Million dollar prize fund for 2024 world pool championship

Now billiards fans are all geopolitical experts! (-:

There are almost 200 countries in the world. The Saudis are far from at the bottom. Do they meet all the standards of the West that Westerners think the rest of the world should live up to? Of course not, but they are slowly modernizing, and that is obvious to anyone paying attention. Saudi Arabia is much different now than it was 20 years ago. Just look at its budding relationship with ... Israel.

In any case, the Saudis hosting a pool tournament is not going to make me think more or less of the country. I'll just be watching the players play.

I won't be thinking, gee, the Saudis are really fine people and they have a fine government. I'll be thinking, is Gorst or Filler going to make that shot? Who's gonna win $200,000 smackeroos!

As for the money, the Saudis are going to throw money around. If it's good enough for the Premier League, it's good enough for pool in my book. Pro pool players play for peanuts and shouldn't have to. This goes a little way to rectifying it.

Can't wait to see it, too. The money in play makes the stakes higher than ever.

In any case, it's big world. Western institutions can't just ignore the rest of the world - and they don't - just because other countries don't meet our standards. Pool can't, either.

I think Matchroom should have a big event in China, too, even though I think China is much more threatening to the ways of the West.

Never been a fan of using sports to try to punish countries for their behavior. It only makes people of said countries resentful.

Let sports try to build bridges. Let politics draw the bridges up, if necessary (See: Russia).
 
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Biting the hand that feeds you is not a good idea.

Maybe the Saudi's could fly in a crowd of the folks from the event in Vietnam. They were well mannered, knowledgeable and all around totally enjoyable. No roosters, chickens or sweat laden humidity either..

Is the prize fund split evenly between pool and snooker??
 
Biting the hand that feeds you is not a good idea.

Maybe the Saudi's could fly in a crowd of the folks from the event in Vietnam. They were well mannered, knowledgeable and all around totally enjoyable. No roosters, chickens or sweat laden humidity either..

Is the prize fund split evenly between pool and snooker??

no, the 1 million is for pool
 
I seem to recall the prize money the Saudis put up for snooker was far, far more. As it should be, internationally, currently. Hopefully in the future, pool will start to close the gap
The snooker tournament prize fund is over 2M pounds. The distribution might be influenced by wanting it to not exceed the prize fund of the snooker World Championship. 2M pounds is 2.5M$

Part if the press release:

Then, in August (31st-September 7th) in Riyadh, the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters – spearheaded by the world's leading players – takes place and officially becomes the sport's 'fourth major''. Alongside the traditional Triple Crown events, a prize pot of over £2million will be at stake in what is the second richest event on the prestigious World Snooker Tour schedule in 2024.
 
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I see on the WPA FB page that they have also announced the event:

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I see on the WPA FB page that they have also announced the event:

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Saw that too and was surprised. Must be a thawing out between the WPA and Matchroom. Maybe it's time they realized they can work better together than in competing against each other. Or maybe the WPA just somehow wants it to look like they had something to do with this deal. As in "Get on the train or get left behind!"
 
Or maybe the WPA just somehow wants it to look like they had something to do with this deal.
The WPA has $50k of motivation regarding this deal, (5% sanctioning fee). I'm amazed if they don't start back peddling these days.
 
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Arent the world championships always a co-op between WPA and MR? In that it's licensed to MR in perpetuity or something of that nature, but world championships are the property of WPA? So even if they never work together on any events again, this one they still have to because of preexisting contracts.
 
Arent the world championships always a co-op between WPA and MR? In that it's licensed to MR in perpetuity or something of that nature, but world championships are the property of WPA? So even if they never work together on any events again, this one they still have to because of preexisting contracts.
In 1999 the WPA held a world championship. Matchroom held it's own version and continued to do so until the late noughties. The WPA retrospectively recognised both 1999 versions as official world championships - so there are two "official" world champions from 1999. It had no choice.

The WPA sees pool as being there for the WPA rather than the WPA being there for pool. Despite this, it finds a way to hang on. However, this time when the contract is up I think Matchroom will jetison the WPA. An organisation that adds nothing to what it is overseeing needs to go away as quietly and quickly as possible.
 
In 1999 the WPA held a world championship. Matchroom held it's own version and continued to do so until the late noughties. The WPA retrospectively recognised both 1999 versions as official world championships - so there are two "official" world champions from 1999. It had no choice.

The WPA sees pool as being there for the WPA rather than the WPA being there for pool. Despite this, it finds a way to hang on. However, this time when the contract is up I think Matchroom will jetison the WPA. An organisation that adds nothing to what it is overseeing needs to go away as quietly and quickly as possible.
POM material. couldn't agree more.
 
The snooker tournament prize fund is over 2M pounds. The distribution might be influenced by wanting it to not exceed the prize fund of the snooker World Championship. 2M pounds is 2.5M$

Part if the press release:

Then, in August (31st-September 7th) in Riyadh, the inaugural Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters – spearheaded by the world's leading players – takes place and officially becomes the sport's 'fourth major''. Alongside the traditional Triple Crown events, a prize pot of over £2million will be at stake in what is the second richest event on the prestigious World Snooker Tour schedule in 2024.
I hate calling something a major before it’s ever actually run. Wasn't the international championships supposed to be the “fourth major” at one point? And the Grand Prix before that?
 
The WPA has $50k of motivation regarding this deal, (5% sanctioning fee). I'm amazed if they don't start back peddling these days.
I don't think anyone here knows what was in the Matchroom/WPA WPC contract related to fees. If I had to guess, I would guess that Matchroom got in a clause that specified a fixed fee or maybe even none at all depending on the viewership. Not their first rodeo, as we have seen.
 
I don't think anyone here knows what was in the Matchroom/WPA WPC contract related to fees. If I had to guess, I would guess that Matchroom got in a clause that specified a fixed fee or maybe even none at all depending on the viewership. Not their first rodeo, as we have seen.
I'd be next in line to bet that the WPA 5% sanctioning free roll they once had with MR has/will be negotiated to some lesser figure.
 
I hate calling something a major before it’s ever actually run. Wasn't the international championships supposed to be the “fourth major” at one point? And the Grand Prix before that?

Yes, basically whatever was shown on the BBC was defined as a major, so when they stopped showing the Grand Prix it quietly lost that status (although of course it was never 'official' as such anyway).

There are plenty of contenders, I would argue the Tour Championship is a good one too and the Champion of Champions, but I suspect too much marketing has gone into the idea of the triple crown for that to change now. Then again, who knows, money talks after all!
 
The WPA president during one of the podcasts said they don't need the fee from MR, as their budget is already covered for the year and they are doing ok financially. He was selling it pretty hard to get MR to join with him, and was fine waving the fees.
 
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