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Re: O'Sullivan pulls out of British Open; no reason given.

Postby Wildey

Iranu wrote:
lhpirnie wrote:It may be true that ITV only confirmed after the format was announced, but there will have been discussions behind the scenes long before that. Most likely WST were hoping for the ITV deal, produced a format that they would accept, and let the negotiations play out.

I don’t think ITV waited until the format was announced, did they? And yeah WST may have devised the format with ITV in mind but we can hardly lay the blame at ITV’s door for that.

Hendon also said, which I didn’t realise, the format never was actually announced. Tickets were released and the format was shown as part of the buying process.

Personally, I think the most likely thing is that WST had this tournament format in mind for a while and wanted to do it, and ‘pasted’ a British Open revival announcement on top of it to give it credibility. It probably also helped persuade ITV to show it because they’ve shown the British Open in the past. As well as hopefully persuading top players to play in an August tournament with a short format.


but why?

I Dont see calling this the British Open giving this credibility.

How is that going to attract new fans if they haven't a foggiest about Snooker to date and the History of the British Open

and calling rubbish gold doesn't make it any less stinky.

Re: O'Sullivan pulls out of British Open; no reason given.

Postby Iranu

Wildey wrote:but why?

I Dont see calling this the British Open giving this credibility.

How is that going to attract new fans if they haven't a foggiest about Snooker to date and the History of the British Open

and calling rubbish gold doesn't make it any less stinky.

If you can’t recognise the response online etc to bringing back the British Open I’m not really sure what to tell you?

I’m not saying this will give the British Open credibility, I’m saying that in their minds calling it the “British Open” gives the format some credibility. I don’t think it’s to attract new fans but to appease existing ones.

First (proper) tournament of the season, the middle of summer, rubbish format - calling it the British Open makes people more likely to turn it on than they would for the Riga Masters for example.

I guarantee you if they said rubbish was as valuable as gold people would be scooping it up left, right and centre - regardless of stink.

Re: O'Sullivan pulls out of British Open; no reason given.

Postby lhpirnie

Iranu wrote:I’m not saying this will give the British Open credibility, I’m saying that in their minds calling it the “British Open” gives the format some credibility. I don’t think it’s to attract new fans but to appease existing ones.

Yes, everything in snooker is done just to appease existing fans. The name 'British Open' is just used to try to tie in with something historical, and snooker fans tend to be so obsessed with history. Next we'll be getting 'World Matchplay', with a cardboard cut-out of Eddie Charlton presenting the winner!


I think too often snooker fans are duped by this. It's just a tournament.

Last weekend there was a pro-am in Sheffield. The professionals were giving 21. Yuan Sijun beat Noppon Saengkham in the final. All matches were best-of-7. But now we have best-of-5's for professional tournaments. The 'British Open' retrospectives are just a diversion from this worrying trend.