Gold Crown was the "gold standard" for pool tables before Diamond came along. Depending on how they compete with Diamond to room owners and the quality of the tables will determine how successful they are. People that compete buy Diamonds now to practice on what they compete on. They may be getting Gold Crowns soon for the same reason. While Brunswick didn't say so, I'm sure pro's with a decent track record will be getting deals on sevens too. Some will probably be given or loaned tables.
They put some R&D into the tables and talk a good talk but I would wait and see even if I had a place for one. I have zero interest in a ball return table and my first question is how deep are the pockets? ball blockers and pockets that only hold three or four balls before them starting hopping out aren't going to cut it. They had the display table set up with four inch pockets and he bragged about it spitting balls back. Too bad about that will turn people off in a hurry!
The cushions are a big question mark. Aluminum rails too. Snooker tables with steel subrails play different than snooker tables with wooden subrails. If they got the rails and cushions right, as in banks longer than a Diamond, they could get popular. Banks like a Diamond makes it a wash, and shorter than a blue label, forget about it!
I also understood the framing to be carbon steel, black iron, and lighter than wood. All of the aluminum and steel does have me wondering about expansion rates. I am a little uncomfortable with black iron anyway. Is it subject to chipping or rust? Those nice looking corners are blued too. Last I knew aluminum is almost impossible to blue and bluing isn't a very durable finish anyway if it sees a lot of use like the constant rubbing a corner will get in a commercial environment. I suspect that all of my questions have been addressed but this is a ground up new design. I expect some bugs when they first hit the market in real world use.
Interesting that Brunswick has put the effort into rolling out the GC7 that it has. It could be the greatest thing since bottled beer, or not.
Hu
They put some R&D into the tables and talk a good talk but I would wait and see even if I had a place for one. I have zero interest in a ball return table and my first question is how deep are the pockets? ball blockers and pockets that only hold three or four balls before them starting hopping out aren't going to cut it. They had the display table set up with four inch pockets and he bragged about it spitting balls back. Too bad about that will turn people off in a hurry!
The cushions are a big question mark. Aluminum rails too. Snooker tables with steel subrails play different than snooker tables with wooden subrails. If they got the rails and cushions right, as in banks longer than a Diamond, they could get popular. Banks like a Diamond makes it a wash, and shorter than a blue label, forget about it!
I also understood the framing to be carbon steel, black iron, and lighter than wood. All of the aluminum and steel does have me wondering about expansion rates. I am a little uncomfortable with black iron anyway. Is it subject to chipping or rust? Those nice looking corners are blued too. Last I knew aluminum is almost impossible to blue and bluing isn't a very durable finish anyway if it sees a lot of use like the constant rubbing a corner will get in a commercial environment. I suspect that all of my questions have been addressed but this is a ground up new design. I expect some bugs when they first hit the market in real world use.
Interesting that Brunswick has put the effort into rolling out the GC7 that it has. It could be the greatest thing since bottled beer, or not.
Hu
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