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Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby paperbackwriter

case_master wrote:I meant a players playing style which can have serious consequences for that individual. I just think Ronnie has said worse things, no doubt this was in very bad taste.....but maybe blew up by a slow news day.

Other players know Ronnie, would be pathetic if they couldn't deal with it. And there's a great chance that a random person reading what O'Sullivan said isn't so well aware of the situation.
I guess it's a vicious circle though, if Ronnie acted differently, he wouldn't be so recognizable and wouldn't be useful in promoting snooker (maybe someone should investigate whether he drew or discouraged more people...). And I'm not saying it makes it any better for me, I can hardly remember Ronnie's statement that turned me off more. I just think in wider perspective it won't matter and it also doesn't say anything new about him.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Sickpotter

I don't think ROS became well known for his poor interviews/antics, his talent and playing style is what makes him well known and a marketing asset. When it comes to interviews or promoting the sport he's a marketing liability.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Noel

wildJONESEYE wrote:just because its talked about doesn't make it positive.


Mate... I see things a little differently from here.
There is no coverage of snooker at all. None. Zero. Nada. Zilch.
On TV. In print. Nothing. There are almost no clubs. Few if any leagues. No organization for development.

Anything would be appreciated.

I bet you Hearn and others see that as a possible future for snooker in the UK unless something is done now.
Getting people just to think "Snooker" is a step in the right direction...
[ they can wipe Ronnie's comments off their shoes later ] .


=o|

Noel

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby SnookerFan

Remember last year, after The Masters, Ronnie called for Simon Cowell to come in and clean the sport up, because he was bored of it? My mate and I were in the pub and he told me snooker was boring, and he now had confirmation, "because Ronnie admitted it himself." The fans that rushed to his defence saying that he was just trying to say what was best for the sport, may have had the point, but Ronnie's words still convinced people that didn't know his personality that snooker wasn't very good. My mate wouldn't listen to any explanation that night, because the biggest and most famous name in the sport, had in his eyes slagged off the sport he played. How could he like it, he reasoned, if the biggest name in the sport didn't like it. And what Ronnie has said this time is worse.

Alright, a free thinking person isn't going to look at the paper and go; "Oh look, this bloke is saying snooker is crap, so it must be." But there's a hell of a lot of people out there who have been fed an image of snooker as a boring game. That image is not being helped by somebody of Ronnie's confirming it. He aint some bloke from down the pub, he's somebody who is the sport's most iconic figure. People assume he knows what he's talking about. Us followers of the game know he tourists off the game every other week, and has spent nearly 20 years saying it's boring. And he's proved this by never retiring or walking away from the game. Of course he doesn't mean it, everybody on this forum knows that.

On a day when Barry Hearn meant to get a positive message across, more people are talking about Ronnie acting like a tit, then are talking about his new tournament. Saying that, this may be a good thing. Power Snooker does sounds rubbish.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Wildey

Snookerfan

Lets get one thing straight mate Power Snooker has sod all to do directly with Barry Hearn or World Snooker.....World Snooker site hasn't mentioned anything about it.

its being sanctioned by Barry Hearn to show support for indipendants they never had from Rod Walker

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Monique

@snookerfan ... your mate only jumped on something that supported his opinion. It's not that it changed his mind in any way. It was just a pretext to poke at you. BTW Ronnie also said he loves the games, always will ... listen at that BBC interview. But the media chose to focus on the "WC is boring" without context. That's how it is, always will be. Either people only utter conventional platitudes or inevitably they hurt the feelings of some. Even someone as able and politically aware as Steve Davis does... think Moondan ;)

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Wildey

SnookerFan wrote:Somebody has asked me if I want to go to this now.

its not my thing but its snooker and if i had the opertunity i would go but i would use it to promote the grown up game....

ive not seen what its about but ive read what its about and i think you been once no point going again i just know it would bore me because theres no depth to it.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby SnookerFan

wildJONESEYE wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:Somebody has asked me if I want to go to this now.

its not my thing but its snooker and if i had the opertunity i would go but i would use it to promote the grown up game....

ive not seen what its about but ive read what its about and i think you been once no point going again i just know it would bore me because theres no depth to it.


It does sound a bit rubbish.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Roland

I actually like the idea of Power Snooker as a concept, although to make it a proper game they need to get rid of the time constraints. That's where I have a problem with it. Powerball, smash the pack off the break, all that jazz but pot the powerball and you get double points for the next 5 shots or something, not based on a clock.

But I'll be watching it, I love snooker and I love watching the top players so I'll give it a chance, and if I decide to go I'll join in the atmosphere and have a few drinks because that's the idea isn't it? To get the crowd involved.


My final say on Ronnie's comments:

I'm the same age as Ronnie - and John Higgins and Mark Williams for that matter - so I'm from the same generation, I grew up watching the same things as they did. At the age we are now, we should all know how the press take comments and use them. When you're young you still have things to learn, but Ronnie should have known how his comments would be reported, and they were direct quotes so there's no taking his words out of context going on. I'm very disappointed with him. He's a hero of mine, he's the best snooker player of my generation and I've had hours and hours of pleasure watching him play snooker because he's the best there's ever been in my opinion. And I know he's intelligent - you can't be as good at snooker as he is without being very intelligent, it goes without saying because snooker is a mental sport.

So when you're in a press conference with Barry Hearn, and you've got people from all newspapers there reporting, and you're promoting a new take on snooker which has tv time and it suits your game then fair play, you go there and promote it and you show enthusiasm. But to refer to it as the future of snooker is clearly bullocks because it isn't! How could it be? How can the kids play it at their local club - with stopwatches and countdowns? How does that work? We all know what kids are like:

"3, 2, 1... you're out of time, that's 20 points to me"
"No I'm not, you put me off, that wasn't 20 seconds"

etc etc

And then to say what he said about our blue ribband event, that it's boring... talk about how to alienate the entire fanbase of the sport that you supposedly love and has given you the life you lead.

I can understand and sympathise that he has demons and that his sentiments reflect the fact he is a restless personality with a short attention span, but really, saying things like that - how does he think it will come across? He was there to promote an event that suits his game, he will thrive in the "Power Snooker" atmosphere. But by saying what he's said he's kicked himself in the foot because instead of everyone talking about this "new exciting format" all that's happened is everyone is talking about the best snooker player of his generation thinking his sport is "boring" and that it's stuck in the 1970's.

If he really feels that way then why didn't he switch to pool years ago? That seems to be the game for him. It's quick and games are over in a flash - perfect!

I'm very disappointed to put it mildly.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Tubberlad

Ronnie O'Sullivan is the best player I have ever seen. I was too young to see Hendry in his prime, and rate him as the best ever on the back of his consistency, commitment, records and bottle. I've watched him on YouTube, and I think he's magnificent, a player of true excellence. However... he's boring. I don't care what anyone says. I can appreciate and respect how good he is, but he made it look a little dull for all his attacking intent.

O'Sullivan is a man I would watch anytime of any year. He is a genius on the table. He's the only player bar Matthew Stevens with the ability to make me cancel a big night out. When I watch him, it's joyful snooker. Besides Stevens, he's my favourite, as he's brightened up many the miserable day for me, he's that good. O'Sullivan at his peak is MILES beyond what ANYONE, including Stephen Hendry, has done. If I were to name the top ten performances of all time, I reckon O'Sullivan would be involved in, at the very least, nine. UK Final 93, Masters 96 v Bond, 2001 Worlds all through, 2001 v Doherty UK, 2004 World semi-final, 2005 Masters final, 2006 NIT semi-final v Dale, 2007 Masters final, 2008 World semi-final... epic stuff.

But every silver lining has it's cloud. When I listen to him, it's such a climbdown. I know he's got his own mental problems, and I can totally respect that, but sometimes it just goes too far. He's a genius on one hand, an idiot on the other. For every great O'Sullivan moment, there's one when you just want to strangle him. Has he brought the game into disrepute in the past? You bet he has.

I get snake hissed off when I hear him slagging the crown jewel of the snooker tour, but I'm not surprised. He's been foolish again. But at the end of the day, he has done much worse, others have done much worse also. I don't think this was a good message to send out, but at the end of the day: the World Championship is not going to be touched. Any fans brought in by the Powerball initiative will have a look. And if they they can truly respect the game, they'll love it, as we all do. Test cricket remains the peak of Cricket, and even brain dead twenty20 followers know that, and respect that, whether they watch or not. Same applies for snooker.

These comments won't last candlelight in the memories of those who's attention spans are low enough to have them reading a tabloid anyway.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby JohnFromLondonTown

SnookerFan wrote:Remember last year, after The Masters, Ronnie called for Simon Cowell to come in and clean the sport up, because he was bored of it? My mate and I were in the pub and he told me snooker was boring, and he now had confirmation, "because Ronnie admitted it himself." The fans that rushed to his defence saying that he was just trying to say what was best for the sport, may have had the point, but Ronnie's words still convinced people that didn't know his personality that snooker wasn't very good. My mate wouldn't listen to any explanation that night, because the biggest and most famous name in the sport, had in his eyes slagged off the sport he played. How could he like it, he reasoned, if the biggest name in the sport didn't like it. And what Ronnie has said this time is worse.

Alright, a free thinking person isn't going to look at the paper and go; "Oh look, this bloke is saying snooker is crap, so it must be." But there's a hell of a lot of people out there who have been fed an image of snooker as a boring game. That image is not being helped by somebody of Ronnie's confirming it. He aint some bloke from down the pub, he's somebody who is the sport's most iconic figure. People assume he knows what he's talking about. Us followers of the game know he tourists off the game every other week, and has spent nearly 20 years saying it's boring. And he's proved this by never retiring or walking away from the game. Of course he doesn't mean it, everybody on this forum knows that.

On a day when Barry Hearn meant to get a positive message across, more people are talking about Ronnie acting like a tit, then are talking about his new tournament. Saying that, this may be a good thing. Power Snooker does sounds rubbish.

Does that make Tiger Woods a shagger or a Golfer, or both?

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby JohnFromLondonTown

Sonny wrote:I actually like the idea of Power Snooker as a concept, although to make it a proper game they need to get rid of the time constraints. That's where I have a problem with it. Powerball, smash the pack off the break, all that jazz but pot the powerball and you get double points for the next 5 shots or something, not based on a clock.

But I'll be watching it, I love snooker and I love watching the top players so I'll give it a chance, and if I decide to go I'll join in the atmosphere and have a few drinks because that's the idea isn't it? To get the crowd involved.


My final say on Ronnie's comments:

I'm the same age as Ronnie <laugh> - and John Higgins and Mark Williams for that matter - so I'm from the same generation, I grew up watching the same things as they did.

Your totally different people. Learn not to stand behind people & you'll grow uo quicker. Same said for all of us by the way.

At the age we are now, we should all know how the press take comments and use them. When you're young you still have things to learn, but Ronnie should have known how his comments would be reported, and they were direct quotes so there's no taking his words out of context going on. I'm very disappointed with him. He's a hero of mine, he's the best snooker player of my generation and I've had hours and hours of pleasure watching him play snooker because he's the best there's ever been in my opinion. And I know he's intelligent - you can't be as good at snooker as he is without being very intelligent, it goes without saying because snooker is a mental sport.

So when you're in a press conference with Barry Hearn, and you've got people from all newspapers there reporting, and you're promoting a new take on snooker which has tv time and it suits your game then fair play, you go there and promote it and you show enthusiasm. But to refer to it as the future of snooker is clearly bullocks because it isn't! How could it be? How can the kids play it at their local club - with stopwatches and countdowns? How does that work? We all know what kids are like:

"3, 2, 1... you're out of time, that's 20 points to me"
"No I'm not, you put me off, that wasn't 20 seconds"

etc etc

And then to say what he said about our blue ribband event, that it's boring... talk about how to alienate the entire fanbase of the sport that you supposedly love and has given you the life you lead.

I can understand and sympathise that he has demons and that his sentiments reflect the fact he is a restless personality with a short attention span, but really, saying things like that - how does he think it will come across? He was there to promote an event that suits his game, he will thrive in the "Power Snooker" atmosphere. But by saying what he's said he's kicked himself in the foot because instead of everyone talking about this "new exciting format" all that's happened is everyone is talking about the best snooker player of his generation thinking his sport is "boring" and that it's stuck in the 1970's.

If he really feels that way then why didn't he switch to pool years ago? That seems to be the game for him. It's quick and games are over in a flash - perfect!

I'm very disappointed to put it mildly.


That's a long way of going about saying he's a jock.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Noel

Ronnie quits.
Resigns from WPBSA.
Quits SPA.


He gathers a group of 10 or 20 wealthy individuals around himself.
He proposes to to BBC, Eurosport, Sky, whoever that every Friday or Saturday night
he will challenge anyone on the planet to a Best of 5 for 100,000 pounds.
Higgins. Robertson, Selby, You, Me, someone.

What do you think the viewership for that would be?
Do you think Betfred or Ladbrokes would cover the pot?
Would the TV stations cover it?
Would you watch?
Would people in China watch?

Just wondering...


=o)

Noel

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby SnookerFan

Monique wrote:@snookerfan ... your mate only jumped on something that supported his opinion. It's not that it changed his mind in any way. It was just a pretext to poke at you. BTW Ronnie also said he loves the games, always will ... listen at that BBC interview. But the media chose to focus on the "WC is boring" without context. That's how it is, always will be. Either people only utter conventional platitudes or inevitably they hurt the feelings of some. Even someone as able and politically aware as Steve Davis does... think Moondan ;)


Oh yeah, he hates it anyway, he aint decided on his opinion based on what Ronnie says. And I agree that Ronnie doesn't mean what he says. If he hates snooker he'd have stopped playing.

But that's what makes his comments unbelivably stupid. I know he don't hate snooker as much as likes to pretend he does, but does somebody that has no opinion on snooker whatsoever. That's the sort of people we were meant to be aiming this promotion at. People that have no set of opinion of snooker, might hear about Power Snooker and give it a try, and get into it. Barry Hearn is trying to bring people into events, even gone as far as saying he wants to make it a worldwide sport. Explain to me how Ronnie's comments assist this in any way? They don't. And saying; "Oh, he don't mean it" doesn't make it any better. He will have, at best, brought embarrassment on the sport and at worst, convinced the people we are trying to get to watch the sport away from it. Saying he don't mean it just makes it worse. Not better.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Monique

Ronnie's comment neither assist nor harm the game. They won't change anything to anyone's opinion. And I really don't understand what you mean by "bring embarassment on the sport". Individuals (any individual) opinions or feelings don't harm a sport, any sport. It's only an individual's opinion.
If Tiger Wood was to say he's tired of golf or got bored in the Augusta Masters would that change your opinion on that sport? I"m sure it wouldn't. Would that harm golf as a global sport? No, I'm sure it wouldn't. It would make headlines, it would sell some papers and if anything sponsors would rejoyce although probably not in public.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby paperbackwriter

SnookerFan wrote:But that's what makes his comments unbelivably stupid. I know he don't hate snooker as much as likes to pretend he does, but does somebody that has no opinion on snooker whatsoever. That's the sort of people we were meant to be aiming this promotion at. People that have no set of opinion of snooker, might hear about Power Snooker and give it a try, and get into it. Barry Hearn is trying to bring people into events, even gone as far as saying he wants to make it a worldwide sport. Explain to me how Ronnie's comments assist this in any way? They don't. And saying; "Oh, he don't mean it" doesn't make it any better. He will have, at best, brought embarrassment on the sport and at worst, convinced the people we are trying to get to watch the sport away from it. Saying he don't mean it just makes it worse. Not better.

The problem isn't that he doesn't mean it (I bet he does in a way) or that he changes his mind about snooker every day or week- that doesn't make anyone stupid, or we would all be idiots. Isn't it something we all experience from time to time? There's something that's most important to us, but we have to struggle to succeed and that's more frustrating than anything and provokes negative emotions also. It's all nice to say we love WC, but I'd be surprised if there was a player who's never thought how much he hates it. The only problem (and often a big one) is saying it loud.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Wildey

Monique

since i was a kid ive had to fight against prejudiced that Snooker was Boring.

you type in Snooker Is.......Island in to Google you come across Snooker Is Boring for years.

ive had mates laughing at me after what Ronnie said the same mates that said Snooker was Boring when i was in school.

Snooker is a laughing stock thanks to that cretin

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Monique

wildJONESEYE wrote:Monique

since i was a kid ive had to fight against prejudiced that Snooker was Boring.

you type in Snooker Is.......Island in to Google you come across Snooker Is Boring for years.

ive had mates laughing at me after what Ronnie said the same mates that said Snooker was Boring when i was in school.

Snooker is a laughing stock thanks to that cretin


You guys don't think further than the end of your nose. Barry Hearn is negociating with the Beep. The Beep has one thing in mind (without Ronnie having anything to do with it) it's to get snooker broadcast shorter under the pretext it doesn't interest people to watch it for 17 days. Now Ronnie says this and the snooker world goes on fire. All forums and fans claim hot and hard they disagree and Hearn has a good case with the Beep: "Look at what the fanbase says... " that easy. It's not him saying it, it's the potential audience: "Keep the WC as it is" ... make it even longer for some. Heanr is a very cunning businessman and although I'm not sure that was his plan, I am sure it's not beyond him to use Ronnie in this way (he knows him inside out) .

Mon.x without hard feelings.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Wildey

monique

the only tournament that works is the World Championship it intrests people more than the shitty bullocks crap Ronnie likes to play thats Fact....

Ronnie is a bloody idiot why the hell wont the pin end retire he hasn't a bucking clue what fans want thats the truth And if the BBC Follow his lead they are MORONS.

Re: Ronnie O'Sullivan; The Crucible is boring / New tourname

Postby Monique

Did you read what i wrote properly? Hearn has now the opportunity to show the Beep that people love the WC as it is, all 17 days of it, and that will help him in his negotiations. It's always a lot more efficient when you have the evidence that the fans are behind you and that's just what he's gained now. Ronnie's statement has triggered a massive reaction that will help him, Wether this was planned or not I don't know, but I would not rule it out. Although I doubt Ronnie was anything else than a "tool" in it as Noel said.