Bangkok Pool Bars Snooker Competition

[george]

Bangkok pool bars snooker competition

By David Fullbrook

BANGKOK: - Times are changing in Bangkok, and while the government presses on with its bizarre campaign to impose morals in its own image by crimping nightlife and suffocating the party scene, bars featuring pool tables are booming. Over the past three or four years more than a dozen glitzy pool bars have opened, with more on the way.

Profits at big pool bars come in part because the game lures customers during the day, mostly foreign tourists, when cleaners outnumber drinkers in bars without pool. But as with most things, pool-nomics has its quirks.

"The pool tables fix customers on a place. Pool tables are good for business, but they take up a lot of space - a minimum of 200 square meters is needed. It's a big barrier because land is expensive. There also needs to be a charge for games," says Thomas Grace, a pool-bar pioneer.

In 1999, Grace, a swarthy middle-aged Frenchman, opened New Wave, appropriately enough, as it turns out. More pool halls soon followed as foreigners and Thais got in on the game once they saw the busy bar was chalking up profits.

His second bar, Blue Wave, which features a separate restaurant upstairs, opened last year. Covering 400 square meters, it costs 350,000 baht (US$8,900) a month to rent, on top of the 40 million baht construction bill.

But why pool and not an endless row of blinking and bleeping arcade games? "It was a success because it is more a game than a sport. People, especially ladies, play for the game, not for money," says Grace.

Location is crucial for profits. Districts busy with foreign tourists are favored as, while most Thais are working when the sun is out, visitors are alternately shopping, snapping photos, or seeking refuge from heat and noise. A cool bar serving cooler drinks suits many.

Pool bars are also increasingly popular with Bangkok's foreign residents, a community that saw a big turnover as a result of the late-'90s economic slump.

"It's a communal game that transcends and was popular in student days before computer games. It was the place to meet between classes. For the thirtysomething generation of expats here, we grew up in student common rooms, which didn't have computer games. It's a common currency. You don't meet many thirtysomethings who can't play an okay game of pool," says Paul Spencer, an advertising executive and avid pool player from London.

A growing trickle of Thais are also slipping into stick-shooting halls that reflect, to varying degrees, aspects of chrome-edged Americana and throb to pumping rock or house music.

"Even among young Thais the game is more popular than four years ago," says American Jason Shipman, an information-technology (IT) salesman who can often be found frowning down a pool cue going head-to-head with Spencer. "Because of the heat it's hard being active outside. It's affordable and it's air-conditioned. Young people are increasingly exercising their freedom. They can't spend all their time in expensive spas and golf clubs."

And if a few Thai pool players zoom up the world rankings appearing on television, many would likely throng pool halls. "These days trend-addicted Thais are in to tennis and rugby," says Phakanai Kittikarn, scion of a textile family that has branched out into bars.

Perhaps even before Grace opened New Wave, Phakanai's family was trying to make a go of a pool-oriented bar across town in the Khao San Road backpacker ghetto.

"Five or six years ago I was walking around Khao San Road. There were no stylish bars. My family discussed about how to change the nightlife there, the image of the area. After some research we decided on a bar with a sports edge. But which kind of sport? Having visited many bars with pool tables in America, we decided on pool, and included big TV screens," says Phakanai.

Gulliver's was not profitable for the first two years. During that time the crowd changed, backpackers giving way to Thai students from nearby universities. Two years ago, a cavernous second Gulliver's opened in Sukhumvit's pool land. This year Phakanai will return to Khao San, now swamped at night with glitzy young Thais, with another sports bar, featuring just a few pool tables.

Phakanai hopes to open more Gulliver's around Thailand and beyond. "A while ago I even had a guy from Manchester ask about opening a Gulliver's there," he says.

He is not alone. "If I find more good locations I will open more pool bars. Location is most important," says Grace, whose third bar will soon open in Sukhumvit's pool area. Both expect more pool bars to open in Bangkok's busy tourist districts.

Pool's growing popularity, in bars and homes, is a boon for Patanakarn Billiards, one of a few companies making quality tables in Asia. "I think it will be more popular in the future," says Tom Tanjasiri, managing director.

In 1996 Patanakarn's 20 craftsmen completed 100 pool-table orders in a high-tech factory, which can make up to 400 a month. Last year nearly 250 were made. Orders are not just coming from new pool bars either, but old pubs replacing cheap plywood tables with Patanakarn's Italian slate and baize tables, built since 1996 to the Billiards Congress of America's standards. Exports, including to the Maldives, South Africa and Saudi Arabia, account for 5-10 percent of company sales.

Pool's popularity is in part a reflection of a shrinking world. British troops helped popularize snooker in the Orient, which is slowly giving way to pool thanks to students. "I think the mentality of Thai and Southeast Asian players is dominated by snooker. To switch to pool is not that easy. However, it has become more popular as children returned from studying in the US and other places where pool is popular," Tanjasiri says.

"Our production of snooker tables is limited. Pool and home pool tables are growing. Home tables will grow much faster because a snooker table needs an eight-meter-by-six-meter room, whereas a pool table only needs five meters by three meters," says Tanjasiri.

Like manufacturers of other products, Patanakarn places faith in quality to beat the competition. "As for many people, China is a problem. They are expanding fast. Price-wise we cannot compete. But on quality we are okay," Tanjasiri says.

Those at Patanakarn also see China as an opportunity to cut labor costs and sell more tables. "Right now we don't have the right people. But in the near future, yes, maybe. We need to research the [pool] market more locally and internationally," says Tanjasiri. "Anybody who moves to China cannot rely on people. You need machines for the precision - people cannot match them."

--Asia Times 2004-03-30