1/1x9 ft. tables and got very use to them. Now here in Wi. everything is bar tables, there is a big difference in all them when playing top quality pool. You have to get use to which one you are playing on. Are there any U Tubes of the top pros playing matches on bar tables. I would love to see a tournament with the top pros playing on them. I know some of them don't really like them.

Hell its about as exciting as watching old people fook. Like tic tac toe, break and run out, over and over. Yawn.

[huebler]

FASTLARRY, on Jun 22 2009, 05:21 PM, said:

Hell its about as exciting as watching old people fook. Like tic tac toe, break and run out, over and over. Yawn.

I am not a golf fan, as I know Larry and some others of you are, but I do know that golf courses come in many different levels of difficulty as well. You don't see Tiger Woods playing on that 3 par community golf course (bar box), but that is what a community has room for and many people have fun on it. There are nicer community courses and private courses that are like 4x8 tables. And then there are the major competition courses that are like a 4.5 x 9 with tight pockets. That is needed to challenge the pros.

[IROCK]

I agree, I think that each table has its pros and cons. Balls are spread a lot more on a 9 footer but the shots are usually a lot longer. On a 3 1/2 by 7 it is right the opposite. In Chicago I saw a couple pros (although they were not the higher ranked ones) play on bar tables and I think they played about even with the real good bar table players. I do think that on a 9 footer they would have robbed the bar table players. A bar table is quite forgiving on shots, they are designed to get your coins so you can feed it again. Even so, that is what we have around here and I enjoy plying on them, they have a totally different feel. Here at home I have an 8 ft regulation table.