A 1984 survey by the National Sporting Goods Assn.
Beneath the felt, they have flat, heavy slate slabs.Īlthough the pool table business isn’t what it used to be, millions of Americans still play the game. The regulation-size tables are big, roughly 50 inches by 100 inches, and heavy, about 1,500 pounds. Regulation-size pool tables have several qualities in common, although not necessarily green felt-the felt can be any color. Gandy’s, like Golden West, is a leader in the market for higher-priced, regulation-size tables, and Gandy’s has a big share of the coin-operated market. There are roughly a dozen companies that lead the pool-table industry, and total sales of tables and supplies are about $100 million a year, according to Kim Gandy, president of Gandy’s Industries in Macon, Ga. But it doesn’t make them anymore, it buys them from Wurlitzer.
Brostoski said many of his tables also go into condominium developments and trailer parks.īrunswick Corp., which says it has been in the pool table business since 1845, appears to remain the overall industry leader, selling about $10 million of mostly smaller, less-expensive tables annually. The industry now focuses on sales to facilities such as suburban recreation centers, bowling alleys, bars, colleges and military bases. Pool halls aren’t what they once were, however. “I’ve been playing this game since I was 8 years old,” he said. He also learned to be a pretty fair pool player. Brostoski spent plenty of time in pool halls as a youth and learned the business from the inside. Pool comes naturally to the portly, cigarette-smoking Brostoski, who took his cue from his father, a former poolroom operator in Long Beach. Golden West, however, is certainly among the largest in the business. Brostoski asserted that his company is “by far” the nation’s largest maker of antique-style pool tables, a claim that is difficult to verify.
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