Snooker Expanding

Scaramouche

Scaramouche

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
From Snooker Scene blog
http://snookerscene.blogspot.com/2011/05/three-year-deal-for-australian-open.html

The heavily trailed Australian Open has today been officially announced and will be held in Bendigo, Victoria.

This is great news. Even better news is that it is confirmed as an annual event until at least 2013.

In a letter to the players, Barry Hearn has stated that: “we are in discussion for many more events around the world so watch this space” and that “Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, India, Canada etc are all on the agenda.”

Hearn adds that: “I believe a £10m prize fund per season is achievable.”

http://prosnookerblog.com/2011/05/22/australian-goldfields-open-confirmed-for-2011/

puts prize money at $425,000, and ranking points the same as the German Masters and Welsh Open.

http://www.sportinglife.com/snooker...ooker/11/05/23/SNOOKER_Australia.html&BID=663

The Australian Goldfields appears to be a government creation to promote tourism:

http://www.southernthunderer.com.au...lian-snooker-goldfields-open-18-24-july-2011/

“The event will showcase our beautiful and historic Goldfields region through a global broadcast which will reach over 66 countries; including key tourism markets such as China and the United Kingdom.”

“The real potential of this event is the significant broadcast exposure which will reinforce Victoria’s position as a premier tourism destination.”

"securing sporting and cultural events of this high calibre provides significant economic and tourism benefits for the whole of Victoria."

Higgins, Murphy, Ding have committed to playing
Higgins won his first tournament, the Australian Masters, when he was 18.

http://www.imgworld.com/news/news/2011/may/australia-to-host-first-ever-world-ranking-snooker.aspx

"The Australian Goldfields Open will be broadcast live on Fox Sports. Fox Sports has provided coverage of several leading snooker events including Grand Prix Snooker, Premier League Snooker, Snooker Masters and the UK Championship."

So, will Fox Sports in the U.S. carry it? :p:D

Just to confuse the topic, Snooker Island seems to think that the name of the tournament is Goldfields Australian Open and is sponsored by Gold Fields, a big gold miner.

http://www.snookerisland.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2544

Didn't find anything on Gold Fields' web site, so I'm going with government boondoggle.
 
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It'd be fantastic to see pro snooker in canada again. Although pool should be able to overtake Snooker as a major sport due to it's accessibility, snooker has quite a business man at the helm in the form of Barry Hearn. This is what pool needs, someone who knows how to market the game and build a product.
 
Basically if we compared the billiard and snooker, we can easily conclude that snooker is expanding rapidly as compared to the billiard..
 
Snooker is on an upturn in Canada from what I can see. Place like Ontario and Montreal are strong as ever and places that use to have alot of players like Alberta ( http://albertasnooker.blogspot.com/ ) are now holding qualifiers for the Canadian Champs again, also Nova Scotia ( http://csns.ca/ ) is also getting a good turnout with over 30 + players on the rankings list, and it has been ten years since they had them turnouts. BC has a great amount of players ( http://www.snookerbc.com/ ) and with the ISBF World Under 21s being held in Montreal this summer (2011) that can be a big stage to showcase snooker in this Canada once again. Other plans by Canadasnooker.ca are to hold a $25,000+ prize money tournament open to and Amature players in the world.

Going to be nice to see great snooker in Canada and maybe the USA once again.
 
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