What Would Ignite Pool?

I would like to thank everyone who participated in our first poll. Expressing your opinion is vital for the good of the game. After each poll is closed, I will provide my view on each of the positions. You are welcome to send in your views as well. Your votes and views could make a difference in the health and vitality of our great sport.

Your Vote

§        46% Men’s pro pool in TV regularly

§        35% Pool in the Olympics

§        11% Pool Hall Junkies

§        8%   More Jeanette Lee

The Capelle Perspective

Men’s pro pool in TV regularly – 46%

Golf took off after Arnold Palmer’s heroic shotmaking and TV were wed in the late 50s.  TV has also made heroes out of skateboarders, racecar drivers and, amazingly enough, pro wrestlers. Each sport has experienced a boom thanks largely to TV. Because of the power ot television, I cast my vote with the 46% of the voters who feel that having men’s pro pool on TV would be the single strongest force to ignite the sport.

In my opinion, pool is ripe for a major boom. According to SGMA studies, about 11 million people play at least 25 times a year. Furthermore, over 3.5 million participants have named pool as their favorite leisure time activity. And lastly, there are another 25 million people who play at least once a year.

A sizeable number of these participants would most definitely increase their involvement in pool, many by a substantial amount, if they were able to watch the heroes 20-30 times a year on live, top quality productions with significant prize money at stake.

The future of pool is school age children.  If kids could see our heroes like Efren, Johnny, Corey, Earl, and Francisco perform their feats of wizardry week after week for million dollar purses, many would ditch there skateboards clubs and racquets in favor of a possible career as a pro pool player. Perhaps only a hundred kids would graduate to the pro ranks.  For the rest, however, their love of the game may lead to a career in the industry (a boom would create numerous career opportunities) or to a lifetime of enjoyment as a player.

Pool is one of the country’s most popular participant sports without the benefit of a live big money tour. When you consider the effect The Hustler and The Color of Money had on the game, it simply boggles the mind to think what would happen if the sport had the marketing power of TV working for it 20-30 times annually.

Pool in the Olympics – 35%

About 35% of voters feel that pool in the Olympics would be the thing that could ignite the sport.  The Billiard Congress of America evidently agrees. A few years ago the BCA moved its headquarters to Colorado Springs just so they could be close to Olympic headquarters.

Pool, as I mentioned a moment ago, got a huge boost from two movies, which are short-lived events.  Should pool make it into the Olympics, it would similarly get a short-term boost every four years.  But would the effects of inclusion in the Olympics be less than, equal to, or greater that the effect of the two movies? It’s hard to say. I can’t imagine the sport would get much airtime, not with so many sports competing for valuable TV coverage.

Perhaps the big benefit of having pool in the Olympics would be its receiving something similar to the Good Housekeeping Seal of approval. This by itself could be enough to convince potential corporate sponsors to earmark significant dollars from their sports marketing budgets for pool. This could take many forms, one of which could be live pro pool on TV.

While I see no substitute for having live pro pool on TV regularly, the Olympics could be a means towards that objective.

Pool Hall Junkies – 11%

The power of Paul Newman playing pool for a couple of hours to ignite our sport had proven itself on two occasions. So it is with great hope and anticipation that I await the release of Pool Hall Junkies. I’ve seen the movie (read my review) and I rate it above The Color of Money and below The Hustler.