Topic: Warrior My Vision

[sirflair]

  I walked into an arcade in Huntington Beach California about 30 years ago and saw a 4 color poster on the wall promoting a half million dollar foosball tour and said to myself " That's the life for me"
  It was for about 2 years, fully sponsored on tour. Air,hotel,and entry fees by the local foosball house which was Happy Jacks with 40 TS tables. What a fantastic time it was. Thousands of players. Tournaments everyday of the week. Big ones 2 times or more a month.
  Then it ended. The tour went bust and I screwed up my wrist. But in those 2 glorious years I learned alot of life lessons and made alot of lifelong friends. I want it back for myself and for 10's of thousands of youngsters.

 That's the emotional side of foosball for me.

 Here's the business side:

 There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the market for foosball here in the USA is not being capitalized on properly and there is a window of opportunity for a group of individuals that have the desire, commitment, talent and some resources to market the sport of foosball and within 3 to 5 years have a stable profitable business.

How big can it be?

I think with a 3-5 year commitment and a few million bucks, WITH THE RIGHT DEDICATED, TALENTED, PEOPLE,

HERE'S WHAT I BELIEVE IS NOT A PIPE DREAM BUT A REALISTIC GOAL.

1,000,000+ tour with a 50-100 thousand dollar 1st place doubles prize at the US Championship

Do I believe entry fees by players will sustain that? NO

How will it be done? Major sponsors and subsidies by foosball manufacturers along with foosball related products.

To get the big sponsors for REAL MONEY YOU MUST HAVE TV COVERAGE. TO GET TV COVERAGE YOU MUST HAVE A PRODUCT THAT WILL ENTERTAIN PEOPLE ON TV.

This of course will assist immensely in the sales of foosball tables. (my goal is 10,000,000+ in sales annually)


The reason for this post is I know there are alot of good people out there that feel as passionate about the sport as I do and have alot of questions and concerns about how Warrior entering this market will affect them.I cannot answer all those questions know but I believe 2 things very sincerely.

1. I will make every conceivable effort to recruit every promoter, distributor, retailer and anyone involved in the sport of foosball to at least being partially involved with Warrior tables even if its only part of your foosball business.

2. By publicizing and advertising any foosball table all the other manufacturers benefit in the long run. That is fact.


Mary Moore and IFP will run and or co-ordinate all major tournaments on Warrior Tables. This is a priceless advantage. I am honored that a person of her talent and respectability is willing to help me make my vision become a reality.

What part do I expect others to participate? If you love this sport just do what you think is the right thing to do. Play Warrior Tournaments, Play Tornado, Play Foosball.

I do not expect everyone to agree with everything I do. I do expect a reasonable person to understand I am doing my best to expand the sport of foosball and not hurt it.

There is alot of work to be done and like I said earlier it will take good people that have alot of desire and commitment and I am in talks with several people to undertake different tasks and positions as they open up. An important one that I will fill within the next 30 days is a pr person to answer the many questions that I know alot of you have. I must admit at this point I do not even have the answers to some of them.

I realize that this small post does not answer alot of detail questions but I felt I needed to at least shed some type of light I my intentions with the foosball community.

Thank You
Brendan Flaherty

 

[Old Meister]

I said it before and I will say it now, the boomers who played back when are coming back but are put off by the play of Tornado tables. They want to be able to do their old shots and show their kids and grandkids how to play. That is a market worth going after and if your table allows their game, they will buy it. They have the money and the time as they retire. I can't imagine anyone who got into  the game in the 70's not enjoying the prospect of getting into it again if it grew in popularity.

[thebodygroove]

Making table football compatible with TV coverage is going to be the hard part. You'll need broadcast-capable high speed cameras for the slomos and some intricate methods of showing the emotional aspect of the game - the faces of the athletes - while not missing anything thats going on on the playing surface. That's a lot of money to be spent on something for which there is no guarantee that people are actually going to watch it.

But I'll keep my fingers crossed for your vision!

[bbtuna]

Brendan,

thanks for posting here and if you come back and read this I will leave these thoughts

the potential of what you are talking about is more significant than even the hey day of TS but it ALL hinges on you delivering on your vision

first the table has to be at least as good, and preferably better, than anything made
the table needs to be produced consistenantly each time
and you have to deliver on all your promotional promises/vision for 3-5 years

I am 100% behind you and Mary if you can deliver on these promises and I hope and pray that you can deliver above expectations which will be hard to do because you have set the bar very high in your vision statement making it hard to under promise and over deliver

with all that said, if there is something I can do the help facilitate this change, let me know