Prize money - can we now expect an increase?

Now that Barry Hearns revolution is in full swing with a calendar full of events and new sponsors sourced, tv companies onboard etc can we now expect prize money to increase rather than remain stagnant or decline the way it has in the last decade or so since the end was nigh for the tobacco companies?

Whilst the winners prizes for the big events may seem good, the reality is prizes were similar or greater in most cases many years ago (when you add inflation the prizes were probably twice to three times as much!) and those further down the rankings are playing for a pittance if the truth be told, considering they are professional sportsmen. And when i say "down the rankings" im not meaning those ranked down in the 60s, 70s etc, im referring to those who only make quarter finals on average.

What ive done below is take a selection of current tournaments and listed their current prize money, when the prize money first reached this level, and what its peak was, as well as a few general observations.

World Championship
2010 First Prize - £250,000
First hit £250,000 in the year 2000
Highest amount - £270,000 in the year 2003
Notes -
QF in 1993 earned you as much as in 2010
SF in 1994 earned you as much as in 2010
last 16 in 1996 earned you as much as in 2010

UK Championship
2010 First Prize - £1oo,000
First hit £100,000 in 1989
Highest amount - £110,000 in 1990

The Masters
2010 First Prize - £150,000
First hit £150,000 in the year 1998
Highest amount - £210,000 in 2003

So as you can see the above figures make alarming reading, the money has stalled badly lately and shown no sign of increasing, albeit the new events added to the calendar have increased the overall tour prize fund from the level it was at under Rodney Walker.

However as i said before taking inflation into account, the prizes from around the early/mid 80s till around the Millenium were much more significant and at one point in the 80s Steve Davis was actually Britains highest earning sportsman

Imagine that now? Your average Premiership footballer earns more in a week than 80% of snooker players do in a YEAR and the gulf between the top snooker stars and other top sportstars is light years.

Now snookers on the rise again, can we expect prize money and the sport to start to rise to some sort of level thats more fitting?

to be honest the prize money for other sports need looking at its ludicrous the amount some people make out of sport then spend it on hookers while some people are on the breadline.

in time snooker prize money will start to grow but to be perfectly honest it doesn't need to go up that much to be acceptable.

I actually feel physically sick when i hear football players money..i seriously dont want to know who they are, for all i care the money they earn for kicking a ball they dont deserve to be alive..theres police, firemen, doctors out there that save peoples lives day in day out earning not a wink of what the mindless football players do. Sickening.

aussiewild wrote:to be honest the prize money for other sports need looking at its ludicrous the amount some people make out of sport then spend it on hookers while some people are on the breadline.

in time snooker prize money will start to grow but to be perfectly honest it doesn't need to go up that much to be acceptable.

i agree that the amounts in other sports like golf, tennis and football that even your average player earns are crazy but as for snooker, yeh i dont expect players to earn millions a year but questions have to be asked as to why snookers prize money have stayed the same in the last 15 years pretty much whilst every other sports money has rocketed multiple times.

Even a sport like darts has grown so much that it has now reached snookers level of prize money.

Wayne Rooney earns 200k a week, thats 10million a year, which is twice as much as there is to play for, for all the professional sportsmen in snooker. Thats wrong, but it exposes a serious flaw in snooker. If all the other sports can sustain such high stakes, then surely snooker should be looking to grab a small piece of the action.

Footballers are clearly massively overpaid but it's true, you really do need a lot of prize money and a big top prize to keep the sport alive and to get the youngsters playing.

Some snooker players havent actually got a job..take bjorn haneveer..last season he earnt 9,000..you cant live off that"

Sonny wrote:Footballers are clearly massively overpaid but it's true, you really do need a lot of prize money and a big top prize to keep the sport alive and to get the youngsters playing.

absolutely

infact on the flipside back in the 80s the likes of Steve was the 80s equivalent of the modern day footballer almost as he won most of the tournaments and the prize money back then was probably 2 or 3 times what it is now (if adjusted for inflation)

Witz78 wrote:

aussiewild wrote:to be honest the prize money for other sports need looking at its ludicrous the amount some people make out of sport then spend it on hookers while some people are on the breadline.

in time snooker prize money will start to grow but to be perfectly honest it doesn't need to go up that much to be acceptable.

i agree that the amounts in other sports like golf, tennis and football that even your average player earns are crazy but as for snooker, yeh i dont expect players to earn millions a year but questions have to be asked as to why snookers prize money have stayed the same in the last 15 years pretty much whilst every other sports money has rocketed multiple times.

Even a sport like darts has grown so much that it has now reached snookers level of prize money.

Wayne Rooney earns 200k a week, thats 10million a year, which is twice as much as there is to play for, for all the professional sportsmen in snooker. Thats wrong, but it exposes a serious flaw in snooker. If all the other sports can sustain such high stakes, then surely snooker should be looking to grab a small piece of the action.

it was growing each year with tabacco but then gradually it came down because of government intervention until it stopped altogether.

then along with rubbish management plus new sponsors not committed to the course its stood still we need to build foundations and relationship with new sponsors.

i believe that has started.

it took the PDC 15 or 16 years to get darts prize money up to where Snooker was in 1989.

randam05 wrote:Some snooker players havent actually got a job..take bjorn haneveer..last season he earnt 9,000..you cant live off that"

thing is, thats still more than a good few other snooker PROFESSIONALS earned last season !!

And tax probably has to come off that total, then expenses will easily wipe that out so sponsorship and part times jobs are the only ways for these guys to keep afloat really.

I keep on meaning to do an analysis of monies earned and see how many players actually make a decent living out of snooker (ie. earn at least the average UK wage)

Witz78 wrote:

randam05 wrote:Some snooker players havent actually got a job..take bjorn haneveer..last season he earnt 9,000..you cant live off that"

thing is, thats still more than a good few other snooker PROFESSIONALS earned last season !!

And tax probably has to come off that total, then expenses will easily wipe that out so sponsorship and part times jobs are the only ways for these guys to keep afloat really.

I keep on meaning to do an analysis of monies earned and see how many players actually make a decent living out of snooker (ie. earn at least the average UK wage)

I just picked him as a mid range player, who does well enough to earn more than that!!

Anyway yes sounds like a good idea.

Although things are getting better as barry pinches earnt a mere 19,000 last season..already this year hes earnt that much.

randam05 wrote:

Witz78 wrote:

randam05 wrote:Some snooker players havent actually got a job..take bjorn haneveer..last season he earnt 9,000..you cant live off that"

thing is, thats still more than a good few other snooker PROFESSIONALS earned last season !!

And tax probably has to come off that total, then expenses will easily wipe that out so sponsorship and part times jobs are the only ways for these guys to keep afloat really.

I keep on meaning to do an analysis of monies earned and see how many players actually make a decent living out of snooker (ie. earn at least the average UK wage)

I just picked him as a mid range player, who does well enough to earn more than that!!

Anyway yes sounds like a good idea.

Although things are getting better as barry pinches earnt a mere 19,000 last season..already this year hes earnt that much.

if a mid range snooker player cant earn 100k a year then theres a problem.
IMO a pro in the to 64 should earn you at least 50k...barry sort it

No

Expect more tournaments

There was also the World Matchplay which started in 1988 and had the first £100,00 first prize in Snooker.

randam05 wrote:Some snooker players havent actually got a job..take bjorn haneveer..last season he earnt 9,000..you cant live off that"

Exactly! There are few games in this world which are being neglected badly in terms of money and profession. Ask anyone, who is his favorite sportsman? The name will come from a football team and not from snooker world and this situation can be changed if and only if people will get to know that there are other sports also in this world except football & hockey.


____________________________________________________________________________________
"Going High"

hockey? where you do live?

welcome anyway

jadechelsea wrote:hockey? where you do live?

welcome anyway

haha yeh thats what i was thinking too when i saw his comment.

last time i saw hockey was at school having a look at the Girls playing it

aussiewild wrote:last time i saw hockey was at school having a look at the Girls playing it

and that was only last week.......

Hockey?

Witz78 wrote:

aussiewild wrote:last time i saw hockey was at school having a look at the Girls playing it

and that was only last week.......

once a perv, always a perv

Hardly surprising that snooker prize money has fallen, but it is on the rise again. Why we ask.
1. The game was left to rot for years let's face it. First you had a bunch of bickering ex players determined to grab a slice of the cake and jumped on the gravy train to milk the game dry, then you had Sports Director Walker and do I need to say more about him.
2. Players have not self promoted for years. I'm not talking about whether there are characters or not in the game, but the ploayers have just sat back and waited for chances to earn money, and nobody till J Higgin's attempt did anything to try to change that.
3. The early 90s peak was a hell of a peak for what was essentially a british game. If Davis was earning what a golfer or racing driver was earning (or more) that was incredible and just show how far the game rose and how the Brits could not get enough of the tv game.
4. The players turned down Altium, though tobacco sponsorship would miraculously be replaced and ended up with 6 rankers, half without sponsors thereby draining the WSA dry.
5. Despite all the warning signs the WSA built Sheffield, when it was clear that the board would use it only as a practice facility. Now if they'd done that in 1990 I could perhaps have understood it...
If Hearn can edge up prize money every year then great, but I think he'll do more than that. Next year's PTCs will be improved as will everything else. Hearn will leave no detail to chance.
Also more players will be earning a living from the game this year, and I mean a real one.