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Calgary & Edmonton & Vancouver & TSAC
| Topic: Letter from Valley's President |
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I found this on the foosball board. Kinda interesting. In the past few weeks we received a number of distraught emails from members of the foosball community around the United States concerning the recent 'surprise' announcement of a relationship between Independent Foosball Promotions (IFP) and another company which purports to be a manufacturer of foosball tables. As a result of this mere announcement, it appears that a portion of the foosball community at large doubts the longevity of Tornado, its relevance to players and its commitment to an active tournament system. Nothing could be further from the truth. I would like to take a moment to set the record straight, while also taking some time to offer perspective on this development. • Tornado and its employees are extremely passionate about our product, our brand, our reputation and our commitment to league and tournament play. We are also humble and understand that we stand to lose our prominence if we lose touch with the players who demand our product around the world. • During 2008 and for the past 20 years, our table has been the “gold standard” for tournaments and promotions. • Our tables are sanctioned by VIFA, the USTSF and ITSF. We are the only product in the world that can claim to have the approval of all three major sanctioning bodies and league entities. Our product has been used at tournaments on EVERY continent! • Tornado owns and operates the USTSA tour. We do this not only to assure the relevance of and sales of our products, we do this because the foosball community has been unable to develop a significant independent tour to support players. • Rather than 'resting on our laurels' we are launching two new tournament-quality products later this year, which were previewed at the last tournament to rave reviews. The changes we are making are in many cases a direct effort to address concerns and suggestions that come from our loyal players! • Certain aspects of our products are patented and are key to the players' experience. Any new manufacturer will have a very difficult time replicating our patented product to which the player is so accustomed. Having said all of the above, we do understand that the IFP's decision may not be viewed as positive for Tornado nor potentially, for the particularly meticulous player who demands the best and wants to practice on the best product to prepare for tournament play. For players that wish to compete in two planned IFP events where another table might be used, their playing lives just got a little bit more difficult. They will have a challenge finding anything other than a Tornado product in locations where they practice, given how many years we've invested in getting our product to be the preferred product in bars and other locations where we congregate for the unique foos experience we all That said, if there are real dollars at stake and if those dollars are paid out properly, it is great for the game and the exposure of it. From Tornado's standpoint, we are grateful that another entity wishes to start to try to make some investments in the game like we have for over 30 years. There is a possibility we can all win. There is also the possibility of sullying the reputation of the game and souring players’ interest if the experience isn't up to Tornado's standards. We would hope and expect this does not happen, as for so long Tornado has had one singular purpose in mind: Build the Best Product so that Players have the Best Experience. Tornado is clearly the product leader in this unique industry, and we intend to remain so. For several months, we have been working on some significant improvements to the way we support players via the league and tournament system. In partnership with players and promoters, we will be going public soon with some very exciting news on t |
Posted: May 20 2008 1:10AMThe last post to this thread is more than 30 days old.