I doubt whether Poker's relatively new found popularity and celebrity will endure over the long haul at that high level as horse racing has done as a result of a quality product ( meaning the horse's on the track ) , dumb luck and additionally many other factors that probably include good business decisions made a long time ago ... Racing will rebound and overtake the Poker pheonominum in time . Poker on that grand level and ESPN for that matter have a limited shelf life and limited appeal . To help make a point let me say that cable networks like ESPN bantied around pocket billards ( another pastime w/ more than it's share of negative connentations ) and since have basically religated the sport back to it's former status . I started playing pool at 10 and to this day can beat top players when in stroke . Recently in a 9 ball session w/ a friend , the #1 & #2 ranked players ( as I was later informed by the house boy ) where watching our game but declined to approach me for a game . I didn't know who they were but they new who I was and apparently would have little to gain by getting taken apart by some guy in a potential Apollo Creed/ Rocky Balboa senario . I quess one point I'm trying to convey is that Pool like Horse Racing does have alot of people in powerful positions who know that things can be vastly improved on but that would mean that many of them would be looking for new jobs ( and in new industries ) had racing been managed efficiently . I remember a fellow at MTH who was later escorted off the premisis that was hitting Jerry up for a several hundred dollar shake down fee to sell the TG product at that track . Of course Jerry didn't go for it and sold the sheets off track at a nearby location with many sheets players passed on MTH that meet due to the unavailabilty of sheets on track which help greatly to diminish the MTH handle that season is just one example of the very short sighted gutting and ravaging of a great sport , The Sport of Kings . Unfortunately ESPN and some of the even bigger players in the sport aren't much better than that character at MTH . Perhaps Racing would need to shake out like the way the NASDQ did when the bubble burst a few years ago before improvement can be realized .

marcus



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2005 07:01PM by marcus.