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BillyBoy Administrator Posts: 1373
8/5/2016
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NOTICE! Duke's Sports Bar in Scottsdale, the premiere foosball venue in Phoenix, has announced its intention to remove foosball from its premises in 30 days. The reasons cited for this move are due to ongoing issues with a segment of the player base failing to purchase food and/or drinks, amongst other disrespectful behavior toward staff members.
Today I spoke to the owner of Duke's, Al McCarthy, for 30 minutes and I wanted to post some of that communication here, along with some afterthoughts...
I have known Al for more than 10 years. Despite a tough demeanor, he's a good businessman (just look at the ongoing success of Duke's) and a generous man. Though some of the players may feel that Duke's insistence upon players purchasing food and drinks just sounds like a stingy request, the truth is that his establishment has given more to foosball than any other bar I've ever worked with.
This leads to the main point of this post.
I would like for players to take a moment to recognize how far foosball has come over the past 10 years. We went from a single tournament a week with maybe 7 teams, to three tournaments a week attracting 8-13 teams on a regular basis. In addition, we also now have a league with over 100 registered players, meeting every Tuesday and Wednesday. And, in the midst of all this fantastic growth, we have our shining centerpiece for tournaments and leagues, Duke's Sports Bar, which is quite possibly the best foosball venue in the country at this time.
I can tell you that, having organized foosball tournaments for many years and having dealt with hundreds of bars, we have never been offered anything close to what we have been given from Duke's. We have an entire room of our own, complete with jukebox, bathrooms, air conditioning, tables and waitresses, complete with four immaculate T-3000 pro tables (and a fifth table in the next room). In addition, Duke's contributes cash to all event prize funds. Normally, we would be very lucky to get just one or two of these items, and even then it would be an ongoing challenge to keep things in order. Not a single tournament night would go by without some form of a problem or another related to, essentially, the fact that the bar pretty much does not care much about foosball.
Let the last two paragraphs sink in.
We know where foosball was only a few short years ago, and where it is today. And we know that Duke's is our pride and joy, and truly a one-time-opportunity. Losing the venue will almost certainly have a deleterious effect on the future of foosball in the valley.
So I think you all can see where this is leading. It is easy to take things for granted; it is human nature. But this is a time where we, as a foosball community, must come together and take measures to preserve what we've created and keep the growth of our game in this region on track. Duke's Sports bar is critical.
MY CONVERSATION WITH AL:
I was told by Al that most of the incidents of non-paying customers, who insist on playing every week without buying food or drinks, involve the same repeat offenders. Personally, I cannot comprehend how a person can enter a place of business and use their space and resources and not pay them anything. At the moment, I do not know specifically which players these are, but those players know who they are, and the establishment knows who they are. And as you know, Duke's will no longer tolerate it.
All of this said, after 30 minutes on the phone with Al, I feel that the situation may be salvageable. We came up with a potential solution involving a pre-paid bracelet to play in the tournaments, the cost of which can be deducted from food or drink orders. This ought not be a problem for anyone who swears that they buy drinks anyway. However, Al did not commit to this solution and is still leaning towards dropping foosball on Fridays altogether. He is currently on vacation, and said he would consider such an idea and decide for sure before our 30 day eviction notice is up. In the meantime, it goes without saying that any further incidents during this time period will almost certainly destroy any chance of a long term solution.
A SPECIAL REQUEST:
So what do you say? Can we keep Al and Duke's happy in the next several weeks? This might mean buying an extra drink. It certainly means not arguing with employees – even if you may feel offended or wrongly "accused". We have a long term objective, let's bite the bullet and make sure it happens 
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Bill Nolan
Brad Chamberlain
Arizona Foosball
edited by BillyBoy on 8/6/2016
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