You can’t lose what you don’t have.

This is going to KILL my rep as the coolest person to ever live but here goes …

g2 confession # 83: “I get so bored watching straight pool…”      (GASP!)

Sorry guys! I’ve enjoyed playing it, (yeah I rocked a high run of 23 once, booyah!) but my excitement as a spectator before a match begins is so fleeting after a rack or two, I’m yawning at the thought.  I know, it’s the purest game and blah blah blah.  Trust me, Tony will mutter something in Spanish that isn’t pleasant when he proofreads this but oh well.  I’m being honest.  

Maybe if I played it more and became a better14.1 player I wouldn’t find it so boring to watch?

Perhaps I’d find it less boring, but it’d still be inherently boring.  It’s slow, there are few fireworks, and “etiquette” says each player is to sit in their chair, quiet as a mouse, without movement, like Stonehenge, moss growth and all.  That’s some boring primetime if you ask me but hey, people eventually got excited about golf.  Seriously, golf is HeLLA boring, but eventually enough fans and money pour in and poof, Tiger can buy 100 Caddy’s to drive into trees.

The only time I do enjoy watching 14.1 is when Tony is playing.  This is for obvious reasons.  I love him, my heart flutters and breaks with each run and miss.  I’m emotionally invested in HIM.  Not Straight Pool.  My horsey. 

This leads me to my take on the future of pool and whether or not TV time allotted will be of any effect to pool’s popularity.

What popularity you ask?  

—- I’m still looking for that myself. 

You can’t lose something you ‘ain’t’ never had.  If pool goes off the air for good, um … oh wait, we really aren’t on the air now.  The last match I saw on TV was ESPN Classic … you know, the back-in-the-day channel that airs sports in a sepia looking color from times when HD stood for heavy duty not….

And in a bitter twist of irony … any fans actually gained from watching the pool we see on TV now, often see pool players being aired that have already quit the game and moved on …

… there went the start of another BIG FAN CLUB.  Shucks! 

I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it every time the PoolSynergy topic circulates around pool’s rise/demise/future, whatever.

Watching a game of pool is boring to people that don’t play it, and even sorta boring to those that do.  Unless a spectator has an invested emotional interest in the person competing, the excitement of the game lies strictly in the game’s allure – YiKEs!  Pool’s hope will come from fans gained by watching the characters of pool who inspire them to watch and learn and come back for more!!

Is streaming the savior of pool?  NO.  Yes the internet and viral videos are becoming more popular but everyone else is using these media outlets too, killing any chance pool could "’stand out’ against the other entertainment available online.  As a pool player, I’m thrilled live streaming has come on board because for the 1st time EVER in pool’s history, we actually know the results of a match in real time, not a week later.   Us already obsessed with pool can cheer.  Woohoo – BUT, pool’s lifeline is not in it’s current fans..  It’s future is NOT in you, yeah YOU, the guy/girl reading this now.  We’ve already got you.  We need your girlfriend, your dad, your best friend, your co-worker.  We need THEM to be excited about pool.   

Cater to NEW blood, NEW interest, NEW fans.   

Pool on TV (promoted and editing the way it’s currently done) and Pool on a Live Stream is NOT reaching these NEW fans.  There is no human connection, no spark, no spice.  It’s just a big ole Saltine Cracker.   

Until we have a FACE to pool that EXCITES people and motivates them to get up and learn something about them, about the sport, about all the stuff we love, it’s popularity will remain limited to banging balls with your friends on a Friday night with a brewsky in your hand &  having NO knowledge of where the cue ball is going and surely not what 14.1 is. 

~ by g2 on October 15, 2010.