Patrick Wallace retires from snooker (1994 - 2011)

How they can expect to run a profesional, profit making sport that rewards its players fairly......whilst the final qualifying round for the biggest tournament, argueably the most important round of snooker of the year, is played behind a media blackout in this day and age....is absurd. Surely even a complete retard with no marketing skills could sell the rights and get a little bit of sponsorship to cover this, even if it was only online, on a betting site, red button......anything??????

Monique wrote:No it is NOT lame. If the majority of the pros - and there are on 96 of them - can't make a decent living out of the sport, while playing full time, then there IS a problem. And I think this is the case now. No sport can survive on only the very top. Young players can still be supported by their family but older ones can't. In other sports, even the 500th still live confortably. In snooker I'm not sure even the 50th can do that now.

The only sports that jump to mind that can do that are Tennis & Golf, both sports that are miles ahead of snooker in size. Snooker needs to build itself up considerably if we're going to have all 96 tour professionals living comfortably, but considering the times we live in, that could be a while yet...

Lucky wrote:How they can expect to run a profesional, profit making sport that rewards its players fairly......whilst the final qualifying round for the biggest tournament, argueably the most important round of snooker of the year, is played behind a media blackout in this day and age....is absurd. Surely even a complete retard with no marketing skills could sell the rights and get a little bit of sponsorship to cover this, even if it was only online, on a betting site, red button......anything??????

It was very annoying not to be able to see Lisowski play Davis the other night.

For all Hearn's great work, what you'v said is right. Next year the level of exposure for PTC events and qualifiers needs to be upped considerably so that the very least we get is crowds attending and live streamig.

Monique wrote:No it is NOT lame. If the majority of the pros - and there are on 96 of them - can't make a decent living out of the sport, while playing full time, then there IS a problem. And I think this is the case now. No sport can survive on only the very top. Young players can still be supported by their family but older ones can't. In other sports, even the 500th still live confortably. In snooker I'm not sure even the 50th can do that now.

the famous quote from Hearn before he took over was that he "doesnt want to reward mediocrity"

Whilst i agree all professionals should be able to make a living and that there should be far more money out there for the players to fight over, weve got to give Barry time.

The decision by these players to retire has more to do with a realitisation that players of their ilk will be squeezed out of snooker in the next few seasons by the younger generation.

I don't know how you can say that. They both dropped off the tour and decided not to try to re-enter it. Such cases have happened every year, so it has nothing to do with the new structure. That new structure BTW has been a bonus for some young players, but also for some "journeymen" like Pinches or Campbell.
There is a big difference between rewarding mediocrity and not allowing a reasonable number of players to make a decent living out of the sport. You can't have a global sport where only about 30 blokes can make a living out.

Lucky wrote:How they can expect to run a profesional, profit making sport that rewards its players fairly......whilst the final qualifying round for the biggest tournament, argueably the most important round of snooker of the year, is played behind a media blackout in this day and age....is absurd. Surely even a complete retard with no marketing skills could sell the rights and get a little bit of sponsorship to cover this, even if it was only online, on a betting site, red button......anything??????

If Hearn could he would, dont know how many times we have to point this out that thanks to Rodney Walkers contract with 110sport to screen the qualifiers who have for some reason chose not to fulfil their obligations (sour grapes that they didnt win the power battle for snooker last year )

Monique wrote:I don't know how you can say that. They both dropped off the tour and decided not to try to re-enter it. Such cases have happened every year, so it has nothing to do with the new structure. That new structure BTW has been a bonus for some young players, but also for some "journeymen" like Pinches or Campbell.
There is a big difference between rewarding mediocrity and not allowing a reasonable number of players to make a decent living out of the sport. You can't have a global sport where only about 30 blokes can make a living out.

As i pointed out on another thread regarding the rankings, the penny will drop next season with the top names about the impact of rolling rankings and the importance of the PTC so id expect normal service to be resumed with these journeymen slipping back to their normal places.

Hearns adding more and more events to the calendar and in time the prize money will rise considerably allowing most of the players on tour to make a proper living.