Thomson, Gary
05-10-2005, 06:13 PM
We all know there is a decline with snooker in General. You only have to look at the professional circuit to notice this but I still believe it could be really good once again.
I want to ask you all what you think of this idea, it would take a lot of work, a lot of communication and a lot of support.
You look at Tennis and Golf and you see events all over the place. People love watching these two sports and everywhere there are people playing them. Snooker has excellent viewing figures and also has lots of people playing the game.
I would like to see a system in place similar to Golf and Tennis. By this I am meaning that more and more events should count towards ranking points. Whatever events that World Snooker run should be known as the "Majors". I would like to see all sorts of countries hold events, many of which are already in place...tournaments like the "German Open" / "Scottish Open" / "French Open" / "Australian Open" .... I think you know what I mean, like one every week of the year. This gets events and world players to all sorts of tournaments. Sponsors in those countries would not be hard to find. Players would love this and more and more would take up the game knwoing there would be these events.
I am not saying that this would replace amateur snooker or pro snooker but it would give a proper 1 year calandar and everyone doing well in the "opens" would be on the rankings. Players doing well would qualify for the main stages of the majors and get even more ranking points. I am sure this would work as it has in tennis and golf. We have the viewers and snooker is a sport that is liked all over the world.
Players could pick and choose where and when they wanted to play. This would be the proper life of a snooker player ... not playing 5 events in 12 months as it is right now ....
I want to ask you all what you think of this idea, it would take a lot of work, a lot of communication and a lot of support.
You look at Tennis and Golf and you see events all over the place. People love watching these two sports and everywhere there are people playing them. Snooker has excellent viewing figures and also has lots of people playing the game.
I would like to see a system in place similar to Golf and Tennis. By this I am meaning that more and more events should count towards ranking points. Whatever events that World Snooker run should be known as the "Majors". I would like to see all sorts of countries hold events, many of which are already in place...tournaments like the "German Open" / "Scottish Open" / "French Open" / "Australian Open" .... I think you know what I mean, like one every week of the year. This gets events and world players to all sorts of tournaments. Sponsors in those countries would not be hard to find. Players would love this and more and more would take up the game knwoing there would be these events.
I am not saying that this would replace amateur snooker or pro snooker but it would give a proper 1 year calandar and everyone doing well in the "opens" would be on the rankings. Players doing well would qualify for the main stages of the majors and get even more ranking points. I am sure this would work as it has in tennis and golf. We have the viewers and snooker is a sport that is liked all over the world.
Players could pick and choose where and when they wanted to play. This would be the proper life of a snooker player ... not playing 5 events in 12 months as it is right now ....