Pool Cue News and Review

According to the most recent report from the Sporting Goods Manufacturing Association (SGMA), billiards saw a significant decline in table sales in 2005. After four years of steady increases, table sales dropped from $263 million in 2004 to $240 million in 2005.

Its not all doom and gloom however. Participation has increased from 32.3 million in 1998 to 36 million in 2005 with a demographic breakout of 63% men and 37% women. I guess the increase in women players explains the recent glut of pink pool cues on the market.

This is still quite a drop from the billiard heyday that occurred after the release of The Color of Money.

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In what continues to be a disturbing trend, popularity and interest in billiards in the United States appears to be waning. The industry hasn’t had a significant bump since the release of Martin Scorsese’s The Color of Money some 25 years ago. Looking at the most recent data from Google Trends suggests that people are continuing to lose interest in the sport.

Taking a look at the 3 year chart below for searches on the term “billiards” in the United States, you’ll notice a rather disturbing flatline. As the pool season goes, a dip during the summer months is expected, but typically the sport gets off the mat in the fall and spikes in Q4. This was not the case in 2006, where search volume flatlined through the fourth quarter.

Billiards Traffic Graph

The outlook was just as bad for the term “pool cues” according to Google, which saw a severe dip in the summer of 2006 and never fully recovered.

Pool Cues Traffic Graph

What does this all mean? Well, considering the increase in pool hall closures due to among other things the smoking bans that have popped up across the US in the past couple years and the fact that watching pool on TV is about as exciting as watching paint dry, the industry is on the table, waiting for a jolt from the crash cart. You don’t believe me? Check out the graph for the other pseudo-sports it competes with. In the graph below, you’ll see the term “darts” (orange) right in the middle of “billiards” (red) and “pool cues” (blue).

Billiards/Pool Cues/Darts Graph

Let’s take it a step further though and look at the comparison with the real 800 lb gorilla for pool and billiards: Poker (orange). Sure, poker’s been crashing since its high point in 2005, but the level of popularity is still far beyond billiards.

Billiards/Pool Cues/Poker Graph

The numbers don’t lie folks. If pool players want the big paydays they think they deserve and if fans want to see something more than 4 month old first run taped matches on ESPN and 10 year old matches on Classic, the BCA (the governing body of pocket billiards since 1948) better do something and do something fast. The organization recently hired Rob Johnson as the new CEO, but we haven’t seen much from the BCA HQ since his tenure began.

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Well, it only took 16 years, but Cuetec has finally fired BCA Hall of Fame Member Earl Strickland. Strickland endorsed Cuetec cues from 1990 through January 2007 but with the sale of J-S Sales (Cuetec’s parent company) to Imperial USA, that relationship came to a grinding halt.

It seems that the new owners of Cuetec didn’t want pool’s version of John McEnroe attached to their cue line. As far as I’m concerned, this should have happened years ago. Strickland is a continuing stain on the game of pool. His antics are childish and more importantly, completely played out. It was entertaining at first, but after seeing “the pearl” throw a tantrum at every event, the act grew real old real fast. He clearly has no respect for the game, the industry or the players.

Strickland, never known to take responsibility for anything, continued his impressive run of being a horse’s ass by blaming the fact that he can’t win anymore on Cuetec. “If they [Cuetec] made a better cue, I’d still be winning. But I was handicapped with that cue.” He then went so far as to compare himself to Tiger Woods. “J-S sent me an invoice for $3,000 for stuff I got from them. You think Tiger Woods would ever get an invoice from Target?” Well Earl, maybe the difference between you and Tiger is that Tiger is a consistent winner who isn’t an embarrassment to his sponsors and the game he plays. You might also consider the fact that golf has a slightly bigger audience than 9 Ball.

Meanwhile, the quality of Cuetec cues doesn’t seem to be bothering pool’s real version of Tiger Woods: The Dutchess of Doom, Allison Fisher. She once again took home a truckload of Player of the Year honors and is still the most consistent pool player in the business. All that with a cue that was a “handicap” according to Strickland. As they say, it’s a poor carpenter that blames his tools, especially when someone builds a mansion with the same tools you used to create the crapshack you’ve turned your career into.

Hasta La Vista Earl. Here’s to hoping that no cuemaker is ever foolish or desperate enough to sign you up as a sponsor.

(Footnote: Earl’s quotes were originally seen in the March 2007 issue of Billiards Digest Magazine).