The World Open

A few months in advance, I know. But anybody know what channel this is going to be on yet? Is it going to be simply Eurosport as the others? Seems a shame if it is, as having a choice of channels (and being able to watch it on Interactive, without tennis overrunning) was always good.

SnookerFan wrote:A few months in advance, I know. But anybody know what channel this is going to be on yet? Is it going to be simply Eurosport as the others? Seems a shame if it is, as having a choice of channels (and being able to watch it on Interactive, without tennis overrunning) was always good.

not a clue

the calender for next season should be finalized very soon

more to the point WHERES it going to be

I would say it will be on ITV4 or Sky.

Witz78 wrote:more to the point WHERES it going to be

yes the only place actually mentioned is china but nothing confirmed

last season it was played beginning of September but for the coming season its penciled in for end of October

Casey wrote:I would say it will be on ITV4 or Sky.

I don't think ITV4 is that likely, just because they showed one afternoon of Power Snooker.

Wild wrote:

Witz78 wrote:more to the point WHERES it going to be

yes the only place actually mentioned is china but nothing confirmed

last season it was played beginning of September but for the coming season its penciled in for end of October

What about Germany? China already get the China Open and the Shanghai Masters. And various other smaller tournaments like the Wuxi Classic. The German Masters seemed to go down well, and I think the fans would love a full week tournament.

Time difference wouldn't be as great for those of us in the UK either.

SnookerFan wrote:

Wild wrote:

Witz78 wrote:more to the point WHERES it going to be

yes the only place actually mentioned is china but nothing confirmed

last season it was played beginning of September but for the coming season its penciled in for end of October

What about Germany? China already get the China Open and the Shanghai Masters. And various other smaller tournaments like the Wuxi Classic. The German Masters seemed to go down well, and I think the fans would love a full week tournament.

Time difference wouldn't be as great for those of us in the UK either.

what about the UK fans ???

im all for this globalisation of the game but i cant help thinking its at expense of the UK fans,

what we got now ranking wise, 3 proper rankers in the UK, 2 minor rankers at the SWSA, 4 behind closed doors which you might as well forget about whilst the rest of the world has 6 or 7 proper rankers, 6 PTCs and the PTC Final, numerous invitational events as well.

The World Open was a success in Glasgow last year, crowds were up significantly from the previous years Grand Prix at the Kelvin Hall and a year on, with the sport of snooker riding on a crest of a wave the attendances would have been even better.

I feel its a kneejerk reaction to the BBCs decision to ditch coverage. Oh we must head East then!!

Kinda daft IMO that Robbo wins the WC last year and theres a clamour to get an event in Australia (where lets face it, snookers never gonna take off) yet this coming season there'll be no event in Scotland where the World Champion is from and where theres a great tradition and history of the game.

And its not just sour grapes cos its a tournament i wont be able to attend.

The way i see it, with snooker on the rise both at home and abroad, theres no reason why a tournament shouldnt be sustainable in Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland and Eire, in addition to the biggies in England.

Some may say take the game global, sod the UK but its worth remembering that 80% of the tour are British or Irish, and virtually everyone is based in the UK.

yes i think you right however as the World Open i do think it should be moving from country to country each year but there should be something in Scotland and more around England.

Witz78 wrote:what about the UK fans ???

im all for this globalisation of the game but i cant help thinking its at expense of the UK fans,

what we got now ranking wise, 3 proper rankers in the UK, 2 minor rankers at the SWSA, 4 behind closed doors which you might as well forget about whilst the rest of the world has 6 or 7 proper rankers, 6 PTCs and the PTC Final, numerous invitational events as well.

The World Open was a success in Glasgow last year, crowds were up significantly from the previous years Grand Prix at the Kelvin Hall and a year on, with the sport of snooker riding on a crest of a wave the attendances would have been even better.

I feel its a kneejerk reaction to the BBCs decision to ditch coverage. Oh we must head East then!!

Kinda daft IMO that Robbo wins the WC last year and theres a clamour to get an event in Australia (where lets face it, snookers never gonna take off) yet this coming season there'll be no event in Scotland where the World Champion is from and where theres a great tradition and history of the game.

And its not just sour grapes cos its a tournament i wont be able to attend.

The way i see it, with snooker on the rise both at home and abroad, theres no reason why a tournament shouldnt be sustainable in Scotland, Wales, N.Ireland and Eire, in addition to the biggies in England.

Some may say take the game global, sod the UK but its worth remembering that 80% of the tour are British or Irish, and virtually everyone is based in the UK.

For once, Witz, I agree with you. Though globalisation is a good thing, we are beginning to lose tournaments in the UK. The problem is what with crowds beginning to dwindle in the UK markets, and fans crying out for snooker across Europe and other countries, you can see why they are doing it.

Though I wouldn't want a situation though where none of the tournaments are in the UK any more either. What I would do is move the cruddy World Open to Germany, where they are aching to see snooker so probably wouldn't mind. Then bring back the Grand Prix, with the straight knockout, random draw format. Whack that in Scotland.

I'm sure I'd be the only one with this opinion though.

the things is are the crowds beginning to dwindle in the UK markets.

perhaps they were but things seem to be on the up again as demonstrated by the World Open, Sky Shootout, World Champs and the UK and Masters being moved to better venues.

Witz78 wrote:the things is are the crowds beginning to dwindle in the UK markets.

perhaps they were but things seem to be on the up again as demonstrated by the World Open, Sky Shootout, World Champs and the UK and Masters being moved to better venues.

Well, we'll see. Hopefully the crowds will start turning out more. And the reaction in the last session of the final catches on, so we can have a lot more UK based snooker events to visit. I wouldn't complain.

Getting the World Open on a proper TV channel, as well as Eurosport, and hyping it up a bit wouldn't hurt.

They already confirmed a while back that it was moving to somewhere in Asia. Most likely as it's a major ranking event it will be broadcast on EuroSport (hopefully!). Really enjoyed the World Open last year because it was covered by the BBC, not sure if it will be as fun for me with the EuroSport coverage of just cutting to the matches and those damned constant adbreaks.

Come on BBC! Sign it up!

I don't know where this tournament is heading from a televisual point of view, but I would like to see Sky host it, I think the whole setup would be perfect for them and they'd do a really good job, like they did with the shootout.

This was one of my favourite tournaments last year, and I'm far more enticed by multiple session matches. The top players all came through in the high pressure environment, and overall the tournament was very different in how it worked.

As Wild said, it would be nice to see this as a tournament that rotates to other countries aswell.

Tubberlad wrote:I don't know where this tournament is heading from a televisual point of view, but I would like to see Sky host it, I think the whole setup would be perfect for them and they'd do a really good job, like they did with the shootout.

This was one of my favourite tournaments last year, and I'm far more enticed by multiple session matches. The top players all came through in the high pressure environment, and overall the tournament was very different in how it worked.

As Wild said, it would be nice to see this as a tournament that rotates to other countries aswell.

It was one of my least favourite. The fact that they had a round of matches whereby half of them were televised and half of them were at the qualification stages felt muddled. Best of fives would be okay if you watched them for two or three days. But over nine days was

And the marketing didn't seem to make sense to me. Firstly they marketed it; "Best of fives, anybody can win", but then we were told; "It's a pressure cooker, the person who holds their nerve best in pressure situations wins." Which is what it ended up with. People seemed surprised that four World Champions, including the current one reached the semis and not Joe and Dave from down the club. But the point is, it stands to reason that the people who can handle pressure the best would be the best players in the world. Anybody at all can win it, as long as they are a top-16 player.

SnookerFan wrote:

Tubberlad wrote:I don't know where this tournament is heading from a televisual point of view, but I would like to see Sky host it, I think the whole setup would be perfect for them and they'd do a really good job, like they did with the shootout.

This was one of my favourite tournaments last year, and I'm far more enticed by multiple session matches. The top players all came through in the high pressure environment, and overall the tournament was very different in how it worked.

As Wild said, it would be nice to see this as a tournament that rotates to other countries aswell.

It was one of my least favourite. The fact that they had a round of matches whereby half of them were televised and half of them were at the qualification stages felt muddled. Best of fives would be okay if you watched them for two or three days. But over nine days was

And the marketing didn't seem to make sense to me. Firstly they marketed it; "Best of fives, anybody can win", but then we were told; "It's a pressure cooker, the person who holds their nerve best in pressure situations wins." Which is what it ended up with. People seemed surprised that four World Champions, including the current one reached the semis and not Joe and Dave from down the club. But the point is, it stands to reason that the people who can handle pressure the best would be the best players in the world. Anybody at all can win it, as long as they are a top-16 player.

well basically it shows that the players who hold their nerve best are those higher up the rankings which kinda makes sense when you think about it

Witz78 wrote:well basically it shows that the players who hold their nerve best are those higher up the rankings which kinda makes sense when you think about it

Thanks for completely reiterating my point.

What I was trying to say was it was advertised as the ultimate test of bottle.... Where any player on the tour could win.

I was trying to point out that didn't make any sense.

So, are the rumours on twitter true? The World Open is happening in March, and is in China. Or have I misunderstood?

Looks that way.

Sonny wrote:Looks that way.

I'd have preferred it to be in Germany, as that seems to be where a lot of interest is coming from these days, and they only have one short ranking event a season. But another tournament is another tournament, I guess.

Who in their right mind would travel to China for best of fives.?

snooky147 wrote:Who in their right mind would travel to China for best of fives.?

I think Ronnie is going.

SnookerFan wrote:

Sonny wrote:Looks that way.

I'd have preferred it to be in Germany, as that seems to be where a lot of interest is coming from these days, and they only have one short ranking event a season. But another tournament is another tournament, I guess.

i agree

Wild wrote:

SnookerFan wrote:

Sonny wrote:Looks that way.

I'd have preferred it to be in Germany, as that seems to be where a lot of interest is coming from these days, and they only have one short ranking event a season. But another tournament is another tournament, I guess.

i agree

i strongly disagree

whilst im all for the globalisation of the sport i think it should still be in Scotland and thats not just bias from a selfish point of view.

fact is Germany already has a full ranker and some PTC events yet they have NO professionals on the tour so there doing well as things are

as for Scotland, well apart from the World Champion theres 3 others Scots in the top 16 then the likes of Burnett, Campbell, McGill, Angles and a few others ive forgot who are on tour so Scotland should def have a ranker IMO

Does Scotland even have a PTC this year ?

Bourne wrote:Does Scotland even have a PTC this year ?

nothing at all bar one night of the Premier League

pretty shocking id say given theres an almost full calendar of snooker now

Witz78 wrote:

Bourne wrote:Does Scotland even have a PTC this year ?

nothing at all bar one night of the Premier League

pretty shocking id say given theres an almost full calendar of snooker now

Germany has a ranker and at least one PTC as far as I can recall so you've definitely got a point, though i'm sure some pedant will mention Scotland plays host to the Scottish Championships in April

when i look at this table below the ommision of any snooker from Northern Ireland and Scotland is pretty poor really.

LOCATIONS 2011-12 - RANKING EVENT / INVITATIONALS / MINOR RANKING EVENT

CHINA 3 / 1 / 0

ENGLAND 2 / 2/ 2

GERMANY 1 / 0 / 2

AUSTRALIA 1 / 0 / 0
WALES 1 / 0 / 0

THAILAND 0 / 1 / 0
BRAZIL 0 / 1 / 0

POLAND 0 / 0 / 1
IRELAND 0 / 0 / 1
BELGIUM 0 / 0 / 1

*PTC FINALS + PTC11 VENUE STILL TBC
** SHEFFIELD CLOSED DOOTS PTCS NOT INCLUDED
*** PREMIER LEAGUE NOT INCLUDED AS NOT A ONE-OFF TOURNAMENT

Witz78 wrote:

Wild wrote:

SnookerFan wrote:

Sonny wrote:Looks that way.

I'd have preferred it to be in Germany, as that seems to be where a lot of interest is coming from these days, and they only have one short ranking event a season. But another tournament is another tournament, I guess.

i agree

i strongly disagree

whilst im all for the globalisation of the sport i think it should still be in Scotland and thats not just bias from a selfish point of view.

fact is Germany already has a full ranker and some PTC events yet they have NO professionals on the tour so there doing well as things are

as for Scotland, well apart from the World Champion theres 3 others Scots in the top 16 then the likes of Burnett, Campbell, McGill, Angles and a few others ive forgot who are on tour so Scotland should def have a ranker IMO

well yea we need more British involvement but it is dictated by British TV Interest....get BBC Scotland to do like BBC Wales independently from main BBC Network.