Snooker Looks for New Ways to Regain Its Popularity

[9BallPaul]

I know we have a snooker forum on AZ, but this has implications for our sport as well. For those who might be interested, Saramouche has posted videos of some 100 hours of BBC production on the snooker board.

This is from today's NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/sports/othersports/05snooker.html?_r=1&ref=sports

 

[JAM]

Wow, pretty sweet. John Higgins won $376,000 for first place. And check out that audience. It's full to the brim. Snooker is definitely alive and well.

Thanks for sharing the article. I can't get over how GREEN the cloth is on the snooker tables!

I found these observations interesting: Players like O’Sullivan and Higgins have suggested doing away with the stuffy conventions of bow ties, waistcoats and matches played over the course of four sessions on two days — much the way cricket did by inventing the shorter, more casual Twenty20 format. The older generation, however, says that few areas can be changed without changing the spirit of the game.

BTW, is John Higgins related to the legendary snooker player Alex Higgins who is about 60 years of age now (depicted below)? God, I love his hat!

 

[chamillionare]

snooker since the 70's had the bbc financially back it along with tobacco companies, now that tobacco is gone it is the bbc money that keeps the world 1st prize money at were it had been for years. and the tour up and running but most other tournaments have had drastic reductions over the last 4 years. even the china open with a suppossed audience of 100 million people only paid around $60,000 for the winner.

that is why most pro's are speaking out because the money has dropped so much since tobacco left, and the association has been unable to replace it or get the money back to anywhere near where it was.

world snooker has been going on about a change of image for 4 years now nothing has changed except more players get quirky haircuts and they do some photoshoots of them in suits. the money has not gone back up and that is what values a sport/game how many people can make a proper career out of it and snooker you definatly cant if your outside the top 8. and even at 8 its not really a good living just similar to any other qualification type job but without the long term security

im sure if both snooker and pool started from fresh now pool would easily find more sponsors and be the more popular, but snooker has had a massive headstart and even if snooker found huge sponsors and got the money back up. i dont see how it really would have any comparisions to pool as pool has no real tv history or following and snooker does, so they are 2 completely different investment vehicles personally i dont think they will ever get the money back up.

i think there best opportunity would be to model some tournaments in the uk the same as darts sell alcohol alot of it to get the party atmosphere like darts, its bullshit that pro's cant play with noise you adapt when you realise that you have to. let the crowd make as much noise as possible not when down on shot but in between have betting shops on site too encouraging betting and crowd involvment like darts. apart from worlds and semis most other comps stands are usually pretty empty

nearly all the players are boring most are kids that have no personality havent done anything except leave school and live at local quit snooker club, public aint dumb it takes more than a quirky haircut to make them cool and change the image but get a crowd of piss heads like at the darts and maybe some of them sticks might fall out of their arses and they could develop a personality.

its a hard sell but if it worked for darts it could work for snooker same country same target audience and similar game

 

[chamillionare]

Wow, pretty sweet. John Higgins won $376,000 for first place. And check out that audience. It's full to the brim. Snooker is definitely alive and well.

Thanks for sharing the article. I can't get over how GREEN the cloth is on the snooker tables!

I found these observations interesting: Players like O’Sullivan and Higgins have suggested doing away with the stuffy conventions of bow ties, waistcoats and matches played over the course of four sessions on two days — much the way cricket did by inventing the shorter, more casual Twenty20 format. The older generation, however, says that few areas can be changed without changing the spirit of the game.

BTW, is John Higgins related to the legendary snooker player Alex Higgins who is about 60 years of age now (depicted below)? God, I love his hat!

no relation john higgins is human lol

 

[JAM]

...nearly all the players are boring most are kids that have no personality havent done anything except leave school and live at local quit snooker club, public aint dumb it takes more than a quirky haircut to make them cool and change the image but get a crowd of piss heads like at the darts and maybe some of them sticks might fall out of their arses and they could develop a personality.

its a hard sell but if it worked for darts it could work for snooker same country same target audience and similar game

Great read. Thanks for sharing your insights. I think you're exactly right on many points too. WOW!

Even though snooker may be dropping in popularity due to corporate sponsorship, it's still way ahead of pool, at least how I see it from my corner of the world.

"Quirky haircuts"! LOL! :grin-square:

Another pic of John Higgins below, sporting his quirky haircut! :wink:

 

[Blackjack]

nearly all the players are boring most are kids that have no personality havent done anything except leave school and live at local quit snooker club, public aint dumb it takes more than a quirky haircut to make them cool and change the image but get a crowd of piss heads like at the darts and maybe some of them sticks might fall out of their arses and they could develop a personality.

Personalities?

I think what snooker needs is Quintin Hann.

Since he's been gone, its been all down hill.

JMO.

 

[JAM]

no relation john higgins is human lol

LOL! :grin:

Check out a younger Alex Higgins. He was a cutie pie. He's hitting 60 today. I still think he's easy on the eyes. I would love to meet him!

 

[chamillionare]

Personalities?

I think what snooker needs is Quintin Hann.

Since he's been gone, its been all down hill.

JMO.

they definatly dont need me lol

people like winners no matter if there drop kicks dumb boring or whatever i wasnt a winner but i added a little spice or excitiment. if i won tournaments it would of been a different story as there are many opportunites over there outside of the game, but no one is capable except ronnie you need to have credability to open alot of those doors and generally that only comes with titles under your belt and personality.

which ronnie has like him or not he is very interesting and is basically the only cool thing about the game these days,but he doesnt really like the spotlight from what i saw and he definalty doesnt need the money for all the hassles he gets with media attention

if you had 5 or 6 characters in the top 32 and 2 or 3 winners people might look at the game differently like it was ok. most people think it a dorky game over there played by nerds. would you want to sponsor a sport full of dorks and thats how majority of young people view it?

 

[chamillionare]

even that pic of higgins you can tell he is a character like nearly all of the pros from back in the 70's and 80's they built the game up, and the game lived off that rep for 10 or so years stagnating and now has been declining for close to 10 without the association really doing anything about it.