Huge Financial Blow To Pro Snooker

TX Poolnut

TX Poolnut

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Snooker is facing a financial crisis after the sport's two biggest sponsors announced they are terminating their contracts, costing the game ?1.5m.

World Championship sponsors 888.com are quitting their five-year deal after three years and Saga Insurance will no longer back the Wembley Masters.

The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association said the companies blamed the current economic climate.

The WPBSA said it was optimistic it would find new sponsors for the events.

In the short term it's disaster. In the long term time it might force a much needed change.

The World Championship and Masters were backed by tobacco companies from the 1970s until 2005, when the government introduced a tobacco sponsorship ban.

The Grand Prix and UK Championship are currently sponsored by Royal London Watches and Maplin Electronics respectively, although both deals are in their final year.

There are two fully funded and sponsored ranking events in China but the first major event of the new season, the Northern Ireland Trophy, gets under way later this month without a big-money backer.

LINK:http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/snooker/7544214.stm
 
The trouble for Pro snooker has been brewing for a long time. The over-dependence on alcohol and tobacco sponsorship has made a promissing position precarious ever since money started pouring into the game in the early 1980's.

IMO for a long time pro snooker has got by mainly through luck. They have had a series of sponsors who were attracted into the game by very healthy viewing figures but without, I suspect, really appreciating the demographics of the audience. As a result, after a trial period of 2 or 3 years, most non alcohol/tobacco sponsors were dissapointed and pulled out. As a business model, that was never sustainable.

The problem is that the pro snooker has always been managed by amateurs. For the most part well meaning, but not really competent to run what effectively is (or should be) an international business. There have been attempts to bring suitable expertise into the game, but the players - who ultimately have the final say on what happens - don't seem to trust anyone other than another player / ex-player / manager etc. to be in charge. The players seem to mistrust anyone who appears motivated by anything other than a love of the game. Understandable perhaps, but I have always thought naive. Shame. :frown:
 
Matchroom & BH will figure this all out I am sure. To this point they have not really needed to but I believe that matchroom Sports stand to lose alot of $$ is the Snooker biz goes down and they have alot of power and influence to make it right. BH is my idol and has done a great job. JMO
 
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Seeing the companies that are interested in backing billiard sports, I propose the heads of the different billiard organazations go after these sponsors:

The Hookers and Street Walkers of America.
Illegal Alien Runners Inc.
Up Your Nose Co. in Columbia
The Enron board.
Porn -R- Us

Since no-one seems to be able to get a sponsor out of the gambling/liquor/smoking circle, might as well go all out after the money.
 
I can hear Barry Hearn licking his lips ;)

Don't forget, the government put them in this sh1t by banning their major sponsors. Of course, they were also poorly managed. The democratic association idea was ludicrous and failed miserably.

Colin
 
Snooker may not be popular in Britain as it used to be in the 80's but it is gaining huge popularity in Europe and the Far East especially in Chına. I think that the future of the game is very bright and all this happened due to Eurosport (European sport channel and its local affiliates in different countries).

Regards,

Timur
İstanbul,Turkey
 
BH to the rescue?

bfdlad said:
Matchroom & BH will figure this all out I am sure. To this point they have not really needed to but I believe that matchroom Sports stand to lose alot of $$ is the Snooker biz goes down and they have alot of power and influence to make it right. BH is my idol and has done a great job. JMO
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Barry Hearn is certainly a very able guy. However I would be surprised if he would be interested in getting involved with the pro snooker body again - he is a prime example of someone who could have done the game a lot of good if he had been given his head. But I suspect that that the board & voting players had difficulty seeing past his obvious personal ambition. :frown:
 
Hey Everyone :)

As someone who lives in the UK, I can say wholeheartedly that I'm not suprised because the British Gov't seems to be hell bent on making life nearly impossible for everyone here, but then again I agree that perhaps there was a little too much dependancy on tobacco/liquor sponsorship at the time, but then again no-one expected the Gov't to decide that they were going to ban tobacco advertising and sponsorship of sporting events from the tobbacco companies, and the Gov't were a bit quick on looking to get the law passed

The current economic problems is the major proplem, because of the Gov't, but this time it's because of the extortionate levels of tax here and including fuel tax, which is the major factor in the economical problems here :mad:

I would like to think that new sponsors will be found, but it's going to be much more difficult now :(

Willie
 
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TimurA said:
Snooker may not be popular in Britain as it used to be in the 80's but it is gaining huge popularity in Europe and the Far East especially in Chına. I think that the future of the game is very bright and all this happened due to Eurosport (European sport channel and its local affiliates in different countries).

Regards,

Timur
İstanbul,Turkey
Click to expand...

This may or may not be true, but pool is gaining in popularity worldwide by a much greater margin. Pool has become huge all across Asia, including China where you will see more pool tables than snooker tables. Even in Europe, I suspect you will find more pool tables in billiard rooms everywhere, except in Great Britain.
 
RIP,

Shame too, 888 or Tabacco $$$$ is big $$$ and thats what it takes to keep it going look at NASCAR ot F-1, it takes moster $$$ to produce such events and I have been told by people in the snooker biz that 888 saved the day, Wheres Quinton when we need him.


Jay last I heard pool rooms as in pool not snooker, but pool rooms are dropping like flies in the UK.
 
Fatboy said:
RIP,

Jay last I heard pool rooms as in pool not snooker, but pool rooms are dropping like flies in the UK.
Click to expand...

Like the US, the UK has seen inflated land prices over the last few years, and this will probably have been a contributory factor to snooker / pool halls closing (as owners sell to realize the assets).:mad:

However the long awaited correction in property prices has started, so hopefully that should reverse any trend in snooker / pool room closures. :rolleyes:
 
Fatboy said:
RIP,

Shame too, 888 or Tabacco $$$$ is big $$$ and thats what it takes to keep it going look at NASCAR ot F-1, it takes moster $$$ to produce such events and I have been told by people in the snooker biz that 888 saved the day, Wheres Quinton when we need him.


Jay last I heard pool rooms as in pool not snooker, but pool rooms are dropping like flies in the UK.
Click to expand...

without going into too much detail snooker is a boring game full of boring players with no personalties except ronnie mainly old people watch it on tv becuase they watched it 20 to 30 years ago when the game had lots of characters and no other competition on tv, and it was a different era/world back then

trust me snooker is dead in the water it will never recover, actually saying it will never recover is like saying they did recover from tabaco pulling out 4 years ago well they didnt. it has no money except for world championship the new sponsors dont put any real dough in except for 888 in world champs and they lost those 2 new sponsors anyways. they can keep running tournaments without sponsors it wont make much difference to prizemoney payouts because of bbc money, the only thing that will probably change is that now that 888 is gone is the world championship will end up having crap money like all the other tournaments

also the tour is full of miserable little turds at least the pool world has characters and is a fun game played everywhere it has a chance to grow into something. with pool games you have to think there is no thinking in snooker no tactics just pot or safety everything is obvious all you need to do is practise your ass off.

how can you promote and expand a game that is boring with no personality that is only played in uk with no money in it and a communist country like china.

it is also a myth how it is expanding it is not, sure we get old reruns on cable thru out the world it is just atime slot filler i mean hot dog eating contests are more prestigious than snooker. maybe in china they have sponsored 2 tournaments there but they have shit money and china has been spending huge money on everything. china tournaments are a joke ronnie has pulled out of it i pulled out of it and even when players go nearly all of us hated it but for the cameras we smiled and said great tournament nice country etc except when they catch ronnie off camera his casual attitude sums up the china experience for most players but they have to go because the ranking points are so valuable and you only get 6 or 7 ranking comps a year.

as for poolsnooker clubs closing its true the only places where really anyone plays snooker in any decent numbers is uk most clubs closed here in oz too, except ones that converted to night club/pool rooms.

another myth is the sponsored money of 888 and insurence companies give to snooker they give shit money maybe world title gets a little bit. but they get sponsors because they are asking for chicken feed the only reason snooker is still here and will be untill they cancel their contract is bbc tv they pay something like 5 mil pounds a year to telivise snooker once that goes and eventually it will snooker is history. if the bbc wants to play hard ball with world snooker and pay them less what is world snooker gonna say pay us more or we will go else where i dont think so

actually i did go into some details there still a bit of unresolved resentment i have :angry: lol
 
There are both snooker and pool rooms that are closing down because of the economy here, but on top of that, the utility bills are extortionately high because of the high fuel costs, which is because of the british Gov't's greed.

Everything in the UK is effected by the cost of fuel, and the greedy Bstrd Gov't here has got the fuel prices really high because of the amount of fuel tax that drivers pay, which is nearly 7x more than what you guys are paying in the US.

In the US, you guys are paying something like 7.52 british pence per litre of fuel, whereas in the UK we're paying is 50.35 british pence per litre, and that's not including the extra 2pence rise that is supposed to happen in October.

Plus on top of that, we have VAT (Value added Tax) and every single thing that a person buys/pays for either in a store or online.

The economy here is sinking faster than an elephant in quick sand, and I doubt that it'll get better anytime soon.

I agree with you though Chamillionaire about the snooker players, Ronnie is about the only one that has any character, the rest are all cardboard cut outs and the game does indeed need more characters as it did back in the 80's :)

It's because of the country's economy that I have actually seen 9ft tables being sold on evilbay for 100's instead of 1K+, purely because very few people have the money anymore to keep a table, let alone a pool room :mad:

Willie
 
Remember how fast the IPT died when internet gaming was made illegal in the US? thats how fast proffesional snooker could die, unless someone steps uip with $$$$. Who's gonna pay the guys to play? then when there is no proffesional format people dont see much of it and then there is little incentive or interest to play.

So now that Snooker is offically declaired dead, new business....
 
chamillionare said:
without going into too much detail snooker is a boring game full of boring players with no personalties except ronnie mainly old people watch it on tv becuase they watched it 20 to 30 years ago when the game had lots of characters and no other competition on tv, and it was a different era/world back then

trust me snooker is dead in the water it will never recover, actually saying it will never recover is like saying they did recover from tabaco pulling out 4 years ago well they didnt. it has no money except for world championship the new sponsors dont put any real dough in except for 888 in world champs and they lost those 2 new sponsors anyways. they can keep running tournaments without sponsors it wont make much difference to prizemoney payouts because of bbc money, the only thing that will probably change is that now that 888 is gone is the world championship will end up having crap money like all the other tournaments

also the tour is full of miserable little turds at least the pool world has characters and is a fun game played everywhere it has a chance to grow into something. with pool games you have to think there is no thinking in snooker no tactics just pot or safety everything is obvious all you need to do is practise your ass off.

how can you promote and expand a game that is boring with no personality that is only played in uk with no money in it and a communist country like china.

it is also a myth how it is expanding it is not, sure we get old reruns on cable thru out the world it is just atime slot filler i mean hot dog eating contests are more prestigious than snooker. maybe in china they have sponsored 2 tournaments there but they have shit money and china has been spending huge money on everything. china tournaments are a joke ronnie has pulled out of it i pulled out of it and even when players go nearly all of us hated it but for the cameras we smiled and said great tournament nice country etc except when they catch ronnie off camera his casual attitude sums up the china experience for most players but they have to go because the ranking points are so valuable and you only get 6 or 7 ranking comps a year.

as for poolsnooker clubs closing its true the only places where really anyone plays snooker in any decent numbers is uk most clubs closed here in oz too, except ones that converted to night club/pool rooms.

another myth is the sponsored money of 888 and insurence companies give to snooker they give shit money maybe world title gets a little bit. but they get sponsors because they are asking for chicken feed the only reason snooker is still here and will be untill they cancel their contract is bbc tv they pay something like 5 mil pounds a year to telivise snooker once that goes and eventually it will snooker is history. if the bbc wants to play hard ball with world snooker and pay them less what is world snooker gonna say pay us more or we will go else where i dont think so

actually i did go into some details there still a bit of unresolved resentment i have :angry: lol
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Nice post Mr. Hendry:p

I tend to agree with this. China is the last hope it seems to make snooker a really international game, and they've blown a lot of money chasing success in China for the last decade. The game is run by a government bureaucracy and the TV stations still don't follow business models as we see in western media, so I think it will be a long time before China could attract major sponsorships into the game., and if they ever do, they'll probably want to run their own events.

Pool, being truly International, and growing in popularity in clubs around the world probably has a better future, but there's still a long way to go before the game can have several full time professionals from a range of major countries.

Colin
 
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