Mary Moore is retiring. Now, we get to hear what that really means to her and her life going forward. We love to talk about foosball and this is one of our favorite episodes!
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[00:02:01] Well, hello there. It's Foos Talk Live, and it's episode number 229.
[00:02:08] I'm Tom Robinson.
[00:02:09] Ryan DeRiposo is not with us this evening.
[00:02:11] He's taken time out to hang out with his real wife, Ginger, who we met last week on the show.
[00:02:17] And I've got to say thanks to Ginger and to my wife, Kim, for joining us last week on Foos Talk Live.
[00:02:24] We had a lot of fun.
[00:02:26] Tonight is going to be unique.
[00:02:28] There is no doubt about that.
[00:02:30] In fact, if you were in the competition this last year in the summer for the Tornado World Championships in Lexington, Kentucky, and you were there for the ceremonies, you heard some pretty surprising news.
[00:02:46] In fact, it was the moment at which our guest tonight, Mary Moore, passed the torch.
[00:02:52] She decided to retire from her long three-decade career as a promoter, and the IFP will be now the World Foosball Tour.
[00:03:02] And Ryan Moore, her son, is now taking over.
[00:03:05] So everybody was shocked, to say the least.
[00:03:09] And so I want to welcome Mary Moore to Foos Talk Live.
[00:03:13] Hello, Mary.
[00:03:15] Tom, thank you for having me.
[00:03:17] Oh, you're quite welcome.
[00:03:18] And also tonight we have Donald Wilson, a familiar face here on Foos Talk Live, who happens to be in the inside of his vehicle, which is not uncommon for Donald.
[00:03:27] Hello, Donald.
[00:03:29] Hello.
[00:03:30] How's everyone?
[00:03:31] We're doing great.
[00:03:33] So, Mary, first of all, congratulations on your retirement.
[00:03:39] I got just an off-the-cuff kind of question here.
[00:03:42] How do you feel?
[00:03:45] Well, Tom, I feel that it's the perfect time for me to step down and turn the reins over to my son, Ryan.
[00:03:54] He's energetic.
[00:03:55] He loves foosball.
[00:03:57] You know, after 33 years of being on the road, missing a lot of time with my family, a lot of time with my friends, my husband, my dog.
[00:04:07] It was just time to step down, and I feel great about it.
[00:04:09] I have no regrets.
[00:04:10] I have no doubt that this was the right thing to do for me and for foosball.
[00:04:15] Yeah.
[00:04:15] I mean, there's been such a connection not just with you but also with Ryan as a foosball family.
[00:04:24] Your legacy, really, undeniably, you're one of the greatest promoters in foosball history.
[00:04:29] How do you feel about that title?
[00:04:33] I feel blessed and honored to be able to promote foosball and to do what I've done for as long as I've done.
[00:04:39] It's always been my passion and my love, and so I was very happy to do it.
[00:04:44] And I think Ryan will go above and far beyond what I could take the sport to.
[00:04:51] So I think everything works out for a reason.
[00:04:54] And I think my reason was to keep it going, and now let's see what he can do with it.
[00:04:59] We're happy to see the transition obviously being as smooth as it is,
[00:05:03] and we certainly want to support everything that happens with the World Foosball Tour.
[00:05:09] Donald, I have to ask you the question.
[00:05:11] You know, you're basically working with Mary on a regular basis with tournaments,
[00:05:15] really handling things on the ground for her.
[00:05:18] When was the first time you heard that she was going to be retiring?
[00:05:21] What happened?
[00:05:23] I don't know.
[00:05:24] Maybe two years ago.
[00:05:25] Okay.
[00:05:26] Two years ago.
[00:05:27] And it didn't happen.
[00:05:28] Okay.
[00:05:29] And then a year ago, and then it didn't happen.
[00:05:32] And I heard it this year, and I said, yeah, right.
[00:05:35] Whatever.
[00:05:38] Well, there's reasons for that.
[00:05:40] I know.
[00:05:41] Ryan and I have been discussing this for the last two years about him taking it over.
[00:05:45] Okay.
[00:05:46] He got real busy in his business and with his children,
[00:05:50] and I decided I didn't want him to take time away from that.
[00:05:54] So I told him, let's hold off.
[00:05:56] I haven't got my Social Security yet, so I thought maybe I'll hang on to it a little bit longer.
[00:06:02] So we've been talking about it, but as of January 1st this year,
[00:06:06] when I did the first tournament with championship format,
[00:06:09] I knew I was retiring at the end of the year.
[00:06:11] Oh, you did?
[00:06:12] And I knew Ryan was going to want to do that format,
[00:06:15] so I took the heat for him and brought it out so players could get used to it,
[00:06:19] so we could learn how to schedule events,
[00:06:22] and so that when he takes over, he knows the feel of it, how to schedule things,
[00:06:28] and mainly for productions.
[00:06:31] He's going to do a lot of big productions for the finals,
[00:06:33] and you just can't do that with regular double elimination.
[00:06:36] Right, right.
[00:06:37] So I said, okay, I'll take – well, I've been wanting to do championship, though,
[00:06:41] ever since I've seen Todd Lafredo double dip there, Ozdemir,
[00:06:46] and Idil Hazun at 5 o'clock in the morning at New York State one year.
[00:06:49] I thought, wow, this can't keep happening, the finals of open doubles at 5 a.m.
[00:06:54] But this year inspired me to do it just so that it would help Ryan take over
[00:06:58] and people would be used to it so he wouldn't get all the heat for what I've taken this year,
[00:07:02] which has been quite a bit.
[00:07:03] That's a very honorable thing to do to really take the heat initially for Ryan.
[00:07:10] I mean, there's going to be, you know, I'm sure a few changes coming up in 2025 with Ryan's ideas,
[00:07:16] but, I mean, that's amazing.
[00:07:18] So that's quite a lot of forethought that went into that.
[00:07:20] And so, yes, you must have had a long conversation about that,
[00:07:24] or at least a few when it comes to how to go about this.
[00:07:28] Yes.
[00:07:30] And what was your initial reaction when you went through the championship format?
[00:07:34] I believe that was at TKO this year, correct?
[00:07:37] Best-ran tournament we did.
[00:07:39] We turned around and ran several tournaments throughout the year with more players,
[00:07:43] less tables, and finished in record time.
[00:07:45] It's the only way to run big tournaments.
[00:07:48] Yes.
[00:07:49] And with the championship format, I mean, you have the finals the same day.
[00:07:53] You can schedule things out.
[00:07:55] And yet there's still a loser's bracket for people to play into the money.
[00:07:59] If you get knocked out early, you can still come back in and win some money.
[00:08:02] Yes.
[00:08:02] You can't win the tournament, but you can still win some money.
[00:08:05] So it's better than single elimination.
[00:08:07] We can't do Swiss, too many players, too many events.
[00:08:10] Yes.
[00:08:11] Not enough tables.
[00:08:12] So it's a compromise.
[00:08:13] And, Tom, as we'd grown, we had to make several changes because our venues only hold so many tables.
[00:08:19] My truck and trailer only hold so many tables.
[00:08:22] Yep.
[00:08:22] So our first step was to cut out packages so our events would finish at better time.
[00:08:27] The recall procedure that we implemented a few years ago, that helped us save time.
[00:08:33] And then with the championship format, we can run – we ran worlds on 50 tables.
[00:08:38] We ran Vegas on 50 tables.
[00:08:40] 50 tables.
[00:08:40] And it was done earlier than any other one with larger turnouts.
[00:08:44] Mm-hmm.
[00:08:44] Mm-hmm.
[00:08:45] So to me, it's the only way to do a professional tournament.
[00:08:48] No, I get that.
[00:08:49] And I think that is the wave of the future.
[00:08:51] There's no doubt about that.
[00:08:52] And other sports do the same thing, correct?
[00:08:54] I mean, there's a lot of other professional-level sports that use the championship format.
[00:09:00] Well, they don't call it championship format, but basically it's the same thing.
[00:09:05] Yes.
[00:09:06] Like in football, once you make it to the playoffs.
[00:09:08] In baseball, once you make it to the playoffs, you're out and won.
[00:09:13] Yes.
[00:09:13] Right.
[00:09:14] So basically, all throughout the year, you know, you play foosball and you get in this – you know, you're in the bracket.
[00:09:22] You're doing your playoffs.
[00:09:23] And then when you get knocked out of the playoffs, at least you have, like Mary said, a loser bracket where you can get back on the podium.
[00:09:29] Yep.
[00:09:29] Third place gets you on the podium.
[00:09:31] And then usually it pays back deeper than – well, it pays deeper than third on all of it.
[00:09:35] So you do get back in the money.
[00:09:37] And the money is not first place.
[00:09:40] It's not second place.
[00:09:41] But, hey, third place is good.
[00:09:42] And you want to know how many people – you want to know who remembers third place?
[00:09:47] Well.
[00:09:49] Fourth place.
[00:09:50] They remember who gets third place.
[00:09:53] I get it.
[00:09:54] But, you know, you do get in the money and it's good.
[00:09:57] But what people don't realize, too, when you say you're cutting off matches, you're cutting three matches off by doing that.
[00:10:04] A top of the loser bracket match.
[00:10:05] For every event.
[00:10:06] Yeah.
[00:10:06] And then the final, right?
[00:10:07] But check this out.
[00:10:09] Ryan said it to me in a way that really set in more than what Mary's actually told me.
[00:10:14] He said, okay, you get the times.
[00:10:16] All right.
[00:10:17] We know what time Open Double's final starts.
[00:10:20] You get a camera crew, say, on a TV station or somebody, they're going to come in and they're going to want to film the final.
[00:10:25] Yes.
[00:10:26] Well, they come in expecting to film an hour.
[00:10:28] All right?
[00:10:29] You lose the – say if it's a double elimination, they lose the first set.
[00:10:33] And they're like, what's going on?
[00:10:35] Oh, well, now they're going to take a 15, 20-minute break and then we're going to play the second set.
[00:10:39] Uh-huh.
[00:10:39] Well, you know, they don't want to stick around for another hour for this.
[00:10:42] Right.
[00:10:43] You know?
[00:10:43] But with championship format, when you see the last two teams undefeated, that's it, baby, first and second.
[00:10:50] Mm-hmm.
[00:10:50] Mm-hmm.
[00:10:51] And like I've heard Mary say, and I've heard it said a lot, it does take out the thrill of someone coming out and lose the bracket and winning.
[00:11:01] But look at it like this.
[00:11:03] You know, a winner, a true winner is going to have the best game at the right time.
[00:11:11] Yep.
[00:11:12] And why should somebody get penalized and have to wait after you beat everybody?
[00:11:19] Yes.
[00:11:19] You've got to wait another day or many hours later to play somebody else when things change, you know?
[00:11:27] So that's what I like because it makes way for new winners, like Mary has said, because, you know, they might be on their game and they're not.
[00:11:35] You always have to play every match like it's your last.
[00:11:37] Exactly.
[00:11:38] That brings to mind the Cinderella story of Trevor Park, who, you know, pulled it out in the open singles at Tornado Championships this year.
[00:11:49] And everybody was just, I mean, everybody was so overjoyed, the fact that he was able to finally do this after how many years of being in the finals and never winning.
[00:11:57] Right.
[00:11:58] So that was a thrilling time.
[00:12:00] And without championship format, that probably would have been unlikely.
[00:12:05] Without a doubt, if you have Tony, Brandon, and Ryan at a tournament, one of those three are going to double dip you.
[00:12:11] Yes.
[00:12:11] Almost nine out of ten times, if nine and a half out of ten times.
[00:12:14] Right.
[00:12:15] It opens the door for new winners.
[00:12:17] We even had, you know, Sullivan and Isabel win open doubles because they played the best back to back to back.
[00:12:26] And they didn't have to wait a day and a half for the finals to come back and think about getting double dipped and have people like Brandon and Michael Stahl and them come back.
[00:12:34] You know, after being on the loser's bracket hot and ready to double dip them.
[00:12:38] Yep.
[00:12:39] So, I mean, it's going to create lots of new winners.
[00:12:41] So, every pro master out there that hasn't won open singles has now got a chance to, if they just play their A game and catch Tony off a little bit or catch Ryan off a little bit, they're going to be the best player that day.
[00:12:52] And they're going to win.
[00:12:52] And they can jump on a bus and go home or celebrate party.
[00:12:55] They don't have to stay there for three days hoping the finals gets back to them in a decent hour.
[00:12:59] Right.
[00:13:00] That was the other thing I was going to mention.
[00:13:03] Yeah.
[00:13:03] Isabel and Sullivan won that Illinois State championship.
[00:13:06] Yeah.
[00:13:07] Yeah.
[00:13:07] And then also at Worlds, we had a new women's doubles champion as well.
[00:13:11] Mm-hmm.
[00:13:12] It was Stacy and her partner, correct?
[00:13:16] Maggie Strong.
[00:13:17] Maggie and Stacy.
[00:13:18] And Jessica.
[00:13:19] Oh, Jessica.
[00:13:19] I'm sorry.
[00:13:20] Yeah.
[00:13:20] I was thinking of another tournament.
[00:13:22] Jessica Samson.
[00:13:23] Yeah.
[00:13:23] Yeah.
[00:13:24] Wow.
[00:13:24] So it opened the door.
[00:13:25] They played.
[00:13:26] Yeah.
[00:13:27] They played good.
[00:13:28] They stuck in there.
[00:13:30] You know, they just stuck through and ended up with the victory.
[00:13:35] It was a good thing.
[00:13:36] Right.
[00:13:36] Well, the good thing about all this, guys, just face it.
[00:13:39] We are growing and we had to make changes to make sure the tournaments run on time.
[00:13:43] Mm-hmm.
[00:13:44] I've been promoting 33 years.
[00:13:45] And the first 20 years, we probably ran off more players than we kept with, you know, paper brackets, 5 a.m. finishes.
[00:13:53] Tournaments not running on schedule.
[00:13:55] Mm-hmm.
[00:13:55] And with the small changes we've made, we're running almost perfect tournaments.
[00:14:00] Every now and then, you're going to get a conflifter that's going to conflict a little bit.
[00:14:03] But for the most part, we can schedule them, run them.
[00:14:06] You know when you're going to play.
[00:14:08] And that's what we have to do to move forward.
[00:14:10] We've got to make sure the playing experience comes first above anything.
[00:14:14] One of the things that Ryan mentioned when we talked in Kentucky at Tornado Championships, he mentioned phases that he wants to introduce the new World Foosball Tour, one of which, phase number one, is to focus on pros and pro masters.
[00:14:32] What does that mean to you, Mary?
[00:14:35] Well, he's going to make it more prestigious to be a master.
[00:14:38] He's going to make it harder to become a master because there's too many masters there.
[00:14:43] Yes.
[00:14:43] You play 30 years, you're going to be a master on tour.
[00:14:46] You're just going to gain enough points to eventually you're there.
[00:14:48] But do you have the wins?
[00:14:49] Do you have the titles to deserve to be that master?
[00:14:52] And there's probably about 20 that do not.
[00:14:54] I'm not going to mention any names, obviously.
[00:14:57] Sure.
[00:14:57] And pros, the same thing.
[00:14:59] A lot of these pros should be experts still.
[00:15:01] So he just wants it to mean something.
[00:15:04] When you turn pro and you turn master, you've won a lot of money.
[00:15:07] You've won a lot of titles.
[00:15:09] And you deserve it.
[00:15:10] Yeah.
[00:15:10] And he's going to make it bigger and better.
[00:15:12] Their payouts will be bigger and better as he moves forward.
[00:15:15] Let him get his feet wet.
[00:15:16] Let him figure out what he's doing.
[00:15:18] And I think sponsorship will come in right behind that.
[00:15:22] Every dime he makes off the tour, he's putting back into the tour.
[00:15:26] Wow.
[00:15:26] So that's what every player needs to understand.
[00:15:29] His expenses are going to be way more than mine were because he's going all out.
[00:15:34] I mean, he's looking at getting a semi-truck and trailer.
[00:15:36] He's looking at doing all kinds of things that he needs to be successful at running this tour.
[00:15:41] You know, so I just hope that, you know, the economy stays good.
[00:15:47] Players give him some support.
[00:15:48] Let him get in there and do what he can do.
[00:15:50] And they'll be very happy in the long run.
[00:15:52] Everybody I've talked to so far, whether it be on air or off air, you know, private conversations have been nothing but, hey, this is going to be really interesting.
[00:16:01] Can't wait to see what happens.
[00:16:03] There's nobody that loves this game more than Ryan Moore.
[00:16:06] He grew up playing since he was two years old.
[00:16:09] Me and him have traveled to hundreds of tournaments together.
[00:16:12] He's been a professional player since he was 11 years old.
[00:16:15] I mean, he's never had a losing tournament.
[00:16:17] The guy loves foosball and he contributes foosball to where he's at in life.
[00:16:23] And he wants to give back to the sport that gave so much to him.
[00:16:26] Well, let's go back to 33 years.
[00:16:30] Because 33 years ago, you started promoting foosball.
[00:16:34] I got to ask you the question.
[00:16:35] Knowing what you know now, would you have done that 33 years ago?
[00:16:41] Would you have decided to do this?
[00:16:43] Let me tell you, 33 years ago, I could not find my son anywhere.
[00:16:46] I looked all over the house for him.
[00:16:48] I was panicking.
[00:16:49] And I went down in the basement, which he had never opened that door and crawled down them steps before.
[00:16:54] And I found him on my foosball table with the chair pulled up and he's kicking a ball around at two years old.
[00:17:00] Wow.
[00:17:00] And I knew right then and there, wow, he's going to be the number one player in the world someday.
[00:17:05] And that moment right there was what I knew that me and him were going to be doing foosball the rest of our lives together.
[00:17:12] And we did.
[00:17:13] Yeah.
[00:17:14] So that's a true story.
[00:17:15] That's great.
[00:17:16] I've never heard that before.
[00:17:17] That's amazing.
[00:17:19] And so now that you've gone through this, you're 33 years later.
[00:17:25] Is there anything you can think of off the top of your head?
[00:17:29] I wish I'd known X, Y, Z.
[00:17:32] And what would that be?
[00:17:36] Well, one thing I did, you know, I didn't do everything perfect, but I always learned from mistakes.
[00:17:43] If I did a bad promotion, I didn't turn around and do it again the next year.
[00:17:50] It's hard to say.
[00:17:52] I mean, I know I did a lot of things wrong and I did a lot of things right, but I've always been able to do what I've done because my husband's always stayed home and took care of the bills.
[00:18:00] Yes.
[00:18:00] So, you know, I've never had the money to market the sport like it should have been.
[00:18:06] I wish I could have had more money to market it, advertise it and get it out there.
[00:18:11] That's always, I mean, we live paycheck to paycheck.
[00:18:13] Sure.
[00:18:14] You know, tournament to tournament.
[00:18:16] Some years you lose, some years you make money, but I always stuck with it.
[00:18:20] So, I mean, I don't have any regrets.
[00:18:22] I just wish I could have done it better.
[00:18:24] Okay.
[00:18:24] You know, and I'm just not one to go out there and ask anybody for anything.
[00:18:30] So, I wish I would have had more nerve to go out there and try to get sponsorship throughout the way, you know.
[00:18:36] But I just, I always pretty much, Donald knows I try to do everything myself and I don't ask a lot except for him.
[00:18:43] Now I got him doing everything.
[00:18:44] Thank you, Donald.
[00:18:46] But now, I mean, I'm just saying, Tom, it's been tough and I wish I could have been better at marketing and better at social media and better at that kind of stuff to maybe get it a little bit farther than where it is.
[00:18:58] Well, I mean, you can't know everything.
[00:19:00] I mean, it's something like everything else.
[00:19:02] It's a progress.
[00:19:04] You make your mistakes in the beginning.
[00:19:06] You hopefully correct those mistakes along the way.
[00:19:08] And if you're not making mistakes, you're not learning anything.
[00:19:11] So, that's, and after 33 years, you probably have more knowledge about how to run a tournament than anybody else on the planet at this point.
[00:19:21] Let me tell you something.
[00:19:22] Let me tell you something about her.
[00:19:24] She can look at a schedule.
[00:19:27] Of anybody that's putting on a tournament, she can look at the schedule.
[00:19:31] And she can tell you if it's going to work or not going to work.
[00:19:33] She knows the order to put things in to make a tournament run smoothly.
[00:19:37] And she knows how to schedule events.
[00:19:41] That's what I'm talking about, scheduling events.
[00:19:43] Right.
[00:19:44] And she's done it so long.
[00:19:45] And I'm pretty much about there.
[00:19:47] I know how long it's going to take to run an event.
[00:19:50] But she knows how to get it flowing to where you have the least amount of conflicts.
[00:19:56] And that's how she's been able to get a lot of these tournaments done.
[00:20:00] Even before championship, we got away from them 5 and 6 a.m. tournaments.
[00:20:05] It was more like two or three sometimes.
[00:20:07] Sure.
[00:20:07] On really big ones.
[00:20:08] But, you know, championship format, it just helped it to where everything finishes early enough to where people don't have to.
[00:20:18] Like she said, if you win an event, you have time to go out to eat and celebrate.
[00:20:23] Mm-hmm.
[00:20:23] Yeah.
[00:20:24] Unless you're in other events.
[00:20:25] But, I mean, you know, it's really a good thing.
[00:20:29] I know people say stuff about it.
[00:20:33] And they have their reasons.
[00:20:35] But I can tell you, just talking to multiple people, whenever they say nobody likes it, that's not true.
[00:20:43] There's a lot of people who do like it.
[00:20:45] I have more people that like it than don't like it.
[00:20:48] You just hear from the ones that don't.
[00:20:49] Right.
[00:20:51] If they only knew a championship format, they would love it.
[00:20:54] Yeah.
[00:20:55] Right.
[00:20:55] Who does that 5 Bar podcast?
[00:21:00] 5 Bar podcast.
[00:21:00] It's a 5 Bar podcast.
[00:21:04] Hmm.
[00:21:04] There's a, this one, this one young man does something 5 Bar.
[00:21:08] Oh, is it, I think it was called Barbecue and You or something like that?
[00:21:13] Or.
[00:21:13] It could be.
[00:21:14] I'm not sure.
[00:21:15] But anyways, he made a comment that championship, first thing he says, championship format.
[00:21:20] Oh, you got to do away with that.
[00:21:21] That's no good.
[00:21:22] And he was going over Ryan's flyer.
[00:21:23] And the next thing he comes back and says, oh, look, they got the finals of open doubles and open singles already scheduled.
[00:21:30] I love that.
[00:21:30] Way to go.
[00:21:31] Well, that's only because of championship format.
[00:21:33] Can we do that?
[00:21:34] Yeah.
[00:21:34] Yeah.
[00:21:35] So, so, you know, I think once they understand why, what we're doing, and I think once you win king seat and you won the tournament, you're going to, you're going to like it.
[00:21:43] Right.
[00:21:44] Obviously, if you're the one double dipping all the time, like, you know, Tony and even Ryan, you may be hesitant, but those guys can still win king seat and still win it straight out.
[00:21:54] If they play their A game, you know, it's going to be tough for them to lose.
[00:21:57] That's the expectation, right?
[00:21:58] So it has to, everybody's game has to be elevated.
[00:22:01] There's no room.
[00:22:02] It's just like single elimination.
[00:22:03] Once you're out, you're out.
[00:22:04] Yeah.
[00:22:05] You know, that's it.
[00:22:06] And even if you're playing Swiss, you get to play a bunch of qualifier rounds.
[00:22:10] But if you lose first round, you're out, you're not in the money and it's over with.
[00:22:13] Mm-hmm.
[00:22:13] So, you know, everything's got its good and bad.
[00:22:15] But again, I knew Ryan was going to lean this direction.
[00:22:19] And so after watching me do it for a year, he compromised.
[00:22:22] The professional events that he's going to make a big production out of the finals, he's doing championship format.
[00:22:28] Good.
[00:22:28] The amateur rookie, those events, he's going to do double elimination for now because the two out of three matches, anything can happen in a two out of three.
[00:22:36] Yep.
[00:22:37] Yep, exactly right.
[00:22:37] So he's compromising.
[00:22:38] And moving forward, you know, as we grow bigger, he'll continuously have to make changes to get the tournament done on time.
[00:22:45] Oh, sure.
[00:22:46] I mean, the experimentation is going to continue, right?
[00:22:48] It doesn't end.
[00:22:49] Yes.
[00:22:49] And I can't imagine anything would be set in stone, especially in the first year.
[00:22:55] Oh, no.
[00:22:56] He's got to learn the software.
[00:22:58] He's got to.
[00:22:59] Yeah.
[00:22:59] I mean, he's got a lot to learn.
[00:23:02] And I'm going to consult for him for a year.
[00:23:04] That was my next question.
[00:23:08] How are you going to be involved now that you're going to be retired?
[00:23:11] For the next year, I'm going to be his go-to person.
[00:23:13] Anything he needs, I'll be there.
[00:23:14] And, of course, he's informed me I'm the babysitter now, which I'm happy with that, too.
[00:23:20] But, you know, I've got a five-year, well, soon to be five, and I've got a four- and three-year-old grandson that are going to be in all these tournaments.
[00:23:27] So I'll be there if I need it.
[00:23:29] And if nothing else, I'll be there with my grandchildren.
[00:23:31] And I would much rather be doing that than actually running the tournaments.
[00:23:35] I don't.
[00:23:35] You know, one of the reasons why I wanted to retire is, you know, I lost Bill Hayden as a driver back after COVID.
[00:23:42] And after driving to Vegas five years before Bill by myself and then having Bill for four years and then turn around and not having Bill, that last trip this year, driving to Vegas and back, that's when I knew I was definitely turning the reins over to Ryan.
[00:23:58] I got you.
[00:23:58] You know, I'm just too old to be out on that road with that truck and trailer and doing all that.
[00:24:03] Oh, that's a lot.
[00:24:04] I'm surprised.
[00:24:04] I'm really shocked that you actually did that.
[00:24:08] Most people would never attempt it.
[00:24:10] Well, it's, I mean, it's affordability.
[00:24:12] You can either drive your equipment there and back or you can't afford to do it, you know.
[00:24:16] Right, right.
[00:24:17] So, but, you know, a lot of good times, a lot of bad times, a lot of times being broke down on the road, a lot of times swearing I never do it again.
[00:24:24] You know, then God always puts something in my lifetime that says, okay, you're here for a bigger purpose than just running foosball.
[00:24:31] And I found out what that was.
[00:24:32] And that's another reason why I wanted to retire is I'll be more beneficial to foosball now that I'm retired than I was as a promoter.
[00:24:43] Okay.
[00:24:43] I can now go out and really try to get this Foosball Clubs USA program going in schools with nothing to benefit by.
[00:24:51] Yeah.
[00:24:52] There's, I don't own the tour now.
[00:24:54] There's nothing financially involved for me going out promoting and talking to these teacher unions and all this stuff.
[00:24:59] And so at the end of this year, that's what I plan on doing for 25 and 26 is dedicating two hard years of really trying to get that program growing.
[00:25:08] Yes.
[00:25:10] They're going to look at me and say, here's a woman that's got kids that's doing this for the love of kids and to keep them out of trouble.
[00:25:16] Yep.
[00:25:17] And that's what I needed.
[00:25:17] I can't do it.
[00:25:18] Oh, she's trying to promote her tour.
[00:25:20] Oh, she wants our kids so she can make money.
[00:25:23] Nope.
[00:25:23] You know, that just didn't go hand in hand.
[00:25:25] So I think I got bigger plans than what I ever thought I was there for foosball.
[00:25:31] There's bigger plans for me, I hope, that I can accomplish.
[00:25:35] Oh, yeah.
[00:25:35] I think, you know, following the footsteps of someone like John O'Brien, who really began Foosball Clubs USA, his course, his ambition, his drive were pretty amazing, you know, and sadly that we've lost him.
[00:25:50] Uh, it's great to know that someone like yourself, uh, with, with such background and such experience and such drive, uh, is ready to step up and, and, uh, and do that.
[00:25:59] That's fantastic.
[00:26:00] Well, let me tell you a quick story.
[00:26:01] I said a prayer and I asked God for help on getting kids, school kids, foosball.
[00:26:09] Mm-hmm.
[00:26:10] 30 days later, I get a call from John O'Brien.
[00:26:13] Oh.
[00:26:13] Never met him before in my life.
[00:26:15] And he says, hi, I'm John O'Brien.
[00:26:17] I teach at so-and-so school.
[00:26:19] I have a bunch of kids that are getting good at foosball.
[00:26:21] Where can we compete with other schools at?
[00:26:23] And I said, hello, John.
[00:26:25] I said, you're the answer to my prayers.
[00:26:27] And from that point on, me and him discussed what was needed.
[00:26:31] I said, how can we get through all these no's that we get?
[00:26:33] Yep.
[00:26:39] Give us a great deal on, on the YDT table, youth development table.
[00:26:43] Mm-hmm.
[00:26:44] He grew the New York school systems and, um, the last 90 days of his life, he did the curriculum
[00:26:52] for any PE teacher can run a three week course in any school and never even seen a foosball
[00:26:59] table for, and it worked great.
[00:27:00] It was tested right after he passed away.
[00:27:02] Okay.
[00:27:03] The PE teacher said they loved it.
[00:27:05] And now we have that curriculum and we have some great people, um, Michael Stahl Jr.
[00:27:11] and Josh Sarpy and some other people that are really involved in foosball clubs.
[00:27:14] Yep.
[00:27:15] And we're going to carry his legacy on because, um, again, he was the answer to all of our
[00:27:20] prayers and, you know, unfortunately he was taken sooner than we, you know, then he should
[00:27:24] have went, but now it's up to us to keep what he started going.
[00:27:28] So that's what I hope to do.
[00:27:29] And Ryan's going to be heavily involved with that too.
[00:27:32] He wants to promote for the kids too.
[00:27:34] Right.
[00:27:34] No, it's, it's a, that is, that's the goldmine right there.
[00:27:37] That's really, when it comes to sustaining a sport like this, you get kids early on and
[00:27:42] it's the ones that really start those, you know, let's say grade school, middle school
[00:27:46] ages that really do have enough skill, enough time to become true pro masters.
[00:27:52] You know, when they stick with it.
[00:27:53] But Tom, we're not doing it for the sport.
[00:27:55] That's not for foosball.
[00:27:57] Okay.
[00:27:57] We're doing it to keep the kids off the street in the school.
[00:28:00] So they will have accomplished and graduate and have some for their life.
[00:28:04] It is not about growing foosball.
[00:28:06] Now, if that goes hand in hand and that happens, great.
[00:28:09] But if not one kid ever goes on tour and plays, but they're staying after school playing foosball
[00:28:15] and they're not out getting in trouble, that's my, that's my, my goal.
[00:28:19] Yes.
[00:28:19] That's a, that's, that's really, um, I, I, I, I appreciate you, uh, uh, clarifying because
[00:28:26] that is truly the case.
[00:28:27] Uh, think about how difficult it is just to get, uh, youngsters today, just to put this
[00:28:32] thing down, just put it down.
[00:28:34] Exactly.
[00:28:35] Yeah.
[00:28:36] And take, take the time to, to relate to another person, just talking to them face to face
[00:28:40] and then, and having some fun.
[00:28:42] Well, that's what the PE teacher loved about that program is that all the kids,
[00:28:45] kids in the class were now communicating with each other, kids that would never talk to
[00:28:49] each other.
[00:28:50] And, uh, it, it brings them together.
[00:28:53] Children love foosball.
[00:28:54] When they see a foosball table, they'll come running and they'll come play it.
[00:28:57] Yes.
[00:28:58] Um, it's a great tool to keep them in school and to, to let them be sociable.
[00:29:02] Yeah.
[00:29:02] It's a, it's a, it's a natural.
[00:29:05] And, uh, I think especially because it just seems like, um, it seems at first like a simple
[00:29:11] game to them, but then eventually they start to learn the nuance of it and then they
[00:29:14] become addicted to it.
[00:29:15] And that's, you got them.
[00:29:17] Like we all did.
[00:29:18] Yep.
[00:29:19] Exactly.
[00:29:20] Exactly.
[00:29:20] I still, I still remember, uh, the first night that I saw a foosball table in my, my, uh,
[00:29:25] in my neighborhood, there was a, an Italian restaurant, a pizzeria down the street and,
[00:29:30] uh, they always had pinball there and we'd go and play pinball, but they, one night had
[00:29:33] a, had set up a bonzini table in the, in the, in the, in the pizzeria.
[00:29:37] I'm like, what, what, what is that thing?
[00:29:40] And it was just, it began a lifelong fascination, you know, just that from that moment on.
[00:29:45] And you never forget stuff like that.
[00:29:47] Oh, I know.
[00:29:48] I was playing when I was eight years old at the skating rink and I've played my whole
[00:29:51] life.
[00:29:51] We school used to, the bell used to ring and we would, uh, head down to the arcade, play
[00:29:57] foosball.
[00:29:58] You know, I used, you know, I was hooked on it from eight years old on up to now.
[00:30:02] Wow.
[00:30:02] And that's the one thing about retiring.
[00:30:04] I am, I am going to become a player again.
[00:30:06] Oh no.
[00:30:07] I haven't got to play much in the last 10 years.
[00:30:08] So I'm excited about that.
[00:30:10] That's awesome.
[00:30:11] Um, you know what I'm looking forward to?
[00:30:13] What's that?
[00:30:15] Mary Moore, you're on recall table six.
[00:30:21] Don't get forfeited out, Mary.
[00:30:22] Don't let it happen.
[00:30:23] Don't, don't let it happen.
[00:30:24] You got to treat one as equal to the other.
[00:30:27] So if I'm not there, you forfeit me.
[00:30:30] And I'll see how long you work for Ryan.
[00:30:31] I'm just kidding.
[00:30:34] Oh, no, I never asked for any, you never, I'm never with the one not there, you know,
[00:30:39] unless I'm working and I won't be working.
[00:30:40] So I'll be the first one there.
[00:30:42] I'm ready.
[00:30:43] I'm ready to play.
[00:30:44] That's that's, uh, we, we expect that of you and we know that'll be the case, but just
[00:30:49] in case, you know, it happens.
[00:30:51] But, um, so, okay, here's another question I want to ask about the early days.
[00:30:56] Uh, let's go back to that first year.
[00:30:58] Uh, what was that like?
[00:31:02] Just, just overall, what was your overall impression of what you were doing?
[00:31:06] Um, how did you feel after your first year of promoting foosball?
[00:31:10] What was that like?
[00:31:11] My first tournament, I went to, um, I went to the worlds.
[00:31:15] I went to the U S open when I went to the U S open up in Minnesota, I walked in.
[00:31:19] I said, wow, this is what I want to do.
[00:31:21] Yeah.
[00:31:22] When I walked in there and saw 200 foosball tables, I knew that's what I wanted to do.
[00:31:26] I left there with eight tables, brought them back to Lexington.
[00:31:29] Uh, about eight more tables from a David Dent and Sue Dent from Mississippi.
[00:31:34] And we ran our first tournament at a little bar called the right club.
[00:31:38] Oh, uh, leading up to that tournament, I went to every tornado tournament.
[00:31:42] There was collecting names, addresses, trying to build up a player's list.
[00:31:47] And, um, then we, we set up at this tournament and over a hundred something people show up and
[00:31:54] I don't even know how to run a bracket and I'm thinking, Oh wait, you actually, I know
[00:31:58] what you're doing here.
[00:32:00] Uh, thank goodness.
[00:32:01] Cecilia Cody came in and Eddie Cody came in from North Carolina and they used to help
[00:32:05] Charles McIntosh all the time with his tournaments.
[00:32:07] They ran the brackets for me.
[00:32:09] And, uh, I started from there.
[00:32:11] I learned as I went, but, um, you know, that was the one tournament.
[00:32:15] And, and then I knew right then the next year we had to be in a hotel because we had way
[00:32:19] too many players there.
[00:32:20] And by the way, we had an expert team win Ray Har and Bill Ray won beating Steve Biney
[00:32:26] and Don Swan in the finals.
[00:32:27] Really?
[00:32:28] So we had some of the top players in the world there.
[00:32:30] Cause I went around, you know, inviting all these people to my tournament and they showed
[00:32:34] up.
[00:32:34] So, okay.
[00:32:35] Yeah.
[00:32:35] It was a learning experience and I went from one to two to three to four tournaments,
[00:32:39] um, regionally.
[00:32:41] And, um, then in 2008 tornado, it went from five, four, three down to two tournaments.
[00:32:48] And Ryan's getting great.
[00:32:50] And I'm thinking, oh my God, I got to keep a tour going for Ryan and Tony.
[00:32:54] So I created all these events across the country during the worst economic times there
[00:32:58] was eight through 15.
[00:33:00] Yep.
[00:33:01] And practically went broke at every one of them, but I kept trucking around the country, just
[00:33:05] trying to keep foosball alive and going.
[00:33:07] Um, you know, because I love the sport.
[00:33:10] It wasn't about making money.
[00:33:11] It wasn't about, it was about losing it for a while until I ran out.
[00:33:14] And then Ryan says, you know, mom cut my paycheck.
[00:33:17] You know, if players can't afford to come, if you have to cut the payouts a little bit,
[00:33:21] just advertise projected payouts.
[00:33:23] So we had to do that for two years.
[00:33:25] Okay.
[00:33:25] Um, then 2016, everything kicked back up and it went on.
[00:33:29] But, you know, back in the nineties when I was running just two events a year, the
[00:33:33] tour kickoff, which actually was the Superbowl foosball.
[00:33:36] Yep.
[00:33:37] And then we had to change the name because of the Superbowl rights and it was Kentucky
[00:33:41] state.
[00:33:41] You know, I did that for quite a few years, just running those two.
[00:33:44] And then I picked up Slammers tournament.
[00:33:47] The, the frog lost the Memorial, you know, just picked up a few tournaments along the
[00:33:50] way.
[00:33:50] Okay.
[00:33:51] Um, so, you know, I just learned a lot.
[00:33:53] I tried to give away a couple of cars and lost about 20,000 at that tournament.
[00:33:57] Wait a second.
[00:33:58] You tried to give away cars?
[00:34:00] Yeah.
[00:34:00] The, um, um, striker tournament gave away two trucks, Garrett Scherkenbach and Thor Donovan
[00:34:06] won them.
[00:34:06] Oh, wow.
[00:34:07] I was there.
[00:34:07] I was adminning that tournament.
[00:34:09] They hired me to come up and run it for them and take the money.
[00:34:13] And I thought, Oh, how cool will that be to give away a couple of cars?
[00:34:16] So the next year I did a promotion to give away cars.
[00:34:23] And by the time the tournament came for the cars, everybody was so broke.
[00:34:27] They couldn't, people that qualified, couldn't even show up.
[00:34:29] Wow.
[00:34:30] So it was just a bad time of year.
[00:34:31] Uh, Terry, uh, Moore and Bobby Diaz won the cars.
[00:34:34] And of course they took the cash out offer, which was 15,200 for first.
[00:34:38] I had to beat tornadoes first place payout by $200.
[00:34:41] That was my pride.
[00:34:42] It took me a year to pay them off, but I paid them off eventually.
[00:34:45] Uh, and I never did that tournament again.
[00:34:48] Again, I learned from my mistakes.
[00:34:49] Yes.
[00:34:49] You know, I didn't try it again.
[00:34:50] Yeah.
[00:34:51] Um, but yeah, we've done a lot of crazy things, trying to make it super nice, you know, tournaments
[00:34:55] in Hawaii, you name it, you know, and.
[00:34:57] That's what I was about to ask you, Mary.
[00:34:59] I want to ask you some questions too.
[00:35:01] Where, where, where was one, where was one of your, I guess, funnest or best location
[00:35:06] to have a foosball tournament?
[00:35:09] As far as.
[00:35:11] Hawaii, of course.
[00:35:12] I mean, Hawaii was, you know, uh, we, we did two of them there.
[00:35:15] Uh, one on warrior and one on tornado.
[00:35:18] Uh, the one on warrior had a lot more people because Brendan paid for everybody to come out.
[00:35:23] Uh, the one on tornado people that qualified just couldn't afford the airfare to come out.
[00:35:27] That's that was back in 2010 and 11 and, and.
[00:35:30] And economic times were just too tough.
[00:35:33] But, um, you know, I guess I got to go back to saying where I'm into my tour in new Orleans
[00:35:38] down Louisiana.
[00:35:39] That's, that's been my favorite tournament and it's because the players there are just
[00:35:43] so awesome.
[00:35:44] And you hear miss Mary.
[00:35:46] Thank you, miss Mary.
[00:35:47] They're so appreciative.
[00:35:48] And, um, it's just, uh, that's always been one of my favorite areas just because I'm so
[00:35:53] well liked and loved there.
[00:35:55] Everybody treats me great there.
[00:35:56] That's grace.
[00:35:57] You know, not that they don't other places, but you know, new Orleans is, uh,
[00:36:00] you know, used to be a fun place to go to.
[00:36:03] It's a little bit on the scary side now, but you know, we pretty much stay close to the
[00:36:07] hotel now.
[00:36:08] Oh, Southern hospitality.
[00:36:11] Yeah.
[00:36:12] The hospitality is great.
[00:36:14] And the food's great.
[00:36:15] Everything about new Orleans is great.
[00:36:16] You know, they, I enjoy it.
[00:36:18] That's what you hear most about.
[00:36:19] I thought it was proper to end my year there.
[00:36:21] That's why I did it in the last tournament of the year.
[00:36:23] Yep.
[00:36:25] And it's, uh, Mary, what is the furthest tournament away from your house that you ever run?
[00:36:33] That I've ever, well, I mean, California, I was in Los Angeles.
[00:36:37] I ran two tournaments out there.
[00:36:39] Ooh.
[00:36:39] You sure there wasn't something further away from your house?
[00:36:42] Well, okay.
[00:36:42] We did the, uh, German tournament.
[00:36:44] We, uh, yeah, we did one over in Germany.
[00:36:47] Um, can't forget about that one.
[00:36:49] That was a good tournament.
[00:36:51] Um, tornado sponsored a European tournament and sent us over there with 50 tables and we
[00:36:57] ran one over there.
[00:36:58] So, uh, that was a fun experience.
[00:37:00] Um, and what was the, what was the, what was the response?
[00:37:04] That's when it became international foosball.
[00:37:06] Yeah.
[00:37:06] When I did that one, I said, okay, now I'm international.
[00:37:08] So I went from independent to international foosball.
[00:37:11] That's what was, I was going to ask that question, how that, uh, how that took place.
[00:37:14] And, and that was it because you went to Germany to, to run that tournament.
[00:37:17] Um, what was the turnout like in Germany, by the way?
[00:37:21] Oh, we thought it was going to be great.
[00:37:23] That's back when P4P was drawing eight to 800 to a thousand players.
[00:37:28] So we sent 50 tables over there, but looking at room sales, I knew we were going to have
[00:37:33] a low turnout and we unfortunately did not get any of the P4P players to cross over, but
[00:37:39] every European tornado player from around about 150 of them showed up.
[00:37:44] Okay.
[00:37:45] So we did a, I think it was about $30,000 tournament with 150 players broke even on the
[00:37:51] payouts.
[00:37:51] We were, it was guaranteed no matter what, but we did not cover any of the expenses.
[00:37:55] And so that was the last one that tornado sponsored because it was very expensive to
[00:38:00] get those tables over there.
[00:38:01] Oh yeah.
[00:38:02] And so, so that was a learning lesson, but we kind of thought, we hope, like I said,
[00:38:07] P4P just wouldn't cross over.
[00:38:09] They're used to five, six, $7 entry fees.
[00:38:12] Oh sure.
[00:38:13] We had our entries low, 15, 20 lower than they've ever been.
[00:38:17] That's not bad.
[00:38:17] Knowing that they wouldn't pay much more than that, but they just wouldn't cross over.
[00:38:20] They, they liked their table and they just were not going to cross over.
[00:38:23] Now a ton of them came and looked and watched and checked us out, but they didn't buy into
[00:38:27] any of the events.
[00:38:28] Okay.
[00:38:29] Okay.
[00:38:29] But it was still a well-ran tournament and it was a great representation of tornado and
[00:38:34] it was a good idea.
[00:38:35] You know, Link Pendley was there with us then and he was helped coordinate it and, you know,
[00:38:41] it was a great time, but it just, unfortunately it didn't happen like we wanted.
[00:38:45] We were hoping to do a tour over there, you know, that one tournament and then the next
[00:38:50] year doing a couple.
[00:38:52] And again, they took such a big loss on the first one.
[00:38:54] They decided to can it.
[00:38:56] Got it.
[00:38:56] Yeah.
[00:38:57] I mean, what was an experiment?
[00:38:58] So yes, it was.
[00:39:00] Yeah.
[00:39:01] Here's a quick question off of, off topic a bit here, but as a professional promoter
[00:39:08] of foosball, of course, in the beginning you had to learn by your mistakes, but was there
[00:39:13] one person that you can name that you used as a mentor, someone that you would turn to,
[00:39:18] to, to help you most often?
[00:39:19] Who would that person be?
[00:39:22] Well, Tom, I've had so many people help me along the way.
[00:39:26] We can sit here and talk forever.
[00:39:27] It's, it wasn't one person.
[00:39:29] Like I told you, every time I felt defeated or like I should quit, God would put somebody
[00:39:35] else in my hands or at my, at my need to help me.
[00:39:42] Charles McIntosh was a big help.
[00:39:45] Yes.
[00:39:45] Me and him worked together for a long time.
[00:39:48] Donna Carroll, them turned over the Slammers tournament to me.
[00:39:51] They were a big help.
[00:39:53] Matt Jenkins has always been there to help me along the way with whatever I needed.
[00:39:58] There's just so many people.
[00:39:59] Then Kristen and John were the ones that loaned me the money to start my tour of Maryland foosball.
[00:40:04] So, and, you know, and then, then my wonderful staff and everybody, you know, Donald has been on with us now for a long time.
[00:40:12] And all the people that's been with us is, is helped me get where it's going.
[00:40:16] But the one inspiration was my son.
[00:40:18] I had to keep the tour going for Ryan.
[00:40:20] That's just all there was too.
[00:40:22] I knew he was going to be number one in the world and I couldn't let foosball die.
[00:40:25] As crazy as that sounds, but that's what was in the back of my mind.
[00:40:28] Plus we got to travel together all the time.
[00:40:30] It was special.
[00:40:31] It's a family thing.
[00:40:32] And, uh, always be family.
[00:40:34] We've been all over the world together.
[00:40:36] The, the short amount of time that I've been going to tournaments, uh, again, starting in 2019, as far as foosball radio and foos talk live is concerned.
[00:40:43] Um, I've discovered that very quickly that, uh, you know, now that I go back to tournaments and, and see people I haven't seen for, let's say a year.
[00:40:50] It's, it's like old home day.
[00:40:52] It's, it's great.
[00:40:53] It's a, it's a great feeling.
[00:40:54] And I think, uh, you're responsible for a lot of that because people feel like we go to a married tournament.
[00:40:59] We're going to see everybody.
[00:41:01] And that's what it is.
[00:41:02] A lot of family and friends gather and you family and friends, you meet at every tournament, you know, and Lee Penley had a big part of me taking over the tour.
[00:41:10] He fought real hard for, for Kelly to, I got a phone.
[00:41:13] Here's, here's another story real quick.
[00:41:16] I'll say it.
[00:41:17] I'm sitting here at, uh, ending my journey with warrior.
[00:41:20] Brendan decided to hang it up for a while.
[00:41:22] He had lost a lot of money and I'm having this, uh, players party at my house in Texas where I was living at the time.
[00:41:29] And, uh, everybody's having breakfast.
[00:41:31] And the next morning I say a prayer, God, what do you want me to do now?
[00:41:36] You know, uh, tornado hates me.
[00:41:38] And, uh, Brendan has divorced me and, you know, what's my next step?
[00:41:43] And, and Tom, I'm telling you within a minute later, that phone rings and it's link Penley on the phone saying, Mary, uh, I see you and Brendan got a divorce.
[00:41:52] And I said, yeah, kind of.
[00:41:53] And he said, well, Kelly would like to put tornado on your tour and sponsor your tour.
[00:41:58] Oh, that's, that's a minute after I said a prayer to God, what am I to do next?
[00:42:03] And, uh, Easter Sunday was the next day.
[00:42:05] And I went and had dinner with Marsha and Link and we met Kelly a couple of days later and we worked it out.
[00:42:10] And then tornado has been sponsoring me ever since.
[00:42:13] So, you know, they're a big part of my success too with them back on the tour for me taking it over.
[00:42:18] They didn't want to lose any more money doing tournaments and they felt like I ran good tournaments and it was just a win-win for both of us.
[00:42:25] So, uh, again, every time, every time I've tried to exit or somebody tried to make me exit, something keeps me going.
[00:42:33] Like Michael Corleone in the Godfather.
[00:42:37] Every time I get out, they pull me back in.
[00:42:40] And it's just, it's a fact.
[00:42:42] And again, I feel like, I felt like all this time, you know, it was to keep foosball alive for Ryan, but I, there's a bigger picture there.
[00:42:48] And John O'Brien, you know, came into my life and showed me what that picture was.
[00:42:51] So we'll see if I'm successful.
[00:42:53] I don't have any excuses that I work too much now.
[00:42:56] I don't have any excuses that I'm on the road driving all the time.
[00:42:59] So there's no excuse for me not to reach the goals that I want to reach.
[00:43:03] And, uh, does that also mean you can come back on Foos Talk Live more often?
[00:43:07] Yeah, I think so.
[00:43:08] Okay.
[00:43:09] All right.
[00:43:09] Just checking.
[00:43:11] Yeah.
[00:43:12] I'm not, I'm not one for getting on there.
[00:43:14] I'm not one for tooting my horn.
[00:43:15] I like to do things in, in the back of the ground and I just want to make everybody happy.
[00:43:20] I'm a people pleaser.
[00:43:21] I like to entertain.
[00:43:22] I love to have, uh, gatherings.
[00:43:25] Um, and so foosball has been a great fit for me because that's what you're doing.
[00:43:29] You're entertaining.
[00:43:30] You got it.
[00:43:30] You're hosting a big party.
[00:43:31] Yeah.
[00:43:32] Um, you're meeting new friends and you know, that's kind of the way I've always lived my life.
[00:43:36] So I've been lucky and I've been blessed.
[00:43:39] Yeah.
[00:43:39] Uh, you've got to be a wonderful host or hostess.
[00:43:42] I guess if you want to use the, use the proper terminology hostess, but yeah, I mean, you're,
[00:43:46] you're, you're a wonderful host.
[00:43:48] And, uh, uh, again, going to a tournament, uh, that you put on is always guaranteed to
[00:43:53] be good times.
[00:43:54] Always guaranteed.
[00:43:55] Um, even, even if there's a fire at TKO this last year, we've had it all.
[00:44:02] We've had it all.
[00:44:03] We've had, um, hurricanes, uh, uh, earthquakes at our tournaments, tornadoes, um, fire.
[00:44:11] I mean, it's just, you name it.
[00:44:12] It seems like we've had it all.
[00:44:14] Yeah.
[00:44:14] No kidding.
[00:44:14] Um, okay.
[00:44:16] Let me ask you this.
[00:44:17] And Don kind of alluded to this as well, but, um, if you could go back in time and choose
[00:44:23] one moment, you know, in, in, uh, your foosball promoting history, what moment would you like
[00:44:29] most to live over again?
[00:44:34] Wow.
[00:44:39] That's heavy.
[00:44:42] I don't know.
[00:44:43] That's, that's a tough one.
[00:44:44] One time in my foosball history that I'd like to relive.
[00:44:48] I mean, I don't know.
[00:44:54] I, I, I tell you it's, um, I would love to, to do another Hawaii tournament.
[00:44:58] I'd like to have another qualifier.
[00:45:00] Cool.
[00:45:01] Across the country where everybody could qualify and have our tournament in Hawaii.
[00:45:05] That was just one of the best promotions we ever did.
[00:45:08] Not financially, but just something special for the players.
[00:45:11] So that's, that's something that I would like to relive and do.
[00:45:15] Okay.
[00:45:16] Okay.
[00:45:16] Very well.
[00:45:17] I hope that comes true because, uh, two of my good friends, uh, live in Hawaii who are
[00:45:22] retired, uh, but are both foosball players and they're desperate.
[00:45:26] They're, they're really, they, they talk to me on a regular basis saying, Hey man, I don't
[00:45:29] have a table here.
[00:45:31] It's expensive to get one.
[00:45:32] Um, but I wish there was some, you know, some kind of scene or at least some kind of
[00:45:36] tournament that I could go to here in Hawaii.
[00:45:38] So, well, at least two players anyway.
[00:45:41] Well, look, she, she almost pulled off a tournament that would have really been an awesome tournament
[00:45:48] to go work and go to.
[00:45:51] She, she was like that close to having a tournament up by Niagara Falls.
[00:45:59] Oh, interesting.
[00:46:01] Okay.
[00:46:02] That would have been a great tournament.
[00:46:03] I've never been there.
[00:46:04] We had a two-year contract at the main gate entrance of Niagara Falls at the Sheraton and COVID hit.
[00:46:09] And, and we got, had to cancel both years cause that New York was shut down completely.
[00:46:14] I remember this now.
[00:46:15] Okay.
[00:46:15] This, this brings back.
[00:46:16] That was going to be a great one.
[00:46:18] Yeah.
[00:46:19] I think just for the location.
[00:46:21] And, uh, and, uh, so that was, that was, that was, I mean, that was then and then COVID hit and
[00:46:27] then the economy started.
[00:46:29] Uh, I mean, it's just, we never could get back there at that point in time.
[00:46:33] No, I understand.
[00:46:33] It's, uh, we, uh, in, within the New York area have been really trying to put our heads
[00:46:39] together to, to come up with some idea to do at least a regional, maybe a multi-state
[00:46:43] tournament that would include the Northeast because there's a good player base here.
[00:46:48] There's, there's a decent number of people.
[00:46:50] And now of course we've inherited Tommy Yore.
[00:46:53] Um, you know, just for the sake of, of, uh, him being able to, to, to, uh, not have to
[00:46:58] take a hotel and come, come to a tournament nearby would be, would be amazing.
[00:47:03] Um, but it's, it's really difficult.
[00:47:05] As you know, uh, we've, we've, uh, contacted hotels.
[00:47:08] Some of them don't have enough space.
[00:47:10] Um, some aren't willing to negotiate the price of a ballroom, that kind of thing.
[00:47:15] So it's, it's challenging.
[00:47:19] Well, for you, if y'all want to do it in Buffalo at Niagara Falls, the main gate, they keep,
[00:47:23] they keep, they keep emailing me and keep wanting me to create an event there.
[00:47:27] Okay.
[00:47:28] I think, uh, I talked to some of the New York guys in Vegas, you know, and, uh, they later
[00:47:35] responded to me.
[00:47:36] They are having a hard time finding a place and securing a venue.
[00:47:38] So, uh, they want to be, I think, uh, in a, in a different area than, than where Niagara
[00:47:44] Falls is, but I mean, that would be a great draw.
[00:47:47] Oh yeah.
[00:47:48] No question.
[00:47:49] Um, we have a lot of players who come down just for our regional smash down, which we do
[00:47:54] about four times a year.
[00:47:55] We get players from Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa.
[00:47:58] Uh, we get players from New York city.
[00:48:00] We get players from Vermont, New Hampshire, um, Massachusetts, uh, Rhode Island.
[00:48:06] Uh, so it's, it's not, uh, it's not an impossibility.
[00:48:11] I, again, we have the player base.
[00:48:12] It's just now, where do we find something that's centrally located that has a, a decent
[00:48:17] enough venue where people can stay, uh, preferably closer to an airport of some kind.
[00:48:23] Right.
[00:48:23] Right.
[00:48:24] It's about a 15 minute to the Buffalo airport.
[00:48:26] Um, so it would be a 15 minute Uber.
[00:48:30] Um, yeah, when Kevin Westcott and I was working together, it took me a long time to find him
[00:48:36] a hotel.
[00:48:36] Right.
[00:48:37] And I finally found him a holiday in ballroom wasn't really big.
[00:48:41] So it was great for, you know, maybe a 10 grander, but that was it.
[00:48:44] Sure.
[00:48:45] That was, that was, uh, there in Florida were the two hardest places I could ever find to
[00:48:50] try to contract a hotel because they had, yeah, they don't need to give you a ballroom
[00:48:55] for free in order to sell rooms because they sell their rooms anyway.
[00:48:59] So that makes it a tough market.
[00:49:01] Yeah.
[00:49:01] New York's just expensive all the way around anyways.
[00:49:04] Well, that's, that is true.
[00:49:05] I mean, we have a higher cost of living.
[00:49:07] There's no doubt about that.
[00:49:08] It's just, um, you know, we, uh, when you've got a player base, a decent sized player base,
[00:49:14] it really does, uh, behoove to say, okay, here's something we need to think about.
[00:49:19] And, and of course, until people start putting their heads together and really considering
[00:49:22] what it takes to do, uh, you know, kudos to Kevin Westcott.
[00:49:26] Cause he did New York state, what for, for almost what, eight, nine years, something like
[00:49:30] that.
[00:49:30] He did it for quite a while.
[00:49:32] He did it for quite a while.
[00:49:33] Yep.
[00:49:33] You know, and then you've got Matt McCrory up there promoting and you've got other people
[00:49:37] promoting and you got Sam that lives up there.
[00:49:39] I mean, uh, no doubt you'll eventually have one.
[00:49:43] And of course, Ryan will be there to facilitate any tournament that people, you know, reach out
[00:49:48] to.
[00:49:48] He's only going to do his four majors.
[00:49:50] Yes.
[00:49:51] Um, you know, matter of fact, you know, Louisiana state has always been my tournament and I talked
[00:49:56] to him about that.
[00:49:57] It's a decent tournament.
[00:49:59] We, you know, we do pretty good on that tournament.
[00:50:01] Sure.
[00:50:01] Um, but, uh, I always told Mark Matarese, if I ever quit, I would turn it over to him,
[00:50:07] obviously.
[00:50:08] Well, I didn't quit.
[00:50:09] I kind of sold it out to Ryan.
[00:50:11] You know, he's kind of taken over, but Ryan thought about it and he says, no, go ahead
[00:50:15] and give it to Mark.
[00:50:16] I don't want any state tournaments.
[00:50:18] I'll help facilitate them.
[00:50:19] Um, I just want to focus on the four majors.
[00:50:22] So this year I'll do Louisiana state and then Mark Matarese will be the new promoter and
[00:50:27] owner of that tournament.
[00:50:28] And him and Donald will be working together on that.
[00:50:30] Gotcha.
[00:50:31] Gotcha.
[00:50:31] Gotcha.
[00:50:32] I've heard all.
[00:50:32] Donald, you're back.
[00:50:33] I see we just, we lost you there.
[00:50:36] Yeah.
[00:50:36] People were needing to get out of the driveway and, uh, my family's well, Kim's in here
[00:50:41] with me now.
[00:50:41] So we're on the move.
[00:50:44] Okay.
[00:50:44] Hi, Kim.
[00:50:45] That means I'll be home in an hour and a half.
[00:50:47] Yay.
[00:50:48] While I mentioned Louisiana state players, uh, our deadline on the room, I think is coming
[00:50:53] up on the 20th.
[00:50:54] So there's still rooms available call and book your rooms.
[00:50:58] And, and if they say there's not, I just need to put a phone call in and get them to
[00:51:02] add more rooms to the block.
[00:51:03] I've already put an email in, but I haven't heard back from them.
[00:51:06] I probably will hear something on Monday.
[00:51:08] Um, but, uh, I mean, a $79 room rate, you can't beat that.
[00:51:13] And, uh, slower, low entry fees, a good tournament, lots of fun events and.
[00:51:18] A farewell tournament.
[00:51:20] Well, yeah, it's, it's my farewell promoting tournament.
[00:51:24] Yeah.
[00:51:24] Again, I'm coming back as a player and the babysitter.
[00:51:27] Well, let's talk about that.
[00:51:29] Let's talk about playing.
[00:51:30] Um, so you got some partners lined up for, uh, for 2025.
[00:51:35] Um, for, for 2025.
[00:51:37] Um, uh, one partner I have is for worlds and that's Kathy Atkinson.
[00:51:43] Nice.
[00:51:43] Uh, we were going to play this year's worlds together and I, you know, with me turning it
[00:51:48] over to Ryan and everything that was going on, my mind probably wasn't in the, the, the
[00:51:53] rights thing.
[00:51:54] Her back was hurting.
[00:51:55] So we decided we're going to hopefully play together some this year, practice some together
[00:52:00] and play there.
[00:52:01] Um, got Ryan for Louisiana state for open doubles and open mix.
[00:52:07] Uh, I expect after we win those two events, I won't have much problems getting partners.
[00:52:11] Uh, I can imagine.
[00:52:15] Gee, wonder why.
[00:52:16] Um, yeah, no, I'm, uh, I'm, I'm psyched now.
[00:52:20] Can you review?
[00:52:21] I know Ryan has told us a lot about what, what he's planning on doing for, for the world foosball
[00:52:26] tour, but that conversation or conversations you've been having with your son, what is,
[00:52:32] um, can you share with us the number one piece of advice you shared with your son before you
[00:52:37] said, let's do this?
[00:52:40] Well, giving him advice is very hard because he, yeah, he, he likes to think things through
[00:52:47] his way, but I mean, he does listen to everything I say.
[00:52:53] There's there.
[00:52:54] I've gave him so much advice, Tom.
[00:52:56] There's it.
[00:52:57] They're all important.
[00:52:58] Everything I've told him is important.
[00:52:59] There's not one thing that I, that I told him that is not as important as something else
[00:53:04] to be successful in it.
[00:53:05] Um, but I did tell him, you know, do what you want, figure it out.
[00:53:10] Um, just remember that the main thing is, is having all the events that we have brings
[00:53:20] you all the players.
[00:53:21] I mean, if you try to go like the world series, like the ITSF world series and just do open
[00:53:28] doubles, open singles, open mixed, you're never going to have a big enough turnout to cover
[00:53:32] your expenses, to cover the payouts and do all that.
[00:53:35] Cause we have players that want to play foosball.
[00:53:38] They, you know, our rookies want to come out.
[00:53:40] They want to play in 20 events if you let them.
[00:53:42] Yes.
[00:53:43] And they're there.
[00:53:43] They're spending a fortune to come their airfare hotel.
[00:53:47] They want to come and play.
[00:53:48] So to our amateurs, our experts, our pros, they all want to play.
[00:53:52] And I learned that from a good friend of mine named Patrick Huell.
[00:53:55] He's now living in Denver, Colorado.
[00:53:58] He bounced into my first tournament, second tournament that I had in Kentucky.
[00:54:02] And he dropped $50 to play rookie doubles.
[00:54:05] Cause it was a thousand dollars for first place and him and his partners.
[00:54:09] So they paid a hundred dollars and they walked back over to me on the way out.
[00:54:13] And they said, wow, that's the most expensive two games of foosball I ever played in my life.
[00:54:18] And it just stuck with me.
[00:54:20] And I said, ding, ding, ding.
[00:54:21] So that's when I came up with the beginner entry fees and the beginner events.
[00:54:24] Okay.
[00:54:25] Let these guys come in and play affordable and you're going to retain them and keep them.
[00:54:29] They come in and drop a hundred dollars, one tournament, you lose them.
[00:54:32] And so that's, that's the biggest thing, you know, keep it affordable for the lower ranked players.
[00:54:38] If you want to put all the money in open, that's fine.
[00:54:40] It's not going to draw you any more players, you know?
[00:54:43] So just told him to be careful on that where he puts his money at and just try to accommodate everybody the best you can.
[00:54:49] Right.
[00:54:49] Exactly.
[00:54:52] One of the other things that I, that I'm curious about too, how important to the world foosball tour do you think media is going to play?
[00:55:01] How much, what, what kind of role will media play?
[00:55:03] Well, that's why he's going to do some really big, what he calls productions.
[00:55:11] Okay.
[00:55:12] The finals are, it's going to be more of a production.
[00:55:15] It's going to be something you've never seen before.
[00:55:17] It's going to catch the eye of the media.
[00:55:19] It's going to be, it's going to be that wild version.
[00:55:21] And, you know, it's, it's not so much as filming the whole open doubles.
[00:55:25] It's putting snips of stuff out there on YouTube and out there on Twitch and on that.
[00:55:30] And that gets millions of views.
[00:55:32] Nobody's sitting there watching a whole match and getting millions of views.
[00:55:36] Right.
[00:55:36] So he's got some big media ideals.
[00:55:39] He's got, I mean, he, he spent a lot of money just getting his logo branded by one of the best branding companies in the, in the, in the business.
[00:55:46] Yeah.
[00:55:47] He's like I said, he's not, he's going to drop a lot of money into this.
[00:55:52] He's putting a lot of capital into it, which I was never able to do.
[00:55:56] So he's, he's going to do that.
[00:55:57] And that's going to bring the marketing on.
[00:55:59] He's going to work with really good people.
[00:56:02] He's got so many things up his sleeve.
[00:56:05] He doesn't quit thinking about it.
[00:56:06] Yes.
[00:56:07] Since he's took it over, he's probably not gotten two hours sleep a night.
[00:56:10] I mean, his mind's going nonstop and that's the way he works and operates.
[00:56:14] Yeah.
[00:56:14] Yeah.
[00:56:15] I can make a comment on that.
[00:56:17] Okay.
[00:56:19] I can make, I can make a couple comments on that.
[00:56:21] Let me rewind to about Mary giving him advice.
[00:56:25] He admitted something to me.
[00:56:27] That's not public.
[00:56:29] He might've already told Mary, but Mary has been telling him probably beginning this year.
[00:56:35] You need to stick with me.
[00:56:36] You need to see these tournaments.
[00:56:38] You need to go ahead and start booking now for your, for next year.
[00:56:41] And he, and you know, she said, Ryan's going to do what Ryan does.
[00:56:46] He listens to Mary.
[00:56:47] He hears everything.
[00:56:48] And, and he listens to some.
[00:56:50] One thing he said, I wish I would listen to mom more is when she said, I need to start booking now.
[00:56:55] Uh, because he's fine.
[00:56:57] And he, uh, he wanted to book some stuff new for this next year.
[00:57:01] And he's finding out a lot of them are already filled up.
[00:57:03] Oh.
[00:57:04] Because mama was right.
[00:57:05] You need to book early because a lot of places get booked up from other conventions or other meetings and stuff.
[00:57:12] Mm-hmm.
[00:57:12] So, uh, that's one thing, Mary.
[00:57:14] He said, I wish I listened to mom and, uh, started booking these things a lot sooner.
[00:57:20] So, yeah.
[00:57:22] Mary knows what you're talking about.
[00:57:23] I always try to go four years out, you know, and then hotels after.
[00:57:27] Four years.
[00:57:27] The economy got really good in 2016, 17.
[00:57:30] They started just booking two years out because the economy could go one way or the other.
[00:57:34] So, obviously, it's good.
[00:57:36] They want to go up in prices, you know.
[00:57:38] And so, but yeah, he's, he'll learn all that.
[00:57:42] He's looking.
[00:57:53] He has.
[00:57:53] You know, uh, he'll, he'll call and ask me something.
[00:57:56] And I said it last time on the radio to you, Tom, is that he'll, he'll call for maybe a five or 10 minute conversation.
[00:58:04] Mm-hmm.
[00:58:07] We lost you, Donald.
[00:58:09] Lost you, Donald.
[00:58:12] He's in the mountains or the hills.
[00:58:14] Yeah.
[00:58:15] I think.
[00:58:16] Hey, you know how to mute him, don't you?
[00:58:20] I can, but I wouldn't do that to him.
[00:58:22] He's, he's too nice a guy.
[00:58:23] I know.
[00:58:24] No.
[00:58:24] Um, I think what Don is trying to say here, uh, is that, uh, that a five to 10 minute call with Ryan often turns into a, an hour and a half.
[00:58:34] Yes, it does.
[00:58:35] It does.
[00:58:36] But again, he's, he's looking at every option out there.
[00:58:41] Um, he's thinking big.
[00:58:43] I mean, he's thinking big.
[00:58:44] He's, he's thinking real big.
[00:58:46] And there's a lot of things I do know that I can't say because he's going to want to reveal that.
[00:58:50] Yeah.
[00:58:50] But, um, I just, all I can say is everybody needs to stay tuned.
[00:58:54] If you can't make it to his tournaments, be sure to watch whatever stream he's using.
[00:58:59] Um, not sure which route he's going there or whatever, because it's going to be, it's going to be very big.
[00:59:05] Very, very exciting.
[00:59:06] Are you back, Donald?
[00:59:07] Yes.
[00:59:07] I had somebody try to call and I didn't see who it was, but, uh, it was Timothy tried to call me and it muted my mic.
[00:59:14] I'm sorry, but what I was going to say was, is that 15 minute phone call turns into like an hour, hour and a half.
[00:59:20] And I said, I bet you don't feel much sleep at night.
[00:59:23] Do you?
[00:59:23] He said, actually, Donald, I like what I'm doing.
[00:59:26] I got so many ideas.
[00:59:27] I feel good about what I'm doing.
[00:59:30] And I've had the best sleep these past few weeks that I've ever had.
[00:59:33] Good.
[00:59:34] Oh, well, maybe it might be the best two hours.
[00:59:39] Yeah.
[00:59:40] Yeah.
[00:59:40] Yeah.
[00:59:40] You're right.
[00:59:41] It might be two or three hours, but, but he said he feels like he's getting, you know, he feels good about everything.
[00:59:48] Yeah.
[00:59:48] I feel great about everything.
[00:59:49] I'm so glad to be retired.
[00:59:51] Um, I mean, I just, I've got so many things I want to do.
[00:59:55] Tom, next year we're on the road.
[00:59:56] Me and my kids, I've already bought all the park passes.
[00:59:59] Oh.
[01:00:00] Passes.
[01:00:00] Were you going like a, like a, like a, like a, we're hitting all the, the cedar points and all the, uh, six flags.
[01:00:06] Oh, got it.
[01:00:06] Uh, me and my four teenager grandkids and we're, we're traveling the whole United States.
[01:00:10] We're going all the way around the whole country.
[01:00:12] Are you really, that's exciting.
[01:00:13] They must be thrilled by that.
[01:00:15] So, and you're just going to ride rides for a year.
[01:00:19] We're riding rides for a year.
[01:00:21] Absolutely.
[01:00:21] We already started.
[01:00:22] We got to start our passes.
[01:00:24] We went nine times in three weeks to Kings Island.
[01:00:27] And, uh, so we're going to do them all.
[01:00:29] And then we're going to go in between each park.
[01:00:31] We'll stop and do things along the way.
[01:00:33] I've got almost 2 million points saved up.
[01:00:36] Whoa.
[01:00:36] On, on one card that's going to pay for all the hotels and all that stuff.
[01:00:40] And so we're just, I'm excited to be with my grandkids.
[01:00:42] I mean, they're almost at the point where they're going to be in college.
[01:00:44] Yeah.
[01:00:45] Starting their careers.
[01:00:46] And this is maybe our last year to do it.
[01:00:48] So that's what I want to do.
[01:00:50] And I fit now, Tom, you know, I used to be a pretty big girl and I've lost all my weight.
[01:00:54] So I fit in every ride and I got to make up for lost time.
[01:00:57] Yes.
[01:00:57] Congratulations on that, by the way.
[01:00:59] That's a.
[01:00:59] Thank you.
[01:01:00] It takes a lot of self-determination, a lot of discipline for sure.
[01:01:05] Yeah.
[01:01:07] Not in the least.
[01:01:08] Well, a few lifestyle changes and it was easy.
[01:01:11] Yeah.
[01:01:11] I never knew how easy it would be just by making a couple of lifestyle changes.
[01:01:14] Right.
[01:01:14] You know, subtle, subtle things that take, take place.
[01:01:17] So I know that this may be kind of an emotional thing, but now you've probably seen the farewell
[01:01:25] video that people participated in.
[01:01:29] It was very well produced.
[01:01:31] Ryan voiced it and there was a group of people saying, you know, thank you.
[01:01:35] Okay.
[01:01:36] So here's your chance.
[01:01:38] What do you want to say to the foosball family?
[01:01:41] What do you want to say now?
[01:01:44] Um, I want to let everybody know that every player out there has a special place in my
[01:01:50] heart always.
[01:01:51] And they always will.
[01:01:52] Even the ones that like me or don't like me or whatever.
[01:01:55] I know the ones that don't like me is more because they're just so passionate about the
[01:02:00] sport that we just don't see eye to eye and it's nothing personal.
[01:02:04] And I don't take anything personal.
[01:02:06] Yep.
[01:02:06] Um, I've got more friends.
[01:02:08] I can go anywhere in this world and lay my head down.
[01:02:11] I never have to worry about having a place to stay.
[01:02:14] Yes.
[01:02:14] And that's because of foosball.
[01:02:16] Yeah.
[01:02:16] Um, and I just think that I'm leaving at the right time for the players.
[01:02:22] I mean, I've got to be honest with you, Tom, everybody says I'm in it for the money.
[01:02:25] If I'm in it for the money, I would not quit right now.
[01:02:28] You know, this last couple of years has been the most financially successful my tour has
[01:02:32] ever been good.
[01:02:33] And I'm walking away from it because I want it to go to the next level.
[01:02:38] And I know my son can do that.
[01:02:39] Yeah.
[01:02:40] So if I was in it for the money, I sure wouldn't be quitting now, but it's never been about
[01:02:43] the money.
[01:02:44] It's been about mine and Ryan's relationship.
[01:02:47] It's been about a sport that I love and I've always tried to get it to the next level.
[01:02:51] And I realized that it's probably not me that can do that.
[01:02:54] It's more my son that can do that.
[01:02:56] So that's why I'm turning the reins over to him.
[01:02:59] Yeah.
[01:02:59] And I just love everybody out there and I appreciate all the promoters, everything they do.
[01:03:04] They go through a lot to try to promote their tournaments.
[01:03:06] And I appreciate the players for, you know, supporting the local tournaments all the way
[01:03:11] up to the city, state and regional and major tournaments.
[01:03:15] That's, that's great.
[01:03:16] Donald, um, I don't know if you caught the, uh, the conversation, but I just asked Mary
[01:03:20] to, uh, to give a message to everybody that she'd like to say to her.
[01:03:25] Okay.
[01:03:25] So Don, here's your turn.
[01:03:27] What would you like to say to Mary now that you've worked with her all these years?
[01:03:31] Thank gosh.
[01:03:32] No, I'm kidding.
[01:03:35] Um, no, I just wanted to say this about her and, and, uh, to all you people out there,
[01:03:40] I'm not kissing anybody, but I'm telling honest, good truth.
[01:03:43] Mary, uh, she, she runs a tight ship.
[01:03:46] She might get down on you because she wants perfection at her tournament.
[01:03:50] She's done it for so long.
[01:03:52] She knows what works.
[01:03:53] She knows what's going to look good.
[01:03:54] And that's why it is like that in her tournaments.
[01:03:59] But one thing I know sure about Mary is she would never make any decisions or changes that
[01:04:08] would hurt the tour.
[01:04:11] I mean, anything she does is to help better, the tour better experience for the players,
[01:04:15] because why would you want to create something you don't think is good for the players?
[01:04:19] You know, it's going to hurt the tournament, which is going to hurt your pocketbook.
[01:04:23] Right.
[01:04:23] That's crazy.
[01:04:24] Only thing she does is try to help the tournament because in the long run, if it helps the tournament,
[01:04:29] helps the players, it's going to help her.
[01:04:31] Right.
[01:04:31] Yep.
[01:04:32] And I know for a fact, it was a few years ago.
[01:04:35] She had one of the biggest Las Vegas tournaments ever.
[01:04:39] She was grinning ear to ear.
[01:04:41] And, you know, I've always been proud of Mary because this is a business.
[01:04:45] You don't do it to break even.
[01:04:47] No tournament director would run a tournament to break even.
[01:04:50] You know, you got to make it worth doing it.
[01:04:53] And she had a great Las Vegas.
[01:04:56] But what did she do?
[01:04:57] She upped Worlds by a considerable amount of money because she said, I'm giving it back to the players.
[01:05:04] You know, she might have been criticized for not adding money to that tournament because that's the one that makes the killing.
[01:05:11] No.
[01:05:12] She makes sure that tournament's taken care of and she takes that money and puts it in the next tournament.
[01:05:17] And that's how we got our first $100,000 tournament, finally back for work for Tornado Championships for so long.
[01:05:24] You know, so she's good about putting money in.
[01:05:28] And here's another thing.
[01:05:30] Louisiana State, she had a super great tournament.
[01:05:34] And I thought she lost her marbles because she went from a $15,000 to I think a $30,000.
[01:05:40] Yeah.
[01:05:41] Or maybe even $35,000, Mary.
[01:05:42] You have to correct me on that.
[01:05:43] But she knew she was just going, you know, it was a great tournament.
[01:05:47] But a lot of stuff happened.
[01:05:49] I think there was a festival going on that weekend.
[01:05:52] There was another tournament, I think, that jumped in right before hers or something like that.
[01:05:58] And we just didn't have a lot of players there.
[01:06:01] And not to boot, her trailer broke down, which cost for several thousand dollars.
[01:06:06] And so she ended up...
[01:06:07] Well, it's your anniversary.
[01:06:08] Yeah, okay.
[01:06:09] Yeah, that's what it was.
[01:06:10] That's what it was.
[01:06:11] But she always puts the money back in the tournament.
[01:06:15] I mean, people complain about things.
[01:06:18] But I didn't hear anybody complain about, golly, Mary didn't have a good showing, but she still paid everybody out.
[01:06:23] You know, you never hear that.
[01:06:25] You know, she's had to borrow money from other tournaments that she's had to make payouts.
[01:06:30] But no, you don't hear nothing about that.
[01:06:32] So I'm here to say she makes sure she makes her payouts.
[01:06:35] Right?
[01:06:36] And she'll take the loss and she'll still make it right.
[01:06:39] You know, she's done that for so long.
[01:06:41] And now that she's finally in the good, I'm so happy for her.
[01:06:44] I told her I wouldn't care if she made a million dollars I'd be happy for her.
[01:06:48] Oh, yeah.
[01:06:48] You know, because she does everything for the better of the players.
[01:06:52] And, of course, if she was making a million dollars, she'd pay her to her staff people.
[01:06:56] I'm loving it.
[01:06:57] I just hope Ryan makes a million because he's putting all the money back into foosball.
[01:07:01] So there you go.
[01:07:02] There you go.
[01:07:02] Well, you know, and that was just my kudos to Mary because she, again, like you said,
[01:07:08] she kept the tour for Ryan.
[01:07:10] But she kept the tour because, you know, it's loved by a lot of people that she became friends with.
[01:07:17] And she wants to keep it going for really everybody, you know.
[01:07:21] Because she could have very well told Tornado, you know, I don't think so.
[01:07:25] And then she could have kept running tournaments and not do so good and just go do something else.
[01:07:29] But, no, she kept the tournament going.
[01:07:32] Tornado was gracious enough to pick her and have her as tournament director and running and support her.
[01:07:39] And so it's worked out good, you know.
[01:07:45] And you know what?
[01:07:46] I know.
[01:07:47] She never quit.
[01:07:48] And you know what?
[01:07:48] You know, she is so happy.
[01:07:50] I think I told you on your last radio show, I'm not sure.
[01:07:53] But she is so happy that she's getting to retire that she took off to an amusement park by herself.
[01:08:01] Two or three days riding roller coaster after roller coaster.
[01:08:05] And you know how people, when they win the World Series, baseball or whatever,
[01:08:09] first thing they say is, I'm going to Disneyland.
[01:08:11] That's right.
[01:08:11] Well, she's going to Kings Island.
[01:08:15] Yeah, then I flew my grandkids in and we went the next two weekends.
[01:08:19] And, again, we got the season passes for all next year.
[01:08:22] And that's what I'm going to do.
[01:08:23] That's it.
[01:08:24] And then the next year after that, I'm going to get my horse and I'm going to retire.
[01:08:28] And then you won't see a whole lot of me.
[01:08:30] Well.
[01:08:31] Horses are 24-7.
[01:08:32] That sounds like utopia.
[01:08:34] That sounds like a plan.
[01:08:35] Yeah, she's got a plan for sure.
[01:08:36] Yeah.
[01:08:37] One year with grandkids hitting all the state parks around, all the theme parks.
[01:08:41] And then when everything else lines up, horses and land.
[01:08:45] And, hey, what happened to Mary?
[01:08:48] Oh, and the lake.
[01:08:49] She likes to go to the lake.
[01:08:51] Well, we do hope that you come.
[01:08:53] Tom, we really appreciate you.
[01:08:55] Let's give you some kudos here.
[01:08:56] You've been doing this a long time.
[01:08:58] It's, you know, it's promoters like you.
[01:09:01] You're not actually running tournaments, but you're promoting the sport.
[01:09:04] And you're promoting the promoters that run the sport.
[01:09:07] And you're promoting the players.
[01:09:08] And that's just as big as anything I've ever done.
[01:09:10] Well, thank you.
[01:09:11] I really appreciate you.
[01:09:12] Thank you for saying that.
[01:09:14] That's really gracious of you.
[01:09:15] And it gives me incentive to move on, to go forward.
[01:09:21] You know, it's hard because sometimes you don't know if anybody's actually listening.
[01:09:25] But, hey, I just want to talk about foosball.
[01:09:28] That's it.
[01:09:30] That's my motivation.
[01:09:31] That's it.
[01:09:31] There's no monetary compensation, nothing like that.
[01:09:35] It's just about, hey, I want to talk about foosball.
[01:09:37] Let's do that.
[01:09:38] Well, they're definitely listening to you.
[01:09:41] All right.
[01:09:41] Well, I'll take your word for it.
[01:09:43] And I think, again, Mary, thank you so much for your kind words.
[01:09:47] Oh, you're welcome.
[01:09:48] Well, it's also good when you do come to some of these big tournaments and you have your booth off to the side.
[01:09:54] You get to talk to some champions of the weekend.
[01:09:57] Sure.
[01:09:57] And other, you know, other big names.
[01:09:59] And so that really helps.
[01:10:01] I mean, they get to hear from them.
[01:10:03] And then you get to get them on your radio show.
[01:10:06] So, I mean, it's just awesome.
[01:10:08] I like it all.
[01:10:09] It's good.
[01:10:10] We got to, you know, you can't do this kind of thing by yourself.
[01:10:13] And I got to thank everybody who's been involved along the way, including my most current co-host and partner in crime is Randy Raposo.
[01:10:23] He's just a blast to work with.
[01:10:25] And I'm sure he would have liked to have been here tonight, but he had family obligations.
[01:10:29] But, hey, nonetheless, I got to say this was so exciting what I realized when I talked to Don last week and asked him about you, Mary, and whether or not you'd want to come on.
[01:10:42] He says, let me take care of that for you.
[01:10:46] Yeah.
[01:10:46] He did.
[01:10:47] Yeah, he knows.
[01:10:48] He knows.
[01:10:50] When I got your email, I called Donald up and I said, you're fired.
[01:10:54] Didn't I, Donald?
[01:10:56] He did.
[01:10:57] He did.
[01:11:00] He said, well, you agreed to it.
[01:11:01] I said, well, I told you I should do it.
[01:11:03] Right.
[01:11:04] So now I guess I got to.
[01:11:06] Yeah.
[01:11:06] She's been real busy renovating a house.
[01:11:10] I mean, hours and hours each day trying to get this house ready.
[01:11:14] Yeah, I'm retiring.
[01:11:15] I don't want any more renters, no more tenants.
[01:11:17] I'm getting rid of everything.
[01:11:18] Oh, we hear that.
[01:11:18] She wants to sell that house to start getting ready for her future of horses and all that property and all that kind of stuff.
[01:11:25] Right.
[01:11:25] So that's what, you know, she didn't know she'd have the time.
[01:11:28] But I knew she needs to get out there and tell everybody her story and then give her a little farewell.
[01:11:38] Give her some good farewell moments.
[01:11:40] Come down to Louisiana State.
[01:11:42] She'll be there.
[01:11:43] And you'll probably see Mary in the best mode she's ever been in.
[01:11:45] And maybe her saddest moments, too, knowing it's her last tournament.
[01:11:48] Because it is going to be, you know, it's a happy thing.
[01:11:52] But, you know, she's put 33 years into it.
[01:11:55] Yes.
[01:11:56] You know, but still, she's not going to be that far away because she's going to become a player.
[01:12:00] So it won't be the end of it.
[01:12:02] It'll just be a new chapter.
[01:12:03] Let's do it this way.
[01:12:05] If you're listening to this podcast, Foosball Radio, Foos Talk Live, if you're listening to this podcast and you see Mary at Louisiana State, just tell her how you feel.
[01:12:13] Just walk up and thank her.
[01:12:15] Just do that.
[01:12:16] Yeah.
[01:12:16] I think it's December 5th through the 8th in Kenner, Louisiana at the Clarion Hotel.
[01:12:21] There you go.
[01:12:22] And we've got some special people going to be in the Hall of Fame.
[01:12:25] Donald, can you – I can't see this to say who all they are.
[01:12:29] Can you name them, Michael?
[01:12:31] There's been three people going to be put into the Hall of Fame.
[01:12:35] One of them just got into the National Hall of Fame.
[01:12:39] And it's Joy Stewart Corporal.
[01:12:42] Is that right?
[01:12:42] Did I say her last name right?
[01:12:44] When I look at it, I can say it right.
[01:12:46] Corporal, I think.
[01:12:47] Okay.
[01:12:47] Okay.
[01:12:48] She's in Louisiana.
[01:12:49] And also, these two old players that used to – it's a brother team.
[01:12:54] Used to play a lot back in the day.
[01:12:55] I would say 80s and early 90s.
[01:12:59] And one of these guys, he played with a guy named John Zoller and won three Mississippi State Championships in a row.
[01:13:05] But it's going to be John Short and David Short.
[01:13:09] They're both brothers.
[01:13:10] They used to play all the time.
[01:13:11] They're getting put into the Hall of Fame.
[01:13:13] And they're going to be there.
[01:13:14] And they're going to be playing.
[01:13:15] And I hadn't seen these guys.
[01:13:17] You know these guys.
[01:13:17] Come down and congratulate them and see them.
[01:13:19] Yeah.
[01:13:20] I hadn't seen them since the early 90s.
[01:13:22] So, I can't wait to see them.
[01:13:23] I got to talk to John.
[01:13:25] And we talked, I don't know, 20 minutes or so.
[01:13:27] And told him I couldn't wait to see him.
[01:13:29] He said, I couldn't wait to see you and everybody else.
[01:13:32] So, it's going to be great.
[01:13:33] So, come show your love with them.
[01:13:35] Show your love with Mary.
[01:13:37] And have a great conditioning time from promoter to player.
[01:13:43] Let's see how that works once she gets on recall.
[01:13:47] I'll be the first one at the table like I always am.
[01:13:50] That's a running joke.
[01:13:52] Mary getting on recall.
[01:13:53] That's a good one, Don.
[01:13:55] I like that.
[01:13:56] I like it, too.
[01:13:57] Just a quick aside.
[01:13:58] I'll probably be in trouble, but I like it.
[01:13:59] When it comes to Louisiana State, if you haven't signed up, where would you go?
[01:14:03] Is there a website or is there a place to sign up?
[01:14:07] Right now, we're on North Carolina State coming up Thanksgiving weekend in Asheville, North Carolina.
[01:14:13] So, everybody should go to that tournament, then jump in the car and drive down to Louisiana.
[01:14:17] Okay.
[01:14:18] Jason McCall, Michelle McCall put on a really wonderful holiday tournament there.
[01:14:23] So, right now, we just flipped it over there.
[01:14:26] But as soon as that tournament's over, we'll flip it back.
[01:14:29] And it's ifptour.com.
[01:14:32] And you can sign up right there, pre-register.
[01:14:35] Or you can sign up when you get there.
[01:14:37] You don't have to prepay or anything.
[01:14:41] Nice.
[01:14:41] Very cool.
[01:14:43] So, that's what my truck's doing.
[01:14:44] They're going to North Carolina.
[01:14:45] Josh and Kenneth Dale's coming back in town.
[01:14:48] So, he'll be in North Carolina.
[01:14:49] Then I'm going to meet him in Louisiana.
[01:14:51] Ryan's got me babysitting for two weeks while he goes on a cruise.
[01:14:54] So, I'll fly from Oklahoma to Louisiana.
[01:14:57] There's a job you want to have.
[01:14:59] We had it set up on Louisiana for registration.
[01:15:04] We had it set up on a couple, two or three weeks.
[01:15:06] And then we had to flip it to Oklahoma for the Halloween Open.
[01:15:09] And now it's flipped over.
[01:15:10] I'm almost through getting North Carolina in there.
[01:15:13] We'll have it for North Carolina.
[01:15:14] And then the second that tournament's through, we'll flip it.
[01:15:25] Probably at the top of the hill and then coming down the other side.
[01:15:28] Yeah, yeah.
[01:15:29] So, anyways.
[01:15:30] And then Amy's going to be working on the software.
[01:15:33] Ryan's going to get some updates.
[01:15:34] And pretty soon you'll be able to sign up for all the tournaments at one time for the whole year.
[01:15:39] And we'll be able to run multiple tournaments.
[01:15:41] And so, Ryan's definitely going to do some software updates.
[01:15:45] Oh, okay.
[01:15:46] Website updates and modernize everything and put his touch on that stuff.
[01:15:50] I'm glad you mentioned that.
[01:15:51] That's a really neat forward step when it comes to being able to look at the whole year.
[01:15:56] And then just pick your tournaments right now and just register in advance.
[01:15:59] That's amazing.
[01:15:59] Yes.
[01:16:00] Yeah.
[01:16:01] So, he's going to get a lot done there.
[01:16:03] And I've got some really cool things that we're doing with the live stream and with Kenneth Dale.
[01:16:07] So, a lot of things are going to happen.
[01:16:08] Okay.
[01:16:09] Awesome.
[01:16:10] I really appreciate that.
[01:16:11] And before we lose Don permanently, I want to thank you so much for taking the time.
[01:16:19] I know you don't like doing this kind of stuff, Mary.
[01:16:21] But I'm so flattered that you would join us.
[01:16:24] And, you know, this is something that I have a feeling this is going to be a lot of downloads for Foosball Radio and Foos Talk Live.
[01:16:30] So, thank you so much for joining us.
[01:16:33] Well, thank you for having me.
[01:16:34] Thank you, Donald, for coming and seeing us.
[01:16:37] It's always a pleasure.
[01:16:41] Donald, be careful out there, man.
[01:16:43] You know, thank goodness you're not driving.
[01:16:47] Yeah.
[01:16:48] You know, I do.
[01:16:52] He's in the middle of nowhere, Tom.
[01:16:58] Hello.
[01:16:59] We got you.
[01:17:00] We got you.
[01:17:01] Before you run out of signal again, one more time.
[01:17:04] Oh, he's a bad area.
[01:17:07] Okay, Donald.
[01:17:08] Thanks for being here.
[01:17:10] And again, Mary, thank you so much for being here.
[01:17:12] Thank you so much for what you've done for the sport of foosball.
[01:17:16] You will go down to history as one of the greatest, if not the greatest.
[01:17:19] Well, thank you.
[01:17:21] And God bless all the players and you.
[01:17:23] And may we all see each other real soon.
[01:17:27] Yeah, there you go.
[01:17:28] And we'll see you on the table.
[01:17:30] But stay tuned now.
[01:17:31] We've got a whole list of upcoming tournaments.
[01:17:33] It's the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat.
[01:17:38] Foosball tournaments are everywhere.
[01:17:40] Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you.
[01:17:45] With the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat.
[01:17:48] Here's what's up.
[01:17:50] 518 Foosball proudly presents the annual Turkey Day Smashdown.
[01:17:55] Saturday, November 30th at Trick Shots Billions and Wicked Eatery, Clifton Park, New York.
[01:18:01] It's the 2024 North Carolina State Championships, November 28th through December 1st,
[01:18:07] at the Crowne Plaza in Asheville, North Carolina.
[01:18:10] The 2024 Louisiana State Championships, December 5th through the 8th,
[01:18:16] at the Clarion Hotel in Kenner, New Orleans, Louisiana.
[01:18:20] Don't miss the 2024 Toronto Foosball Club December Classic,
[01:18:25] December 6th through the 8th, at the Toronto Foosball Club, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
[01:18:31] Wrap up your year with the third annual New Hampshire State Championship,
[01:18:35] December 21st at the Merrimack 10-Pin, Merrimack, New Hampshire.
[01:18:40] Looking ahead to next year, it's the second annual North American Leonhardt Championship,
[01:18:46] January 17th through the 19th, Montreal, Canada.
[01:18:50] Introducing the World Foosball Tour.
[01:18:53] Make your plans to compete at the $30,000 World Foosball Tour kickoff,
[01:18:57] January 30th through February 2nd, 2025, at the Clarion Hotel, Lexington, Kentucky.
[01:19:04] It's the 2025 South Dakota State Championship, February 21st through the 23rd,
[01:19:11] Royal River Casino, Flandro, South Dakota.
[01:19:14] Take your vacation with the 2025 Costa Rica Summer Beach Tournament,
[01:19:19] March 13th through the 16th, at the Amapola Resort and Hotel Jaco, Costa Rica.
[01:19:24] Each week, we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you.
[01:19:30] If you have an event you'd like to add, send us all the details at foosballradio at gmail.com.
[01:19:36] Tune in every week for the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat.
[01:19:42] Foos Talk Live is a product of Foos Ball Radio.
[01:19:46] With gratitude, we recognize our Foos Ball Radio Patreons.
[01:19:50] Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonhart-usa.com.
[01:19:55] And thanks to InsideFoos.com for use of their audio during the show.
[01:20:00] Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live.
[01:20:04] In the meantime, we'll see you at Foosin'.