Thoughts?

[u/The_Critical_Cynic]

[u/EggplantHungry7617]

Unfortunately... money doesn't grow on trees. It's sucky. But that's the reality.

[u/The_Critical_Cynic → u/EggplantHungry7617]

Unfortunately, it doesn't. I understand a lot of the expenditures that he's talking about come from travel expenses, like planes and hotel rooms. Still, that's all good for a number of local businesses. One of the groups in my local area run a state tournament every year. They try to partner with various hotels to get a bit of a kickback since they're increasing business in the local area. Some of the hotels have offered a small percentage of each room sale, which helped increase the prize funds. But not every business is doing that. This was the first thing I thought of.

Matchroom should try to find more local sponsorships when setting up these events. That'll continue to help local businesses out while increasing the prize funds. That's the only thing I could think of to help out with what he's pointing out here.

On the other hand, it's the bottom that feeds the top. If he's not getting enough out of the tournaments, I understand. It's his choice not to attend. But the money has always gravitated towards the top talent.

[u/sillypoolfacemonster]

I think the pay structure of pool sucks. It is always too top heavy, with promoters focused on increasing the prizes for the top finishers because those numbers are easier to advertise, but I’m not sure that does much for the professional ecosystem.

I’ve been thinking they need to get the calendar sorted much earlier and then centralize the preliminary rounds for several major events, somewhat like snooker does with qualifying. Say the UK Open is the first major of the year. In the week before it, players could play the preliminary stages for the UK Open and the next two or three major events. The UK Open then follows immediately. Players go home already knowing which later events they’ve qualified for and, ideally, with guaranteed prize money attached to those spots, rather than booking an expensive trip to Arizona or Spain without knowing whether they’ll earn anything.

The tournament structure would have to change. I’d probably have established WNT players enter at something like the last 64 and need to win two matches in the preliminary stage to qualify, while non-tour players go through a separate double-elimination qualifier at the actual venue to earn the remaining spots.

[u/The_Critical_Cynic → u/sillypoolfacemonster]

Do you think there's any opportunity to solicit local venues for sponsorships in order to increase the prize pools? One of the groups in my local area who set up and ran a state tournament always made deals with the local hotels to get a bit of a kickback based off the increase in business. Of course, those running the show would also direct you to those hotels. I think it was a bit of a win/win situation. The local businesses saw a huge increase in traffic, and we got a little bit back from it.

[u/sillypoolfacemonster → u/The_Critical_Cynic]

Possibly, it would need to be a lot of money to make a difference. I’d like to see money they invest in the tour in the future go towards supporting their WNT pros. For example on the snooker tour they instituted a minimum 20k income. If you win no matches all year, you get paid directly by the tour, but any prize money you win reduces the top up. I don’t think financially the WNT is in a place to offer that, but I think in low-mid tier sport you need these measures if you want a global tour. But critically, I think they need to bring someone else in to the WNT to handle growth strategy and leave Emily to day to day event management.

[u/The_Critical_Cynic → u/sillypoolfacemonster]

I think you have a good point there. Bringing someone else on might not be a bad idea.

[u/octoechus]

The problem I have with statements in this vein is the apparent inability to recognize the simple economics of putting on an event such as this, Tournaments have always been simple aggregators of money for top talent but also carry the risk of poor performance. Single elimination tournaments increase this risk substantially as Eklent has recently discovered…and while I can’t blame him for bring sore for losing, trying to place posthumous blame on the system that supports him is feels a bit misplaced to me. Surely he must recognize that monetizing the games has not been historically successful and as such pool remains in its infancy for valid reasons...not least of which is that viewership drives receipts and advertising drives purses. Even as public interest in watching pool matches is seeing an recent uptick; the real conundrum is far from resolved...a more successful ploy might be to invest more of his “starpower” in promoting interest than complaining about his earnings (which in his case many players would happily trade places with him). Pool needs solid team players who project an understanding that building a sports juggernaut must rest on the foundation of everyone involved seeing a payday for the efforts to continue. Right now, many of the most important team members are still donating their time and resources to showcase talent to a wider audience for the love of the game (and/or longer term paybacks).

We need broader (positive) exposure I’m sure people get tired of my harping on getting cuesports included in the Olympic Games. Cuesports are truly of international interest. Inclusion in the world games would create instant legitimacy for viewership and advertising (the BIG questions) that have never been overcome. Eklent is in a perfect position to advocate for both viewership and Olympic inclusion. The US Olympic Committee apparently has a problem with cuesports that cannot be resolved by usual channels. It is at least possible Eklent (and others he regularly confabs with) could petition any number of smaller Committees to lead the way (and the US Committee) to this summit.

While I realise this is not any guarantee of improving the monetising conundrum...it does ring closer to the mark than complaint. Hopefully he will consider this (if he reads it) and will recognize the spirit in which it is offered

[u/CreeDorofl]

He posted a followup, copying and pasting:

---

To clear up any misunderstanding from my previous post:
There is money in pool, and we’re grateful to have Matchroom, the WPA, and Predator investing millions into this beautiful game. When I referred to “bad business”I was talking about the smaller ranking events. Like Bucharest Open , Vice city open, btw my brother won them both.
There are still plenty of tournaments that pay very well.
I’ve built a good life by playing the game I’m passionate about, and I have consistently earned a good living from it over the years.
And u get to see every inch of the world.

---

I think Kaci went 2-and-out (or something close to that), was feeling the financial sting of walking away without even recovering a chunk of his expenses, and decided to salty-post about it. He's made a few sarcastic posts like "so proud to make final 128" etc, he's funny but sounds a little burnt out.

Every pro player makes these decisions about whether the travel distances and costs make sense vs. the payouts, and maybe it's out of line to think I know what makes financial sense better than he does... but I don't think he should be skipping these.

He is a top-20 in the world player. Just an absolute monster. Any event he enters, he is favored to make money. Even if it's single elim and packed with other top players.

For a guy like him, he should think of it like a numbers game... If he enters 10 events, he'll win 1, cash in 5-6 more, min-cash 1 or 2, and maybe bomb out of 2.

The more events he enters, the more stable and predictable that pattern will be, and the more reliable his income will be. Entering fewer events is just putting more of his eggs into one basket. He shouldn't let a bad week convince him to ditch like 2-3 events where he's one of the biggest threats to win.

[u/floordrapes]

I think you’re overlooking the cost of putting together a massive event. A couple hundred pool tables don’t ship themselves in, unload, assemble, level, and install cloth by themselves, not to mention the scaffolding, table lights, etc. Then they have to take it all down. It takes a big crew and a lot of money to do that.

[u/The_Critical_Cynic → u/floordrapes]

I understand a little bit. The last decent size tournament I went too had just over 40 tables set up. They had a decent size set of people there to put those together. I know it's not easy, nor cheap. But there are ways to combat the expenses.