Snooker Players Given Hearn-ing Potential
by Neil Tomkins
As promised, Barry Hearn has delivered to his playing members, his vision for the future of snooker.
Is the Future Bright? Well, Barry certainly thinks so, subject to one or two conditions. And I would have to agree.
Before looking too closely at the contents of his proposal, the openness and willingness to communicate with members must surely be looked on as a positive.
A quick glance through the document and you notice a comprehensive Calendar of Events running from post World Championship, May 2010 through to the 2011 Blue Ribbon event in Sheffield. Snooker fans will know that this is a first for the sport.
OK so the old favourite venue, TBC, is being used but you genuinely get the impression that this is a very temporary measure and it won’t be long before those small gaps are filled.
Hearn’s 15-pager provides a clear and concise ‘where we are, where we want to be and how we are going to get there’ message, starting with pointing the finger of the blame at the players themselves for the first part.
Going into a little more detail and it becomes clear that as promised, the crown jewels, The World Championship, The Masters and the UK Championship will remain untouched.
The most significant changes come in the form of the creation of £540,000 Player Tour Championship (PTC), with 12 events being held in the UK and across Europe, born largely out of the World Series of Snooker and Paul Hunter Classic.
The PTC will culminate in a season-ending 24-man Players' Championship, with £200,000 prize money on offer.
“We must not sponsor mediocrity – we should reward excellence”
On the rankings front, Hearn is adamant that mediocrity has been rewarded for too long, and that a more fluid ranking system, where players who achieve and contribute most to the game are rewarded the most.
“We are a professional sport but ability must be the only criteria for success”.
Snooker is a professional sport and therefore the only measure should be of ability. If you are the best then you will be number one.
The argument against having too few tournaments to accurately reflect this, is being removed with the staging of increased tournaments.
One major flaw that I can see in the proposal from a playing point of view is the relegation of the bottom 32-players (33% of those on tour). The figure itself could be forgiven but the method of replacing these players does not seem to fit the ethos of rewarding excellence.
There are places allocated to each of the English, Irish (Northern & Republic) Scottish and Welsh associations. Asia gets three places and Europe a further two.
It would have seemed more logical to allocate all of these places into the Q School making a total of 22 places available. If the pro game wanted to feed the amateur associations then perhaps there could be ‘free’ Q School places up for grabs.
The IBSF World Champion gets a place, and rightly so. Whether his Under-21 counterpart is entitled can also be questioned.
Basically, through allocating places ‘on tour’ from a restricted source considers things like nationality and age. These factors are nothing to do with ability, which results in the sponsorship of mediocrity.
Hearn goes onto make recommendations on the commercial structure, the formation of a Players' Union, and the role of the governing body, all of which makes perfect sense.
He reviews the Sheffield Academy and its role in the future of the game, which will see it become a hive of competition activity, that will surely make players consider a permanent move to South Yorkshire or at least the purchase of a holiday home.
For years, I have listened to the players whingeing about wanting more tournaments and more money, well Hearn’s proposal answers both of these demands.
Overall, I think that the proposal is good and has a number of areas of interest, which will grab the attention of the fans, which in turn will make broadcasters and sponsors sit up, take notice and start to value snooker once again.
Snooker has for so long had too much romance and history influencing major decisions. Professional sport needs to be constantly moving with the times. Just because a player was once great, does not mean that they have to be at the top forever. If this was the case Borg and McEnroe would still adorn the Centre Court at SW19.
It is time to move on, and the focus of attention now shifts to D-ecision Day on May 5th, when the members will get to vote at a meeting in Sheffield.
