Mike Kelley is a hard working foosball promoter with the Music City Nashville Foosball Club. This Saturday, June 20th, he will be hosting a Nationals warmup at the Moxy Vanderbilt Hotel in Nashville. Here's what players can expect...
Become a Foosball Radio Patreon: Patreon.com/FoosballRadio
[00:00:00] The following is a presentation of Foosball Radio. It's FoosTalk Live. Are you talking to me? Compelling and lively banter. Are you going to talk to us? Talking Foosball. Foosball was how I measured my value as a man? You took that away! Players and fans, promoters and pros. Unedited and raw. Talk, talk, talk. Living in the moment. We have a lot of important things to talk about. All while practicing social distancing. Cool. We'll talk. No big whoop. Let's get this thing started.
[00:00:30] Foos Talk Live. Hi, this is Tom Robinson, and I want to personally thank our Patreon pillars for their support of Foosball Radio and FoosTalk Live. Here's to our newest Patreon. Larry Davis. Greg Taylor. David Goodwin. Dan Packer. Brad Lorene of Rodlock.com. Thanks to Randy Raposo. Thomas Dyke. Mike Veidt. Rob Cutler. Ernie Bischoff.
[00:00:59] James Sparky Castillo. Carl Fleischer. Jay Teal. Brian Schmid. Cameron Burroughs. Jimmy Love. Dwayne Stewart. Judy Schober. Reed Rector. And our friends from the 716 Buffalo Foosball Club. Thank you.
[00:01:23] Your support brings continued and expanding content from Foosball Radio as we cover the greatest sport on earth. Visit patreon.com forward slash foosball radio to find out how to become a Foosball Radio Patreon. Foos Talk Live is brought to you by Original Leonhardt. The Leonhardt tournament model is the most popular foosball table at the ITSF World Cup.
[00:01:48] Designed and handcrafted in Germany, order online and have it delivered to your door. Visit www.original-leonhardt-usa.com and use promo code FOOSTALK to save 10% off your purchase price. Here we are. Foos Talk Live. Episode number 302. Thanks for joining us tonight. I'm Tom Robinson. Randy Raposo is on the mend.
[00:02:17] I had a brief conversation with him today. He's feeling better, although had a couple of touch-and-go days when it came to his surgery. But he will be back. There's no doubt about that. Chase Pennell has also had some late-day family issues. But tonight, you know what? I thought it would be a lot of fun to hang out with one of my favorite guests and talk about foosball. And he comes to us all the way from Nashville, Tennessee.
[00:02:47] And he is quite a promoter there in the Nashville area. I want to welcome back to FOOSTALK Live, Mike Kelly. Hello, Mike. Hey, Tom. Good to see you, man. Thanks for having me back. Absolutely. I'm looking forward to hanging out with you tonight. We're going to talk about foosball, of course, and all the things happening for your scene. There's lots of activity happening on the schedule when it comes to tournaments.
[00:03:13] Of course, the next one being nationals coming up on the 24th, 24th of June, near the end of the month. And I understand you're going to be doing a warm-up for the national tournament coming up next weekend there at the Moxie. Is that correct? Yes. It's pretty exciting. But every time I come on and talk to you about what we're doing, I'll tell you how exciting it is. But, yes, we're doing a nationals warm-up next Saturday, so just a little less than a week away.
[00:03:45] And it's going to be the largest tournament that we've done so far in the last four years here. Oh, nice. Okay. So, yeah. So, you know, we're paying out a total of $2,000. Wow. Yeah, we've got two events that we're going to do, which we'll talk about a little bit more. Mm-hmm. And we're going to be operating six tables in the venue. So it's just, it's pretty, I think it's going to be a really good one, Tom. Yeah.
[00:04:13] No, I know that you've done this in the past, of course, with, you know, trying to schedule your tournaments in between the big ones and get as many people out for practice for the upcoming tournaments. Now, I know in the past we've also talked about the fact that you tend to not have pros play in your tournaments. Is that true this time? No. It's too bad that Randy is not with us because we talk about what we're doing.
[00:04:42] And so, in fact, Randy has kind of been helping with some good insight and coaching along the way. So if he's listening, thank you, Randy. If he's not, thank you, Randy, anyway. So we're going to test something a little bit new. Okay. And see if it works. So I did analysis after analysis to figure out what would be the right way to set something up and be fair.
[00:05:10] So I landed on 5,500 limited. And then after I did all the math, Brian updated the points. And so I found that I had a couple of players in that exceeded the 5,500. So the craziest thing is I'm doing a 5,650. So I'm calling it 5,500. Okay. But I'm allowing players to come up to the 5,650.
[00:05:36] We've got four or five pros that are registered that will be here, including my friend Eddie Mubarak, which, you know, Eddie's always asking. You got pros. You got pros. And so Eddie will be here playing with Robbie Ray. Oh, good. Yeah. And some other folks, Jonathan Chung, Scott Doan. We have two pros that live here in Nashville now. And we got the legend coming, Russ King. Russ King. Wow. Yeah. Okay.
[00:06:05] Well, that'll be entertaining to say the least. What do you expect as far as turnout is concerned? How many people are you looking for? Right now, we've got 20 people registered for the singles event. Okay. And I've got 15 or 16 teams in the doubles event. And I will take more teams. We're okay the way that we are now. I take another player or two maybe in singles. Okay.
[00:06:32] And, you know, another couple of teams would be welcome or, you know, we're just, our capacity is much better this time because we've added two more tables. Right. Six tables. Yeah. That's very manageable when it comes to a few more players, no doubt. Yeah. Yes. And so what are the events exactly? Whether you start it, but I noticed on your flyer, it starts at noon. What's it, what are the events? Yes.
[00:07:02] Like I have to do a little shout out to Mark Manory as well, because. Okay. I had heard about an event that he was running and I only got bits and pieces of what it is that he was trying to do or was doing actually. And I wanted to do something very similar. You know, last time we did the team cup, which was creative and fun and all of that. I think that what Mark has been doing and what we're going to do here in the singles event is going to be very cool.
[00:07:32] I've dubbed the event called the heartbreaker. And if you see some of the flyers, the heartbreaker. Right. And so there's a logo and some visuals. And actually I put a, about a three minute video up on the channel. That's got the character in motion. But so what it is, is a multi singles event. And it started, it's two out of three, double elimination. Okay.
[00:08:01] It starts out like any other event with a coin toss. And the winner of the coin toss will pick the first game in the multi game. And you could choose from goalie wars, forward shootout or handicap singles. And so the handicap singles is really the great equalizer here. Yeah. For everyone. So you win the flip, you choose the game and you get the first drop.
[00:08:28] The loser of that game will pick the next game and get the drop. And if we need to go to a third game, this is the same thing will follow suit, but there's only, you know, obviously only one game left. So if you, if I chose goalie war and you chose forward shootout, the third game would be handicap singles. Got it. Okay. Yeah. And so I just think, you know, I'm always pretty optimistic, but there's some really creative twists on this one.
[00:08:57] The format itself is pretty creative. Thanks to Mark. Right. And to John Yarborough, who brought the idea up and said, you know, hey, let's, let's try this. And so, you know, we have the character of the heartbreaker and he's, he's an interesting fellow. You need to have a look at him. He's, he's on the trophy. He's on some t-shirts.
[00:09:19] He's been in all of the flyers and, you know, talking to people directly through the heartbreaker through my alter ego. Aha. Interesting. Yeah. Now I noticed some, some graphics you've been using of late have been pretty exceptional. Not the least of which was your graphic about being on the show tonight, which was looked rather professional. How did you, how did you go about doing that? I was, I was curious. Uh, well, thank you, Tom.
[00:09:49] Um, I think I had about 35 years of practice doing this stuff. You know, I worked for a big company with a lot of responsibility in different areas. Uh-huh. And, uh, and we were a big sales and marketing company. So I used to have a lot more resources than what I have now, but there are so many great tools.
[00:10:08] I, I do, uh, a lot of stuff, kind of hybrid stuff from Google images to direct photography to some AI modification stuff. There you go. And just, you know, a whole lot of stuff in the, you know, AI is not the topic for tonight, but, um, you know, it's one of those controversial things of, you know, how much can you use it or how much should you use it? And everybody's going to be out of work and all of that.
[00:10:37] But, um, if you can give AI, like I'll take photographs, those, uh, every flyer usually is a direct photograph coming here from the Moxie. And so the one that's on there today is a kind of a modified version, uh, of what the Moxie will, you know, looks like during tournament play. Yes. Um, we'll make some adjustments. I'll, I'll crop players out of, uh, of shots and, and drop them into the, uh, into Adobe. That's cool.
[00:11:05] And, you know, a little while later, out comes something good. And, you know, I really appreciate you calling it out because it's important to me. Hmm. Yeah. Again, I come, you know, I've come from a background of a company of leading brands, number one brands. Uh, right. And the brand and the image and the little things really matter. And no doubt I work hard to make sure that we do everything that we can for the player.
[00:11:34] And you've heard me say that before, but I want them to have great information coming up to the tournament. Uh, in this case, I did these videos and, and I just have got a shout out on the videos for a second. The first video that I did, uh, which you should watch. Okay. I put it up and it was mind boggling. I put it up. I got up the next morning and I had almost 2000 plays.
[00:12:04] Whoa. Wow. Usually for me, a great number of, of hits on anything is about 800. The flyer got 1500. Okay. But the three videos combined, um, I have over 6,000 hits. Wow. And it's thrilling. And then it is, it is.
[00:12:30] And so I think it's a vehicle that people like in addition to just a, you know, a one dimensional flyer. Right. I can, I can speak directly to them or I can use these alter egos and, and, uh, speak to them. And there's a, there's one, I talk about the legends, uh, you know, how the legend of hard knocks. And there's some, there's some funny stuff in there, you know, just, just, just ask Billy or just ask Tony.
[00:12:56] Or just ask anyone named Ruth, you know, so it's kind of some of that. Yeah. Yeah. So slapstick comedy. Um, but back to the, you know, to your, your thought every detail matters. Yes. When people are getting ready and planning, you know, people spend money to come play football tournaments. I want them to have high expectations when they come here.
[00:13:22] Uh, my wife who helps me more than anyone in the world that I, I joked with you last time, the players call her the pizza lady. And it took them about a year to realize the pizza lady was my wife. Right. Okay. Right. So that's cool. You know, uh, and, and she helps. So with the, with the preparation, uh, where I'm sitting now is actually a space that we have. It's a player's lounge.
[00:13:47] So the players can come back here between matches, you know, places to sit, big screen TVs, comfortable furniture. Uh, uh, Jeremy Condiff had a nice nap back here, uh, during the last tournament. Oh, wow. At the player's lounge and, you know, snacks and treats. And, and, uh, the players have become accustomed to the pizza. So there'll be some pizza here and maybe, uh, maybe Lisa who's the pizza lady has got some other tricks up her sleeve.
[00:14:15] But from the moment that you arrive, uh, I want people to feel really welcome and really good. And I want to be ready for them. You know, you've been to tournaments where, you know, they're, they're an hour late because, you know, something software broke down or the tables were set up or something. Uh, here I want people to come settle in.
[00:14:39] They know exactly what they're in for or more and, you know, play just, uh, just not only play foosball, have a really great experience. Yeah. Everything was rival to the branding, to the t-shirts and some really special touches for, uh, for folks who are, are going to win, uh, the two championships. It's, I'm rambling on here, but. No, no, it's, uh, it's great.
[00:15:10] I have the most beautiful trophies I have ever had. Interesting. And what's that? I said, no, I say that's interesting that they sent you to the, the most beautiful trophies you've ever had. Yes. And well, you know, it's again, I create a lot of this stuff. And so you find the, uh, you'd find custom, customizable trophies and I always do custom trophies.
[00:15:35] Uh, and I've done the incredible Hulk and, you know, done some music city stuff, microphones and musical instruments. I think I've seen those. Yeah. Those are, uh, those definitely stand. Yeah. They definitely stand out. People love them. I mean, the, the incredible Hulk, the first time that I used it, it's like, everybody's like, oh man, I want that trophy. So, you know, they want the trophy more than money. Yep. Uh, but so the trophies for this one, and I, I haven't put any pictures out there yet. Uh, but I probably will.
[00:16:05] They're beautiful, solid crystal, uh, trophies that are mounted on a carogany or a rosewood or something in the base. Okay. Very heavy. You know, half a pound, a pound a piece. They're, you know, beautifully, uh, engraved with the event and the finish and what it's all about.
[00:16:30] And I was joking with, with my Lisa this morning, I said, you know, people are going to really want the trophies. And I said, you know, maybe a great goal is every foosball player who ever comes and plays one of our tournaments has a music city foosball trophy on their, on their cap. It's got to be displayable, you know? Yeah. And these are beautiful. I'll make sure that you, uh, that you, you can see them. Okay.
[00:16:56] You know, it's, it's, I just, I get so excited even with the smallest of details and the trophies matter. The flyers matter. They're, I've got, uh, t-shirts for the, uh, for the winner of the, uh, of the heartbreaker. Heartbreakers. They've got a great t-shirt with this heartbreaker logo and I'm the heartbreaker. I'm the champion. And, and, uh, as soon as the, as soon as the match is over, I think I'll make them wear it. Yeah. Well, of course.
[00:17:25] I mean, what good is a t-shirt unless you wear it, especially at the event. Yeah. Kind of flaunt, uh, flaunt your, flaunt your win. Yes. And you've probably seen some of our stuff at some of the tour events. I try to do what I can with jerseys. We have such a great player base, loyal player base. And there's now eight or nine or 10 of us that are going to a lot of tour events. Yes.
[00:17:51] We just got jerseys for, for nationals that, uh, are very, really, really, really. Yeah. I gotta, I gotta ask you about that. Uh, we're, we're, uh, we're coming to, uh, to nationals as well. We have a, a team. Uh, we, we just assembled this last week. Uh, so we're, we're in the process of getting a jersey together and, uh, well, you know, we're going to see the, the, the, the initial, um, I guess you'd say the proof, uh, the first
[00:18:20] design, uh, hopefully tomorrow or the next day. And then we'll go straight to, uh, straight to print from there. But, uh, pray tell what, uh, who's on your team? Um, this, these jerseys are for the whole group. Okay. Um, we have a Tennessee team. Kathy Kaler has, has headed up, uh, the Tennessee team. Um, but our jerseys are just, you know, representative of music city foosball and all the players from here be dressed up in those jerseys. Cool.
[00:18:50] And it's good. We did a, we did a new logo. Mike Griffith and I did a, worked up a new logo. It's, you know, kind of exciting and fun. And, you know, we have our music city stuff on it. Nice collared, uh, yeah, a very professional collared jersey. Still a jersey. Nice. Sort of a yellow, two-tone yellow logo on the front and the names on the back and numbers.
[00:19:15] And, uh, so you're, you're going to see a whole bunch of yellow and blue at National's, which is exciting. That's the music city career. Yes. Love that. Love that. Yeah. Now I know there's, um, I don't know what, what kind of, uh, designs they're allowing for the tournament for, uh, uh, North American cup. I guess it's up to the individual teams. Is that what the case is? Uh, it is, um, everybody has to match.
[00:19:47] It ideally has got your state that you're representing. Right. And it can be simple. I mean, it could be like last year we used a plain black t-shirts. Thomas, my friend, Thomas, who had you, you had last week. Yes. Um, he got the shirt. So we had a, you know, a little, a Tennessee logo on the back, on the front and Tennessee along the back. And I think there's some pictures actually of the, of the group that we had posted last year.
[00:20:12] So, um, I haven't, I haven't seen or talked to Kathy yet about what she's doing, but she'll be here next week. Her and her and Billy come and play every one of these. I don't think they've ever missed one. Nice. So I'll get more insight from Kathy on how we're going to show up as well. It's, uh, I think we're going to have a really interesting time. I think this idea of the North American cup, obviously it's been done before. Uh, but I think this year is going to be special. I think there's going to be more teams. There's going to be more participation.
[00:20:42] It seems, uh, in this event. Uh, so, uh, looking forward to, uh, for at least for, for New York state this year. I don't know that we've had a team of late. Um, this may be the first time in a while, but, uh, Tommy, your is going to be our, our, our master, his wife, Deanna. She's also going to be on the team. Uh, Scott Ramsey from Rochester. Uh, Tony Rosa also from, from Rochester, Mark Drolet from Plattsburgh, a couple of juniors.
[00:21:09] And, and I'm going to be, I'll be the low rank guy on the, on the team as well. But, uh, we'll see. Of course it takes the whole team. That's, you know, that's no problem. I was, I was going to ask you, did you get Tommy to be, uh, be on the team? And wow. So that's, that's big news. Well, your, your line, I know, um, is a very good lineup. Yeah. I just have, I'm getting to know Mark a little bit, which later on we can talk about a little
[00:21:36] more why, but, um, he, he and I are in the, uh, I just recently joined the board at Foosball Clubs USA, which is a, you know, it's such a great program. And Mark, Mark has been the president. Um, and I didn't really know him very well. And as I'm getting to know him, he's a good player. They just took second at the, uh, he and Michael Stahl took second in pro doubles at the Texas event. Yes. At Steve Murray's event. Mm-hmm. Played great.
[00:22:05] I mean, played really, really great. Yeah. So I'm getting to know Mark, um, and, uh, Jim, Jim Provost, but he's not, he's, he's a little further away from you, right? He's in, uh, he's in, uh, Philly, I think. Well, he's in, uh, in, in the state of Delaware. So, uh, Jim, uh, in fact, Jim was, uh, was our, was one of our guests when we went to, uh, to the Texas state championships and the ITSF world series. Um, but, uh, Jim was just newly elected to president of the USTSO and he's been pretty
[00:22:35] active in his area in Delaware, Delaware, Maryland, uh, for a while now and, uh, supporting some teams. So Jim is a, is a really, really smart guy. He's been in business. He's had his own company for many years and, uh, is really bringing new energy to the USTSO. So we're looking forward to that in the future there, but, uh, getting back to foosball clubs, USA, Michael Stahl. I mean, the guy's killing it.
[00:23:00] He's just doing an amazing job of, uh, bringing attention to the sport, you know? Well, he's, you know, if you could write up a, who's the ideal candidate to be the executive director for a program like that, he's so good. You know, first he's a, I think he's a third time, 13 time world champion player. Yeah. You know, since he was a young kid, he's a couple of a foosball family. Yep.
[00:23:29] Um, he is so professionally presentable. I'm not really sure how to, how to say it, but if you know Michael very well, he, you know, he'll, he'll, he'll open right up to you and he's just, he's a clean living first class citizen in every part of his life. Oh yeah. No doubt. You know, one of the things he and I were talking one day, hopefully he doesn't hit me over
[00:23:58] the head when I see him, but we were just talking about, uh, you know, who's all and things that, you know, would, you know, would be important. And we were talking about ambassadors and, uh, who, who we might think about for some ambassadors. I won't name any of those names, but we have a, you could probably imagine, think about the young players that are out there today that are that, you know, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 year old. Yeah.
[00:24:27] And, uh, uh, it's a Michael said, you know, he goes, uh, he goes, he goes, I'm okay. You know, he goes, I don't drink and I don't do drugs. And he goes, and, and, and I'm clean. If you room with me, I'm clean. And I'm thinking that is so pure, right? I mean, uh, Michael Stahl can say that to you and be so meaningful and you get it. You know? And I said, well, I said, I, uh, I'll have a beer or two, Michael, but I'm pretty clean
[00:24:57] living in the other ways as well. Certainly not like he, he, he just is, uh, he's just is the, is the, is the best there is for this. I think they're in New York right now. They're, they're doing a, uh, right. They're doing the McDonald's thing. I think that today was, um, pretty sure it was today was the club of the year celebration. Uh, there. And then the, uh, McDonald's, uh, in New York city, I think it's five boroughs of New York city. Right.
[00:25:23] Are doing a pretty significant kids program. It's seven or eight locations. I believe actually it's eight locations, including the finals, but they're all McDonald's restaurants where they're playing. Yeah. And I think it's, that's an astonishing idea. Uh, getting one of the biggest sponsors on the planet, uh, to, to support kids and, and playing. No question. Yeah. No question. Wonderful idea. Yeah.
[00:25:49] Michael was telling us about the vision and when we were all just so enthusiastic about what he was planning. And I was thinking, because I come from a big company background, I'm thinking this is going to be no easy proposition. You know, this is, this is not going to be a slam dunk when you go in there and he's just got a great deal and I'm not much of a gambler, but I'll bet you McDonald's or other,
[00:26:16] uh, support sponsor type folks are going to be knocking on the door of Foosball Clubs USA. Yep. To want to do some, some major things, the videos that he posts and photographs and, you know, I don't know if you saw the video from today that, that kid probably 12 years old is cranking slingshots from the three rod. Sounds about right. Yeah.
[00:26:45] I was, I was watching Michael when he was teaching them out at, he says, you know, everybody wants to learn how to shoot a slingshot. And this was like, you know, people had been playing for a week or so and he's teaching them how to shoot slingshots on the three rod. It's a, so he, Michael's just great. And, and kids pick up stuff like that quickly. You know, I could, uh, practice a slingshot for the next six months or whatever, and probably not be able to do it very well. Uh, whereas a kid who's, who's, uh, whose brain is, is new and, uh, you know, willing to absorb
[00:27:14] all the ideas and, uh, and, and, and observe and do the, do the, uh, the practice. I mean, they get it right away. That just seems to be the case, you know? Uh, yeah. Some of these kids are impressive. You know, we talked about Hunter Schubert last time around. Yep. He's, he's a beast. I mean, he plays, uh, regardless of his age or anything else. I mean, he's a top amateur, you know? Yes. Top competitor. He got second place at TKO, I think, the year before that.
[00:27:44] Right. Exactly. Yeah. Uh, we saw, we saw, uh, Kelton Grizzle, uh, from, um, I believe he's, uh, I think he's from Wisconsin, if I'm not mistaken. But Kelton, uh, showed up with his dad and his sister and, and just killed it at the TKO. It was just doing an amazing job. He won the junior division, uh, singles and, uh, got a chance to talk to him. And, uh, you know, he was, he was very serious about, uh, getting better at foosball.
[00:28:14] Um, very, very serious. But, uh, and he was back on recently, in fact. Well, I wouldn't be surprised that he'll be at nationals along with his sister. His sister played the last open mix with Tony. Um, yeah. And Tony, and, and, uh, I forget her name, but he, she and Tony won, uh, open next. Yeah. Pretty astounding. Uh, this is, this is exciting for, for, for the sport.
[00:28:41] Um, you know, you and I as, as, uh, uh, shall we say, uh, senior members of the, the foosball sport, um, we're not going to last forever. Just the way things are. So, uh, there has to be more, more, a bigger crop and larger amount of kids, uh, getting into it at, uh, an earlier times in their lives and really develop the skills early. And that's what we're seeing, you know, with foosball clubs, USA, it's, it's pretty, it's miraculous in so many ways to see what, uh, what's happening there.
[00:29:12] Right. Well, that's a great environment to bring him in, you know, versus, uh, you know, a 1980s smoky pool hall kind of a place. Mm-hmm. So it's like, like our venue here, you know, kid friendly, family friendly, pet friendly. Right. Um, it's just, you know, clean, safe. Everybody's very respectful. Yeah. Yeah. But you're right. These kids are coming up and I think that you're probably going to see some stuff. I hope we talked about it last time as well.
[00:29:41] Some community center, uh, programs. Yes. I've been trying to work on this for quite a little while. Mm-hmm. I just, uh, had a very casual talk yesterday with one of the council members here in Nashville that's been helping me. Okay. Um, and it's, you know, it's just not as easy as you think that it should be. Well. Even when you want to, you know, when you want to do it. Well, Mark, I mean, you could talk to Mark. Go ahead, though. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
[00:30:07] Well, I think there's, there's always that, that point in which you, you illustrate for a person who's, shall we say, uninitiated. Maybe they've seen it. Maybe they've noticed it. Maybe, maybe they remember it when they were in high school or college as a bar game. Um, but it's really not, you know, now, especially with Foosball Clubs USA, it's being presented as a legit sport that's being played in a lot of other places besides taverns.
[00:30:35] Um, and as long as they understand that is they can, they can see that, especially at the, the, the, the scholastic level, then, then it's a lot easier to sell, I think. Right. And what Ryan has done in terms of the overall atmosphere, you know, the environment and talk about marketing and making things special. He and Yvette have done incredible things. Oh, no doubt.
[00:31:02] You know, from, from, you know, when you arrive at the hotel lobby, but that helps as well. The media coverage that he continues to get, I think Chase was doing some commentating for him last time around. Yes. Uh, and there's more and more compliance with the dress code. Yep. You know, years ago, the dress code was fully enforced and fully, you know, compliant every player. Okay.
[00:31:29] Today, I am so excited to see so many players today that are, you know, playing many different events, not just open events, uh, wearing very professional uniforms and, you know, proud of their club or their community and, and representing foosball the way that it should be. Yeah. As opposed to, you know, when I, when I came back just four years ago and my first stop was in Asheville. Okay. Okay.
[00:31:58] And I came into the room and I thought, Oh my goodness, you know, things have changed. It's a, it's an elder crowd or, you know, my age kind of a crowd, give or take. Um, you know, there, we didn't see a lot of uniforms and a lot of, a lot of that kind of stuff. I know that that's a great tournament. Jason McCall does a great tournament, but I thought things had changed quite a bit. Now I see the pendulum really swinging back. Yes. Yep.
[00:32:26] Just great representation where you could put up a YouTube video or stream an event, get the news media to come. And, you know, Ryan's doing a lot of this stuff. He's got a great, a great creative crew that they're all volunteers and they're all just helping him out. Oh yeah. Great. Yeah. No, he's, he's got an incredible, uh, group of folks. I've had conversations with some of the guys that, um, uh, that just, you know, move
[00:32:54] tables, set tables up, travel across the country. I mean, these individuals are serious about what they do. Uh, and, and they're, they're so dedicated to doing it right, which that's, you know, if you've got a crew like that, um, uh, your, your success is nearly guaranteed, you know, because you've got people that really give a darn and they, they move forward and they take care of business when, when, uh, when it's necessary. And, you know, Ryan's doing the right thing, man.
[00:33:22] He's, he's really, uh, he's taken his, all his energy, all his time and, and devoting it exclusively to, to making the sport better. Yeah, he sure is. And, you know, to the, to the crew, Josh Sharpe, uh, you know, gets, gets a shout out to that this guy probably is the hardest working guy in for the sport. No doubt. No doubt. No doubt.
[00:33:47] You know, in every tournament, every set up, every tear down drives a truck, you know, it's really, really great. It's tough work. That's really hard work. And those guys, I mean, and they also get a chance to play obviously, you know, in, in between, but, uh, you know, it's, uh, it's thankless. It's they've got to, they've got to get in the, put all this stuff back in the truck, get back on the truck and go to the next location. I mean, especially during this time of the year, there's so many tournaments in a row
[00:34:14] that they're basically, they might have a week or two off the road, but they're back on it right away. And so there's a lot going on there. Right. And that stuff's heavy. Mm hmm. Uh, you know, the, the average person, it may be even the average player who doesn't have a table. Yeah. It doesn't, they not realize, you know, moving a table from your basement into a venue. That's an undertaking. Oh yeah.
[00:34:40] Fortunately, I've got some really great players here that helped me quick to volunteer and really reliable people that are, you know, asking, how can I help? What can I do? Sure. Got down. Who I mentioned just a little bit ago. He's a pro he's come back and he's just like jumped in. He's coaching and teaching people. He's helping run the tournaments, helping run the software. That's great. Same thing. Corey Carlo for a long time, but you know, we just have, you know,
[00:35:10] got so many people that I'm thankful for. Jeff Plum, Mike Griffith, Terry, you know, all of those people that just come and, you know, break their back before the tournament and stay late after to help us tear down. And it's, I really appreciate them. Now you're, uh, you have six tables. Are they all relatively new or the same vintage or what, uh, what, what typically happens for you? Uh, two are, are the ones that are going on right over, over my shoulder here. Yep.
[00:35:38] The other four are brand new. Nice. One term it used. Um, in fact, uh, two of the tables were table number one and table number two at Texas. Oh, so we got those from Steve. Oh, nice. Oh, very nice. Yeah. Steve is, uh, another person who's really diving into, to make things better. Um, you know, had a long, a long chat with him, uh, at Texas, of course. And he's, uh, you know, he's active with, with, uh, with tornado now.
[00:36:09] And even, uh, even so much as, uh, the, the, the finer details like the balls, which by the way, this is, this is one from Texas, one of the, the newer generation. And, uh, it, it seems pretty nice. I have to say. And there weren't that many complaints about the, the, the balls at Texas, uh, Texas state, I have to say. I heard that compared to the first couple, two, three stops of the year, you know, the,
[00:36:38] the balls were just, they were terrible. Yeah. Yeah. Really, really rough. And, you know, I'm not a master, so I'm not as picky about some of those things as many people are, but even I felt these balls are just bad. So. Yeah. I haven't done anything with them yet, but I just got 40 balls. Gosh. Just read, just in the last number of days. Okay. Good. Good. Good.
[00:37:03] And all I looked at is the same thing when I see you hold it up is that the brightness of the ball. It's, uh. Yeah. A little, a little darker. Hey, I just think they're going to be good. I think that they'll be good. Much more uniform. Um, we're noticing less, uh, less flaws, you know? Right. And that's Steve who's been working those specs. Yes. To, to, you know, fix the, fix the wrongs. Yeah.
[00:37:30] It's, uh, it's such a, uh, an interesting thing when you think about professional sports in general. And I know we've, we've said this before, but, you know, think about this. If you're playing in the top of the NBA and the balls are half, half deflated or not, you know, up to spec or they're not to standard, um, how would you expect to, to play at your best? You know? Right. So we're, uh, we're happy to see things are changing.
[00:37:58] Uh, you know, again, Steve is doing a great job in, in, uh, conveying the, the, the necessity of making things the best when it comes to, uh, playing on tornado tables, using the balls. And of course, you know, making sure that everybody is, is, uh, is, is on the same page. So to speak. Right. Right. Yeah. It's doing great things. So hopefully he's going to help with, with, uh, some of the issues with the men, the brittle
[00:38:25] that have been, been a challenge and some of the rods that have been not, you know, not machined the way that they once were. Sure. But I think, uh, I think with the momentum and I think with his influence, you know, it's sort of like if Tiger Woods is going to help you design golf clubs, they're going to be pretty good golf clubs. I mean, professional level kind of golf clubs. Oh, no doubt. So what Steve is going to be really great. Yeah. It's, uh, you know, it's, it's a work in progress and nothing changes overnight.
[00:38:55] Uh, and of course the, we'll see, I'm sure a steady increase in, uh, in quality and this kind of thing. I just, you know, when you mentioned men, you know, the, the, the foos mall men have been pretty much, I mean, there's been some slight modifications over the years. They've been pretty much the same for tornado. And, uh, I have an old table, uh, the table I practice on at home comes from, uh, I believe it was 2011 or 2012, but, uh, that, that generation of men, I've only replaced two men the entire time I've owned the table. That's it.
[00:39:25] Yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah. So, you know, it's, it's, uh, it's going to happen regardless, you know, especially when, uh, you know, when things start to get older, but I noticed those older men just, they're just better. What can I say? Well, they are better. They, they fit on the rod better. Uh, the new men, you know, or it's nice from a stability standpoint, but if you've changed the man, a new man lately, I mean, it's a trooper.
[00:39:52] I mean, it's task and, you know, so they're, they're hard to get on and off. There are pins. Yep. We replace a lot of pins. Yes. But they play good, you know, as long as they're there and I'm seeing an awful lot of brittle, brittle edges and, you know, things falling. It doesn't affect play. Not much, but still. But it's, yeah. I hate to see that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, the pieces of the shoulders are coming off and, you know, flaking around the table
[00:40:19] and that's kind of a, I can disrupt a little, a little bit. Um, not to switch gears too, too dramatically here, but I was wondering, um, because I know you've been at this for a while. Uh, uh, there is this, uh, meeting that's coming up at nationals. Uh, I believe it's on a Saturday morning for, for promoters and I presume you're going to be at that meeting. I'm sure going to try. Okay.
[00:40:44] Um, I talked to Brian and talked to Jennifer, um, both and I'm sure going to try. I'm hopeful that I can be there. You know, I mean, I haven't played a tournament all year long, uh, because of some health issues and recovery issues and, you know, all good stuff. Um, but it certainly has slowed me down. I didn't play, I didn't hit a ball for four months. No kidding. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:41:12] Well, I had a couple of surgeries that, um, uh, pretty much I could move around. I could walk around and got a 10 pound lifting and, you know, some, some pretty aggressive really has slowed me down. I didn't play. I didn't hit a ball. No kidding. Considerations of what I could do for quite a while. But I feel pretty good now. The surgeries, um, um, hopefully I will. I think that I'll be, I can move around.
[00:41:40] I can walk around and get a 10 pound lifting. Good form is, is a great promoter and mediocre player. Right. Right. I gotcha. I gotcha. Now it's, uh, I think that, um, you know, as promoters, as people who are dedicated to making sure that it's, that, uh, that we make sure that the, uh, the game is going well for our players, you kind of forget about yourself. You don't, you know, dedicate enough time to, uh, you know, keeping yourself, uh, on the table. And of course, when you've got health issues, what can you do?
[00:42:10] You know, you have to just, uh, move forward. Right. But I'm, I'm curious. Yeah. I'm curious what you think, because there is, uh, this whole trend about, okay, uh, the meeting is going to be a lot about a lot of things, you know, when it comes to promoters, uh, about, okay, how do we, how do we do it better on, especially on the local scene? And I believe we're going to be discussing, uh, the leagues, the, this idea of putting together a league, uh, that, that everybody can participate in. What are your thoughts on that? What would you like to see?
[00:42:40] What, what are your, what are your hopes for, for a league system? I hope it's flexible. So, and that's kind of what a lot of promoters are concerned about is, you know, do I have to come in and do a very structured program? Right. I'm hopeful that that's not going to be the case. I think that, that we're all going to have some autonomy to do, you know, like, like here I'll run a, oftentimes on a Sunday, a singles event and then a monster drop or a handicap
[00:43:08] angles or goalie war or something. So I don't think it's going to impact the structure. It may improve the structure. But I think that the two things that I'm really looking for from this, and, and, uh, I think a lot of us have been clear with Brian. Yeah. Number one is a uniform software. Yes. You know, a common platform that communicates with WFT play, uh, gives local players.
[00:43:39] However we're going to deal with the point system, you know, is effective. So, you know, I mean, we've, we've got guys and you see it. We have guys that have never played a tournament that go to their first tournament and they darn near play at the pro level and they're going and, you know, winning a beginner or beginning rookie. Exactly. So I'm hopeful that that's, I'm hopeful that it's going to help level the field in terms
[00:44:02] of not the players themselves, but, uh, a pro or, or a high expert in Knoxville is going to be the same as in Nashville is going to be the same as in San Francisco. Correct. So that's, that's one hope. Uh, the second is a software, again, common platform that will let us do the things we need to do, you know, not just lead play two out of three matches or whatever, but a software
[00:44:31] that will be similar to kicker tool. But yes, we use that. Just, yeah. And you know what? It's got its problems. I use it too. Um, and so I just hope that the, the, a software would come out that does everything that it does in web. Yeah. And so like, I'm not unhappy with the kicker tool, but it can have some reliability issues. Sometimes if you're doing monsters, I think that the thing goes crazy in terms of win
[00:45:01] loss points and, uh, you know, uh, so anyway, those are the two things, uh, that I'm hoping for. I think it's really great. I think what Ryan is doing to bring promoters together, to have an open forum, to talk and listen. Um, and I think the, uh, some of the benefits that he's providing for promoters is very gracious of him. Yeah. You know, I can, I tell you, I, I appreciate it. Great. Yeah. No, it's, it's, uh, I was thinking about the fact that, you know, uh, on our end of
[00:45:29] things, you know, here at our Friday night DYPs, there is, uh, so many things that are little tiny things that could really help to streamline a given Friday night and a local DYP, whether, whether you're in upstate New York or whether you're in, in, uh, you know, California, whatever, whatever your location might be, but to, uh, have that recorded, you know, as a, as an official tally.
[00:45:54] So your results of the evening, what you're done, you're in the system and, uh, we know what you're, uh, what you're up to and what, what you're playing at, what your level is, you know, and how, how often you win, how often you lose this kind of thing. Um, if that could be a universal database that could all look at, uh, that would be wonderful. Yeah. I don't see why it can't be done. And I think, uh, the three or four people that are helping with the points system. Yes.
[00:46:21] Uh, certainly, uh, plenty of wherewithal, uh, understanding the foosball landscape, the points, what's, what's right, what's wrong, you know, how they're, they're arbitrating on rank change when and if and how. Yeah. I think they're, they're helping, you know, helping a great deal a lot. Brandon Moreland in that group. Oh, sure. Now there, uh, I think that they're, they're as honest as the day is long and they're going to be as, as, uh, as certainly as, uh, as fair as they possibly can be when it comes
[00:46:50] to making sure that the point system, you know, operates optimally. And of course, everybody has an idea as to where they stand. Uh, that's always been a bit of a gray area in the past, you know, so if we can improve that, that'd be awesome. Uh, something else I wanted to mention too, when I was at, uh, in, in Dallas, Texas, I met, uh, Sean Lindsay, who is part of the USTSO and is working directly with Jim provost in
[00:47:18] developing, uh, another piece of software called foos app. Yeah. And it's exciting because he's, it's, he's making it open source. So you can kind of give him ideas for what would you like to have in the software and just send him the ideas. Listen, he does the best he can to institute it in this software program. Um, the app itself is very easy to get. It's very easy to put on the phone and, and use it.
[00:47:47] One of the features that I noticed I thought was really kind of interesting was if let's say your, uh, your local DYP, let's say music city, and, uh, you have the foos app on your phone. When you walk through the door at the, uh, the music city, uh, tournament, you just say, I'm here to the app and it puts you in the tournament. No need to register. And also collects a payment.
[00:48:12] So, um, so that kind of takes a lot of extra work out of it for the promoters. Absolutely. I had not heard about some of those features. Jim talked about it during one of our calls, not too long ago. Um, and he's got high hopes for it. Um, I downloaded it and kind of monkeyed around, but it was really in infancy state. Right. It's not, uh, certainly not finished by any means.
[00:48:38] Um, but it is exciting to think that that would be a possibility, you know, that, that kind of, uh, functionality, uh, just walk in and knows you're there. You, you, you say, okay, I want to play. And in it goes and, and you, uh, you're, you're automatically entered. Right. I wish I had it for next week because the, uh, administration of 40 or 50 players. Yeah. You know, at least we're using software, but the, you know, finances, most people are,
[00:49:07] are paying cash and a handful of them or some that I would sure like to see a more cashless environment. Yep. No doubt. No doubt. Well, the, uh, we are in our local smash down, which we did a couple of weekends ago. Um, we have something called net foos, which is ancient. It's a really old set of software and it's something we've been using now for, you know,
[00:49:35] for as long as I can remember, but it, it, uh, it does have a lot of idiosyncrasies. And if you don't know how it operates and, and I had to practice with it for a long time before I could finally understand how it was actually working, but, um, it does it. Okay. It does what it's supposed to do, but at the same time, it's pretty clunky, you know, it's, it's old. And, uh, if we could just, you know, get something in place that works so much more elegantly,
[00:50:01] more or less like foos app or, or something associated with play, man, I'm, I'm on board. I can't wait. Yes. I think the other guy working in this space is Eric Dunn. Yes. Uh, yes. Who he's, he's done some pretty impressive things. Mm-hmm. Uh, his is, is it I ref? Is that what his is called? I ref foos. Yes. I ref foos. Yes. Yeah. Wow. It's great.
[00:50:26] He's, he's doing some great stuff on, you know, automated, the, you load the table in, it will follow the ball and the rods. It will run time for you all the time. Uh, he just, just put out a light and I don't know how long ago, I know that one of our guys bought one that it's a three strips on a light. That's, uh, it lights the table up beautifully without any shadows, but it's also a guy it's configured, uh, to easily set up streaming. Yeah.
[00:50:56] So you can snap a device, a camera or whatever in, you know, run your streaming or even just video if that's what you want to do. So he's, he's a very impressive guy, very impressive guy. There's a, there's a few, uh, characters like this, uh, Reed Rector being another, uh, Kenny Dale. I mean, these, these guys are, are genius level individuals, uh, and, and they're all working hard, you know, and they're working on their, their own ideas.
[00:51:23] And, you know, if all of this comes together in some way, shape or form to, to form a better, a better union, if you're part of the expression, uh, but a better way of playing foosball, man, I'm excited. I, it just, it just can't, you know, if we, if we have even half of this stuff happen, it'll be very exciting. Yeah. Well, you mentioned a name that we don't hear too much anymore. Kenneth Dale. Yes. Um, who, who has really become a good friend over the years.
[00:51:52] Mm-hmm and what he's, what he's gone through trying to travel is, it's, it's just so unfortunate when he was trying to get the athletic visa. I wrote a couple of letters on his behalf and I thought that they were pretty, pretty good letters. And, you know, I thought, you know, somebody, I don't know who the decision maker is, but I thought, you know, somebody is going to recognize, um, he had just become a master six months or a year before. Yeah.
[00:52:17] Uh, and I thought for sure that things would work out for him. And so he's a missing part at, at our tournaments. And I hope that, you know, I hope that he can find his way back into the United States. I hope he's listening to this, that, you know, I love you, Kenneth. I miss seeing you. Yeah. For sure. Yeah. He's, he's, uh, you know, super, super smart guy, uh, an extraordinary player, just so
[00:52:44] different in his style, uh, and, and really moved up the ranks rather quickly, uh, to, to the level that he's at now, which I, I just, you know, I'm, I'm very impressed by his play, but also his, the way his mind works. He's just very, uh, very, very smart guy. Um, you know, think about, think about the people that are in this sport that you can point at and go, there's another genius. Um, you know, think about, uh, Jacob Barnett. Yeah.
[00:53:11] So the guy is, uh, he's, uh, he was giving lectures on quantum physics at the age of 10. So. Yes. He is. He is. I think that's just a sound bite, but I think it's true because I Googled it. Um, he's got an IQ higher than Einstein. Correct. Correct. Yeah. And he's the nicest guy. He's the nicest guy that you could. Yeah. Uh, you know, that you could come upon.
[00:53:39] And just, just a very, very good person. Oh yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, when it comes to the image of foosball and we talked about this earlier, obviously, because, you know, the, the image for, um, should we say the, the, the people that are on the outside, maybe that have, uh, decisions to make about whether or not they want their, their youth center or their school to get involved with foosball. I think people like that should be, should be illustrated, you know, clearly that, Hey,
[00:54:09] here's some individuals who play this sport very, very well professionally. And yet they're at the higher echelon of, uh, of their field, you know, whatever their field might be. I think that might be a great way to, uh, to help promote the sport overall. Right. You know what? And there's, there's more, um, more people that people just don't know about Eric Hillner. Yes. Um, is a, he's an author. Yes.
[00:54:35] And I think he's published 40 or 50 books and not like, you know, garbage. He, he, he, you know, he's a great writer. Um, very good. Very popular. Sells a lot of stuff. There's a lot of Tommy Orr you mentioned. I mean, Tommy Orr is a smart, smart guy. He's, uh, he does a job, uh, nearby at a place called Noel's atomic, which is a military,
[00:55:00] uh, submarine base, uh, that, that, uh, works with atomic, uh, reactors, et cetera. And he's a chemical engineer, but he can't talk about what he does. Can't talk about it. Yeah. So that was right out of college. So he's, yeah. Yeah. Well, he's up there now, right? He, uh, he was in Florida and then came up there, uh, up in upstate New York.
[00:55:30] So, uh, you know, case in point, the individuals like, like Tommy, again, you know, super smart person, but super smart player, uh, very, uh, uh, you know, the top of the field again, uh, somebody like that should be illustrated for the, for the general public to say, look, these are the, this is the kind of, uh, people that we have in our sport. Uh, these are the kind of people that sell. Yeah. More, more ambassadors in more places. Yep.
[00:55:58] Uh, and I know that Ryan's trying to do a lot of that. I mean, some of the videos that, uh, that Brandon and Isabel are putting out or, you know, are, are very cool. In fact, they're great. Oh yeah. Um, but there's, there's so many more people that could be tapped into. I think about like all things, Balcos, um, you know, Maya would be a great spokesperson for anyone. Jacob, Jacob went from never hitting a ball to being, I think he's the third or fourth
[00:56:28] ranked player in the world. Now he did that in less than four years or five years. Yep. He became a master at a very young age, you know? So yeah, that's, uh, it's exciting. And, uh, you know, again, he's, he's, he's of a family that is so dedicated to the sport. Um, it's a family thing. It's not, it's not just, it's not anomalous. It's, he is, uh, he's, he is who he is because of his dad, because of his sister. I mean, that's, that's Jacob's background.
[00:56:56] And that to me, it speaks volumes to people who are kind of like, I'm not sure about foosball. It's kind of like, I don't know. It's a bar game, isn't it? Uh, proof positive. That is not the case that, uh, we're playing a professional level sport here. So. Right. Well, Sullivan is, is another one. Oh yeah. That, you know, she's, um, I still, I mean, I just go back. I remember seeing videos of her standing on the chair.
[00:57:26] She was probably four years old, give or take. And, uh, boy, watching her play, watching her accomplishments is, is just fascinating. Yeah. And a really lovely person, a really good individual, you know, somebody who, who would, you know, talk to you at any time of the day or night, as far as if you want to talk about foosball, just, but very friendly, very approachable individual. And that's, that's what you need, you know, top, top pros like that, top, top masters that
[00:57:52] are very approachable that people can say, I played against that person. Or I talked to that person or this person showed me something. Um, that's a, that's an exciting thing that we have going for us. A lot of good, a lot of good features in our, in our sport currently. Yeah, I agree. Well, so, um, now when, when it comes down to the time, you, of course, a week from today or is it a week from yesterday, you're going to be, yep.
[00:58:21] So you're going to be, uh, uh, in the thick of things. What are you doing to prepare? What are the, what are your usual routines to get ready for a tournament? Uh, it takes much more work and much longer than, than people realize. And people say, you know, being a promoter is a thankless job. Um, it is and it isn't, um, depending upon how you want to do it. You know, if you want to bring a, you know, baseball hat, throw some numbers in and do
[00:58:50] you draw your partner, whoever shows up, shows up. So for me, it takes six or eight weeks to really get ready from the overall plan, the coordination of the venue, the planning of, of the tables, the operation we need to set up to take down. Okay. Food, beverage, you know, all of those kinds of things, communicating with players.
[00:59:16] Uh, it's, it just is a, it's a lot, you know, the flyers and the videos and the communications. Uh, it just doesn't happen by itself. And so I'm not one to exaggerate, but I, I would say it's pretty much for me, it's full time for about six weeks or longer before the tournament. But I feel right. Like I'm almost ready. Okay. For next week.
[00:59:44] I got a couple of things to do. I got a couple of, uh, accounting documents that help keep the finances. Okay. It's great. I'll do that. But I've got pretty much everything else is, you know, almost done or done. Uh, I had a shipment from food skier that got, got sidetracked. God bless Jennifer for helping. Uh, yes.
[01:00:09] So I was, I talked to her on Friday and said, you know, gee, we're, we're in trouble. And she said, no, I understand. And she found out what had gone wrong. They did everything perfect, but the, uh, our us postal service. Oh, okay. Messed this up. So, you know, I'm, I'm waiting on, uh, four or five large boxes from food skier. Got it. Including some lights for the new tables, some of that stuff. So, um, things getting there, you know, the design of the trophies.
[01:00:39] Making sure that they're right. Communications. I like to try to do our logo plus, you know, maybe an additive creative logo for the specific event. If it's national's warmup or if it's world's warmup. Right. To make sure that we're getting a direct tie in with the world tour. And, you know, I feel like we get benefit from them and they get benefit from us. Oh yeah. So all of that, it just, it just takes work. Yeah.
[01:01:07] It's, uh, the, the, the process by which, you know, especially if you want something to work relatively well, it's, you got to think about it a long time in advance. Uh, of course you've been doing this for how many years now? Just four years. Um, okay. Yeah. I guess, I guess four years and I'm sure, yeah, four years in, in November. I'm thinking because, uh, I'm already looking, you know, you ask her, what do you do?
[01:01:36] What's the process? Is I'm already thinking about our fifth anniversary tournament, which has just got to be a blockbuster. Ah. You know, I mean, uh, it's just got to be a blockbuster and I don't know what we'll do, but we may make it two days instead of one day. Nice. We may use a, um, a more dedicated space. You know, we play out here behind me and then put some table, there's a dart area and
[01:02:04] a couple other areas where we move furniture and, you know, it looks great when it's set up. Um, but again, it's not easy moving four or five or six smoothball tables around in and out of trucks. And, you know, now at least I keep them here. Okay. Um, it's good. But, uh, the, the fifth anniversary is you gotta be something really special and I don't know what it is yet. Okay.
[01:02:28] Um, I, I spend a lot of time brainstorming with my friend, John Yarborough, who's a, just as a smart, you know, just as a smart mind of all types. And he's really committed to helping and helping us grow. And he's playing great. He's in 63 plus he's showing up at the finals more times than he's not. Okay. Yeah. Oh, he's a great player. Just, uh, well, he was a great player.
[01:02:54] I knew him 40 years ago, um, when he was a push kicker, a push kicker. Okay. A push kicker. Yeah. And, uh, I had been communicating with Mark Vanetti, um, about John and I said, well, you know, trying to reach him. He lives here in Nashville. And I said, I've been trying to reach him for, you know, six months or a year.
[01:03:21] And one day here comes John and said, you know, Hey, you know, I, uh, I'm looking, I want to come see you, Mike. And I thought, wow, that's great. You know, he got to the venue hour before I did probably, but, um, he's helping a lot, helping, helping us make sure that we grow in the, uh, in the right ways. Okay. Very committed to players and the experience, you know, on that, on that point, I want to talk a little bit about the region. We can, if we can, uh, do that.
[01:03:51] Yeah, absolutely. And for some reason, my phone is telling me that I'm going to be short on battery. So we'll, I'm just not going to drop off here any second. Okay. Let me know if you got to go. Yeah. Well, if we get an abrupt, uh, abrupt, uh, cutoff, you can, you can, you know, please know how happy I am to be here and how much I appreciate you and the work that you do. I appreciate that.
[01:04:14] There's a, the, the foosball that's going on in Tennessee and the surrounding areas is really becoming something or has become something really special. And I think that we all need to be aware and celebrating and working together. And I'm, I'm really pleased with the levels of collaboration that we have. And so I know you had, um, a good friend Thomas on last, last week, and I only got to listen to a little bit of it.
[01:04:41] So I have to go back and, um, and listen to the, listen to everything that, that, uh, I know he and Chase were there together, but Thomas is a guy that's given his heart and soul. Well, you know, I, I told you last time around that the Knoxville program started out with he and Greg Sherry and it is one of the most robust programs. You know, it's, it's not Minneapolis or Denver, but it's a, it's a great, it's a great thing.
[01:05:10] And so he's developed that so well, uh, Billy Kaler, do you know, Billy Kaler? I don't. Okay. Billy is a, is a, uh, Chattanooga player. Very, very good player. High expert probably should be a pro, but he doesn't really play enough events, but, um, he and his wife, more his wife, Kathy Kaler, who's also is a great player are rejuvenating the Chattanooga scene just over the course of the last few months. Excellent.
[01:05:39] And that's good. One of my best friends since I came back and started playing Jody Brown, uh, from Tucker Creek, uh, Jody is just one of the most special people that I've ever met in foosball. He's a, he's a new friend from four years ago or so, but, uh, what they're doing in Tucker Creek, you know, is, is just great. He's got a great crowd. It's a, it's a rural area.
[01:06:03] Um, and he's got 12 or 15, 18 players that are really top caliber players. And he throws a nice event at least once a year. It was more than that. Um, Robbie Ray and Jeff Smith, you see all the, you know, Jeff Smith's foos therapy lounge. Oh yes, absolutely. That's great. It's like the foos destination. Right. So, uh, so Jeff's doing great things. Robbie has completely opened up Bristol.
[01:06:32] Now Bristol foosball and man, they're doing, they're doing really, really good stuff. They're, they're getting good turnout. They've got good caliber of play. Robbie's very committed. Uh, he'll be down here. He's playing with, with, uh, Eddie. Okay. Uh, on Saturday. Uh, let's see a Rodney Jenkins, you know, Rodney just like, he's like a ever ready battery. Just, he's a guy that just never goes away. And he's, there's two, there's three behind me.
[01:07:01] There's three North Alabama players here tonight that play around with Rodney in that group that are, they're here every week. Wow. They're, they're great people. So Rodney is, um, you know, keeping it together. And then, uh, uh, Steven Ramirez from Louisville. It's even though he plays a tournament or two a year, but he's really the glue that's, that's run Louisville for, you know, a good long time. And he's got a very nice scene. Okay.
[01:07:27] So if the, you know, the areas that I've described, I didn't even talk about Atlanta or some of those other areas, Asheville that are really doing nice things, doing very well. In Cincinnati and Columbus, Columbus has got a, it's got a great program up there. So it's really exciting to be part of a group that works so well together, but it's also being so successful. Yeah.
[01:07:54] Um, I will never even think about the tournament until I talk with Thomas and Jody Brown. Okay. To make sure that the logistics are right. The dates are right. The timing is right. Um, you know, just, just a complete awareness of what we need to do. And Tucker Creek is, uh, you know, two hours, give or take from here. And Knoxville is about the same, about two hours.
[01:08:22] So, uh, the three of us work real, real close together. And so anyway, just to shout out to those guys who, you know, have become really good friends who've welcomed me back into foosball and, you know, are helping me be more successful. Uh, every day. I wish that I could do as much for them as they do for me. Yeah. It's good to coordinate too, right. To make sure that you're not stepping on each other's toes. And of course, supporting the whole thing, the whole, the whole sport within, uh, within your region.
[01:08:50] And it sounds to me like you have the makings of maybe some sort of, uh, much larger regional sort of, uh, meet perhaps, uh, among that, among that group of people you just mentioned. Definitely. The Knox crew has been talking about trying to coordinate a state event. In fact, you and I talked about it a little bit last time and, and how we, we, we didn't really need to get together and do some formal discussions.
[01:09:16] So nobody feels, you know, but, you know, it needs to be Nashville, not Knoxville or Knoxville. Nashville. So we need to have that discussion and we need to think about what do we want to do? How big and what other resources do we need? And so I don't think it's unreasonable that we would do a five to 10, $12,000 tournament here within the next year. Probably. Oh, wow. Sooner than that.
[01:09:46] Uh, some resources, you know, somebody like Donald Wilson. Mm-hmm. Let's see if I could, you know, get Donald to come up. He's a, he's a tournament director extraordinaire. Oh yeah. Because it's when, you know, when you go from a six table tournament with 40 people, it's very manageable. Oh yeah. You know, it's, it's hard to work, but it's manageable. But if you go to two days and $10,000. Or three days. Half a dozen events. It's just, it's a whole different ballgame. Yeah. Yeah, I know it's.
[01:10:15] And so I think, um, we'll keep you posted as soon as we have anything firm in the world, even as we're developing it. Um, you know, maybe Thomas and I can come on, which we talked about last time. Or, you know, Thomas, Jody, and I'm there. That would be perfect. You know, some of the other folks that, that, uh, are going to make this a reality. Yeah. If there's anything at all that we can do as a, as media, you know, as, as a podcast, uh, what we do, anything at all that you need. We're, uh, we're, we're wide open for you. No problem.
[01:10:45] Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Well, you've been great. I mean, the whole time since I've met you, you've been nothing but supportive. Appreciate that. Well, we're, we're, uh, we're trying to build this thing one, one, one table at a time, I guess you could say. Yeah. But, uh, it just, it seems like right now we're in that, um, that, that perfect storm and it started really, you know, world foosball tour kicked off. You know, we started to watch how that was evolving and growing.
[01:11:13] And now everybody locally is getting more involved again. I noticed, uh, in, in so many areas, people are saying to me, Hey, um, this guy, haven't seen on the table in 15 years. He's decided to come back. You heard about what's going on. He wants to get back into it. He wants to do this again. He's going to back on tour or whatever. And I'm hearing this over and over again. So, uh, strike what they are in his heart. Right. So. Absolutely.
[01:11:39] You know, and that's in large part how we've been able to grow our base is bringing players back one at a time. People who have been away from, you know, five years to 35 or 40 years, um, to get them to come back. We just had another one that's, that's come back. And in fact, he's playing with the Kenny LaBeouf. I usually play with Kenny LaBeouf. Um, at our tournaments, but, uh, is he's, uh, he's going to play with Kenny. Uh, I agree. Chris Boyd and I had been wanting to play something together for a long, long time.
[01:12:10] And so we finally, uh, are making that work. So I'm excited as well to play with, with, uh, Chris. Yeah. We've got like behind me, Scott Dome. He was away from at least 10 years. Uh, Corey Carlo was away for about 20 years. Isaac Bowen, who's a, is, is a great player from the Northwest. He's going to come back and start playing. We had him for a while and he moved a little bit further out of town. He's going to come back and be playing. That's John.
[01:12:37] John who's, you know, he was away for at least 10 years and he's not playing. He probably does two or three tournaments. He plays every one of mine, but he's, he's wants to go somewhere every weekend if he can go and play. So, uh, that's a, that's a good story, but we also need young people. Oh yeah. Oh, no question. No question. Well, that, like I say, you know, we're going to age out eventually.
[01:13:03] If, if I can still stand up and lean against the table and, and, you know, move the rods a little bit, I, I'm probably still playing, but you know, uh, certainly not a very high level. Uh, but yeah, no, I think there's, there's, uh, somebody who said that, that this, uh, the process by which we're seeing, uh, with foosball clubs, USA really kicking off. And of course the, the, the activity with people just getting more and more interested every day.
[01:13:27] And then of course, bringing people from the outside that may have been familiar with the sport, but now suddenly realize, Hey, there is such a thing as professional foosball. I'd like to check it out. I want to watch it, or I'd like to go and maybe learn how to play. All of this can, can, uh, can benefit to, you know, greatly benefit us in the long run, uh, just to make sure that we keep the doors open for people. You know? Yes. Yes.
[01:13:54] It's, uh, it's hard because, and I know because you feel the same way, you know, when it came to, you know, going to a tournament in, in Nashville and meeting up, let's say with some really top pros or a couple of masters, it kind of turns people off sometimes when they're getting beaten so badly, uh, on the table. Yeah. And so I think your idea of keeping it a no pro event, that was a, it was a great move that got people more, more interested.
[01:14:19] And, uh, I think we may go back to it or we may, we may do, um, we may add open as a, as a third event. Um, you know, it's a lot of things can happen. Tom, I'm going to grab this power cord and see if I can keep us. Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. I know if we can, if we can keep it going, that's great. Uh, but I don't want you to kind of, uh, to, to just disappear. That wouldn't be much fun.
[01:14:43] By the way, it's worth mentioning at this stage, uh, this evening show, uh, Foos Talk Live episode number 302 is a, is an experiment of sorts. Uh, an experiment where we're using a new type of software, which allows us to stream on more than one channel. So tonight, as our first step in this experiment, we're, uh, we're broadcasting on Twitch TV and we do appreciate you tuning in on Twitch TV tonight as usual. But, uh, we're also broadcasting on YouTube.
[01:15:13] YouTube, um, I don't know why we haven't done it sooner, but we found this, this great software that allows us to, uh, go onto multiple channels. And we are now doing that tonight. And I hope if you're watching on either YouTube or whether you're watching on, uh, Twitch, uh, make comments, let us know, uh, what you think, uh, because we may be adding some more channels as time goes on. But it's certainly a thing that, that, um, it was recommended a while ago.
[01:15:39] And so I've been kind of, uh, playing with the software and trying to, I was, you know, fretting over whether or not it was actually going to function right. And, uh, tonight was it. Tonight was the big experiment. So if it was, uh, uh, if it was good or if it seems seamless to you, that's great. We're, uh, we appreciate you, uh, you know, tuning in as always, but let us know if it's, uh, if there's any anomalous problems you might've noticed maybe in the signal or whatever the case, but, uh, so far so good.
[01:16:07] Uh, knock on wood about that. But of course, uh, to kick this whole thing off, it's great to have Mike on board to, to help us with that. Uh, how's it looking, Mike? You gotta, you got, you getting charged up? Um, yeah, I think so. I didn't hear that the power came on, but, uh. Okay. I don't know if that. I don't know. Yeah. It's, it's, uh. That drops off. I'm happy to have been here. Yeah. Usually the power works, but I can't tell what's happening here.
[01:16:37] So I can, I can move on. But anyway, we're probably, we're not going to go too much longer anyway. I don't think. Yeah. I think we're good. Um, you know, I really appreciate your, your, uh, you know, your, the, the, the amount of time and effort you put into what you do is promoting foosball. That's really what, you know, to me, that's what matters most. Uh, someone like yourself willing to, to sacrifice and do the things that need to be done and, um, make it better for everybody.
[01:17:02] You know, anybody who wants to play the sport and, uh, has a, has a location like yours, uh, man, that's, that's golden. That's, uh, and, uh, you know, on behalf of everybody who plays foosball, we really appreciate what you do. Well, thank you, Tom. That means a lot. And we've got some, a lot of gracious players as well. Yes. Yep.
[01:17:23] I just, uh, I've made, uh, I've rekindled old friendships and made some new friendships that, you know, they're just, foosball is just like one of these weird things is, and I think we may have talked about it last time is that. Sort of foosball gets in your blood.
[01:17:41] And the foosball player really understands some of those things, but the relationship of, you know, think about, you go to a, uh, a tournament, even, even over here, like we're playing right now, where you go to a major tournament or even a nice regional tournament. You don't hear, unless it's really unusual, you don't hear bickering and arguing. You don't hear point and counterpoint. You don't hear, you know, knock on wood, um, things about politics or any inappropriate discussions. Right.
[01:18:10] Um, it's the, it's the weird, the weird beast of a foosball player and the, um, the loyalty and some of the unspoken rules that make it really special. And, and, you know, when you're not a foosball player, you don't understand, um, when you are, you know, how special that it is. Yes. Yeah. So it's a, it's a really great breed of people. I'm so happy to have come back a few years ago. And as I said before, I did not come back to promote.
[01:18:40] And, uh, cause I really wanted to play. Um, you know, it's, I'm doing more things to benefit the sport and the player. Yes. Than I could ever do play. And that's good that for now, you know, that's good. And, uh, you know, it, it will continue as long as you'd like it to, I'm sure, because there's, there's a player base that, uh, really has come to depend upon you.
[01:19:09] So as long as you're willing. So we appreciate that. That's it, you know, and I don't want to do it forever. Um, but it's a lot like what Ray has just gone through, uh, Ray gun in Denver. Oh, right. Um, you know, he ran that program for a long, long time. It's probably, I would say it's the number one foosball program, the United States. Yeah.
[01:19:34] It has been for, I know part of that is because of the player base, but player bases because of the scene. Um, and so, you know, Ray has been wanting to, to not promote and to do some other things for a while, but he has the same mindset that I do. And I'm not ready to give it up yet. Yeah. But I would really like to find that special person who wants to carry on. Well, that's to carry on. Not my legacy, but to keep foosball going. Yeah. Keep music sitting, you can stop going and growing.
[01:20:04] Well, that's the idea, right? You have to have someone in mind, uh, that you see on a regular basis who may be just a player at the moment, but would be excellent when it comes to just, you know, being an organizer and, and, uh, keeping the flame alive. Maybe they're a bit younger and, uh, you know, you can, you can maybe start to, start to introduce them and groom them, uh, for the process of, of, uh, passing the torch, uh, down the line. That's a, that's a great idea. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Well, I hope so.
[01:20:34] You know, not, not today or tomorrow, but I really would, uh, if anybody's listening that wants to be a foosball promoter in Nashville. Yeah. I'll reach out, you know, spend the next year or so, you know, helping and mentoring and coaching. And I've got a, this also happens to foosball promoters. You, you end up with, you know, warehouses full of, I have everything you could possibly imagine from, uh, you know, scissor lift to, you know, every kind of part and piece.
[01:21:04] No kidding. You know, and so, uh, oh yeah. And it's, you know, I would pass all that stuff along to a new promoter when the time, when the time is right. And I really believe that they're going to carry us on. I mean, it's, uh, you know, I don't need a 660 pound hydraulic lift around the house. Really? Better served here. I might have thought that was something you use every day, but Hey, what can I tell you? Yeah. Yeah.
[01:21:32] Well, but you need all that to make it work. Yes. You know, you, you've got to have the whole arsenal of equipment to make it work. Oh yeah. Um, you can do it without, you know, you don't necessarily need a lift, but you need four gorillas, um, you know, to come carry tables around and stuff. But people will, you really need when you're equipped properly, it's, it's much better. It's just much easier.
[01:21:58] Uh, you know, and this thing, I try to run as much like a business as I can. Yeah. Um, it'd be, be more like a nonprofit, but it's, um, you know, I try to keep discipline in place and, and be prepared when, when we're going to do things. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, uh, as time has gone on, you, I'm sure you've made plenty of mistakes along the way that, uh, that you'll never make again. Uh, and so you perfect your, your methodology.
[01:22:24] And then as long as you can pass that on to the next generation, the next person who is willing to, uh, to learn and, uh, be under your tutelage to start with. And then all is good. You know, you got somebody who's willing to, to jump in. Yes. Yes. And the one, the one hard knock that I had is, you know, don't go too fast, too big or too big, too fast. Yes. Cause that was, that's why we're going to have six tables at this event. Um, I had four at the last event, um, great event.
[01:22:53] Everyone was happy. Um, but we were playing the finals at one 30 in the morning. Ooh. Yeah. And yeah, I mean, it's not, you know, and the reason was because we had greater success than what I was expecting. We had more singles players. Yep. Um, when you have a larger singles field, it takes twice as long to run as doubles. Yeah. Um, and so, you know, I think people need to really keep, keep it realistic.
[01:23:21] If you're going to put a tournament on with two tables and then, you know, make sure you're capping at eight teams or something. If you're going to do 24 teams, make sure that you've got the capabilities, uh, the tables, the equipment, the people, all that. So, uh, knock on wood, this, this, this thing coming up on Saturday, I'm starting a half hour earlier. Okay. Okay. And I would expect that, uh, we're going to get done. We'll be playing the finals at a reasonable time. Okay.
[01:23:48] If it's one 30 in the morning, uh, I, I, I did something wrong. Well, I know how that feels. It's, uh, it's happened a couple of times here as well. Uh, although our last turnout, uh, two weeks ago, we had about 32 players and we were all said and done by about 1130, 1140, give or take. Wow. So. Yeah, that's great. Yeah, it was good. That's a nice tournament. Yeah, it was, we had some fun. Um, but we only have three events and it's, uh, it's a singles event, open singles, open doubles and a DYP.
[01:24:18] And nice. So you do it all in one day. Oh yeah. You know, it starts about noon. Uh, people get there, you know, it's, it's plenty of time. We used to do an amateur event. Uh, but because I'd taken over recently, we decided to kind of cut back to, to give my, my old bones a chance to kind of get acclimated to this, this, uh, this whole process. And I'm thankful for that because I think if we'd had that fourth event, there's just no way we would have been out of there before too. There's no way. Right. How many tables?
[01:24:48] Uh, six tables altogether. So, uh, okay. Well, so you're, you've got, you know, we have this capacity to handle it. You can see it. Yeah. We, we have the space in the, in the tables. It's just, uh, at times, uh, because of the software and things that happen with the conflicts that happen. If everybody's in every event, that makes it a very challenging to get everybody through. So, uh, and I, I, I completely, uh, understand what you're going through. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a process.
[01:25:17] And if it, if one thing were to go, go astray, it can really throw a, throw a big delay into things. And, and we see it happen all the time, right? Yeah. So, yeah. Well, one event I had, uh, we, I didn't think the weather was going to hit. I guess I didn't, he didn't heed the weather forecast. And I believe tornado warning.
[01:25:39] And we shut down for about two hours and actually vacate into a, into a safe, safe spot without in the, in the parking garage. No kidding. Yeah. So, so don't plan around a, uh, uh, tornado. Yeah. Good advice. Good. And we heard, you heard it right here on Foos Talk Live. Don't do a tornado tournament during a tornado. Just saying. Yeah. Well, that's what Ryan was talking about in New Orleans.
[01:26:06] And he said that, I forget the number exactly, but he said, you know, do you want to, do you want to keep playing in New Orleans in a, in a, in a great hotel, uh, and have a, you know, 30% chance of there being a hurricane. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Exactly. I mean, you know, last year, um, was phenomenal. It was just, I mean, I would do that again and again and again. It was just so much fun. And this year, supposedly there could be as many as eight to 900 players.
[01:26:34] Um, and, and they're having, they're going to have a bigger space and, and a few more tables, but man, I just, that would, that staggers my mind to think about that many people. Yeah. Yeah. That's a must attend, you know, from anybody who is, you know, thinking if you can only go to one tournament. Yes. That's the one to go to, you know, the, the hotel is great. The rates are reasonable. The room is spectacular. Yep.
[01:27:02] The flight format, you know, he's, he's had a couple of hiccups, but he's, he, Brian is very responsive when these things happen. Oh, it's working well. And so, you know, I would encourage every player. Yeah. Everybody who wants to just, even if you, if you don't want to go to one tournament in your life and play, that's the one that you should go to. That is it. World's September in New Orleans. Yeah. No doubt. And of course the, the city itself. And then one to mine, obviously. I mean, then the other one would be, yeah. Then the other one would be music city foosball. There you go.
[01:27:33] The two, you must, the must, the must attend, uh, tournaments. Um, and, uh, you know, of course nationals is coming up on June 24th. Uh, we're looking forward to that. Uh, and, uh, you will be there, correct? I hope so. That's my plan right now. Okay. Change. All right. I will certainly, I'm going to try to be there at least for the promoters meeting and maybe for an event or two. Okay.
[01:27:58] Um, but we'll see, I, you know, I really want to be there, but I want to make sure that, that I have things in order here in Nashville and in my personal, personal situation. The personal life is, is way more important than foosball. Of course. And so I just need to make sure that, that all is, is set there. Well, if you do make it, uh, and we get a chance, you know, we'll have to sit down and, and, uh, and chat and, uh, and maybe have that one beer of the weekend, something like that. Yeah.
[01:28:27] Yeah. Could be. Yeah. Yeah. It could be. I'll sit, I'll sit in the booth and. Yeah. And talk about foosball with you. Absolutely. Hopefully you'll, you'll see me in the, down in the pits versus. Won't that be nice. Yeah. There you go. My, my, my, my best, you know, my best wishes in that regard. I just hope it's me instead. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Well, you and I should play. We played a. You played one with a night, right?
[01:28:58] Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's, uh, I'm a, I'm a goalie, you know, that's pretty much my thing. Um, you know, I, I've, I've moved up front once in a while, but it's not a great idea. I'm just, uh, I'm just so happy, uh, being in the pits. So, uh, but I would be happy to play with you. I'd be honored. Oh, I think it'd be fun. Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, I'm primarily a forward. Uh, I could get by playing goalie, but yeah, it'd be fun. Cool. You know, if we, if we go in two straight, it'd be fun. That would, yeah, I would.
[01:29:28] I mean, I, I, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just, just, uh, the opportunity to play together would be fantastic. And, uh, here's a quick idea. We'll just throw this out into the ether and see if it comes back, but maybe someday at one of these tournaments, there could be a quote unquote promoters, uh, event where just promoters play. Oh, that'd be great. Wouldn't that be fun? Wouldn't that be fun? That would just like, Oh, yeah. Okay. Nobody will be able to practice. Yeah. Nobody will be able to practice before the events will be a real level field.
[01:29:57] Very true. And, uh, and, and Ryan's not allowed to play. Yeah, that's right. Just saying, but, uh, I gotta say it's, it's really great catching up and, and, uh, I really appreciate you taking the time. I know Sunday's busy for you. You've got a lot going on behind you there and, uh, getting ready, you know, for this next Saturday. Yes. Well, thank you, Tom. I mean, it's always, uh, it's just always such a treat to be able to sit and visit and Oh, sure.
[01:30:27] Um, you know, it, it, it almost doesn't feel like it's a television radio podcast kind of a thing. It's just that you just do such a nice job and it's just so easy flowing a national discussion and, you know, you just take the discussions wherever they go and people love that. You know, people really like it. I mean, we just want to talk about foosball, right? So, and if other thing happens and if something else happens along the way, whatever it's a,
[01:30:55] it is what it is, but no, I appreciate your very kind words. Uh, I do appreciate that. It is something that, that, you know, um, this kind of activity, uh, the media, uh, banding together and, and just pushing the, uh, the idea of foosball. That's really what it's about. Just talk it out, get it out. Just make sure that people know. And, uh, if we can do just a little bit of that, that's the, then, uh, I feel like we've done our job for sure.
[01:31:26] Right. Hey, funny story real quick. Sure. Is it too bad? Randy's not here because of, you know, what, what are you going to let pros play? When are you going to let pros play? And I really wrestled over how to handle this last one. This one coming up. So I thought, all right, probably, I think we'll probably let pros play, but I'm going to, I'm going to see what I'm going to get a great part.
[01:31:52] So I reached out to Brandon Munoz and said, you know, Hey man, well, you know, will you come on up and play with me and, you know, the game and the dates. And he's like, Oh gosh, I really want to come play, but he's got family from Costa Rica coming in. Oh boy. He said, but we'll do it again. So there'll be at least one more, one more pro event up here and, uh, and Brandon and I'll be playing. There you go. So now that's that, now that we got to see. And by the way, are you doing any streaming next weekend?
[01:32:20] Are you, is this something that's going to be visible at all? Any, uh, any coverage? I don't know yet. We, we always want to, and we will try, even if it's like some broken coverage, it'll be on the, on, on Facebook, on music city foosball. Sure. Okay. I'd love to try to do it. I want to try to get some new equipment as well. Yes. The, that to, to stream, you sort of need it to almost run itself, if you will. And I don't have that capability of tripods and cameras and right.
[01:32:49] You know, not the, not the right kind of stuff, but I would like to try to do it. I want to get one of, uh, one of Eric's new lights where we can park the camera or park the device on there. That's the way to do it. Yes. That's the way. Yeah. That, that will take a lot of the, the, the, the hassle out of it because generally speaking, you set it up to, to run, you step away from it and it's, it's good to go. You know, that's the way. A little, a little good luck.
[01:33:16] The next one of our tournaments will be, uh, it'll be world's warmup. That'll probably be in August. Okay. And I think we'll be here at the Moxie, but I think we're going to use a different room and this is related to the streaming is, uh, there's a, there's a really decent room. That's a underutilized meeting space here. It's not perfect. Got a concrete floor and it's a little bit loud. Okay.
[01:33:43] But I could probably get 10, 12 tables back there. Oh, but one of the features is it's got, it's, it's ready for streaming. So we don't need to do all the stuff that we would need to do it. So it's a, you'll think you're going to be at a tour event, right? Because you've got a giant, you know, projected screen. It's 10 by 15 feet or something. Wow. Um, and that will then stream as well to multiple platforms. That's great.
[01:34:12] So, uh, yeah, that'll be kind of the next innovation or the next step forward for us in August, I think. Yeah. Wow. But then I can't wait to see how that works, how that turns out for you. That'd be, that's really cool. Hopefully well. Yeah. Yeah. You get into the habit of it. I mean, we, we try to stream our, our smash downs when we can. Um, we've had internet issues and I think that's again, you know, the venue that you're in.
[01:34:40] If the, if the internet's not perfect, you know, stuff can happen. We've had issues where, you know, we set it up and run it, but you know, if you, if you forget and you don't check it, sometimes it freezes and you have to kind of go back in and reboot the whole thing and start over. But, um, people are pretty patient that way. And, and generally we've had decent luck with just, uh, just having one table streamed. So. Yeah. Well, that's good. And people, you know, come and see what's going on and they can see their, you know,
[01:35:07] their friends and family and, you know, people on, on, uh, on TV that they, that they, you know, want to see that YouTube or be it Twitch or, you know, wherever that, uh, wherever it is. People love that. Oh yeah. And I think it's, it's, uh, it's going to become much, much simpler in the very near future with these, these new innovations that are coming our way. Not the least of which would be Eric Dunn's, uh, uh, software and, uh, process. So that's exciting stuff.
[01:35:35] Well, so, uh, meanwhile, I hope that you have the, the best of tournaments this coming week. And now if there's, is there a contact number for you or is there a place where people can go to find out more about, uh, the music city, uh, warmup? Yes. Um, do Facebook is the easiest way there. So we've got a, a great, uh, page music city, Nashville foosball. Mm-hmm. Um, it's got all the tournament information. Yeah.
[01:36:01] All just a whole host of stuff, a lot of photography and prior events. And, you know, some of the things that we're doing, it's got these three videos come, come and watch the videos. Yeah. Um, uh, folks can go to that site and they can direct message me, uh, or I'm always open to, you know, anybody that wants to reach out and, and, uh, and then give me that way, you know, by, by phone, by text, you know, whatever. Cool.
[01:36:27] That's, that's, you know, I've, I've been a private person all my life and to be a promoter, I was trying to maintain my privacy. And I quickly found out that if people can't reach you, um, you're not a very good promoter. So you have to put yourself out there a little more. And I, I do that. I'm still protective, but I am much, much easier to reach than I, than I ever been before. So, so DM text, all, um, all of my contact information is also on the, uh, the, the WFP
[01:36:57] site. Got it. Um, where all the locations in the, in the tournament directors and in all of those contacts, which is a very, very good resource. So my direct phone number is on there as well. Okay. Excellent. Well, uh, let's hope that, uh, you get a few, uh, a few more entries for the, of the big day. And, uh, man, I hope that, uh, it all goes well. No, no glitches, no, no issues. Thank you. I'll let you know. Okay. I'll, uh, I'll report back in to you on, uh, on Monday or Tuesday, whenever it is
[01:37:26] that I wake up after the tournament. I appreciate that. And then in the meantime, uh, hopefully we'll get a chance to see each other, uh, there in Louisville at the, uh, at the Caesars Casino for, for the Nationals and North American Cup. So we'll see. Yeah. I hope so, Tom. Okay. Fingers crossed. Everything will work out. So, uh, I will just see, I'm, I'm just playing it a day at a time. Okay. We'll, uh, hopefully, uh, at least I'll be there for one day. I think. Oh, good.
[01:37:56] One day. I, yeah. Yeah. Are you going to go to that breakfast? Oh yeah. Right. Oh yeah. Okay. Great. Yeah. All signed up and ready to go. Uh, it looks like it's going to be what, nine o'clock on Saturday morning. So. Right. That'll be a, that'll be a really interesting time. And of course I'm going to be, I'll have my reporter's cap on the entire time taking, taking notes just so I can not just report back to my guys, you know, it, uh, in our local scene, but also bring some more news, hopefully here to, uh, to Foos Talk live after that too. Right.
[01:38:26] Right. Well, regardless. Oh, by the way, I forgot, uh, mentioned, uh, or I was going to mention, uh, say hey to Dan for me. Say what? Say hey to Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Dan. Okay. Sure. Dan Tumenski. Uh, yeah, well, we can do a mutual shout out to him here. Um, I was trying to get Dan. We love Dan to play in all these, uh, larger events than he and I have played a few of them together. Yes.
[01:38:55] Um, but, uh, he's, he's touring. So he's out of town. Oh yeah. The 20th. But also the 20th is his birthday. So anybody who knows Dan well, uh, you know, and I don't want to get, because, you know, if you, if you know Dan, you know how to reach Dan. So send him a message or send him a direct, you know, Facebook message or whatever. But, uh, so happy birthday to Dan as well. June 20th. Okay. Very cool. Yeah. I know I've been watching his, uh, his tour schedule.
[01:39:25] He's all over the place. So he's, he's out there right now, uh, a lot. So if he, if he, I don't know how he does. I don't know. I don't either. You know, he's gotta be what, uh, in his fifties. Yeah. I think he's probably maybe mid, mid fifties, 53, 54, 55. That's gotta be tough. He takes, you know, the last few years, he takes such good care of himself. He's a kid in weight. He's lost all that weight. He eats well.
[01:39:55] He still enjoys a little, uh, a little of the, uh, of the brown liquor. And the cigars, but he's, he takes really good care of himself. Yeah. I mean, uh, when we saw him, uh, in Massachusetts last year, it was just a special moment. I mean, the guy was just so, so, um, so poised on stage, but what a, what a terrific entertainer, uh, the whole band, uh, just really impressive. I mean, if you're a bluegrass fan or even if you're not a bluegrass fan, this is something you have to see, you know, the Dan Tominski band, just saying.
[01:40:23] His band, you know, those pickers are like, you know, they're like the wrecking crew kind of, I mean, these are some of the best pickers in Nashville. And when you're the best picker in Nashville, you're one of the best pickers in the world. That's saying something right there. Right. So he's, he's really got, I mean, that's the A-list. Oh yeah. And I mean, it really is. I mean, you don't have 13 Grammys and not be on the A-list. Oh my goodness. Yeah.
[01:40:49] And I mean, just his, his pedigree, of course, as a player is just, just extraordinary. And, uh, we're, we're just, you know, it's, it's again, you know, we go back to that thing we were talking about earlier in the, in the podcast about how many of these people that we play with, you know, side-by-side in foosball, um, are actually really at the top of their field, you know, upper echelon individuals. And he's another one of those examples, uh, that, uh, we could, we could say, Hey, look at foosball. Look at these people.
[01:41:17] These are the individuals that, that, uh, that love the sport and you can be part of that too. But anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he's a good guy. He's good for the support, good for the sport. And he is, uh, he's great for the music industry. Oh. Yeah. He's, he's just legendary, uh, not only in bluegrass, but in a lot of other areas as well. Oh, of course. Good for Dan. Happy birthday to Dan. Yep. Uh, happy birthday in advance.
[01:41:45] And, uh, again, thank you so much for joining us tonight, Mike. This has been great. I know that, uh, in the near future here, uh, we'll, we'll be talking and of course, uh, Randy Raposo will be back. I know Chase jumps in when he can as well. And, and we're just looking forward to being out of the road again, uh, in Louisville, Kentucky coming up at the, uh, the, the nation. Yeah. Yes. Well, Tom, thanks for what you do for foosball, for the foosball players, for the foosball promoters and, you know, everything you do, you just do a ton. And, uh, let me thank you for everyone.
[01:42:14] Oh, well, thank you for saying so. I appreciate that. And it, uh, it makes it worth getting out of bed. Let's put it that way. So, well, uh, again, have a great night, Mike, and, uh, and, and best of luck with the tournament coming up this week. Thank you. I'll talk to you soon, Tom. You bet. Once again, Mike Kelly from the Music City Nashville Foosball Club. And of course the big tournament coming up next weekend. We thank him for tuning in and of course being with us tonight. And thank you for tuning in on our experiment tonight, uh, uh, coming to you two channels
[01:42:44] tonight with YouTube and of course Twitch TV. And of course our download for, for foosball radio. And of course the podcast, but thanks again. We'll be back again next week with another episode of Foos Talk Live. Uh, step, uh, stick around now. We have the, the tournament beat coming away next time. Now for the Foos Talk Live tournament beats brought to you in part by foosgadgets.com using
[01:43:07] technology to create a better foosball experience and 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 meeting the highest tornado ball standards. High fidelity foosballs are soft, quiet with a true role and good durability.
[01:43:33] Exchange your balls for the 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. Since 2019, Foos Gadgets has used innovative ideas to build foosball training tools and accessories. Their goal is to make your foosball practice more fun and effective.
[01:43:59] Hey Foosers, the Foos Gadgets Speed Bridge is a great tool for all of you practice-aholics out there like I am. From the Foos Gadgets Speed Bridge to the Tornado Gold Guard to the Gold Guard Plus, visit the site for a great selection and pricing. Foosgadgets.com, using technology to create a better foosball experience. Foosball tournaments are everywhere. Foos Talk Live proudly presents a weekly update of events near you.
[01:44:27] With the FoosTalk Live Tournament Beat, here's what's up. Music City Foosball presents the Nationals Warm-Up June 20th at the Moxie Vanderbilt Hotel, Nashville, Tennessee. The World Foosball Tour presents the 2026 National Championships and North American Cup. June 24th through the 28th, Caesars Casino and Hotel Elizabeth, Indiana.
[01:44:52] Here comes the 2026 Mississippi State Foosball Championships, July 23rd through the 26th at Holiday in Pearl, Mississippi. The 2026 Ohio State Championships, July 30th through August 2nd. The competition comes to a new hotel, the Ohio Airport Marriott, Columbus, Ohio. East Coast Foosball presents the Duval Foosball Tournament, August 7th through the 9th,
[01:45:20] at the Dart Bar, Jacksonville, Florida. Canada Foosball presents the 2026 Vancouver Island Foosball Championships, August 14th through the 16th, Courtenay Legion, Courtenay, British Columbia. A World Foosball Tour presents the 2026 World Foosball Championships, September 2nd through the 6th, at the Hyatt Regency, New Orleans, Louisiana.
[01:45:44] It's the 2026 Great Lakes Classic, now scheduled for October 15th through the 18th. We'll keep you posted on the details. The North Carolina State Championships, scheduled for November 26th through the 29th. More details soon to be released. It's the 20th Annual 2026 Louisiana State Championships, December 3rd through the 6th. Stay tuned for lots more details. Each week, we do our best to give you the most up-to-date listing of foosball tournaments near you.
[01:46:13] 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 in part by foosgadgets.com, using technology to create a better foosball experience. And by Boise Foos Works, high-fidelity refurbished foosballs.
[01:46:40] Foos Talk Live is a product of Foos Ball Radio. With gratitude, we recognize our Foosball Radio Patreons. Our Foos Talk Live sponsor, original-leonhart-usa.com. Tune in again next week for another episode of FoosTalk Live. In the meantime, we'll see you foosin'. Foos Talk Live is a production of Foos Talk Live. Thank you.