January 2012 PoolSynergy

PoolSynergy's January's Topic is hosted by NYCgrind.com:


"There are numerous pro athletes, entertainers, and other celebrities who are pool enthusiasts. What kind of potential (if any) do you see for celebrity star power to influence media exposure for the pool world? I really believe that we can all have a positive influence in bringing new eyes to this sport with this next post."

I am normally an optimist, but with topics like this, I am afraid I'm not.

While I don't know what will ever make pool popular, I simply don't believe that if celebrities played pool on tv or at events, that pool will magically become mainstream.  I think this way because I've already seen celebrities play pool at events, and that didn't bring droves of people into the pool room or pool leagues.

Would I like them to, sure.  Would I like star power to help raise the popularity of pool?  Absolutely. 

But, I don't think it's the answer.

While I don't know what the answer is, I suppose more and more celebrities that play pool definitely wouldn't hurt our sport. 

However, the only people who get excited when a celebrity plays pool are pool players.  If non-pool players see Shaquille O'Neal play pool, they don't run and buy a pool table. 

If a popular actor maybe was hired and many commercials were run where this celebrity tried to sell certain pool tables, then I think more pool tables would be sold to non-pool players.  But would the increase in people buying tables make pool mainstream all of a sudden?

Let me ask you this way.  If Brad Pitt or Beyonce' or Mathew McConaughey or Pamela Anderson was in a commercial, that aired on all the tv channels and during big time events to try and convince us to buy a Foosball table or a certain special dart set, would that all of a sudden mean darts and/or Foosball would be shown on major networks and tens of thousands of dollars thrown into their tournaments?
 
Nope.

Even if I saw my favorite musician or favorite actor playing shuffle board, it wouldn't get me into that sport.

Like I said, I don't know what the answer is.  But we need more than star power for pool to become mainstream.

IMHO.