SB and Shaun Murphy plan for semi-pro tours in Europe

Snookerbacker and Shaun Murphy have approached the WPBSA with plans for a European 'amateur' tour with £60,000 prize money (so really, semi pro rather than amateur) and an Junior Tour to run alongside it.

Details at http://www.snookerbacker.com/2016/05/23 ... -proposal/

Largely I like this, but an Asian (or Asia-Oceania) version to run alongside it would be good, otherwise we continue a Euro-centric bias (or at least, Europe plus China). Not that I'm expecting SB and Shaun to resolve that!

Pretty ace this. Good work Backer and Smurph!

roy142857 wrote:Snookerbacker and Shaun Murphy have approached the WPBSA with plans for a European 'amateur' tour with £60,000 prize money (so really, semi pro rather than amateur) and an Junior Tour to run alongside it.

Details at http://www.snookerbacker.com/2016/05/23 ... -proposal/

Largely I like this, but an Asian (or Asia-Oceania) version to run alongside it would be good, otherwise we continue a Euro-centric bias (or at least, Europe plus China). Not that I'm expecting SB and Shaun to resolve that!

yea But Roy what is the alternative sweet FA.


Barry Hearn wont be interested in the Amateur scene


if someone from China wants to propose a similar idea that's up to them

Certainly wouldn't want to hold it back just because nothing in Asia, more I'd hope if it worked someone in Asia would try to match it - but hoping NOT someone in China or you could end up like the 'Asian' PTCs that were only held in China. Someone from Singapore would be great, with most countries in the surrounding area having a fair amount of Snooker, and accessible from India/China/Australia (I'm just dreaming here of course!)

To say Barry Hearn is uninterested in the amateur side of the game isn't totally accurate. Its very difficult, if impossible for this to make any return on investment.

On the PDC darts circuit, you have a Challenge Tour and Development Tour (37 events between them) and Regional/National Tours for areas where they want the sport to grow. Probably around £500,000 of prize money between all of these events.

For me, even more so with the cessation of the European Tour/PTC events, there needs to be a second tier tour to cater for these players. I can't see why there can't be a Challenge Tour of around 6 events, played over a 3-day weekend, which would offer 8 tour cards for the next season (just like the PIOS events) and around £90,000 in prize money between them.

Whose responsibility is the amateur game though?

World Snooker?
IBSF?
Continental Federations?
National Governing Bodies?

Barry Hearn shouldn't shoulder it all in my opinion.

A much of these semi-pro players are an extremely arrogant poor little sods. A many of those we won´t be seeing anymore. Because, because, the deal was IF there were some updates considering the main tour then they would show up.. But there won´t be anymore, so that´s it, we have seen the last hoorah from those bas....

People are different, and that´s always cool. Those semi-pros have their own strong points. "A larger than life" character and a person Big Billy Werbeniuk had his owns, and they have their owns. So far no-one has been able to deny the truth. A scores of people doesn´t have the world´s greatest track record of deniying their antics would be something else than just taking a 100% philosophical approaches. They check where all of those things, dimensions and airborns landed, and then they decide to take their own laid-back philosophical approaches. I can´t prove a thing, but IN MY MIND it seems that they don´t have the world´s greatest track record of deniying the philosophical approaches. It is just something my instincts tells, and like I pointed out, I can´t prove a thing.

But let´s see if the "maximum man" himself shows up playing on these planned tournaments..