tonygreen
Well-Known-Member
- Joined
- Aug 26, 2011
- Messages
- 391
In 1988 or 89 Pool and Billiard or Billiard's Digest (sorry I dont remember which) reported that the #1 money earner in Men's Professional Billiards and or Pool earned just over $80,000 in tournament winnings. Forgive me i do not have the documentation at my disposal (mostly because when I gave up pool in 2002 my wife at the time threw away the 3 or 4 dozen magazines for that late 80's early 90's timeframe) that B.I.T.*.*. always could give me 10 to 5 and I never won!
Anyway I divorced her and 9 years later im playing pool again, but since May (when I started playing again, I have been catching up on the industry and sport on the whole) I have started to come to the conclusion that pool is in the same place that it was 20 years ago in terms of the top 5-10 percent of players still not being able to make a decent living playing the game. I find this so sad and much to my shegrin I have drawn a conclusion that pool will be in the same place 20 years from now unless it is included as an Olympic sport. The even more unfortunate news is that this CANNOT happen untill 2016 and more likely 2024, in regard to the IOC.
How can we get it to move forward so that the top 10 percent of the best players on the globe make 50 percent of what other sports counterparts earn? In other words if the top 300 tennis players in the world earn on average $150K per year how can we get to a point where the top 300 poolplayers earn $75K per year?
Camera phones and the internet threw a monkey wrench into hustlin.
Can anyone even dream of a way this could be possible without the aid of the Olympics including the game and awarding medals? Will we ever see a 10-ball champion grace the cover of ESPN magazine or a One-Pocket master stand side by side with a Golf champion in a Gillette commercial?
tired of dreaming I am ...
Anyway I divorced her and 9 years later im playing pool again, but since May (when I started playing again, I have been catching up on the industry and sport on the whole) I have started to come to the conclusion that pool is in the same place that it was 20 years ago in terms of the top 5-10 percent of players still not being able to make a decent living playing the game. I find this so sad and much to my shegrin I have drawn a conclusion that pool will be in the same place 20 years from now unless it is included as an Olympic sport. The even more unfortunate news is that this CANNOT happen untill 2016 and more likely 2024, in regard to the IOC.
How can we get it to move forward so that the top 10 percent of the best players on the globe make 50 percent of what other sports counterparts earn? In other words if the top 300 tennis players in the world earn on average $150K per year how can we get to a point where the top 300 poolplayers earn $75K per year?
Camera phones and the internet threw a monkey wrench into hustlin.
Can anyone even dream of a way this could be possible without the aid of the Olympics including the game and awarding medals? Will we ever see a 10-ball champion grace the cover of ESPN magazine or a One-Pocket master stand side by side with a Golf champion in a Gillette commercial?
tired of dreaming I am ...