History of coin operated tables
- Thread starter skip100
- Start date
Here's an article about Brunswick buying Valley coin-op table manufacturing.
Toward the end of the article the author warns of large companies buying smaller outfits and ruining them. Written in 2003. Brunswick was in and out of Valley pretty quick.
Around the same time Brunswick Bowling was sold also.
Could Brunswick Billiards be next, soon?
http://www.aemllc.com/articles/Replay/rpfsbrunswickbuyvalleydyna.pdf
History of Valley-Dynamo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley-Dynamo
Toward the end of the article the author warns of large companies buying smaller outfits and ruining them. Written in 2003. Brunswick was in and out of Valley pretty quick.
Around the same time Brunswick Bowling was sold also.
Could Brunswick Billiards be next, soon?
http://www.aemllc.com/articles/Replay/rpfsbrunswickbuyvalleydyna.pdf
History of Valley-Dynamo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley-Dynamo
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It hasn't slowed down laundrymats or car washes.
But as been stated, card readers are becoming more common all the time.
just wondering. People often have interesting stories to tell. What was the sales pitch? Who bit first? Who made and lost money? Who could have been there first but missed the boat? What was going on behind the scenes when Valley went from nothing to pumping out thousands of bar tables?
I don't think I've paid to play on a coin-op table more than 9 or 10 times in my life... it barely seems like pool to me. But clearly people enjoy them.
I've seen more arguments and fights about who's quarter is up than most anything else in pool. That was the old days, though, now is very different.
I've put thousands of dollars in tables, but not lately. I can't remember the last time I put money in a table. When it happens, I feel cheated for a moment or two, then remember how life works.
Leagues open the tables around here as that reduces the hassle factor a lot.
Jeff Livingston
I've put thousands of dollars in tables, but not lately. I can't remember the last time I put money in a table. When it happens, I feel cheated for a moment or two, then remember how life works.
Leagues open the tables around here as that reduces the hassle factor a lot.
Jeff Livingston
IMO the only reason Brunswick is still in billiards at all is because of the heritage factor since that is what they started with. Billiards is only a small part of their company now though. I forgot the exact numbers but it is something like 10% or less of their business and is not a main focus. There are already signs that they have given up on the division like not sponsoring or advertising as much etc. As you mentioned they have already ditched the bowling division. I think it is only a matter of time before they can no longer justify holding onto a sinking ship just because of heritage and they will also ditch the billiards division as it is a dwindling market for which the writing appears to be on the wall.
It's my understanding that since the GC III production era Brunwick has been bought & sold several times with their base of production changing countries nearly as often too...including Mexico & Korea
The earliest coin-ops were novelty games, and were usually built in a somewhat miniature form, so they could be placed in an unused corner or on a table or bar top.
Interestingly enough, these same miniature coin op games also led to the development of the pinball machine.
During the 1930s when money was tight and big billiard rooms were dropping likes flies (the depression era) miniature coin op tables gained popularity because of their small size and because they were cheaper to play on than full size tables.
By the 1960s the bar box was a "thing" and bar owners loved the idea of fitting more tables in less space. The rest, as they say, is history
The Brunswick corp. has never been sold to anyone.
The first bar box I played on in the early 60's, a Valley 3x6 "crackerbox" is still in my family. It was in my grandparents bar in Detroit. Games were a dime, 10 cents. That was my first exposure to pool at about age 6. I could only mess around with the table when it was not in use. Oversize cueball and unbelievable congestion of balls!