You need to support your local pool hall
Hi everyone,
With all of the economic hard times that are going on, it seems that it is important that people get out and play more pool. It sounds simple, but you go to many good quality pool halls and they are dead. Why is that? Did everyone go and get a Wii for themselves and they stay at home playing Wii bowling while randomly checking their email for new notices about how bad their stocks are doing? I mean really! The latest reports show casual participation in billiards at what could be an all-time high, yet I see empty pool halls.
I have a theory that the next generation of pool hall will have a flat screen television at or very near every table. This would allow streaming video, instruction or challenges to happen instantaneously. This is a shocking thought to many an avid player because that would be a tremendous distraction from the game as it is played now, but what is the solution to getting larger draws at the local 8-ball hut? Does everyone have a table in their homes and enough space to accommodate all of your friends who want to come and play? That is a frightening in itself.
With all of the economic hard times that are going on, it seems that it is important that people get out and play more pool. It sounds simple, but you go to many good quality pool halls and they are dead. Why is that? Did everyone go and get a Wii for themselves and they stay at home playing Wii bowling while randomly checking their email for new notices about how bad their stocks are doing? I mean really! The latest reports show casual participation in billiards at what could be an all-time high, yet I see empty pool halls.
I have a theory that the next generation of pool hall will have a flat screen television at or very near every table. This would allow streaming video, instruction or challenges to happen instantaneously. This is a shocking thought to many an avid player because that would be a tremendous distraction from the game as it is played now, but what is the solution to getting larger draws at the local 8-ball hut? Does everyone have a table in their homes and enough space to accommodate all of your friends who want to come and play? That is a frightening in itself.
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3 Comments
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Comment by Dustin on March 11, 2009 at 6:04pm - The local bar here in Zillah WA has some pretty sad tables, but the owner refuses to do anything about the condition of the tables. It's heart breaking for me. I still try to support them but it's not real practice using the big cue ball and then playing league with a standard ball.
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Comment by Rick on February 8, 2009 at 6:58am - Over the years I think many people have added a pool table in the home. Pool in itself is not dead but commercial establishments are feeling the effects of the economy and video/gaming technology. Some rooms try to market to the younger crowd which turns the old timers away. The young crowd will stay until some new fad comes along and then off they go. I don't think you can generalize the state of pool because of differences in areas of the country. I'm sure there's a big difference between a pool room in Miami and one in North Dakota.
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Comment by James Lindsay on January 14, 2009 at 10:57pm - I'm glad to report that the pool hall I hang out at has 2 different 'house' leagues going, and they are (along with myself) attempting to organize a few friendly tournaments with prizes. The entire place has just been completely renovated (it looks great!) and I think that, good or bad economy, attracting more people to pool halls is actually a lot simpler than people think.
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