Is This Thing On?
I don’t want to sound like a complete dickhole, but I must be a completely short bussed, because I just don’t get it. Seriously, someone explain this to me. A couple weeks ago, there was a significant mainstream event for pool. It took place in NYC and was attended by a ton of velvet rope athletes as well as lots of pro pool players. And the industry coverage on this? Nada. Let me give you a brief rundown of some of the beautiful people that showed:
Athletes
Eli Manning (NY Giants)
Ryan Grant (Packers)
Justin Tuck (NY Giants)
Hakeem Nicks (NY Giants)
Carlos Boozer (Utah Jazz)
Pool Players
Jeanette Lee
Jennifer Barretta
Sarah Rousey
Caroline Pao
Tony Robles/Gail Glazebrook
I saw pictures of the JBar with Justin Tuck, Rousey with a bunch of peeps and you know that JThug took pictures with every single celeb at the event, not to mention the fact that she was giving tips to the celebs and was the only pool player to get the Getty red carpet pics. You don’t believe me? Here’s a picture of Sarah Rousey with Carlos Freaking Boozer, one of the best ballers in the NBA.
(Photo Props to franksdawghouse.com)
Now I did some searching and the only mentions of this that I could find were in a couple of press releases and a write up on a gag blog (no offense, natch, especially since I swiped the picture from there). After reading some the Pool Synergy write-ups, one of the big themes seemed to be getting mainstream coverage. Well, this was about as mainstream as its gonna get (not to mention it was for charity) and it got zero industry coverage (although it did get some play in the MSM). I mean seriously, you’ve got a bunch of guys that are cheered on by millions playing pool in NYC. You’ve got pool players who so desperately want to be accepted as athletes rubbing elbows with some huge names from the NFL and NBA. It doesn’t get much more mainstream than that.
I decided to spin some tunage today since I’m unplugged this weekend and this seemed somehow apropos.
Meh. Whatev. Out.
June 20th, 2010 at 7:36 am
AARRGGHH! This is so frustrating. This is just the type of event that we would like to cover, but nobody ever tells us about this stuff in advance and we get no coverage of it. Or, they tell us to go copy it from a competitors home page. Wise promoters realize the value of having a press officer. For a few hundred bucks they get daily stories and photos sent out to every media outlet and the sponsors and the events get the exposure they deserve.
June 21st, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Shane Tyree from the BCA organizes all of the Billiard Industry sponsors for these “mainstream” charity events like this one and the one for the NBA All Star weekend. Most of these events have a PR firm that is hired to manage all of the media coverage so the billiard industry coverage is pretty insignificant to their overall media coverage.
June 21st, 2010 at 4:32 pm
Yeah, I know the BCA was involved with this, but considering the fact that so many WPBA players were in attendance, why didn’t the WPBA involve themselves in some capacity? Not trying to cause problems, I’m just asking… (congrats on the board thing btw).
June 27th, 2010 at 10:46 pm
Thanks for bringing this up, Max. Myself and Jerry T of NYCgrind.com were actually there covering the event in collaboration with the BCA. Currently, Jerry is putting together a video highlighting the event, and we will also be posting photos by your truly when the video is released. This event was definitely positive “mainstream” exposure for the players who attended (Mika Immonen was also there), and from my understanding more pool players were there compared to previous years. This was also a good opportunity for players to possibly make contacts outside of the billiards industry.
On another note, as a pool player, it would have been cool to see more of the pool players there get a chance to be seen shooting… say for example a short exhibition match between Sarah & Jennifer. I think people would have loved that!
June 29th, 2010 at 6:01 am
I saw that you were there (looking very swish btw). From what I heard, it was a pretty rockin’ event. I’ll look forward to seeing the video, but I do wish ya’ll would’ve rolled it out sooner (although I do get that there are only so many hours in the day).