professional tour

C

champ2107

Banned
wow! i did not know snooker was this organized.

Former world number two Tony Knowles believes he can still succeed on the professional tour after entering World Snooker's Q School.

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The 56-year-old will join more than 100 other players at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield in May, from which 12 players will be given places on the tour.
The four semi-finalists from each of three tournaments will be handed a place on the pro circuit for the next two seasons.
Knowles, who shot to fame in 1982 when he beat Steve Davis 10-1 in the first round of the World Championship and went on to win two ranking events in his 1980s prime, said: "The circuit is going in the right direction and the game is going world-wide. This is a great opportunity, especially with the two year tour card on offer.
"I know there are a lot of very good young players now but maybe I can still teach them a few tricks. Steve Davis and Jimmy White are still going strong on the main tour so I decided to give it a go."
Knowles, who owns a bar in Cumbria, insists that he is far better prepared for Q School this season than he was this time last year.
He said: "I played in Q School last year but I didn’t give myself enough time to practise because I had a lot of other work going on.
"That work is nearly finished now so I will have a lot more time to devote to playing snooker. I want to do it as a way of relaxing more than anything, but I want to give myself the chance to play in professional events."
Eurosport
 
Did you see what the total prize money was for the World Snooker Championship? £1,152,500. Where does the money come from?
 
Shouldn't

this be in the Snooker sub-forum? I don't give a hoot about Snooker.
 
spatlese44 said:
Did you see what the total prize money was for the World Snooker Championship? £1,152,500. Where does the money come from?
Click to expand...

Through the year, prize money comes from:
British bookies
China
Tourism boards
BBC
Eurosport
SkySport

World Snooker has live webcast of tournaments available by the month or for a yearly subscription.

Snooker has:
Organization
Standard rules
Drama
Suspense
Ranking system
World market
Literate, knowledgeable commentators
 
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Snapshot9 said:
this be in the Snooker sub-forum? I don't give a hoot about Snooker.
Click to expand...

No, because I think the OP is directly relating it to pool and trying to understand why if snooker can do stuff like this then why can't pool, a very closerly related cue sport quite similar in style and potential presentation and organization.

The answer is a simple, yes pool "could" be orgnaized different and I do believe it has huge potential to grow into a single highly successful world tour with a associated "Q school" used for obtaining professional status. The "Q-School" already has in place the perfect groundwork, the national league tournmanents and already in place divisions. In effect the "grand masters" would become the "Q-School" and would be played on professional standard tables in a roped off area of the main room with bleachers there for people to watch.

Money initially for pro pool would need to partially come from the BCAPL players, who in turn would be sanctioned to play their way up to the grand masters and obtain their tour cards, which would give them free entry into each and every pro event for 2 years or as long as they can keep their ranking high enough.

Over time as the tour is "actually" marketed, gains in popularity as they are playing 8-ball which is the ONLY game the general public understand, but on 4 1/8th inch pocket 10-foot tables which would give the sense of tremendous difficulty that snooker has and which causes alot of the interest and which also allows the truly best players to dominate and creates legends such as Ronnie, Davis, Hendry. It is guys like that who dominate that build followings in sport, people like to watch the champions and dominant players conitinue to dominate, it is one of the largest flaws of current pool that noone can dominate and winning matches between top 20 players seems so random.

Sponsorship comes from viewership, they are tied at the hip and an increase in one creates an increase in the other, if you cannot get fans to watch a game you will not get sponsors. Rotational pool has been played at the pro level for DECADES and almost NONE of the general public understand it, relate to it, or play it AT ALL. For decades the pros have played 9-ball and now 10-ball and the general public in that ENTIRE time have played 8-ball, that is what they know, that is what they like, that is what they understand, and THAT is what they would potentially watch if the pros played that game. They have shown the pool promotors for DECADES that they will NOT watch rotational pool and still every single resource this game has is pumped into producing rotation pool events that do NOTHING to further this sport. 8-ball is the future of this sport or else this sport has no future at all, it is THAT simple and the longer we waste time staying in rotation pool the longer we waste the potential of this sport and the potential careers of the current crop of pros might have on an actual successful tour.
 
Celtic said:
Ronnie, Davis, Hendry. It is guys like that who dominate that build followings in sport, people like to watch the champions and dominant players conitinue to dominate, it is one of the largest flaws of current pool that noone can dominate and winning matches between top 20 players seems so random.
Click to expand...

Us Brits don't like winners, choosing instead to support the plucky underdog. Ronnie is popular, obviously, but Hendry & Davis were hated over here with a passion when they were winning everything.

You make an excellent point about no one player dominating pool, with no one to love or despise. Partisanship is a key element of sport.
 
TheThaiger said:
Us Brits don't like winners, choosing instead to support the plucky underdog. Ronnie is popular, obviously, but Hendry & Davis were hated over here with a passion when they were winning everything.

You make an excellent point about no one player dominating pool, with no one to love or despise. Partisanship is a key element of sport.
Click to expand...

Exactly, even if you have a champ you love to hate and want to root against that is good for the sport and viewership as well. But it does not work when noone stands out from the pack. You need that top dog, and you need those other 2 or 3 players that are just a step behind or former top dogs. They all create interesting dynamics. Much like where Phil and Tiger now stand in golf compared to the new young world #1's popping up, people are interested to see how things play out between the former champs and those new guys who have recently rose to the top.

Pool lacks that type of dynamic completely and I am not sure alot of people grasp how much lacking that has damaged the viewership and fan interest in this sport.
 
Celtic said:
Exactly, even if you have a champ you love to hate and want to root against that is good for the sport and viewership as well. But it does not work when noone stands out from the pack. You need that top dog, and you need those other 2 or 3 players that are just a step behind or former top dogs. They all create interesting dynamics. Much like where Phil and Tiger now stand in golf compared to the new young world #1's popping up, people are interested to see how things play out between the former champs and those new guys who have recently rose to the top.

Pool lacks that type of dynamic completely and I am not sure alot of people grasp how much lacking that has damaged the viewership and fan interest in this sport.
Click to expand...

It's not something I'd thought about, but you're right.

On a wider point, the players themselves must take some responsibility for this - they don't seem particularly willing to step into the ring to test each other, for instance. Earl aside, they don't seem to have much personality, either. I realise it's their livelihood, but I'd like to see someone with some balls do SOMETHING for the game. It's a fine line between showmanship and WWE farce, but the players are all too anonymous for my liking.
 
Snooker has had the same sort of history that pool is experiencing. But it was a weekly TV show that revived the game and increased popularity.

In the past two years, Barry Hearn, promoter, has headed World Snooker and greatly expanded the number of tournaments and added venues around the world.

To quote the ever reliable web: :D
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snooker

The game went into a decline through the 1950s and 1960s with little interest generated outside of those who played.

A major advance occurred in 1969, when David Attenborough commissioned the snooker tournament Pot Black to demonstrate the potential of colour television, with the green table and multi-coloured balls being ideal for showing off the advantages of colour broadcasting. The TV series became a ratings success and was for a time the second most popular show on BBC Two. Interest in the game increased and the 1978 World Championship was the first to be fully televised. The game quickly became a mainstream sport in the UK, Ireland and much of the Commonwealth and has enjoyed much success in the last 30 years, with most of the ranking tournaments being televised. In 1985 a total of 18.5 million viewers watched the concluding frame of the world championship final between Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis. In recent years the loss of tobacco sponsorship has led to a decrease in the number of professional tournaments, although some new sponsors have been sourced; and the popularity of the game in the Far East and China, with emerging talents such as Liang Wenbo and more established players such as Ding Junhui and Marco Fu, bodes well for the future of the sport in that part of the world
 
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