Her boyfriend, professional pool player Marco Tshudi, kept mentioning we would visit "the Pool Club."
I figured it was their pool hall, just called a "Pool Club."
Nope, I was wrong again, lol.
A private pool club is what the name implies: a place that a certain number of people belong to for a monthly fee.
They are all across the country and they usually have no more than 25 members. The fee varies, but because the pool rooms are very expensive to play by the hour, many private pool clubs are established for economical reasons.
Everything in Switzerland is expensive - it goes hand in hand with the minimum wage being so high. Waiters and Waitresses have to study and get degrees, so tips are not the norm because they already get paid a lot to work. Hence, the price to play pool and eat at a pool room establishment is also expensive. So, the private clubs save the players a lot of money.
This particular private pool room club, that Marco is a member of and we visited, has their own little kitchen area with a fridge and pantry, a laptop with internet access, and even some cues (if you bring a friend and they don't have a cue to play with).
It had 6 good nine-foot tables with lots of space around them, some couches, a stereo system, and good lightning Very nice, cozy, comfortable, and simple. It is housed in an office building with other different types of companies, so it's basically a large room in the office building. Every member has a key, so you can play there whenever you want, no matter what time of day. But it's not open to the public and it's not advertised.
They have tournaments on the weekends, so that is pretty cool.
At this club, everyone's picture was on the wall and I was impressed with how many women were a member of the club.
It's nice not to be bothered by the weekend warriors if you want to get some good practice time in or maybe get/give lessons. Because members have access 24 hours a day, you get a lot of freedom when you want to play and it's normally not packed all the time. And of course, the equipment is taken care of, which is another nice treat for those of us who are at the mercy of ball bangers who abuse the equipment at the pool rooms in the U.S.
Here are some pics. I hope they encapsulate the atmosphere of the "private pool club." I was impressed by the room, and the idea.
Trigger,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your continued blogging efforts.
I would love to know how much the monthly dues are to belong to this club. Some people tried something like this here in Dallas, but to get things going, they gave 'free memberships' to pretty much anybody who wanted them for the first 6-8 months. The table time was very reasonable, it was in Dallas so no smoking. There was no bar, with a few items available from a snack bar. I think as a concept, it was incredible. Unfortunately, I guess they weren't making enough to pay the bills, because eventually the table time went up, they started allowing smoking, and in the end,after less than a year, closed down. I was super bummed, because it was so promising as a serious place to play without a lot of the people looking for just a bar that also has pool tables.
I would love to see something like this here. Keep up the good work!