Play Meter

from the location or the operator everyday. And the
peopla we have who are involved in promotion, to a
high degree, their time is spent in applying our
national promotions at the location level.
PLAY METER: Don't you encourage operators
who have their own tournaments to sponsor players
in your bigger tournaments?
ROGERS: That's been a part of our proposition for
the past two years. We told operators that they can
hold in -house tournaments and for the prize money
pay that players' entry fee to the nationals. That
way the big numbers we put out there become their
numbers too. Instead of saying, "I'm going to give
you $100 for first -place and $40 for second and $20
for third," an operator can say, "If you play in my
tournament and win, you can qualify to win the
$25,000 first prize at the world championships.
PLAY METER: Do you think it would be a good
idea to have certain features on the foosball table
standardized?
PEPPARD: When you look at other sports-
whether you're looking at the prize money or
salaries, whether you're talking about the NBA or
the NFL or a golf tournament or a bowling
tournament, you have to realize that they have
other sources of support. Obviously they have
television revenue and spectators and, many times,
a sponsor. Foosball, at this time, can only turn to
one source of support, and that is to the
manufacturing or marketing dollar. There is no
television money there. No sponsors. No specta-
tors, though that is growing. We are still fighting to
get the exposure that we want. And you've got to
Cal (left) and Lee put their heads together at a
recent tournament.
70
get that exposure before you can ever talk about
alternate sources of revenue. So, by nature of
foosball today, you have no alternate source of
income other than what comes from the manu-
facturer or marketer. The only way to support a
million -dollar tour is by the way that we are doing
it. For this reason, we would not be willing to get
involved in a joint promotion because we look upon
our promotions as a marketing tool. If we couldn't
get the marketing benefit from our promotions,
then the promotions couldn't take place. If you had
all those other sources of support like television
money, then the promotion could take place, but
this has been denied to foosball. Now, we make our
tables the way they are because it's the way it
should be made, from our point of view. We didn't
design our table to be different. We designed our
table to be the maximum playing table, to be the
maximum profit table for the operator. But we are
certainly not receptive to a proposal for all tables
alike. It's the difference in tables which makes the
promotions possible. We will never purposely go
out and change our table to avoid it from being
similar to other tables, but we will never sit down
and compromise the table to be like another table.
PLAY METER: That would explain why manu-
facturers and marketers don't look favorably upon
standardized features, but why are foosball players
themselves so brand -loyal?
PEPPARD: The player today has become so
sophisticated that he can quickly determine the
slightest difference in tables. If the clearance
between the foot of the man and the playfield varies
even by two-one hundredths of an inch. the player
today recognizes it. So, from the players'
standpoint, standardization is impossible unless it
comes out of the same production line. Our tables
could not be manufactured by someone else, even if
we agreed to it, because it wouldn't satisfy our
players. The individuality of the table is very
important not only to us, but also our players.
ROGERS: The fact is that the players realize they
must play and practice on our tables to be
competitive in our events.
PLAY METER: Do you think these same
promotional techniques could be applied to the
pinball and video market?
ROGERS: Yes. but with limitations. I think that
either a pinball manufacturer or a video manu-
facturer would be foolish to commit their total
direction to tournament activity around a particular
game. It could be part of their marketing effort, but
I think it should go more under the direction of
specialty events. Going out and trying to create a
core of interested players in a particular game
would not have the same success because they have
new products all the time. We have one product.
We promote a sport, whereas I think they would
promote an event.
PEPPARD: Bally's obvious success with their
promotion I think shows very clearly that that kind
of promotion and not the permanent tour type is
better suited for video and pinball game manu-
facturers.
PLAY METER , May, 1978