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Calgary & Edmonton & Vancouver & TSAC
| Topic: I Can't believe that... |
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5 pin bowlers, dart throwers, and even curlers for that matter get paid more than professional foosball players. What's up with that eh?!? |
Posted: Dec 27 2008 1:20PM
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In each case: leagues, leagues and leagues. There's a LONG history of consistent participation in all three of these games. Quantifiable participation in large numbers will always attract sponsors and advertisers, resulting in higher cash prizes. Foosball will never have the mass appeal of these other activities, for a variety of reasons. # of fans/participants = eyeballs for advertisers = cash. The number of hours of practice needed to excell in any given sport is irrelevant to how much you may get paid. It's always: eyeballs = cash. |
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Supposed to be a few paragraph breaks in that previous post, sorry. Gotta stop posting from my PDA. |
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I totally agree with you, its just that it baffles me that these other "sports" have more appeal to the masses. |
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Yeah, I find all three a bit yawn-inducing. I suppose my opinion would change if I were one of the country's best players in any of 'em. |
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All three of those games that you listed are more watchable by people. The ball moves way too fast in foosball. If it was to be televised, the entire match would have to be at quarter speed. Also it requires large knowledge of the game to appreciate what you are watching. While if you watch someone hit a few triple 20's, you can easily tell that was a hard thing to do. Also 5-pin bowling and curling aren't that popular outside Canada. Especially 5-pin since it was invented in Canada and most pro-leagues being in Canada. They also aren't paid very well at all, not sure if you can make a living unless you absolutely kill every tournament. |
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I seen an exciting dart match recently, and it was quite fun to watch. The interesting thing was the venue, it looked they just put 4000 people in a large venue with cheap alcohol. Maybe thats the secret. |
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I think curling is a way better activity than foos, both to watch and to play. Of course, having played both I might not have the background to assess it as impartially and without bias as the single activity player types posting here already. Darts I find dull to play and to watch but then again, it is a game you can play with a huge beer stein perched on your beer gut so that would always make it a contender. Bowling - well, I suck at bowling. Johnny, which is better to play/watch? Bowling or foos? Foos is a poor game for people to watch. Live crowds would never be more than a small handful of people because of sight lines and the need to be up close to see the ball. On TV it is generally too fast to be truly entertaining - it needs blue streaks and red streaks for passes and shots, respectively. Just like when hockey was televised all proper like for the US masses. It's golf I've never understood. That is the single most dull game to watch on TV. |
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That's the thing with the darts match I watched, nobody in the audience was really watching, they were just all hanging out drinking (around picnic tables no less). If you could get cover from alot of people, then serve cheap drinks all night, with the cover subsidized to the foosball match - you could possibly get a descent sized event with payouts. |
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"Foos is a poor game for people to watch" lol, obviously without me there , the game has suffered. u don't need any blue or red streaks so see my nice slop goals trickle in. |
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True. With Shinhacker there, there would be no need for blue/red streaks as the TV coverage would rapidly disappear. Fade to block ... |
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your just jelous cheesey |
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Well considering that i started 10 pin bowling when i was 10, i am /was quite good at it (around a 200 average). But bowling and drinking doesn't mix nearly as well as it does with foosball. I think Jeffie's on to something there. Bowling is pretty boring to watch, unless someone makes an incredible spare or has a string of strikes going. Foosball can have exciting moments at any given time so is more fun to watch in that regard. I personally find foosball more fun to play than bowling as i was doing both religiously back in the early 80's. However i did think Kingpin was a better movie than Longshot  . |
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Bowling, darts, and curling simply can't compare in any aspect in my view. for starters (maybe not curling) there is no offensive and defensive component to these games. Attacks with counter attacks. There are no set plays designed before hand to be executed. There is no trickery or bullying involved. Timed speed and aggression. Passing, shooting, scoring, blocking are all components to the most popular sports. Football, soccer, basketball, baseball, and hockey. Bowling, darts, and curling don't match up to foosball. I am not being biased here, really, I fall asleep watching all of em including foosball. All the girlfriends I have brought down to Soho over the years are just amazed at the shiit we do, My bro's are just like "You guys are AWESOME!!" Before they used to laugh at the sport, not anymore. They just took the time to actually watch real good foosers play. Anyone of them would easily find foosball more exciting to watch than those others. Look at all the players that are coming out of the commodore, me included. They watched bowlers, pool sharks all day back in the day when we use to just hang out, no one was watching the pool players or bowlers, they were watchin us. Pretty neat if you ask me. BUT, If you were to watch foosball being played on the BONZINI, GARGLANDO, TEC BALL, ROBERTO SPORT, THAT WOULD BE SOOO FLICKN BORING. It's horrible to watch. |
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Foosball is just so much harder to get good at right away than billiards, bowling, darts, and curling....Most people don't like sports they are not good at. Anyone can get good at foosball, it just takes more time. That's why you see these guys who can't do what we do and joke that we have nothing to do with our lives and that's why we are good at foosball. I say its a whole lot better than playing video games all the time or just sitting there at the bar getting shit faced and going home with nothing to show for. |
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One of the biggest problem with foos live is the referee situation. There's nothing worse then getting a good seat to a good match only to have a ref sit smack dab right in front of you. I mean I understand you want refs but it kills it for spectators and severely limits your already bad sight lines. They also need to stop having the biggest matches when nobody is there to watch them. They should run the Open events earlier and stop the whole tournament when any Open final is running so they can create some atmosphere and sense of excitement for those events IMHO. |
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I totally agree with Dave about the barrier to entry for foosball. It takes a while to get the baseline skills that then let you build upon into different skills of the game. However I'd try and avoid bashing a lot of the other borderline game-sports out there. It doesn't really help out cause when we re-enforce the same arguments against other games that we try and deflect ourselves. Billiards (billiards itself and snooker, as opposed to 8/9 ball, definitely has aspects of defense, offense and blocking. So does curling, although they are more subtle, but that's just the nature of a turn-based game. As for video games, I would say those are the furthest along in their development, perhaps even further than poker. I put video games above poker due to how the professionals in each respective game get paid. In poker, most professionals just win their living from winning a lot. The idea of a salary is just emerging within the last few years on certain poker TV shows. Although the idea of a prop player has always been around, they don't really exist anymore and have no need to due to poker's rising popularity. Salaried and sponsered players are extremely common in video games though. Starcraft in Korea being the preeminent example, where the top players are celebrities (TV appearances, sponsorships, advertisements) and etc... From what is the best game perspective, I think foosball is fighting an uphill battle against video games and poker. Both video games and poker (especially video games), have such flexibility in the gameplay and the rules, it is easy to adjust them to create the so-called perfectly balenced game. While replacing a table that is used on tour seems to take quite some time. |
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I bowl, i've curled, i play video games, i've played a lot of cards, I shot pool at a pro level at one point, None of the above has the dynamics of foosball. Billiards does not have the offense and defensive aspects. Your playing against/by yourself. Video games are probably better than billiards. |
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All these games take the same amount of time to be really good at/master. 10,000 hours. |
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lol, sweet...hey man good luck to you in france bud. |
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Oh and JT, i wasn't bashing nothing, i was just saying that they were not as good as foosball. |
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I know you've played pool at the competitive level, and you know I have as well. But in pocketless billiard tables, the defense shines a bit more I'm fairly sure. And even though the defense may only last a single shot (once you unsafety yourself you are in the clear i suppose). It doesn't mean there isn't any defense, just a different type. I like the number you pulled out there Jeff  . I've heard that figure before too, something like it takes 10000 hours to become an "expert" at anything, including academics or athletics... |
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I didn't know you played competitively....You are getting there skill wise i've noticed. JT you have to admit though, foosball is a more elite sport than billiards. You are a genius no? |
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It boils down to one thing and one thing only 5 pin bowling there is at least 18 locations where you can play in the lower mainland Darts is in numerous pubs in the us at least and haven't seen many locally but i'm sure there are some. Curling there are 17 locations in the lower mainland and 50 someodd im bc Foosball hmmmm, 4(Soho, Bankshots, Lesters, Commodore?) in the lower mainland, and one where we have competitive games. From what i've seen of interviews when foosball was big there were tables everywhere you didn't have to look to find one. I mean what are you gonna wanna play pong or foosball :P Darts is big in europe and for the reason Jeff A posted theres a bunch of loud drunk people. Mind you over in europe there are huge foosball leagues as well. Want to get foosball big get a table into every college and pub, promote it at whitecaps games, the did it in seattle not sure if it got them any new players but it might have. and Jeff T comparing poker to foosball, really now, the allure to any sort of gambling is getting something for nothing, in theory you could sit at a high stakes table for one hand go all in have someone call them and double there money with no skill required. Video games on the other hand, is the adversary of any sport and or game, at christmas kids dont say i want a foosball table or a pool table or a new set of darts or a set of curling rocks they want a wii!! Where they can do all of these while sitting on a couch eating chips. The other thing is Cost: 5 pin bowling: Balls:50-75$ Shoes:30-200$ and your not getting a bowling alley at home in that case it would become a little more expensive. and 2-5$ a game Darts: Pro series dartboard:46.95 Pro level darts:200$ approx Cost per game:free Curling Shoes 200$ Broom 200$ Rocks dont appear to be bought Foosball 2000$ Pool Im not going to search out what a pro cue costs and yes a pool table is more expensive than a foosball table but if you have room for it people will actually use it. Video Games Actually quite expensive well not console gaming but the pc gaming is the big one. So 3000 for a high end computer. Poker Deck of cards, who really doesn't have a deck of cards. So less than a 500$ pro equipment cost for the other 3 and 4 times as much for foosball. but on the plus side foosball has the lowest cost per game, if you can find a table. Oh and In pool watching it on tv when nothing else is on i have seen a clear defensive aspect to that game as well. and as far as TV goes Foosball is the game equivalent of hockey TV wise Foosball the ball moves to fast for you to see it. Hockey the puck moves to fast for you to see it. Foosball to understand whats going on you need to pay attention to the game. Hockey ditto Now Curling Bowling Darts Curling rocks move slowly and then sit nicely on the sheet of ice Bowling balls move rapidly but still definitly visible Darts move rapidly but noones actually paying attention anyways and the dart sticks in the wall after throwing it All of these Sports/Games move slowly enough that your attention can be diverted. Darts TV wise is the only way you could make foosball work, they made it like wrestling heros and villans entrance music etc, oh an beer lots of beer(but it makes sense where do you play darts, in a bar! anyhoo im tired of typing now. |
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Good point about the cost, i lost you with the rest though |
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After a meeting of the foos minds tonight at Denny's we've come up with this. Foosball is a better sport than all of the above. Biggest Point, What if in hockey they changed the puck to a ball or the size of the nets, changed the sticks to a different kind, or in basketball they changed the hoop or the ball every other quarter, that would be stupid. Like how the itsf tourny's are run. Foosball has to be played on 1 universal table that everyone agrees on to be launced as a sport where one could make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Sorry to say, but the europeans should just admit that the tornado is the best table, especially now with the one goalie and the ramps. I don't think they have anything to complain about now. The Austrians I met at the tornado worlds are starting to come along, they admitted to me that tornado was by far the superior table. So, we think the #1 priority for all foosers is to push for 1 official table. |
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Hockey rinks are different at the international level. Football fields differ in different leagues as well as have different rules (CFL vs NFL). International basketball has differences in the rules as well as I recall. |
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lol your such a dork jeff |
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There will never be only one table. |
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I can't believe that.... you guys are still talking about this! |
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Never say never...Why can't there be only 1 table? If there can't looks like pro foosers are screwed. |
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You will never be able to get a full country to switch out all their tables. Take France for example, bonzini is so deep routed that they will never change. A Multi-table world championship is the closest we wil ever get, which is what we have. I think we should be considered lucky that we have Tornado here and its World Championships, which is the biggest tournie in the world in terms of prize money. The New World is the future, and we have the best table, everything else is a step behind. |
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foos will neva be huge until there is only one standard table.u neva see bowling pins change sizes every 2 years or dart boards get bigger or turn square or pool tables change the size of there pockets or balls every2 years |
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i dont mind playing on a crappy roberto sport or garlando as long as everyone else is using the same table and the prize money is huge. that to me is fair and makes sense. |
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Just to be an ass I'll point out that pool enjoys great success even being played over many tables. Brunswick and Ol hausen are 2 examples that pop into my head. Also as for rule changes I can think of a few off the bat... Hockey changing the pad sizes for goalies. The ping pong ball change from 38mm to 40mm. The changing of the serving requirements in ping pong. Also I think speed glueing will be banned soon at the professional level... Tennis undergoes changes all the time and can also be thought of as having multi-tables (courts). Rebound-Ace as a surface is a good example of a change. Wimbledon has slowed down its grass surface (aiding Nadal's ascension in the top ranks). There are tons more... |
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Foosball sucks. |
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Take it easy Jeff  |
The last post to this thread is more than 30 days old.