Leisure and entertainment have always played a big role in our family. My dad always believed that activities which involved the whole family kept the unit stronger and closer to one another. His parents felt strongly about it; so did his parents' parents, their parents, and so on and so forth. He told us about the afternoon wrestling matches he and his brothers had in front of their house when they were in their teens, the time he volunteered to coach my brother's pee-wee hockey team in the 80's, and the countless backyard injuries that the hard core football enthusiasts in our family have had. Generations later, we are still true to the family oriented gaming traditions except for a little twist -- gargantuan indoor game tables.
Men, women, and children of all ages have been slaves and avaricious players of the spellbinding pinball machine. I remember milking my parents for every coin they could spare. Whenever we went out to eat at our favorite local diner, I'd clean my plate faster than a chipmunk on speed, dash to the pinball machine, and play my heart out while chewing the last bits of food left in my mouth. I was on fire as a child and I must admit that even as a grown up I can sometimes hear the faint sounds of the pinball clanging and clinking away, whispering my name in between. Thank God for discount shopping because pinball addicts and collectors can now buy their own machines and stash them at home! OK, so they're a bit pricey for the average person to get but you have to admit, it would be pretty cool to own one of those. The NASCAR Pinball, for instance, is a relatively new addition to the pinball machine family. It successfully combines the fever of the racetrack with high technology gaming for the masses. Pinballs have definitely come a long way since Balls-a-Poppin' and High Speed. Go to www.discountarcade.com to check out the NASCAR Pinball and other highly sought after machines all sold at incredibly low prices.
My current game table obsession requires two fierce players, a couple of powerful mallets, a puck, and a whole lot of air. There's nothing quite like the adrenalin rush you get from air hockey, baby. The Harvard G03220W Avenger 6' Air Hockey Table from Robbins Recreation is the perfect starter edition for avid players. It comes with four mallets, four pucks, and a black framed playing surface -- just like the ones you see in gaming facilities. This table only costs $379.95 at www.4americanrecreation.com and if you buy one now, you could get a good deal on shipping as well.
Finally, let's move on to what most of us really can't get enough of -- foosball. Table football or 'fussball,' as the Germans call it, is the table-top miniature version of a soccer game. You have your basic soccer players, called 'foosmen' in this case, lined alternately across the table in two different colors, which depict the two teams. From side to side, you've got your goalie on the first bar, followed by your defense line on the second, your opponent's attack line on the third, your mid-fielders on the fourth, your opponent's mid-fielders on the fifth, your own attack line on the sixth, followed by your opponent's defense line and goalie on the last two bars. That leaves you with four bars which you can man yourself or with a teammate. At www.tablefootball.com, you can choose from a wide array of clearance, discount or used foosball tables and accessories.
Aside from staple arcades and malls, these game tables are practically everywhere nowadays-- homes, work spaces, restaurants, and even churches. They're wholesome entertainment everyone in the family and the community can enjoy. So man your battle stations, people, and let's get ready to rumble!
The American style tables first started being put into UK clubs in the early 90's when operators could see the benefit of offering cue sports for all. These tables are easy to play on and take up far less space than snooker tables.
The lack of popularity of American Pool in the UK is caused in part by conservatism, snooker and English pool are both very traditional sports and at a tournament and professional level are played in very traditional ways. Players wear suits, waistcoats and dickey-bow ties. American Pool is very liberal; players do have to adhere to a dress code but this is not so strict. Audiences tend to be a lot more vocal too!
The next point that I touch on is that there are over 5 million snooker and English pool players in the UK. In the case of English pool, it is always going to be very difficult to convert a player to the larger tables because their local pub can't house a 9ft pool table. This is the case for the vast majority of public houses throughout the UK. The main player base does not want to travel to a pool hall and pay ?7-?8 per hour to play a game of pool when they can go around the corner to their local pub and pay 50p per game. Not that it is all about money, it is convenience too. That is not to say that these ?pub pool? players do not enjoy American Pool, I am sure they do, it is just seen as a night out for them and something that only happens rarely.
We then have to consider the impact of television and media coverage of Cue Sports. Snooker commands huge television audiences from its broadcasts on the BBC. The BBC is accessible in nearly every home in the UK, which means that anyone can tune in to watch if they want to. By having the game easily accessible on the TV networks people get a buzz for the sport and want to go and play themselves. This is especially prevalent considering the large sums of money that the professional players receive for winning a tournament. Who would not be attracted to that aspect of the sport?
In contrast American pool is only available via the SKY Sports network (although some is now reaching British Eurosport) and is shown at very inconvenient times. I am not sure of the number of homes that subscribe to SKY Sports but it is probably only about one tenth of the total number of households that can view the BBC. Of these 10% the majority are subscribing to watch the football not the pool. So it all comes down to promotion and exposure. Without reaching the mass market via terrestrial TV American pool will not develop and although English pool does not have the exposure either it is accessible due to the number of tables available in local pubs.
Something that I touched on earlier that further cements the case is prize money. A sport is only attractive to TV audiences (in the first instance) if players are seen to be earning huge sums of money or if the TV networks can see that there is already a mass market. In snooker this has previously been the case (more recently prize funds have dwindled but they still are into the ?100,000's), which is why young people especially want to take up the sport, it is relatively cheap to play and if you get good then you can earn some money playing the game.
In American Pool prize funds in the vast majority of cases are made up solely of entry fees. This means that it can be expensive to play with no real rewards for winning. Even in the USA and on the main professional circuits, sponsorship in the form of added prize money is at a premium. It is not very attractive to players if they cannot be seen to be making a living. I don't want to paint a completely bleak picture because there are around 30-40 players that earn a very decent living through tournaments and endorsements.
So in conclusion it is easy to see that until the exposure of the sport changes and sponsors come on board the sport will not grow in the UK and our cueists (who I believe to be the best in the world) will stick to what they know.
The game also needs a grassroots level, which is something I tried to introduce when I launched APN Leagues (now owned and operated by a different party). It is grassroots tournaments, coaching and leagues that will build the player base in the first instance, then all the other factors mentioned above will almost fall into place.
Both Brenda Fleen & Peter Williams are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.