the only thing official about the Mosoni 526 is he ran alot of balls in front of a group of people and then one of them suggested they make it official with an affidavit signed by multiple people who watched the run. There was no original intent to run a big number. It is not know if Mosconi fouled a ball with hand or cue while executing the run he was know to do such things in his exhibitions. There is not even an agreement on if the run came to an end or if he missed or just quit playing ie got tired lets get something to eat. Mosconi himself gave different accounts as to the run ending with a miss and later in life he claimed to have stopped shooting.Also the pockets were like 5.5" with no shelf. The table was in George Roods poolroom years later after the run it was said to have large easy pockets.
I think Cranfield and Eufemia had higher practice runs they are not recognized as they were not watched or made official by an affidavit.
So if diamond made John a 4x8 hi run table. 5.5" pockets, straight cut openeings with no siginificant shelf. Arimith supply a set of tourney pro balls and a LD Fury shaft he would be in business ready to run alot of balls and in my mind John would run 526+ in less than 6 months if he had a reason to do it. Myself I would by the stream I think the stream would sell if he put in 4 hour sessions daily people could watch it live and he would run the balls 100+ every day and one day he would get in gear and run that big number. It would not be impossible for him to do it.
Now I spoke to John about besting the 526 in the past he said it could be done and would not take that long if there was a prize fund. His suggestion was to have multiple tables and have the players attack it as a team and support each other. In my opinion with 4 top players playing in an arena daily on 4 similar big pocket 8 ft tables and a prize structure such that when it is beaten they all win somehow the time frame to run 526+ is probably under a month. I personnaly think John would post 200+ runs nearly every day on such a table and his rate of play would allow him to run the big number in under 3 hours.
526+ is doable but without the funding it will have to wait till someone does it on tough 9' equipment and has the video camera going and that will happen one of these days. John has ran the 400 number a couple of times. There are big numbers happening in Europe and Danny H has also ran a high number before. Who know what will happen if the 14.1 hi run thing takes off in Southeast Asia.
The 526 number has stood a long time. I think it has been surpassed in the US by more than 1 player (Mosconi in practice per Lou, Eufemia, Cranfield) It will be surpassed on video sooner than later just my opinion. Would not last very long if there was a siginficant prize fund, remember Strickland and the million dollar challenge to run 11 racks orf nineball. he did it because there was a reward for doing so and the same would happen if there was a reward to run 526+. Put up money the number will come, however no funding it will only be a matter of time as 14.1 is being played, practiced and videoed.
I had to stop at the bold. John would seriously need all of that? There are 8' tables all over the country. In Texas, they're pretty much standard. Why would Diamond have to make him one? To give him conditions he's used to? Sounds like giving him an unfair advantage.