Wild WC wrote:BUT
although i agree with giving asians chances that was not the reason PTC Was set up it was more of a test the water series with option of maybee turning them in to full rankers plus giving pros Work.
I'm not sure that was it. It is a multipurpose setup, one of the design goal was also to give amateurs a crack at the pros under real competition conditions. And there was no need to "test the water" in Europe. The Eurosport audience levels were telling enough about the interest of the European fans for snooker. The sponsoring money isn't really there but it's more a cultural thing than anything else. Look at who is sponsoring the snooker in UK. Mainly the betting companies. I've said it already, betting is not really part of the mainland European culture, nowhere near what it is in UK certainly. If snooker wants to find sponsors in Europe it has to target a different companies profile and go for a different commercial approach.
In China for instance, both Ronnie and Judd are the faces on a fashion clothes brand (K-Boxing). (Mark Selby also I think, but I'm not sure), and Ronnie famously had a contract with Vasto (watches). If snooker wants sponsoring in Europe it should target similar things and, believe me, selling it cheap is not the way to go. It's all about prestige.
BTW if the goal of the PTCs is to develop the game in Europe, one has to explain to me why 2 out of 6 of the EPTCs (Poland and one in Germany) have their pre-qualifying rounds played in UK. Hardly the good way to encourage local amateurs to enter.