Shane and Lee Vann are posing for multiple pictures right now. No flashes allowed.
Brady Behrman sitting on the rail. This kid never ages. Looks exactly the same.
Barry Behrman salutes the entire audience. He says he is drinking his "first or second cocktail" for the day. He says, "Cheers to the players and hopes they play their best pool."
Shannon is by his side. He welcomes everyone to the 38th Annual U.S. Open. He says they will be as brief as possible. The crowd cheers. Barry then thanks the host hotel, the Marriott, and its staff. The entire time he is talking, he has his arm around his daughter's waist. Barry then thanks all the loyal sponsors and vendors.
He says the following:
Shannon and I are on a mission from God, if you saw the Blues Brothers. Our missions are many, but briefly, we want to fill up the field again, and we will not stop until we do at 256, which we hope will happen next year. If not, it will happen the following, if I have to go travel around the world -- and of course, Shannon will go with me -- and drag everybody over here, becuase we are going to add 72,000 instead of 50, and we will put the money up again and again and again. And we want to have more 256 opens, so we can play deep 94 players, and we want more people to come.
We know that this is so much better than it was last year.
[Applause,.]
We know that, and you will let us know how you feel in the next few weeks with the stories that we'll be reading on AzBilliards forums, and we have a lot of decisions to make. And moving across, back across the street, may be in the cards, but also, you know, we just feel that -- and wedeserive, my daughter, I, and all of you -- we need to know that we are welcomed in the manner in which the Marriott did for us this year. Then we will be glad to discuss that with them.
So I think we did an extremely good job with this setup this year, as best we could, because we took -- we methodogically over and over, weeks and weeks an weeks, worked on a floor plan that worked the way it did. If we remain in this buildilng next year, we know the commentating booth will be up there, so everybody can see. We will do better with more padding. The bleachers are here because we could not seat 320 people without bleacher seating, blah, blah, blah. So we spent $1,000 to go get foam rubber, so we did the best we could, and we will continue to always do the best that we can.
So it remains to be seen, but we will know soon from you, our fans, our players, the advice that you have for us, and we're glad -- we will gladly listen to your feedback. I know Rich will be definitely saying whether it's good, bad, or ugly. We will get his opinion, and we appreciate you, Rich, very much. Life is too short. Thank you. Thank you.
[Applause]
I mean, this is a really cool setup, if you can imagine having a clear view, eight tables, the ambiance of it all. Bigger may not be better, whoever said that. Well, my son knows about that, right? Ladies and gentlemen, my son, Brady Behrman. I'm awfully proud of him. Proud of you. Very successful.
So let us know. Our entire staff at Q-Master Billiards, and leading the way, my daughter would like to say something about special. We're fortunate to have her.
Shannon then speaks, thanks the crowd for embracing her. The last 13 years have been great for her.
They then have a raffle for a Jacoby cue. Bernie Zupansic [ph] wins a $1,200 cue for a $10 ticket.
Barry takes the mic back and continues to thank people.
