Re: Recent foos table history Author Bruce Nardoci Date: 1997/12/17 (revised 4/99 to include comments by Rocky Wilson) Forum: rec.sport.table-soccer Steve Shiue wrote: > > Bruce, > If you don't mind my asking, what was the approximate time period of > the Tournament Soccer tour and when did it fail and get succeeded by the > current reign of Tornado tour? > Steve Shiue > Started on a TS Browntop in early '80s Foosball first came to the US in a big way about 1969, although there were a few tables in the country before then. The tables were imported from various places in Europe, mainly France or Germany (the two countires most often credited with inventing foosball). Rene Pierre (French) and Deuster-Meister (German) were the tables most often imported. Foosball quicky became very popular, and MANY copycat US made tables appeared (including Tornado and Dynamo). I have a friend who used to collect foosball tables, and had over 30 different ones in a warehouse at one time (made for some fun tournaments), and there were many more that he didn't have. However, with no real reason for one table to stand out more than the next one, each area of the country had it's own particular brand of table as the most dominant, based on what the local game distributor's whims were. Lee Peppard, saw the popularity of foosball, and thought he knew how to make one table brand stand out from all the rest - a tour of tournaments. Peppard originally wanted to do the tour using the most popular tables in the US at that time, Rene Pierre tables (besides being the most common table in the US, RP at that time was the most played on table in the world). But, the distributor who had exclusive rights to RP in the US at that time didn't want to fool with the tournament tour (for reasons I don't want to waste space talking about here), and turned him down. Peppard then turned to the other major popular table in the US at that time (the German made Deutsher Meister) to run some of the first tournaments (I believe), but quickly decided to build his own table to do it with. He had a Taiwan company make an approximate copy the Deuster-Meister table, which became the the green top "Tournament Soccer" table. If only the RP distributor had taken Peppard up on his offer, the USA would be playing on French Style tables today :-), since even if that had collapsed all subsequent tables would've had to copy that basic design to retain the existing player base. Sigh. Its hard to remember now, but I think the TS tour started (small) about 1974 (on a table with a "green" top playing surface). I think Lee's first Tournament was a $1500 one at 8-Ball Billiards in Missoula, MT in 1972. The Second was $5000 at the same place in 1973, the third was the $50,000 tournament at Innis Gardens in Denver in 1974. They then initially started to expand the tour by having a State Championship tournament in many (if not all?) states, with the winners getting to participate in the World Championship at the end (I think). I think this concept only lasted a year, after which they went to just a series of tournaments in the areas of the country where TS tables were at. They even named the TS tables (written on the table itself) the "Quarter Million Dollar Game" to further promote the fact that you could win $$ on their tables. The Quarter Million Dollar Tour started with the $2000 Seattle Open on January 4, 1975 in the Orcas room at Seattle Center (I believe). The tables had very shallow goals and shots that went in and popped out of the goal didn't count (& were very common), spinning was legal, etc. There were 10 rules on the back of your entry form, which was the approximate size of the current Tornado entry forms. Those 10 rules were all there were at that time. TS soon changed the table design (in late 1976 or early 1977) to one with a "blue" top playing surface, and gradually expanded their tour and prize money until they were tours with over a million dollars total per year (actually I think the "Million Dollar Tour" happened over about an eighteen month period) and a yearly World Championship Tournamanent for up to $250,000 (and maybe even more) in the last half of the 70's (including giving away corvettes). They changed the table design again to the "Brown" top playing surface in 1978. (the brown top TS was called the "million dollar" table for the size of the yearly tour when it came out. The Brown top table made its tour debut at the Seattle Open at the Olympic Hotel (quite the ritzy place, sandwichs were about $5 which was about 3 times what they were in a normal restaurant - at least double). Because of the ballroom rent being reduced by a large amount if certain food sales were reached, Lee Peppard effectively reduced the food prices in half by selling tickets for food and remitting double to the hotel when the sandwichs were bought. This was also the debut of the large handle, and the plastic men (that had been ridiculed by TS before the brown top), and a very unpopular debut of 50 cent foos. Incidentally, I understand the LARGE handles on the TS, which no player liked, were actually due to a communication misunderstanding with the factory that made them, rather than a planned design change. TS, rather than eat the $$ for all the handles that already had been produced, tried to pass them of as an "improvement". At TS's last major tournament in 1981 (the $400,000 Tournament of Games Spectacular in Chicago), they didn't pay off all the advertised prize $$ and shortly after filed for bankruptucy and went out of business. A lot of players didn't get paid for the tournament a year before (1980?), but most of those debts had been satisfied or quelled prior to the $400,000 Tournament. Atari had hired TS to run a Video game tournament and had given them some seed money which was used to build up Lee's extravaganza tourment. TS would make a lot of their $$ for the tournaments by changing the table design significantly ever 2-3 years (green to blue to brown), causing people to have to buy the new tables to replace their outdated models. I can't remember all the reasons for the collapse of TS, but I think there's an article on it at www.foosball.com. After the collapse of TS, the Dynamo company, which also produced a foosball table that was very similar to the early Tornado table (among other games such as pool tables) but wasn't aggressively marketing it, was aware of what TS had accomplished so far as the market for foosball, and saw the opportunity to take over that pre-existing market. They redesigned their table to be more similar to the Brown Top TS table the existing player base was used to (the brown top dynamo table), and then started big $$ tournaments/tour in the early 80's throughout the US too. I believe they only did those Dynamo Tournaments for two or three years. Johnny Lott was the designer of the "new" Dynamo Table. Tornado, who had been in existance since about 1970, had mainly been limited to Texas, but also saw the success Dynamo was starting to have and decided to have some big $$ tournaments too. About that time Tornado hired someone to come up with a marketing plan for them. What he came up with was, I thought, a very good concept, and I'm not sure why it was never implemented (or if it was, why it failed). The concept was that the tables and parts would be LOANED by Tornado to local promoters for free. The promoters would then find locations (bars, gamerooms, etc) to place them in. The way everyone would make $$ went something like this: Out of every dollar a table took in, 50 cents would go to the location, 25 cents to the promoter (for his time and trouble maintaining the table, and his profit), and the other 25 cents would go to the factory for their profit and and to provide $$ for the tournament tour. No tables would be sold to ANYONE, unless they were home model tables without coin mechanisms. The coin mechanism versions were not for sale, and would remain the property of the factory, and could only be gotten through the above arrangement (to keep promoters/locations from buying their own tables to put on location). With a quarter coming to the factory for every 4 games played anywhere in the country, you can see how this concept would work. Similarly, although the local promoter would only get a quarter out of every dollar (rather than the 50 cents he typically make now unless he owns the location too), he wouldn't have the large expense of buying the tables. I may be slighlty off on this, and I don't remember whether the factory supplied replacement parts out of their quarter or if the promoter did it out of his. But it sounds like it could've worked. Anayway, for a short while, Dynamo and Tornado staged 2 competing tours, to the point that one of the World Championships (I believe, or it may have just been a big tournament) in the mid 80's had half a room of Dynamo Tables and half a room of Tornado, with both running tournaments at the same time (you didn't play on on both tables in a single event though, you'd play all of one event on 1 table, and all of another event on the other table). The tournament was suppose to have a THIRD table, too. Mike Dickenson was suppose to show up with his Pro Soccer Table to participate in the event, but didn't. I think he had problems getting them out of customs. Toward the latter part of the '80's Tornado basically took control of the foosball tour scene. I can't remember what caused Tornado to take over and Dynamo to fall back - foosball was a small part of Dynamo (who made pool tables and other game equipment), while Foosball was ALL Tornado did, so that may have had something to do with why Tornado eventually won out, but that's just a guess on my part.Dynamo makes a half-hearted attempt to get back in the foosball scene every few years, such as their new table (called Stryker), which they sometimes have a large tournament on. Incidentally, the Styker table, as well as the brown top Dynamo table too, was designed by one of the top TS pros, Johnny Lott, who also co-authored the foosball book. The Stryker table design was partly based on a Rene Pierre table (the basic cabinet shape, telescoping rods, etc). However, since the Stryker tour events were too few and sporadic, and it was never clear that the next tournament wouldn't be the last, players didn't consider them a viable alternative to Tornado - they'd just go to the Stryker tournaments whenever they had one, and when it was over with they'd go back to the Tornado table with the assured/frequent tournament tour. Dynamo has since dropped the Stryker line of tables. So there shouldn't be any more manufacturer based Stryker tournaments (unless Johnny was to re-appear with a new Stryker Table). The post-Stryker Dynamo Table was being billed as the "NON-Tournament Table". Tornado was bought out by Valley (a big Pool Table/Darts manufacturer) in the mid-1990s, who then took over manufacturing of the Tornado table (to the detriment of quality according to many Tornado players), as well as the tournament tour, but slowly phasing in the concept of foosball "leagues" rather than tournaments). Then interestingly Valley merged with Dynamo in the late 1990s, and took over the Tornado table manufacturing and tour/leagues, but continued to produce their own Dynamo brand table too. Bonzini USA was formed in 1998 by a USA Rene Pierre table player to bring back French-Style foosball in the US, and challenge the Tornado/Dynamo monopoly. I may have some of my dates and facts slightly off (I'm going off memory). Again, there is probably an article on the history of the foos scene in the US at www.foosball.com, and I'm sure other people will be quick to jump in here with corrections and additional info. Also, I left out some stuff due to length (e.g., the history of Rene Pierre in the USA); Keep in mind that none of this addresses the foosball scene in Europe, where the game was invented and has been around a lot longer.