FoosTalk Live | Ep 258 | Mike Kelley

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[00:01:51] Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code Foos Talk to save 10% off your purchase price. And we are live. Once again, it's episode number 258 of Foos Talk Live. Hey there, I'm Tom Robinson. Welcome and thanks for tuning in on Twitch TV tonight. And of course, we're downloading this podcast later on. Last weekend, we had a blast.

[00:02:19] We had a really unique show as Randy Raposo, my co-host, stepped up to give you lots of advice on how to move up the ranks more effectively. And man, the fan mail has been overwhelming. So, of course, it's always great to have someone by your side who wants to talk about foosball every single week. And of course, that would be my co-host, Randy Raposo. Hello, Randy. What's up, man? Lots of things going on in this, well, shall we say, next couple of months.

[00:02:50] Not the least of which is tomorrow, the World Series. Of course, not the World Series, but the World Cup, I should say, happening in Zaragoza, Spain. Just about to kick off in just a few hours, in fact. What are they, like six or seven hours ahead of us? Well, for you, six. For us, seven. Gotcha. Yeah, yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Spain, Spain. Portugal is, wait, it might be seven, because I know, yeah, I think it's six. Yeah, yeah. Because my wife's going to England next month, and I think it's six hours. I think they're in the same zone, so. Gotcha.

[00:03:20] Or seven hours. So, yeah, I don't know, Tom. I don't, honestly. Whatever. It's amazing that Team USA, it looks like most everybody made it. I was talking to Coach Iceman this last week. Unfortunately, he was not able to make it with the team to Zaragoza, but nonetheless, he's there with Instert. What? Something happened with his travel, his travel plans.

[00:03:48] Yeah, so Iceman said he wasn't able to make it, so. Oh. Yeah. That sucks. Yeah. Man, that sucks. Sorry, Ice, that sucks. Yeah, he's crucial to their, you know, everything they do on the tables and stuff when it comes to just the organization of play, et cetera. So, but stuff happens, right? And that's, these are the modern times you live in. But, yeah, nonetheless, it's going to be an amazing week in Zaragoza. Of course, six days of competition.

[00:04:17] And just, what does it look like? I checked the tally, like 1,300 or 1,400 players. Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah. Yeah, and we're stacked. Like, our juniors, our women's team, our men's team, our senior team. Like, our senior team could be our men's team. Yes. Which is amazing. So, it's like, you know, and like Iceman said when he was on, he said, we still got to play. We got a target on our back. Yep. But our senior team is stacked.

[00:04:47] Our men's team is stacked. Our women's team is definitely stacked. And then our junior team is stacked. So, we have a chance to take down gold in every division. Definitely rooting for Team USA. Mm-hmm. I'm going to tell you who else I'm rooting for, Tom. You know, so this week, I had to fly home, unfortunately. I feel Iceman's pain with the travel thing. But shout out to the Florida Panthers. Mm-hmm.

[00:05:15] I'm glad Edmonton lost. Screw you, Edmonton Oilers. If the Leafs can't win the Stanley Cup, then I don't want any other Canadian team to win. So, I'm really glad Florida won. Yeah. And, yeah, I just, I wanted to start with that. And you can already imagine where this is going to go. Sure. Well, I'm glad we got a chance to get your, how you really feel when it comes to hockey, man. It's always valuable. Leafs piss me off so bad. Tons of bad words.

[00:05:45] Anyway. But, no, Team USA, obviously rooting for our people. Glad everybody made it safe. Sorry, Iceman. Yeah. But for us here in the States, next couple of months looking really good. We've got Nationals coming up. Mm-hmm. Ohio State coming up. World's coming up. Mississippi State coming up. It's going to be a fun-packed summer of foosball. Obviously, a bunch of local stuff happening.

[00:06:15] People are getting their warm-ups in for Nationals. Yes. Different things going on. So, yeah, Tom, it's a good time. It's just yesterday, in fact, in the Music City in Nashville, Tennessee. It was a big warm-up. Well, mostly due to our guest for this evening, Mike Kelly, who's a big promoter there in Nashville. Hello, Mike. Thanks for joining us. Hey, guys. Happy to be here. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. How are you feeling after yesterday's event?

[00:06:45] Did you get enough sleep? No. They're a long day. We do one-day tournaments. And, you know, so the arrangement we have at the hotel gets kind of tricky, right? We haul extra tables in in the morning. And late at night, we're hauling them out. So we were there. Yeah. Of 9 o'clock in the morning. And I think we left about 1 o'clock or 1.30 last night. We loaded the last. So we have two at the time. And they're all the time. Gotcha.

[00:07:13] But it's an undertaking when we do the bigger tournaments. Yeah. No kidding. So you basically have to set up the tables and then tear them down at the end of the day? Yeah. Our venue, which I'm sure we'll talk about a little later, it's a hotel. It's one of the Marriott Group. It's called the Moxie Hotel. Gotcha. And it's just an amazing venue. People, no matter what player comes here, they're like, wow, this is the greatest, nicest foosball place I've ever been. It's not a smoky bar. It's family-friendly.

[00:07:43] Right. Nice. You know, it's just great. So we have two tables that are kind of in a runway along this left-hand side. They've got seating areas around it and all kinds of stuff. It's really great. But when we add more, two, three, four more tables, we have to bring them in. That's a hotel. Bring them in in the morning as early as we want. Mm-hmm. But get them out by the time that we're leaving. And, you know, so we've been there sometimes 2 o'clock, 2.15 in the morning still. Wow. Still loading tables, which is the worst part of the tournament.

[00:08:13] Yeah. But, you know, for the love of the game, you know, every time I say, man, this is a lot of work and say, well, you know, and then I start getting notes and things from players and it's like, yeah, all right. So this is all worthwhile. Sure. Sure. Sure. So, Mike, it's tradition for anyone who appears on Foos Talk Live for the very first time to get a little background. In fact... Sure. ...standard questions. First of all, when was the first time you saw a foosball table? How old were you?

[00:08:42] And what kind of table was it? Yeah. Well, the first table that I ever saw was a Deutsche Master. I was probably going to date myself. Deutsche Master? Really? Okay. Yeah, exactly. Right. And I really never played on it because I didn't even know why it was difficult to play on. But, you know, super hard balls, not round, square-toed men. But I was intrigued.

[00:09:08] So just a few years later, I think, is really when I, you know, found when they were playing on blue tops then at that time. So I kind of missed the green top generation, started on the blue top and then onto the brown top. Gotcha. So obviously that time period is, you know, 76, 77, 78. Oh, okay. Again, which dates me a little... I know I only looked 25, but I really am older than that. It's true.

[00:09:38] So that was it. Yeah. But about 1977, I decided, okay, I'm really... I'm going to give this a go. I was young. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And I'd go every week and just get pounded. And all the guys... You know how it is, right? All the guys say, oh, this kid will never be back. He's not coming back. And I told him, yes, I'm coming back, man. I'm going to learn how to play. And, you know, I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to be coming back. And so for years and years and years, I stuck with it. I got better as well.

[00:10:09] Yeah. Yeah, yeah. No, it's... Well, hold on. Why do you think it's players' goals to drive people away, to beat on new people so bad that they want to turn them off to something? What's the mindset behind that? I'd love to know. I'd love to know. Yeah, you know, I don't think that I can give you any better answer than a lot of people. I think there's, you know, there's probably a couple kinds of foosball players, maybe more. But what you just said, you know, when I get better, you get better.

[00:10:35] And, you know, so I can tell you, I came back to play, not to be a promoter. Now, I'm a much better promoter than player. But I think that the two kinds of players, one is, you know, the player's going to invest in others. And, you know, you don't care if you get lit up. But, you know, teach them how to shoot a pull shot or a rollover or show them some ball control on the five. So I think, you know, player one is like, hey, you know, I'm going to reach out and I'm going to help you. Now, in my case, I give you a venue to play and I'll try to help you.

[00:11:05] The other part is that, you know, and we don't have a lot of them, but just pretty big egos that, you know, if there's not a master on the other side of the table, you know, it's not much of a match. And then, you know, they just destroy the opponent. And I think that that's getting better. You know, take up Brandon Munoz as an example. I play with Brandon, pick up games every tournament. And we're just good friends. It's great. It's fun.

[00:11:33] There are plenty of other masters that I don't have that luxury to do. Got it. Yeah. No, it seems like there's always that one moment in a person's career in foosball where they're, they just have to say, you know what, I don't care if I'm getting my butt pounded every week. I'm just going to keep coming back and just keep doing this because you get to that point where you get addicted and you feel like, I just know I can, if I'm patient, I can make this pay off.

[00:12:01] Unfortunately, it doesn't happen for everybody, but it does happen for some of us, you know? Yeah. Yeah. You know, and it's like, I was so stubborn. I was going to get good enough to compete. And so on a local level, a regional level, I came around pretty good in the, in the late seventies, early eighties. So, you know, that success was, was certainly fun and worth all those long nights and store arms. Yeah.

[00:12:26] It's now, when was the first time you actually went to an official quote unquote tournament or competition? A major or a regional? Either one, major or regional. Okay. Well, I played, we played weeklies every week there for a while. We're doing it twice a week. And, you know, when you have the time that that's, that's just great. The first regional that I went to probably was in around 78, maybe 79. Okay.

[00:12:56] In Montana had a, had a, which is where I'm from, had a great scene, you know, leap effort started out there when they call billiards. Okay. Okay. There was a great, great group of players in Western Montana. You know, some of which you still hear folks talk about today. But so that, that was probably the first one there. And then in 79 or 80, I just thought I was getting a little bit better. And so I went to a tournament in Denver was kind of the first time that I really stepped out.

[00:13:25] I think it was 79 or 80. And at that time it was the Colorado all-stars or the, you know, Tom Spear and the Fredo and the guys in the white shirts and the white jackets. Yes. And such an amazing, amazing group of people, you know, all of us at that time, you know, were 17, 18, 19, 20 years old. Tom is two years older than I am.

[00:13:49] And, you know, just to remember that the youthful experiences is, you know, it's, it's fun. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it has to be something then there must've been a point where you said, okay, I'm going to competitions now. I'm actually going out on some of the tour stops and you realize, okay, in order to win, I've got to get better at this. Who was your, your biggest influence when it came to teaching how to play a more competitive foosball? Yeah.

[00:14:19] Well, some of the great players in Montana helped a lot. A guy named Mike Isaac was a very good player. And sometimes you still hear people. In fact, I heard Johnny Blott mentioned him the other day about something. But those guys, Kevin Barber was a great player. There was, you know, Jim Anderson, my old partner, Mike Miklas, you know, helped me a lot. He's a couple of years older than I am, helped a lot.

[00:14:44] But when I made my way to Denver, it was a completely different experience. It was just, it's just, it's a different level of foosball. Right. A different level of play. And it just, you know, that's probably where I really, really got the bug. I'd been playing three or four years before I really got the bug. And I, you know, I was playing every day, at least once a week in a tournament. Sure. But then sort of, sort of, sort of lit the fire. And obviously Todd Lafredo, everybody's got a Todd Lafredo story.

[00:15:14] You know, I shoot a pull shot. I shoot a pull shot a lot because of the way that Tom plays. I also spent a lot of time, Tony Bacon and Elwood Macacow came out and spent some time in Montana. And Tony was like, he was fire hot at that time. He was winning, you know, world championship stuff. And so to have a chance to play with him and learn.

[00:15:40] And so my five rod, I really have mimicked. It's kind of a hybrid between Tony's five rod and Tom's five rod. They both just, you know, have a great Tony. Bacon has, you know, the far wall brush series. He used to use a brush series on the far wall. He also did it on the near wall back at that time as well. And so those, I kind of stole as much of those guys game. Tony Bacon, Tom, Todd, loved, you know, Todd's pull shot.

[00:16:11] Trying to think, Bobby Gibson. I played Bobby Gibson in Denver and I thought I was good. And I've never been beaten so badly by a guy. And then I was looking on YouTube recently and he won a couple of world championships right after he, you know, clocked me in Denver. Wow. Wow. You know, it just, it was a, it just, you know, losing is, is, is a good experience if you want to get better. Winning is a whole lot of fun. Oh yeah.

[00:16:41] But you got to lose to win. Yeah. Absolutely. Great point. Yeah. Now when it comes to your, your local scene, I know we have Foos Wizard who wanted to ask a question about Nashville. Maybe it's a little sooner, sooner than the conversation, but we can ask it nonetheless. He said. Foos Wizard is. Do you know who the Foos Wizard is? I don't. Okay. I think I might have a, it's Eddie, Eddie Mubarak.

[00:17:11] Oh, sure. Yeah. We love Eddie. No surprise. He's got a question either. Right. Everybody knows. It says. Good to see everybody. Soon. I got quick. I got a quick question about Nashville tournaments. I really like to start playing in Nashville, but there are never an open event, which knocks me out. I don't think. I don't think. And at least excluding pros and masters will help players get better. It's a whole point of right or passage of right or right of passage.

[00:17:40] Better players to show up for the lower rated players get better. I'm sure me, Chase, Randy, Chris, and a few other players would love to play in Nashville. Then finally, he just makes a statement. I ran tournaments for years and never limited the pros where he was promoting. So does that make sense for you? Oh, sure. It does. And Eddie has asked me that question a couple of times. And not long ago, I just responded. I don't think it was this tournament, but the tournament before.

[00:18:11] And so you're going to get better playing with pros. You're going to get beat playing with pros and masters. And you're going to get beat badly. And so what I am trying to do, and people may agree, may not agree, I am trying to grow foosball. In order to grow foosball, you've got to hold your base. First, you need to go find your base. If guys have quit playing for 20 or 30 years, you have to go find your base. There was no foosball in Nashville when I came back to play.

[00:18:41] Right. So we're still trying to build and hold. And we're probably building now more than we're holding. But we've got some real loyal players. We've got some great players across the region that come down that support us every time. I think I've done five or six larger tournaments in the last couple of years. And I cater to those guys. And trust me, we get some good players. Jonathan Chung lives here.

[00:19:08] Now, he's now a pro, but he played in everything until he turned pro. And he came and talked to me just a couple of weeks ago and said, man, you're not going to let me play even handicap. I said, I'm not going to do it. This is the principle that I'm following. And I'm going to stick with it. And so my belief is people like Eddie and Chase and Randy, a lot of those guys, you'll all help. One-on-one time, pick up games.

[00:19:38] But I can tell you, if the three of you guys came, even if we did a pro-am, you're going to be one, two, and three. And I'm going to have 40 players who didn't enjoy the tournament. And so, you know, again, Eddie and I had written this to you not long ago. I am still going to appeal to grow the base. And I'd rather have 40 really happy players than three pros. There's only three pros, I think, within the area. Eddie Chase.

[00:20:08] There's more than that. There's more. Well, I guess it doesn't matter. But I think I doubt if I did an open event and even threw a lot of money at it that I'd get, you know, eight or 10 pros coming. Maybe I'm wrong. And I'm not against trying that. And, you know, I said that to Eddie as well. I'm not against trying it. You know, I'm not in foosball for the money. And I didn't really want to be a promoter. I really came back to play.

[00:20:38] Now I don't get to play very much. But we'll try, you know, anything. But I'll also tell you, you've got to have support of the people. And so, you know, Randy, I know this is you guys are asking me questions, but I'll throw one out to you. What would make you want to come play a tournament in Nashville? You run it and I'll show up. It's foosball. I always want to play foosball. That's it.

[00:21:08] So from a player's perspective, when I was not a pro, running something like what you're running, and again, I want you to understand, I appreciate anybody that's trying to promote foosball legitimately, right? Because I know it's a labor of love. But more than likely, I wouldn't have come and supported what you're doing because I, for me, it's not about winning something like that. It's not about the money.

[00:21:37] It's I want to play the best. I want to play the best. I've always chased the best players. So for me, I want to play the best. I'm never going to have a bad day at a foosball tournament, even if I get the daylight speed out of me. That's not the point for me, right? So I'll give you an example. Just went to Knoxville. They had one day. It was a pro-am. And my, like I explained last week, everything's practice for me, right?

[00:22:06] So played with Kathy Kaler, lovely, lovely lady. Getting back into it, she played her absolute best, played great. And we lost the match in the single elimination bracket. That was 100% my fault. And I didn't sleep that. I didn't sleep that. I mean, it kept me up. It was frustrating, but it was 100% my fault. But walking away from the situation, it was, you know, I took it and I learned from it.

[00:22:35] And I said, I would rather lose this and go to nationals and succeed than win this and go to nationals and make this mistake. So for me, anything one day or a DYP, it's just practice. Legitimately, it's just practice. And I know for a lot of players, they'll go to a one day event. And if there's two teams and they win, they're going to post it on Facebook with their trophy and tell everybody they won. And it's a big deal. I get it. I want you to understand.

[00:23:03] Look, I'm not here to knock anybody, but I want to, I always want to play the best players, right? There's, there's a situation right now. And this is the kind of stuff that frustrates me with foosball, right? From again, people promoting foosball. I love you. I appreciate you. I'll always do my best to help you. I know there's a tournament coming up, a warmup for nationals. And then another promoter scheduled a tournament on the same day within a three hour drive and

[00:23:32] says that it's not going to affect, you know, players showing it's 100%. If you put something two hours away and, and that somebody's got something to, and then you put something 30 minutes or an hour away and make players choose there, you know, the, some of the players are going to say, well, where's the better competition? The players that want to improve are going to chase the competition. The players that are just thinking about winning or making a dollar are going to go wherever it's easy.

[00:23:59] And you're always going to take away from good foosball when you make decisions like that. But as far as, as far as what you're doing, and again, I don't know if you've asked your guys, if you've asked them, Hey, do you want open? Do you want to play better players or do you just, because I'm going to be honest with you, Mr. Kelly, you're never going to develop a pro out of your group. It's just not going to happen. It's not going to happen. I mean, Jonathan, Jonathan's a pro, but Jonathan moved to your area. Jonathan's been playing a lot of foosball.

[00:24:27] I'm just saying, if you, if you don't have a pro in your group to develop pros, like you have a bunch of good expert players, but how do they, how do they go from here to here if there's not somebody to teach them? I get it. And, um, you know, I, and, you know, it's just, we just disagree on this one. Randy is, uh, I can do a tournament. I, you know, everybody comes to compete and they want to win, but they come to Nashville, to music city foos, because they want to play.

[00:24:57] They know how they're going to get treated. It is a special venue, how I treat the players, what we do for the players. Um, it is memorable. And so one of the things when I came back to promote is I said, I'm not going to do any half-hearted events. Um, the tournaments will be different. Now I come from a corporate background. I spent 35 years in corporate America, uh, in management positions.

[00:25:21] And so I bring a different lens to foosball than a lot of other, you know, players or, or promoters bring. Um, and I lose money day in, day out doesn't bother me in the slightest. Sure. But the, the environment and the player camaraderie and the friendships that we've built are phenomenal.

[00:25:46] Uh, and you know, until the, you know, there's a real reason for me to change it. You know, we're not going to, not on our regionals. Every Sunday is open. You know, that's the other thing. I, I, people take shots at me on Facebook. Um, and they shouldn't do that. Every Sunday is open. We can have all the masters, all the pros. It doesn't make any difference. All, every Sunday is open. Sundays are your DYPs. Who takes shots at you on Facebook? I'm not going to get into that, but I mean,

[00:26:16] I'm just saying that's nobody needs to do, like I said, promoting foosball is a labor of love. Yeah. Right. It's a tough job. Look, I just stayed at a Moxie in Allentown PA a few weeks ago and it was wonderful. I got, I got a bunk bedroom. I'm a, look, I'm a man. I'm a man child. I am. I tell my wife, I, I grow up. I don't grow old or which would I grow old. I don't grow up. That's what it is. Right. I like the hotels are phenomenal. I think they're outstanding venues.

[00:26:45] Sundays are bad days for me, but if it wasn't for that, I would drive up and play your draw. If you ever just do a draw on a Saturday, I'll show up. I will again for players like Eddie, myself, it's just, if there's an opportunity to play, we want to play.

[00:27:01] That's, that's, that's what I think a lot of players don't understand is the love of the game for some of us is just, it's so strong and so deep that if there's something going on and we're not invited, we almost take it personally. Right. So if we, if we were to flip it the other way and we did a pros only pro and up event, you know, you can't, the, the players underneath might get a little butt hurt too.

[00:27:29] Look, I remember when I started playing, I went to my first worlds in 03. I got to DFW. I walked in the room and the pits were roped off and there were scientists and pros only. And I was like, man, I just, my goal is to get in there. Like I want to be in there and you know, I, I get it. And, and you're, you're trying to build a base. I completely understand. That's not, I'm not, I'm not knocking you for that.

[00:27:57] I'm not, I just, um, I feel what Eddie's saying from a perspective of kind of being, um, locked out because we've achieved something. That these guys haven't gotten to yet. So, uh, just a quick, I mean, fair or unfair. That's the choice that I've made. And as long as we're growing and as long as players love to come here and play, uh, that's the formula that we're going to stick with. And that is your prerogative, sir.

[00:28:26] This is your, this is, this is your ball and you can take it home if you want. Sure. Yeah. You know, yesterday I'll do some, sorry, Tom, I'm interrupting you. No, no, that's fine. Um, uh, yesterday we had an office. All Kaler finals, right? Billy Kaler won. Kathy Kaler got second. Chris Boyd won, uh, a handicapped singles. Um, you know, we have folks like Jim Smith who were playing down here. Jody Brown, um, uh, John Cunningham, uh, uh, Kenny LaBeouf. Uh, you know, I'm just like throwing some names.

[00:28:56] There's some very, very high level experts. Chris is probably as close to a pro as any expert would be. Um, and you know, yeah, we, we love it when Chris comes down. I told him that again yesterday when he was leaving. Um, but the, as soon as he turns pro, he, uh, he's, he's, he's not going to come here and play the big ones. So just a quick comment from, uh, from our Twitch TV audience. Uh, we have, uh, Matt McCrory of Buffalo. I was promoting there for quite a long time.

[00:29:25] And he said, um, uh, to, to specifically Mike, that, uh, pretty much the same concept here in Buffalo. Uh, I like to build and hold. I like to build and hold phrase. Uh, he goes, I didn't have a better way to describe it really. Uh, but, uh, he has a, he began with a beginner night, uh, not too long ago and beginners only. And, uh, that worked out because they brought a lot of people out who otherwise would have stayed away.

[00:29:51] Uh, and, and didn't have to contend with, uh, you know, anybody who was, uh, even, uh, approaching an amateur or, uh, you know, an expert. And, uh, so that, uh, that was successful for him. And I believe at one time, Matt, you can correct me on this, but I think he had three different nights in fact, at one point. So good base. But yeah. Um, you know, and again, I'll, I'll reflect on Knoxville as an example. And Knoxville is a hot city.

[00:30:19] Um, it's hot now highly because of Thomas Dyke and Greg Sherrod, um, who built grassroots programs. Now that's not to take anything away from chase and Eddie, because they're clearly far and above the best players, probably in Tennessee. Um, but it was Thomas and Greg, um, when Thomas started running the program, there were two people that showed up once a week. Wow. He and Greg.

[00:30:45] Now you're going to get 20 people on any given Thursday night and get some really fantastic foosball. Um, but, but you, uh, you have to credit Thomas Dyke. Uh, for that growth. Right. Yeah. It's interesting because we're, we're, all of us are, are, are struggling with this across the country and our, our, our individual, uh, regional areas and, and, uh, our own DYP situations. And it fluctuates, you know, some, some, some weeks are great. Some weeks, not so much.

[00:31:16] Um, and, and how to, to see new faces. You know, this is, uh, this has always been a dilemma. Um, we have a, uh, uh, a warmup for worlds coming up in August called the smash down. And it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's August 16th. I should promote that. Um, but it's actually what we've decided to do is do an open event, which is open to anybody, but the top rookie team and the top amateur teams will earn extra money.

[00:31:41] So if you're a, if you're a rookie or under and you do better than all the other rookies, then you get an extra hundred bucks. If you're a, uh, an amateur and you do better than all the other, uh, people of your, of that rank or lower, you also get a hundred bucks. So it's a, it's an incentive at least to get more, more people out. Well, and that's, yeah, you're incentivizing the lower ranks to play the open events. And that's great. I mean, you know, I, I, I feel like if, if you really, you know, again, there are

[00:32:11] three of us here talking about foosball, there's tens of people listening. Hundreds of people are going to listen to this podcast, maybe thousands of who knows. Right. But for people like us, it was never about, you know, anything other than just getting better. Like, you know, Mr. Kelly, when the show started, you talked about the beatings you took. It was the same thing for me. Right. Like I chased it. I took my beatings. I took my lumps. I, you know, we all want to get better at foosball.

[00:32:40] And I feel like, I don't know, maybe as a whole, we've gotten soft, like players, players need to learn how to lose. They don't like it. I don't want to. Right. I just want to win. And it's like, well, in order to win, you got to just put the work in. And I feel like players just, uh, and I get it. Everybody has lives and we all have, you know, things we have to do. And, but you know, again, I, I love foosball. I love, like, I love foosball. Foosball is a priority for me in my life.

[00:33:08] I have my family and my home and the things that I do in my business, but I make sure that I carve out time every day to touch my table every single day. So, you know, if you're not, if you're not putting in the work, then you can't expect to get the results. And that's just, that's how I feel about it. So, well, I get it. Um, and I, and I, you know, I don't disagree with you. If I could play with pros every week, I would. Yeah. And, you know, I, I pay extra entropy to do it.

[00:33:38] And I play open at every tournament and, uh, um, you know, I'm usually out in two, um, you know, and this time I'll play both flights and we'll see what happens. I play open singles and open doubles. Um, but the other thing in, in Tom, you get into this on a lot of your shows here is, you know, what is the landscape of foosball today and where will the growth come from? And I will tell you, and I'm one of them is players are older.

[00:34:08] Players are coming back. Players is talking. I was part of it. They talk about the golden era and, you know, why was there? I was there when, when, uh, when tournament soccer went out of business in Chicago, I was there, um, you know, and, you know, Randy just in the side here, um, just a few weeks before, uh, I had played Tim Burns, Zeke. I don't know if you remember who, who he was. He's a great, he was a world champion player from Denver. Okay. And, uh, was that Zeke Mullins? Was that is what they called him?

[00:34:38] I know just Zeke, Tim Burns, Tim Burns, great player. He, he's since passed. So rest in peace. But, uh, I played him in Denver and he clocked me and I thought, you know what? I can beat the guy. I don't give a shit if he's a world champion or not. I drew him in the first round in the world's in Chicago, the last tournament soccer event and dusted him. And it was like the most joyous victory that I've ever had. And I can tell you, he, he wasn't happy about it.

[00:35:08] And I wasn't, and it was three, one. Um, it wasn't like, you know, a couple of four to fours. I, I, I, I beat him so handedly. Um, and yeah, it feels good. Um, but you know, am I going to go out and tell you the same story today about Brandon Munoz? Yes. You know, more than likely not. Yeah. Um, so there's a thrill there, there's a thrill. Um, but so the, so back to where I started the demographic, you know, if you were to do

[00:35:37] a survey of 300 people go to TKO or 400 people go to Vegas and what is the average age and, you know, how many pros or masters are there and how many non-pros or masters are there? You know, and I can't speak for Ryan, but Ryan, uh, as he's going to become profitable, he's going to become profitable by non-pro players, um, in, in their entry fees and how

[00:36:07] they grow. So the business economics, you know, there's, there's a, we can't forget that either. Um, but like people like me, if I lose a hundred dollars a week or come up, okay, that's fine. I'm, I'm investing in, and I'm watching people get better around me. Um, and so I know, you know, hopefully you'll have Ryan back on now. Ryan's pretty transparent about how he talks about current economics, right?

[00:36:33] And, um, if you did, you know, back to what I was talking about in the last tournament soccer event, entry fees and open were $150 a player. Wow. Um, I wish we would go back to something like $150 a player. Um, you know, and then I would play, um, I would still play open in both events. Um, you know, so I think the economics are really important, the demographic and the economics.

[00:37:04] And, uh, you know, I think, you know, and I've sort of like dig in here a little bit, but the way to grow foosball today is grassroots investing people. I will reach out one at a time. Um, when I, there was no place to play foosball. So I created a place to play foosball. Um, uh, we'd run weekly tournaments, me, John Cunningham, Dan Tominsky, when he could make it. Dan. Um, Dan. Yeah. Cool.

[00:37:33] Um, Maggie Strong, uh, and Kenny LaBeouf. Uh, with, with five people and Matthew and Dreyas, who's, who's a cool cat. That's who came. And I would call them every Saturday and every Sunday and say, Hey, you're going to come out tomorrow. Still today. I send about 25 text messages every Sunday morning. Okay. And either, you know, you're going to, you've got to grow it in grassroots and it's about relationships.

[00:38:02] I can tell you the other thing is, um, like, I love, uh, what Michael's doing and I'm going to try to do some things with him with foosball clubs USA. Yes. Uh, you know, you got to have the right program to go touch the minds and hearts of 12, 13, 14 year old kids. Um, and a bunch of old farts knocking around the ball, uh, you know, are not the, uh, not the role models. You know, Sullivan Rue is the role model brand. Oh yeah.

[00:38:30] Isn't, you know, that's the role model. That's the image. But they are the exception. You know, they're the exception because, uh, I worry and I, you know, I think this is why Ryan's works are. Uh, uh, people, we could age out of foosball. Like, oh, the players are going to die. Sure. You know, it's inevitable. It's possible. Right. Right. So anyway, I'm, you know, kind of rambling on, but the, well, you got to invest in the player and you've got to have a moderate understanding of the economics, uh, to make it work.

[00:39:00] And so for me, like I'm in a venue that there, you would think that they would never, ever let foosball in this kind of a venue. Um, when we really got into it and we talked about strategy and we talked about growth plans for the hotel and we talked about how do you create traffic and how do you bring new traffic in? And, you know, how do we help you drive food and beverage different conversation? Yeah. Um, and in this smoky old bar, you can't have that conversation. Yeah.

[00:39:28] And, uh, you know, if you want a testimonial on a, on a venue and we should get my venue, a general manager on here because she thinks that foosball is the greatest coming she's ever had at the boxy hotel. Yeah. We love her. She loves us. Huh? Um, and I can tell you, I treat her, uh, just like I did when I was a senior manager, uh, at a, at my company. Um, and we treat it like a business.

[00:39:57] Now I get into the hype and I tell her how cool it is and, you know, send her photographs and do all this stuff. Um, but I've got someone, a partner that loves foosball players and promoting foosball for the joint value that we've created. And when you create joint value, I can tell you my venue is going to be around for a long time. I'm going to be around longer than me. I'd love to find somebody to be able to hand it off to you. Sure.

[00:40:22] But we've got a place that believes foosball players are sacred and they treat them like that. Wow. And that's nice. Yeah. I mean, talk to somebody who's played here. There's a, uh, talk, talk to some of your non-pro friends and, uh, and see what they're doing. Well, how many teams are you pulling on a Sunday? Oh, it's Sunday where we do monsters and we do anywhere from eight to 16, 18 players. Um, it varies.

[00:40:52] We've got a base of eight to 10 players that are never miss. Cool. Um, and then when I try to do something special, a lot of times I'll do two events on a Sunday. So I'll do a goalie war and a monster or, you know, something to that effect. Nice. Um, I, I, I didn't have long ago. I did a, uh, I did handicap singles and a monster in a larger tournament. And in the middle of it, I put fastest shot. Right. That's what I bought.

[00:41:20] It was little gadgets because you know, they're cool. Are they worth $119 now? They're probably not. But the guy who won the fastest shot is not even rated a beginner. Really? And, and he, let me just tell you, I, and I posted this with his photo and I gave him a trophy and you'd think that he won a Grammy. Yeah. His fastest shot. 35 miles an hour. Wow. Wow. 35 miles an hour.

[00:41:49] I would tell. Is it a roll? Any pro. No. He shot it from, from the goalie. From the goalie. Oh, oh, oh, oh. The goalie. Way. No way. Yeah. Left hand from the goalie, 35 miles an hour. You can look on my page and, and that's crazy. Right. And so, you know, the, that's the kind of thing, this guy, he's never even going to be a rookie. He is so loyal. He is so cool.

[00:42:19] We love having him come. And he went again two weeks ago. He posted on his Facebook, you know, Hey man, I just want another tournament at Music City. Foosball. And when he won the trophy, man, I'm telling you, seriously, you'd think it was a Grammy. Wow. Those are the stories that I want. Those are the stories that I'm trying to create. Sure. Sure. Sure. Well, it, again, it's, it's promoting goodwill for the sport, obviously, but just getting

[00:42:47] your friends out, you know, to, to, to also play, you know? Yeah. Um, there, there, there have been occasions I know in our scene where we've had, uh, we had news coverage for, for, uh, for one of our youngsters, uh, who had gone to, uh, to, to pro at the age of 13. So the news, the news crew showed up. They wanted to see how could that possibly be a kid this age. And so they went to see the venue and they were there for, for a night or so watching us. But the, the, the, the news crew, the, the, the, the reporter and her cameraman started

[00:43:16] showing up on a regular basis. Yeah. And they hung, they hung in there until they left it. They both left to the area. That's a good job outside of the area, but they were, they were loyal. They would come back over and over and over again. Cause they had, they had a real appreciation for how, uh, how much fun it was. And, and they were learning steadily. They were getting better every week. And, uh, you can see that, you know, it's, it's just a, it's a gratifying thing. Uh, it is. It's amazing. Yeah.

[00:43:44] I mean, the foosball universe is, is, uh, you know, when I decided to come back and play, uh, it only took a couple of tournaments to realize I know why I came back to play. Um, you know, I love these guys 40 years ago. I've reconnected with a lot of them, um, and made a whole host of new friends. But one of the first tournaments I played when I'm coming back was, uh, North Carolina state, um, in Asheville before the flooding.

[00:44:11] And, uh, it's, it's a great event, but, uh, you know, I, I told my wife, you know, we're going to go down on Thanksgiving weekend and we're going to play a foosball tournament. And she's like, the hell we are, you know, we're going to, we're going to have a big meal and family. And, uh, and she graced me with her support and she still does. She's she, she is such an important part of our scene here.

[00:44:38] Our players love her, but she walked into the room with me having no idea what foosball is all about. And she said, man, the energy, the positive energy, the camaraderie. And even in the small venues, like my venue, she feels that, but she still comes to, comes to tournaments today. Cool. And, you know, she calls her sister and says, ah, the energy in these rooms is phenomenal.

[00:45:07] You know, I get to play on the pit tables once in a while. I call her up and say, get down here fast, man. I'm going to play on the pit table. Uh, so, I mean, she, um, she's one that, you know, didn't have any understanding and now is one of our strongest proponents, uh, for my events, my no pro events, Randy, she, she comes, the players hug her and they want to see her. A bunch of them call her the pizza lady. They used to call her the pizza lady before they figured out she was right.

[00:45:37] Because one of the things that we do is we give free pizzas to the players and it's sort of become an expectation now. Okay. Now I can take active program economics. Uh, I'm not making enough money to buy pizza, but you know, I have one of the greatest supporters, co co promoters, my wife who says, what the hell I'll spend a few hundred bucks to make these guys happy. Cause I dig them. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. That's what you need. Um, what, what time do you start on Sundays?

[00:46:07] Uh, we start, we do pickup games around three o'clock and then we usually start the monster around five. Um, so, but we can do different things, you know, but that's, that's kind of the norm. And we get, again, we have such a great loyal group that want to come play for two or three hours before the monster. Um, and so we started, we started three, the monster around five, usually wrap up around eight, 30, nine o'clock. You know, and if you're driving in, I know that that's a, you know, that's a pain in the

[00:46:36] ass, but you know, uh, I'm a good guy, Randy. If you want to come play a Sunday night, I will pay for your hotel room. You don't have to, you don't have to pay for my room, but it's three, it's three hours from me. And like I said, I like the venue. The moxies are really nice. And they're, I think the one in Allentown was pet friendly. I don't know if the one in Nashville is I'm going to check, but yeah, then I'm going to, I'm going to talk to my wife and we're going to take a Sunday night and we're going to come up and get a room because Nashville is a pretty, it's a pretty city.

[00:47:05] It's a beautiful city and, uh, I'm going to come up and play your draw and, um, and we're going to hang out. And then my wife and I will go out Sunday night and take the dog out for a little bit. And I'm going to come, I'm going to come smack all your guys around. Yeah. I'm just, I'm just messing around. We're going to have fun. Well, we will have fun. And I'll tell you, if you could give me any, any heads up whatsoever, let's do something special, right? Let's start off.

[00:47:33] Maybe you do a little exhibition or something. Um, you know, and we do some kind of a, how do you make players better yet? You know what you did the five bar, the rollover, you know, Brian's two bar strategies were just awesome. Um, is to do just a quick exhibition and then, Oh, by the way, this guy's going to play in the monster and we're going to play eight rounds today because we're going to try to get every damn person in here to play with Randy. Yep. That's cool. Yeah, I can do that. I'll do, I could do a little clinic, little five bar clinic, three bar clinic.

[00:48:02] That'd be a great job. I'm trying to persuade Ryan. I haven't, I haven't said anything to anybody. So now it's just us talking. We'll never know, but I'm trying to, I'm trying to get Ryan to come in. I pay a visit before nationals to our little venue. Yes. He'll probably watch this and say there's no way in hell I'm coming now, but I think if, if he gets here in time, he comes one day later. Uh, but with a little luck, I can convince him to, uh, to come down and he will play.

[00:48:29] Um, and maybe you and Eddie and chase, uh, want to come play that one. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Um, quick suggestion. If you do make it down in there, uh, on a Sunday, Randy, uh, maybe we could hook up, you know, using your cell phone. We could have you on and we could have you do a, basically a live, uh, live drop from, from right there from the Moxie and put it on the air and say, Hey, that would be so cool. Yeah. I mean, that would be cool.

[00:48:58] And, uh, you know, give these guys a little, a little recognition as well. It's, it's, you know, Randy, when you come, you're going to know a lot of the people, you're not going to know some of them. And some of them that you don't know, you're going to go like, wow, man, guy, guy plays good. You know, he's a, he may be ranked a rookie, but you know, he's playing to high amateur. He's got energy. He's having fun. He's getting better. Um, you know, part of the struggle here is all the players are getting better than me. Faster. They're getting better faster.

[00:49:32] We're growing people and we're making people happy. Go to our, go to our Facebook page. I just, I know Tom, you follow it. Randy, go over there. I just posted maybe 70 photographs from yesterday. Nice. I'm sorry, sir. I'm not on Facebook. Uh, well, I, I refused to be as well until I came back to foosball and I had to do it. I hate social media. So create a fake account and go in or, um, it's that it's our, our page.

[00:50:01] It's a great page. And it really tells the story of what's going on in Nashville foosball. Um, I keep it very active. I put a lot of photographs. Uh, I do a lot of player write-ups and recognitions. Nice. Like, like, like a promoter should. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, I gotta, I'd explain something for you, Mike. Um, well, Randy can't be on Facebook cause he's in witness protection. So just, just saying. Right. Right. I had heard that about him.

[00:50:31] I heard that he and Clay were both in witness protection. Come on, both of you. Shame. Well, so as of right now, next Sunday's looking pretty open for me. I'm going to talk to my wife and see if she wants to take a ride. So. Cool. There you go. Yeah. She's going, she's going out of the country for a few days. So maybe we'll come up and spend the night and, uh, that can be like her, uh, her pre-trip trip or something. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that'd be great.

[00:50:59] Let me know if you, uh, send Tom a note and Tom can, can talk to me on Facebook or Tom's got my numbers. Sure. So I'll get it to you, Randy. But let us know. And, uh, next week I'm already thinking about doing something special. The next few weeks before nationals, every Sunday, there will be something unique, uh, happening at the Moxie. Cool. Um, you know, from, you know, special promotions. Uh, again, my base is not supposed to hear all this, but we're going to do some free foods

[00:51:26] events, uh, to, you know, come in and free vend. Uh, we'll do some no entry with some nice prizes. Uh, yesterday, uh, I offered up a sponsorship. Uh, no one won it, uh, but I offered up a sponsorship, music city, football, sponsorship to nationals. Okay. Entry fees, jackets, hats, you know, the, uh, all the registration fees, all of that. Um, I worked with Mary for a long time as others did.

[00:51:54] And we would give Mary would give packages to tournaments that local players would never go. Right. Somebody from Nashville can go to Lexington anytime they want to go. They can't go to Las Vegas. Right. So we, we gave packages away. I gave five packages along with Mary. Three of the players who had never been to a major went to that tournament because of those packages. Interesting. It's fun. Interesting. A lot of fun. Yeah. She said, well, I think that's a five event package. Yeah. So that's a sweet little package.

[00:52:24] Well, uh, Clay Toomey says, uh, I came in late, which what's happening in Nashville next Sunday. Um, and what time and, and, and is it adults only or teenage children allowed as well? Kids are absolutely welcome. It's, it's a non-smoking. It's there. You can get liquor if you want. It's pet friendly. Um, you're not going to have to worry about bringing your, your kids in there. Uh, and you know, every time I put on a tournament, I say, you know, remember that we're family

[00:52:54] friendly. Yeah. Be fun, have fun, but be responsible. Right. Um, and you know, our, our guys that come play, uh, they just, they, they love the venue and it's just, it just works out. So Clay, you should, uh, you should come down and then, uh, uh, uh, either that, or if you're watching this, you should stop, uh, uh, treating me so poorly when I play in the pits and you,

[00:53:20] you, you talk about how, how I'm getting annihilated by Tony Spraydom and maybe you're only going to score. How many, how many points do you think you'll score? You can only, you can only ask, you can only ask Clay for one thing at a time. Yeah. Yeah. Take it easy on him for sure. Um, I'm, I'm really curious cause you've mentioned a couple of times that you stepped away from foosball and for quite some time. What, why, why did you step away from foosball and how many years?

[00:53:50] Um, well I stepped away. I'm basically, I'm going to tell you 35 years. I, I, I went to work, uh, for a major company. You guys would know the company. Okay. Um, and I had a really, really great career. Uh, I wound up working across the world. I worked at our corporate offices. There were three different occasions. I had great jobs with large responsibilities. Um, and, uh, you know, that took me away from foosball, but I always found a way, uh, to

[00:54:19] work it back in just a little. So I lived in Minneapolis for a while and there was a, uh, Steve Moss. You guys probably remember him. Steve. Great scene. Yes. Uh, yeah. Great. Great guy. But he ran a program on Tuesday nights at a place called the Russ's pub in, uh, Bloomington. It might've been Burnsville. Uh, but every Tuesday we'd go down, uh, I'd go down and, you know, so, so it's, so it's neat back at it. And then they'd have a larger tournament and I'd play. And then there'd be a tour event. I'd say, well, you know, I'm going to dash out.

[00:54:48] I'm going to, I'm going to play this. I never really all the way stepped away, but you know, for all intents and purposes, uh, I did. Um, but that, that Minneapolis group, Steve, you had, uh, Doug Furry used to come around. He was long quit. Doug Furry. Yeah. Yeah. He, he'd come around, uh, because Kenny Alwell played every week, uh, every week in the draw. And so, you know, back then, uh, you had some, just some pretty solid players, but that's

[00:55:17] Minneapolis, you know, so like the Denver crowd, it's a very good crowd. Right. Uh, so I don't know if I answered your question, Tom. I, well, I really stepped away and committed myself to the business for 35 years. Of course. Uh, and did, it did okay. You know, uh, it worked out for me pretty well. Um, I was in the cosmetics business, uh, in the, in the health and beauty business. And so I say lipstick, lipstick has been very good to me. Not that you need it, but, but yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Yeah.

[00:55:47] Um, so then you go, you went back in, um, you're essentially when you're when you went back in, were you considered expert or pro at that point when you went back in or what, what? Uh, when I came back, uh, well, let's see, I played, played the U S open in 93. I know, I don't recall what, what kind of points I had at that time. Right. Um, I was playing open and, and won a handful of matches. So that was good.

[00:56:15] Um, I came back now, uh, as a rookie. So I think I'm 1285 or something, uh, at this point in, uh, you know, that's okay with me. Um, that's okay. I was playing, I probably, probably was a high amateur expert. I certainly was not a pro, um, you know, and wasn't winning open event after open event, but certainly held my own.

[00:56:40] So now when you heard that, uh, Ryan was going to hold the nationals in your, in your city, uh, what was your reaction? And, uh, what are you guys doing? Is there anything happening at, uh, at your venue that week? Well, that Sunday before, uh, will be something special of some kind. Okay. Uh, to, uh, you know, to just get people really fired up. And yesterday, you know, it was a lot about helping people get really fired up as well. I sent the promotion off to, to Ryan.

[00:57:09] So he had visibility to it. Um, so we're going to do something special. Yep. Um, but, um, I had a little bit of, uh, advanced notice. Uh, it looked like Nashville was going to be the place. Yeah. Um, and so when he finally made the announcement, well, I knew it when he, when he came here and started filming the bridge and the river and all that, and I had people, including Eddie, if you're still watching, uh, uh, write to me and say, Hey Mike, is that, is that a, is that Nashville where Ryan is?

[00:57:38] You know, and I, I have to admit, I told, I told Eddie, I said, I don't know. I'm not sure. So I apologize. I apologize. Eddie. I said, it looked like Nashville. Um, but so we're super excited. Nashville is a city that should have had a major for years and years and years. Sure. Uh, I talked to Mary a number of times over the past three, four years about working with

[00:58:06] her to do a larger tournament here, maybe 5,000, 10,000. Her and I would partner on it and she was willing to do that. And we never made it that far along. Okay. So once, uh, once, well, Ryan has become a raving, uh, fan of Nashville and you know, if we have an opportunity to do something, we will, uh, there's a group of us also talking about trying to do something as a Tennessee state, uh, you know, that would be a, it would be a nice event.

[00:58:33] Uh, we need to, we, we work really closely with those guys you mentioned, right? With Knoxville, uh, North Alabama, Tucker Creek, um, uh, Atlanta, we work really closely together so we don't step on each other. So, uh, hopefully Randy, it was something minor that you saw because you should never ever see a tournament in Nashville and Atlanta the same weekend or in Nashville and Knoxville

[00:59:00] the same weekend, because we try to make sure that that doesn't happen. Uh, we're not perfect, but we try to make sure it doesn't happen. No, I'm not going to name drop. I'm not going to throw anybody under the bus, but people who know, know, and it's frustrating. So I've, I've, I've been asked to, uh, so I'm going to Atlanta Saturday to play their warmup because, uh, Folsom and I are playing and, uh, Eddie's coming down.

[00:59:27] There's going to be some good competition there and we're trying to get ready for nationals, but I've been asked to ditch Atlanta and go to this other place just to take the money. And that's, uh, the thought crossed my mind, but that's not what I'm going to do because I, I want to go warm up for nationals. That's what I'm, that's what I'm more concerned with. But like I said, it's just a level of frustration with the fact that, um, a promoter would do that knowing that he's taking away the ability for his tour players to go get in some competition.

[00:59:56] And, um, yeah, no, if it was you, I'd tell you like, Hey man, it's pretty messed up, but no, you, I know you've had, you had your thing yesterday and you had it scheduled out for a long time. So, um, you know, the, the majority of the promoters in the Southeast are pretty good about when they schedule their stuff, you know, uh, Louisiana, they do their own thing. There's five, six, seven hours away. They play like four nights a week. They got a really good thing going.

[01:00:24] Um, you know, Georgia, Georgia does their thing. Knoxville does their thing. You do your thing. The last time there was a Tennessee state was like nine or 10 years ago when it was in Memphis. And, uh, I was, I was really hoping that that was going to stick. Uh, but unfortunately it didn't happen. Um, you know, Alabama used to be, uh, you know, there used to be a lot of stuff going on in Alabama. It was kind of a hotbed and unfortunately, uh, it's just not really the case anymore, but

[01:00:51] the one good thing about it is everything's within driving distance. So. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'll tell you, North Alabama, we're close with as well. And, uh, you know, I keep saying people love to come play. I have two guys from North Alabama that come every Sunday and play every Sunday. Uh, Mike Griffiths, Terry Lamb. Terry Lamb. Yeah. Mr. Terry. I like Mr. Terry. Yeah. He's going off to Spain with, uh, with my good friend, John Yarbrough. Yeah. Cool.

[01:01:18] They're, they're playing over 63 in, uh, in Spain. Uh, but you know, it's close enough. They come, they have a good time, you know, and I always try to make sure that they do have a good time, feel welcome, want to come back. And I mean, if you know Mike or Terry, uh, these are just two of the greatest guys. We, we, we become so close and we hang around when we go to Vegas or we go to TKO or we go wherever we go to these larger events.

[01:01:45] Uh, you know, we've created our own little group, uh, just hangs around Mike bites and folks from Montana, these guys, Nashville guys, Louisville guys. Uh, so it's, uh, it's a good scene that we've, we've got in a good group that's kind of gotten close. No, and that's, that's the wonderful thing about foosball. It's, you know, the camaraderie. Yeah, you build lifelong relationships, you know? Yeah, my best friends, my best friends are people I've met in foosball.

[01:02:13] I have a place to stay anywhere I go because of foosball and that's just the wonderful thing about the community. So, um, you know, and guys like you, you're, you're just, you're building it. You're making it happen. So, like I said, promoting foosball is thankless and, and, but, you know, anytime I go play, no matter who it is, I always just try to be appreciative and thankful because I, it's just an opportunity to play. Right. Yeah. I mean, I'm sorry, Tommy.

[01:02:43] Just saying making it happen. And that's, uh, you can't fault that man. If you're there every week, uh, working hard and making it, making it happen. That's, that's all we can ask. Yeah. And I'll tell you, I'm, I'm really very non-controversial, um, especially at my tournaments. I mean, I want everybody to have a really good time. Sure. But I know Tom, you'll, you'll probably recall when I see posts of people not

[01:03:07] supporting their local program, um, not wanting to help, uh, in there, there's been a couple of them. I know I posted on your site, uh, your page to say, get your ass over there and support this group, or it's not going to be there anymore. Exactly. And, uh, foosball players should never, ever complain. And they should be very thankful for the promoters and the venues just to have the space. Nobody's making money off whether you're a dollar a game or free play.

[01:03:35] No one's making a dime, including the venues. But, um, another one that I, that I had reached out to, uh, that's a very, very good guy, uh, promoted nicely, ran great tournaments, uh, small and large. And, and his base was eroding really because of players kind of, kind of being difficult. Huh? And I wrote to that. I wrote to that group and said, listen, guys, what you're going to have is a

[01:04:03] place that used to be able to play foosball, that we used to have a place to play. This is where you're going. And that's what happened. Um, and so now they have nowhere to play. Um, and I think that it's, I think it's sad, uh, you know, so anybody, you know, I mentioned that, you know, people take little pot shots when you, when you put a derogatory comment on my page, uh, rest assured, uh, we're not going to become new good friends.

[01:04:34] Hmm. Right. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I got a couple of people that, and Eddie's not one because, uh, you know, I said it written to Eddie, but I got a couple that are just simply not welcome to be here. Just period. Not welcome to be here. Yeah. Yeah. It's, uh, you know what? It's, uh, we, we just want to make, make, uh, the players have as much fun as possible, obviously, but also make it memorable for everybody.

[01:05:03] No matter who you are, when you walk through the door, we just want to make sure that, Hey, this, this was so well run and, and, uh, the food was good and we had a great time and we're going to come back next time or, you know, as many times as we can in the future. And as long as you got repeat customers, you know, you're, you're ahead of the game for sure. Yeah. I used to work for a guy, Tom, that, um, uh, he was a great coach and he was a, a, a senior vice president or president in my company. And he would, uh, he provided a lot of direction.

[01:05:33] Okay. He was a scholar who needed that direction. And one of the things he would say is he'd say, you gotta be memorable, you know, when you're going to go see a senior man, whatever. And so he'd give you this lecture and pump you up. You gotta be memorable. And then he would, and he goes, you don't have to be good, but you have to be memorable. And, uh, you know, that's sort of giving you permission to try, go in there and try. Sure. Uh, and that's such an important thing.

[01:05:59] Um, and so, uh, I think I, I was throughout my 35 years working, I probably created some memorable moments. I'm sure. Likewise. Um, so, so I, I gotta ask you the question because now we're getting pumped up because of, uh, Ryan's announcement about United Foosball Leagues. Um, how is that going to affect you? Do you, have you any plans to, uh, to jump in? Yes. Um, it's going to affect us in a very positive way without question.

[01:06:29] Um, Ryan and I have been talking on and off for a number of months, uh, since he started backing into this thing and said he was going to do leagues, but you know, not straight away. And so what we've committed is anything that he wants to do, uh, you know, within the realm of reason we're all in. And so whether that's becoming a pilot test, uh, uh, an early adopter, yes, whatever that's going to be, we're all in the branding.

[01:06:56] I don't know if you guys watched it or listened to his last, uh, his last one of the whole thing, the branding, you know, the, the, the, um, imagery on the tables, the wraps, the banners, the posters, the, anything and everything. Um, we will be all in on day one. It's a, it's about time. It's really about time.

[01:07:21] Um, I just, the concept, I think being able to play in your local DYP and never necessarily tour if you don't want to, but playing your local DYP, uh, doing well and then getting points for it. And of course, being able to see how you rank according to the rest of the country, why not? Why, why wouldn't you do that? It comes down to software. Well, software is probably the, the, you know, the number one thing that's going to enable this communications.

[01:07:48] Um, it's so, so many things are relying upon technology that works. Um, so I'm anxious to see the new, uh, world tour technology as well. Once he, I know, I know there's work on it. And so I think that could be very exciting as well. I mean, that's, uh, you know, what Mary has done has been good, but it's, it's, it's not going to take us into the future. Right. Right. It's, um, it's like you say, grassroots and including those people that just show for

[01:08:17] your DYPs once a week, they, they too can be a part of this. Yeah. We're, we're trying to do something and I'll just talk a little tiny bit about it because I don't know whether it's going to work or not. Um, but, uh, I, I love what Michael Stahl is doing. Um, and we've had a couple of meetings with him, myself and, uh, and another fellow here in, uh, here in Nashville that you guys probably know. Um, we're trying to figure out, you know, what could we do here?

[01:08:45] And one of the things, and I went and visited, uh, some, uh, community centers for underserved kids. Um, and there's a great opportunity there, much like what the league play would be, but there's a great opportunity. There's 27 of these centers in Nashville. Wow. Um, it's, they're not super easy to get into. Uh, you know, it's, I, I, you, you'd think giving things away would be easier. Uh, you know, and so, uh, you know, they said, well, what do you want to do?

[01:09:14] And I said, we have 27 locations. Maybe we'll put 27 tables in, uh, you know, they asked, well, how much would that cost? And I told him, you know, this, this would be the donation. And they said, that'd be the largest donation that we ever had. Right now. I don't know that it's going to work out. Um, I suspect it's probably not, but I'm going to try to get at least one table in one location if I have to carry it down there on my back, uh, and, uh, and get these kids playing.

[01:09:42] If you see what Michael's doing, if you see some of the photos, he's got 200 kids over lunchtime learning to play. Yeah. Yeah. You know? And so I know in these community centers, uh, especially for the underserved and I love Michael's, Michael's stuff. It's gotta be free. Right. You know, YMCA, I'm not supposed to say that, I guess. I don't know, but it's a paid membership. And so, you know, we talked about going into the Y and Michael said, you know what?

[01:10:10] It's a, it's, it's a monthly fee and that's not what our program is all about. Right. And it makes, it makes some sense. We still may put something in the, in the YMCA, but yeah. Uh, you know, that's, you know, I'm not going to grow with my tournaments and with more pro-ams or any of that stuff. I'm going to, I'm going to hold my base, going to get some old players to come back. Mm-hmm.

[01:10:33] But if I can get a couple of hundred youths, 13, 14, 15, 16, um, you know, I think that we might have something there. Yeah. Get them all fired up. No. Yeah. You know, and I, I've got Belmont university and Vanderbilt university here. And, uh, I thought for sure, you know, I'll just be able to waltz down there and get, get a foosball program going. There you go. It's, it's not that easy.

[01:11:00] Uh, it's, you know, we, we would still, so if anybody from Vanderbilt is listening, reach out to me. We would, we'd, we'd love to try to do something with you or, uh, uh, or Belmont. And it's, we'd love to do something. No, it's crazy. I tried to put a table. Um, there's a college, my wife's an alumnus from university of Montevallo about 10 minutes from the house. And I went over there to see about putting a table in and it was just, it was like getting stonewalled. And I just, I don't understand.

[01:11:30] And it wasn't, you know, at no cost to them. It's just here. They have an athletic facility and I'm willing to put a table in and no cost. And I'll come by and play with the kids. And they were just like, nah, nah, we don't know. We're not interested. And I just don't understand. I don't understand. I don't for the life of me. I don't understand. So yeah, it's really unfortunate because if you're going to give somebody a table and you're going to give them programming and you're going to, you're going to, you know, help kids maybe who really need the help anyway.

[01:11:59] Um, and if they happen to become a great foosball player, you know, okay. Yep. So much. I don't know if you'll remember either one of you guys, Hunter Schubert. You remember that little guy, Hunter Schubert? Sounds familiar. He showed up at TKO a couple of years ago and, uh, he's got to be maybe, I don't know, 12, 13, 14 years old. And he came out of nowhere and he took second place in amateur singles. Did he really?

[01:12:28] And he was, oh my God, he was blowing people off the table. Great, great five bar, great three rod, great composure. Um, and when he was, was he a little kind of little robust? Yeah. I remember that kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, and I reached out, uh, to his mom and said, you know, I'd love to work with Hunter, you know, I, whatever, let's get into some tournaments.

[01:12:58] Uh, and they're, they're pretty protective of him, but, uh, I hope that he comes back around as well because maybe we got a hat and a music city t-shirt for him and a couple of bucks for entry fee. There you go. You know, let's, let's get him out there playing. I mean, that's, there's a, there's a guy who's, who could be future foosball as well. Cause you, when you, as you describing Randy, it's like, you know, okay, well, so, you know, I'm just going to destroy this guy. Right.

[01:13:25] And then you, you find out in about 10 minutes, the match is over and you're in the loser's bracket. No, that that's, and again, this is not the first time this has happened. This is, you know, this is, this is a story that's happened many times. You know, I think, uh, and, and it's kind of funny, but I remember seeing him. I remember seeing him there and, and people were talking about him. Uh, he's a good little player, but. Oh yeah. Yeah. Uh, foosball players are funny, man.

[01:13:55] They think this, yeah, I'm going to smoke this kid. And then, uh, yeah, that we had, we had somebody show. So I went out and played our local, um, not last Friday, maybe last, I don't. Yeah. Maybe it was last. I got to remember what day that we could, it was last, not this past Friday, the Friday before I went out and played. Cause I just got a little itchy and, um, Lee Williams showed up and some of the people listening, some of the, maybe the older players will remember this, this, uh, this kid, Lee Williams, him and Billy were the same age.

[01:14:24] They're the same age, but they were, they were, they were kids coming up. And, uh, I texted Billy and I said, Hey man, Lee Williams said, what's up? And Billy was like, dude, tell him I said, what's up. I guess they hadn't seen each other since they were kids, but this dude, this dude, Lee was spectacular when he was a child. And people would tell me stories about when he was like nine or 10 years old, beating Terry Moore, beating Todd Lafredo. He was a, he was a phenom. And then he just faded away.

[01:14:50] You know, he, uh, I mean, he's, he's, he's successful, married children, doing very well in life, but foosball was just not where he wanted to put his focus. Uh, but came out, played the draw still, still has game said he hasn't touched a table in 15 years. And I told him, I said, we have, we have a name for people like you in foosball. And he said, what's that? I said, you're a liar. You're an absolute liar. So, um, but man, the dude could still play shoots a nasty shot.

[01:15:18] And, uh, you know, I, and I just, I want to know how we get those guys back. And, uh, you know, I don't, I, he said, he's got no desire to come back to foosball, which is unfortunate, but you got to get them one at a time if you can. And, and, you know, if, if you knew them before, you know, that's at least you've got it in. Um, if you didn't, you know, like, I just try to get to know these guys, you know, I get

[01:15:46] people coming back after 20 years of not playing. Yes. Um, we have a guy, uh, Jeff Plum that, you know, took a huge long break. Um, and he's back every week and he wants to play and he's getting really, really good. He's, he used to play with Kenny Alwell as well. Um, he said, so there's just, we can get them back. And I think if we could do, you know, locally, if we could get everybody who used to play foosball,

[01:16:13] that's, you know, between whatever, 40 and 60 years old. Because there's a lot of them and they want to play. And a lot of them are really good. A lot of them are really good. Atlanta, Atlanta had a million players back in the nineties and early two thousands and they all faded away. So, you know, like you said, there's, there are certain players, uh, areas of this country that had, had large player, but I mean, I'm sure Dallas has a bunch, uh, you know,

[01:16:43] I'm sure Colorado has, you know, there are certain areas that have a ton and they just fell off, man. And if we could figure out how to get those guys back. Well, we've, we've heard this story so many times, right. Over and over and over again. Uh, not the least of which would be some of the pro masters who just said, eh, you know, uh, I think, I think that there are, there's going to be a moment in the near future here, especially because the world foosball tour becoming much more, uh, visual, much more

[01:17:13] apparent to the, to the general public, uh, and really making efforts there that those individuals might say, Hey, damn, I want to be, I want a piece of that. I want to, I want to get back in this. 20 grand for open doubles at worlds. I think that would entice a lot of people. So I was thinking about playing with you, Randy and open doubles. Well, I, you know, this is the thing. Unfortunately, I already have a partner, but if something happens, I will definitely let you know.

[01:17:43] There you go. I will let you know. You can be my backup backup. That's good. Yeah. Yeah. Folsom won't mind. Well, now I'm not playing with Folsom. Oh, really? No, Chris, no, Chris and I have an understanding. Chris and I are playing pro doubles until one of us cannot play pro doubles. We're pro doubles. So open doubles. I've, uh, Chris and I, Chris has been playing great. Oh yeah.

[01:18:10] Chris has been getting hit up by a lot of really good players to play. And, um, I, I love that guy. He's like, I just want to play with you. I'm like, you're an idiot. Go play with these masters and get that, that knowledge and that information and then bring it back. So I finally talked him into branching out. So he's playing with, um, uh, I think at nationals, I think he's playing with Kane Gabriel, which is a great, I mean, just Kane's amazing.

[01:18:40] Oh yeah. And then, and then, um, I'm playing with Philbrook at nationals. I'm playing with Philbrook at worlds. I think Chris is, I don't, I'm not a hundred percent sure who's playing open doubles with at worlds, but we are playing pro doubles. We're planning to, um, we're planning to, uh, dominate at, uh, nationals and worlds. That's the plan, but, uh, we'll see what happens when we get there. So I'll be watching with you. Yeah. Ditto. I appreciate it. Yeah. We'll see. I'll come sit with you, Tom. We'll see if Randy holds up to it.

[01:19:09] We'll be the cheering section. Yeah. Listen, I look, you know, so far this year, uh, you know, we've, we've been right there. Uh, we were in the finals of pro doubles at the kickoff. Chris didn't go to Vegas, but I finished top five in pro doubles in Vegas with my good friend, Bruce Welton, uh, nationals. I feel like nationals is going to be very well attended. Um, and I think this is going to be the best worlds ever.

[01:19:36] So I feel like if, if you're winning a major, uh, you know, if you're winning an event at the WFT, then you're, you're doing something at any level. You're doing something. So, you know, yeah. If one of your, if any of your guys in Nashville are bringing, they're doing okay. So, yeah, well, I'm sure Jonathan's going to show up. Well, um, Bruce was just here and played at our place. Um, he was in here working.

[01:20:04] So, you know, ask him about it. It's yeah. The, the, the reaction's always the same. You know, like Bruce was standing at the end of the table. He's like, man, it's like the nicest foosball place I've ever seen. Uh, and you know, like we should keep it a secret, but that would also help grow foosball kid friendly, family, friendly, dog friendly. Um, you know, Carlos has helped. Yeah.

[01:20:28] So I got to ask you a question, a little aside here, uh, cause I'm a big fan, but, uh, when Dan Teminski shows up to play, does he bring his guitar? Does he ever like play you guys some music? Uh, he does not. Oh man. He, uh, we flew to Vegas together last time and he, and he was playing a show, I think on Saturday night and he had his guitar. Yep. And so I was kind of teasing him. So we were playing locally here. Uh, and I, uh, I collect some guitars. Oh, you do.

[01:20:57] I can't play with, but I have a nice little collection. So I said to Dan, I said, yeah, Hey Dan, man, if I, if I have a guitar out in the car, will you play us some songs? And he said, well, that depends upon if you really have a guitar or not. He doesn't. Uh, he, he, he, uh, is such an intense foosball player and so good for foosball. Yes.

[01:21:23] Um, he and I have played a bunch of stuff together and, uh, I think one of the last times we played, we won the king seat and got double dipped and we didn't like that. But, uh, geez, he's, he's, he just brings such an energy. Yes. Uh, to the game. And I like, you can practice with Dan, right? You know, you know, Friday afternoon, he thinks he's in the world championship finals. That's how he plays every game. That's it.

[01:21:48] Uh, he's never going to cut you some slack in, in, you know, Dan's a guy, he'll teach you a lot. I mean, he's, he's a very, very good player. Yeah. No, it's, uh, we accidentally ended up playing together at TKO a couple of years ago. And at the time, I mean, I knew of him because I was a big fan of a brother where art thou. But, uh, when I was introduced, I thought you're, you're that guy. You're like the Dan Tominsky that did George Clooney's voice. And yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:22:17] He just, it was like, it was no big deal. I'm like, dude. And it turns out he's got nine Grammys. So. Yeah. I think he's got, uh, I think he's got 13 Grammys. Is it 13 now? Okay. I think so. Yeah. In those days it was like nine Grammys. I'm like, are you kidding me? And so anyway, we, we got into a big conversation about recording and things like that. But, um, he, um, he, he was fierce, just a fierce forward. And, uh, I felt honored to play with a guy for sure. Yeah. He's vicious on the three rod. Yeah.

[01:22:47] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If he only just hit the ball a little harder, he'd be pretty good. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I'll tell him he said that. No, um, no, he's, um, he was very gracious. He sat down when we went to the classic and in Las Vegas and, uh, in, in, in impromptu, uh, interview and just a, just a human being that, you know, I, I just, you know, feel like, I can hang on, just have a beer together. You know, that kind of a person, but, uh. Great guy. Absolutely. Yeah. You guys are lucky in so many ways. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's a music city.

[01:23:17] So have you ever thought about, uh, having music on a regular basis for the foosball players? Uh, we have music on Friday and Saturday nights in the venue and once in a while we'll be in there playing foosball. Nice, really good acoustic vocals, uh, local talent. That's really good. Um, I got a bunch of friends who are songwriters, very accomplished songwriters. And I often think about, you know, maybe I should have a songwriter come down, uh, you know, and do a little show.

[01:23:45] Um, those are normally the, you know, that, that level of songwriter is usually about, you know, listening. It's a quiet room, you know? So if you, if you know the bluebird cafe at all, it's like a quiet room, you, uh, you know, there's no talking. So I haven't done it. And I don't think that the foosball players can sit down for 30 minutes and be quiet, uh, and enjoy the show, you know, no matter who it is. Uh, it's, uh, John Yarbrough and I were talking about that as well, about feasibly trying to do something here at nationals.

[01:24:15] You'd have to do it to bring in some songwriters. You'd have to do it after the finals are finally done. And then that may be, well, we wouldn't, we wouldn't do it in the, in the room. We do some kind of a breakout of some kind, you know, get us, get a sweet and, you know, 18 buckets of beer and, you know, invite some people up to, there you go, to come in here, hear some music. If they really want to hear Nashville music, you're right. Because people don't really understand Nashville music. They don't understand the songwriter, uh, you know, where the songs, you know, are really born.

[01:24:45] Oh yeah. So let's think maybe we'll do it. If not, we'll do it at Nashville next year. Right. You got to set up, get some drums. I played the drums. There you go. Yeah. Well, you should tell Dan, you know, when you see Dan, you said to me, Dan, man, I got my drums along. So if you got that guitar, you know, I don't want to embarrass myself in front of Dan Tominsky. You can do a brother, right? I mean, that translates pretty well to the track. That's a great one.

[01:25:10] Um, there's a, there's a young player from Texas, Evan McGregor, who is phenomenal, phenomenal guitar player. Uh, I've seen a few of his videos and I guess he's played at a couple of the, uh, the tournaments and just, you know, you think, wow, this is like the, the second coming of Stevie Ray, uh, but plays foosball. He's a talented kid. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's, it's always a good mix. I think, you know, uh, music, foosball, food, always a good mix.

[01:25:38] So that, that makes Nashville the perfect spot. Yeah, it does. Yeah. Too. And while the pros don't get to come play, we do have price beers for everybody. Yeah. That's Randy. I don't, I don't drink. I don't drink alcohol. I quit drinking when I turned 21. Yeah. All right. That's good. Sorry. Yeah. No apologies necessary. It's, you know, my foosball is foosball is my only drug. That's it. That's it. Well, I don't drink when I'm playing either, but I, like last night I had a beer. I was so tired after I was done.

[01:26:09] I had one beer, but I'm, I'm using, I like to play kind of in, in, within my own controls as well. Right. Exactly. Exactly. Well, one of these days, I think we're all going to end up in the same room. No doubt about it. Not a national. You're going to be a national? You're going to be a national, Tom? I will not, unfortunately. It's a, I was not able to negotiate that and the world championships with my employer.

[01:26:32] So, um, world championships kind of sort of won out, so to speak, but, uh, and it's also a holiday weekend. So I had an extra day or two that I could, I could, I could fit in there, but regardless, I think I'll be making my way to Nashville again sometime in the near future. I've been there a few times for work and I would love to just go there to play foosball. Absolutely. Yeah. We want you to come play. Cool. Awesome. And I'm, I'm not a pro by the way.

[01:27:02] Yeah. Yeah. I might make an exception for you, but I wouldn't do that for Randy or Eddie. I just, I wouldn't. I wouldn't make an exception for me. I don't blame you. But Sunday, Sunday's open. So Sunday's open. I might just, I might just pop in. There you go. So I'm, uh, I'm going to get your number from Tom. I'm going to talk to my wife tonight. And, uh, so like I said, Saturday, I'm going to Georgia for their warmup.

[01:27:32] Uh, but I'm going to see if Sunday, she wants to sneak up there and spend the night and, uh, I'll come, I'll come play the draw and we'll have a good time. Cool. Yeah. It's not a, not a bad drive. You know, you, you, you know, that's not a bad three hours. I do that in my sleep. Yep. And you gain an hour coming this way. There you go. And Nashville too. I really from Atlanta. Central time. No, no, no, no, no. I'm in Alabama. I'm in Alabama. I thought you said you were playing in Georgia. Yeah, I'm playing. No. So I'll drive over Saturday.

[01:28:02] I'll play. And then I'll drive back Saturday night. I'll be, I'll be home. Yeah. I'll be home on Sunday. All right. So you won't say, but that's all right. We still want you to come. Yeah. Yeah. No, I'm going to see if I can, I'm going to see if I can make it happen. I definitely, um, why not just to come to the Moxie, get a bunk bedroom. Yeah. Like a, like a big boy. Yeah. It'll be fun. We'll get you anything you want. What about parking? How's the parking there? We'll get you free parking in the garage or either that or I'll pay for it. Okay, cool, man. Absolutely.

[01:28:32] You are, you're a celebrity, man. Get, get used to it. Yeah. Come on, Tom. We treat players really well. We want you to have a great experience and be memorable. You'll say, man, I met this guy, Mike Kelly, couldn't play worth a damn, but he gave me free parking. Cool. And pizza. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. And pizza. Yeah. I like it. Yeah. Good. Well, so, uh, Randy, any, any parting shots before we let Mike get his, uh, get his life back here?

[01:29:02] No, this was, this was fun, Mike. I appreciate you taking the time to come on, um, answering our questions. Um, definitely excited for, um, for nationals and, uh, I am going to do my absolute best to, uh, come up and support you. Obviously I thank you for what you do for foosball, for your scene, trying to grow foosball in the Nashville area. And, um, yeah, like I said, thank you so much. Hopefully, uh, hopefully I'll see you soon. Good. I hope so.

[01:29:31] Mike, it's, I tell people we're always open. That's the only thing about our venues 24 seven. You can play foosball all night if you want. Nice. Wow. Now that's, that's the kind of venue you need. A place we could just, just walk in any time of the day or night. Man, that's great. Well, Mike, I got to say an absolute pleasure, uh, having you join us. I mean, this is, uh, you know what it is? Like we, like you said earlier, it's about the grassroots, uh, what you're doing there in Nashville, you know, let's duplicate that in every, every town across the country.

[01:29:59] And next thing you know, you'll have, you know, uh, uh, $150,000 championship in, uh, for, uh, let's say Tennessee state, something like that. Yeah. Well, that'd be good. That's about the right number too. Yeah. Right. Someday, you know, we can dream. That'd be awesome. Right. That'd be awesome. And that was cool. But, uh, it's, it's. Randy in that one. Well, before we announce it, I'll lock him in. We're already teamed up. Yeah.

[01:30:27] See Tom, this, this thing with me and Randy is not going to work out. Uh, why not? I can tell. You know what I'm playing? We'll lock you in before, uh, before the tournament. You throw, you throw a Tennessee state. You throw a Tennessee state. I'll come play with you. Okay. There you go. That's the deal. There you go. That's the deal. It's, uh, it's, it's, it's a good time. It's working out better. There you go. And see, this is why we do this because we make these connections and, and, uh, and it's, it manifests destiny. That's just the way it's going to happen.

[01:30:57] Plain and simple. But, uh. Well, guys, I, I can't thank you enough for inviting me, Tom. I mean, you guys have the best players in the world and the best promoters in the world. And somehow you disrupted your show to have me tonight. So thank you very much. Oh, stop. You, you do what you do and you are the best at it where you are. So that's, that's all that matters. Uh, that's all we care about. No, it's, uh, we, we definitely, here's the thing, especially because of the, the, the change is taking place in foosball.

[01:31:25] Now we want to make sure that, that everybody has a place at the table. I mean, there's, it's, it, there was a philosophy at one time. I'll grant you that not too many years ago where, where it was kind of like, yeah, we just want the top players. That's it. That's all we're going to talk to. No, no, no, no, no, no. That's, that's not our philosophy any longer. We're, we're all about making sure that everybody who loves this game has a chance to, to chime in and tell us what they're up to. So every player, every player has a story. Every player has a story.

[01:31:53] But, uh, you know, I appreciate what you guys do as well, Tom. I know you've been doing this stuff a long time, a lot of different ways. And, and, uh, you know, Randy, I know you've paid the price coming up through the ranks. So maybe what I'll do is I'll get some lessons from you too. Maybe we'll try to. That's worth the price of a bunk bed right there. That's again, I love foosball. I love helping players. It'd be my pleasure. Yeah. Yes, sir. Dude. Um, thank you once again, uh, Mike, for being with us tonight and Randy, you, you, you're killing it, dude.

[01:32:22] I mean, just, uh, just saying from last weekend to this weekend, it's been, it's been awesome. So, uh, keep taking those good drugs or I'm sorry, keep playing foosball. That's that's your drug. That's what it is. That's his drug. Yeah. I'll do both. I'll do both, Tom. You can tell when, when Randy's sleep drugs start to start to kick in right about this time of the night. So, um, and thanks for everybody who's tuned on Twitch TV tonight and Drifter Radio. Hey, a shout out, dude. Yes. I will team up with you.

[01:32:51] Just be careful what you ask for. Okay. Just, just saying. No. But, uh, oh no. So, uh, in the meantime, we'll be back together again very soon. And who knows, we might do some, some live broadcasting from, uh, from Nashville next weekend with Randy on the scene. We never know. Well, yeah, that'd be great. Yeah. That'd be a lot of. That'd be so cool. But, uh, in the meantime, thanks for tuning in. And by the way, here it comes.

[01:33:18] We've got a Foos Talk Live tournament beat brought to you by Boise Foosworks. Thanks to Mike Veidt for jumping in, man, and doing the right thing for us. But we, we greatly appreciate it. And, uh, we'll catch you next time on Foos Talk Live. Time now for the Foos Talk Live tournament beat. Thanks, guys. Brought to you by Boise Foosworks. High fidelity refurbished foosballs. Professional foosball is a game of precision, a matter of accuracy, consistency. Boise Foosworks presents the high fidelity refurbished foosball.

[01:33:46] Meeting the highest tornado ball standards, high fidelity foosballs are soft, quiet, with a true roll, and good durability. Exchange your balls with a high fidelity foosball at the best price with a money-back guarantee. Contact Mike Veidt on Facebook Messenger or look for him at your next tour stop. Boise Foosworks, saving the planet one ball at a time. Foosball tournaments are everywhere.

[01:34:15] Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you with the Foos Talk Live tournament beat. Here's what's up. The ITSF presents the World Cup and World Championships 2025. June 23rd through the 29th, Saragossa, Spain. The World Foosball Tour presents the 2025 National Championships. July 10th through the 13th at the Millennium Maxwell House Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee.

[01:34:45] South Florida Foosball Club presents the 2025 Beachtown Beatdown. July 25th through the 27th. Lilo's in Lake Worth Beach, Florida. Don't miss the 2025 $18,500 Ohio State Foosball Championships and Hall of Fame. July 31st through August 3rd at the Crowne Plaza Columbus, Worthington, Ohio. It's the Toronto Foosball Club Summer Epic 2025.

[01:35:13] August 1st through the 4th at the Toronto Foosball Club, Toronto, Canada. Canada Foosball presents the 2025 Vancouver Island Foosball Championships. August 22nd through the 24th at Courtenay Legion, Courtenay, British Columbia. The World Foosball Tour presents the 2025 Tornado World Championship Foosball Tournament.

[01:35:38] August 27th through September 1st at the Hyatt Regency, New Orleans, Louisiana. The 2025 Great Lakes Classic is now scheduled for October 2nd through the 5th at the Hilton Garden Inn, Lansing, Michigan. The 2025 Louisiana State Foosball Championship. All set for December 4th through the 7th at the Clarion Hotel, Kenner, New Orleans, Louisiana.

[01:36:03] Each week we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you. If you have an event you'd like to add, send us all the details at foosballradio at gmail.com. Tune in every week for the Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat. The Foos Talk Live Tournament Beat is brought to you by Boise Foos Works, high-fidelity refurbished foosballs. Foos Talk Live is a product of Foos Ball Radio.

[01:36:31] With gratitude we recognize our Foos Ball Radio Patreons. Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonhart-usa.com. Tune in again next week for another episode of Foos Talk Live. In the meantime, we'll see you foosin'. Foos Talk Live.