A question was posed to me recently by my friends at 77.billiards, an entertaining and informative pool site with more than 70K followers: Would you say this has been the most exciting era of pool you’ve covered? If not, which era do you think was?

It’s a great question and it had me looking closely at the different eras I’ve been fortunate enough to witness. Which was most exciting?

For starters, while questions like this regarding any sport are great for barstool conversations, there is of course no definitive answer. The debates are largely subjective. Still, excitement is easier to compare than greatness, and pool has certainly had its share of relatively listless periods, so picking the ones I found/find most exciting is actually pretty easy.

History tends to give names to eras, like the Paleozoic Era or the Renaissance. Let’s just call my two most exciting eras in pool the “Golden Era” and the “Modern Era.” My Golden Era was from the mid-1980s to the mid-’90s, give or take a few years on each end. My Modern Era encompasses the past decade (and, hopefully, beyond).

Pool’s Golden Era was exciting for its personality and style. It was the greatest era of pool in the United States in terms of player depth and tournament opportunities. The game was still predominantly American, and the talent through that era will likely never be matched. To go to tournaments and see the flow chart freckled with names like Sigel and Varner and Mizerak and Hall and Reyes and Parica and Hopkins and Rempe and Strickland and Martin and Davenport, as well as the David Howards, the Keith McCreadys, the Louis Roberts, and Reed Pierces and Mike LeBrons was astonishing. Don’t kid yourself. These were the names and the games the spawned the growth of competitive pool internationally, particularly throughout Europe. By the early ’90s, players from Europe and Asia, led by the Filipino invasion that Parica and Reyes helped create, were starting to become tournament fixtures, changing the game forever.

And talent aside, the players from the Golden Era were some of the most colorful characters the game ever produced. Gambling matches often took place on practice tables in the hotel hallways which usually produced hysterically funny banter and barking, oftentimes drawing more spectators than the tournament itself.

The only place more crowded than the tournament room was usually the hotel bar at the end of the night’s play, and the stories that were traded could fill a writer’s notebook many times over. This was not a crowd that was monitoring its sleep or counting calories. The hotel fitness rooms back then routinely needed to be dusted for lack of use.

Another thing that made that era exciting was that many of the bigger tournaments of the day included a women’s pro event as well, and getting to see Jean Balukas, Ewa, Loree Jon, Belinda, Robin, Mary Kenniston and others compete side-by-side with the men was a treat. I miss those days. I guarantee today’s fans who’ve attended recent events that feature both men and women pros know exactly what I’m talking about.

But the Golden Era was short on television exposure, and was pre-internet technology, which is a shame. It was ripe for a marketing visionary. It could have been big.

Which brings us to the Modern Era. And the Modern Era has me very excited.

There is little doubt that the level of talent in pro pool today is far deeper than it has ever been. (Does that mean it’s better? Discussion for a different day!) The number of countries represented these days is astounding. The support they receive, either monetary or emotional, is amazing. The growth in emerging markets is encouraging.

And, while tournaments during the Golden Era were predominantly put on by individual promoters, the promoters driving the big events today are truly professional. The game is being treated and presented like a professional sport more than it ever has.

Because of those factors, the game in the Modern Era is the most competitive, the most visible, the most organized and the most marketable it has ever been. Ever.

The potential is limitless. It is as pure a global sport as any, which marketers should be salivating over.

My favorite era? If excitement is based on adrenaline, I’ll go with the Golden Era. If excitement is based on promise, I’ll go with the Modern Era.