Lynne Brown sold her England table to Team England for $700 after volunteers arrived with a big truck on Friday, June 12. The pool table had sat in the Browns’ basement for about 20 years, and Brown said the sale came as Kansas hosted World Cup activity in the Kansas City area.
Lynne Brown and Facebook Marketplace
Brown and her family listed the table on Facebook Marketplace in early June. She said she received two messages from volunteer operations folks working with the team. Both asked the same thing: “Hey, I’m with a World Cup team based in Kansas City. Is this table still for sale?”
At first, Brown did not know who was behind the messages. “So at the initial point, I didn’t know who it was. I was probably guessing England, but you know, I did not know for sure,” she said. By 7 o’clock, the pickup had turned into a full move, with a crew of people and a big truck coming for the table.
Brown and the big truck
Brown’s listing had already drawn a boundary on the transaction. “We are not providing transportation (of the pool table),” she wrote. When her husband suggested tickets, she replied, “That’s a you problem!” and later joked, “My husband was like, ‘Get tickets!’” followed by, “This table is not worth as much as these tickets are.”
The move was not a one-person lift. Brown said, “It took five or six big dudes to move that thing. They had to stop midway and put it down. I haven’t talked to my neighbors, but I wonder what they thought was going on.” The table had come with the family when they moved to the area from Denver, and Brown said it had become a basement staple for friends, family, kids and grandkids.
Kansas City in Prairie Village
England was based about 10 miles south of Kansas City in Prairie Village during the World Cup, one of three highly ranked teams staying in the area alongside the Netherlands and Argentina. A few days after the pickup, England beat Croatia 4-2 in Arlington, Texas.
Brown said the sale will not stay a quiet family story. She said it would “absolutely” go in the family Christmas letter, and after telling her six-year-old grandson she would be on TV, he asked, “Is Nana in jail?” Brown also said, “If they win the World Cup, I’m totally taking credit,” and added, “I hope they’re playing on the table, I hope they’re having a blast. I hope the good energy that that table brought us carries right over into their game.”
