I didn't miss any of your points PP9. Just factually answered your rhetorical question asking "where would a potential record-breaker find an 8-footer for any given attempt":
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(Quoting point #5. "Even if a top pro wanted to spend time on an 8 ft table with bucket pockets (which they don't), where would they even find one? They certainly don't have one as their home table, and there may or may not even be one in a pool hall in their area. If they were going to try to break the record, they would either be stuck in a pool hall somewhere for their attempts, or they would have to buy an 8 ft table with bucket pockets for their home. And getting one for their home probably means having to get rid of whatever table they already have. It would be hugely inconvenient and costly just to get access to similar equipment to try to break the record on."
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The logistics or practicality of every one of the player's attempts to break the record are realistically of concern only to the high-level players and any table owner excitedly hoping to watch (and videotape) all of any given player's attempt sessions. Again, there are tens of thousands of such tables in the US alone.
Before I got my Diamond 9-footer I used to have a lesser-brand 8-footer with 5" bucket pockets and would have hugely welcomed any and all visits by Schmidt, Hohmann, or any respected, (and respectable), pro you might name anytime they wished to give Mosconi's record a try. It's a lead-pipe cinch that hundreds of homeowner folks (plus Moose, Elks, VFW's, retirement communities), with a rec room 8-footer in any given region would welcome such sessions by any respected pro.
For Mosconi-rapid quick-paced 14.1 players like Schmidt, Hohmann, Ortmann, Stephan Cohen, Thomas Engert, and countless other pros there's not the least doubt that the record would be surpassed on any given 8-footer with 5-inch pockets were there a guaranteed, collectively-raised and escrowed prize fund, and not least -- with a small portion of the prize fund and legally agreed upon royalty percentage points of any eventuating DVD distributions going to the table lender/provider.
Henry Ford's often cited comment applies equally to the practicality of finding a table as well as to a top-level 14.1 modern player's ability to surpass 526:
"If you think you can, or think you can't . . . you're right."
We're not talking about any specific multi-hour session resulting in the historic, camcorder-certified (provably unedited) record-breaker -- we're (more accurately I'm) talking about the certainty of the run happening via the very practical means described above. The means I've described are impractical only to shortsighted naysayers. Fully fund and escrow the prize in any developed country and the pros domestically and internationally will find time for some record-attempt sessions.
Arnaldo