The Tour and it's cost

We all hear about how Barry Hearn has changed snooker and yes, he has. Prize funds have went up and are hitting close on £10million now.
But what is not talked about is the true cost to the players now that there are more opportunities to play and earn. Before I start I can hear the thoughts of some of you, "win more", "get a sponsor" etc etc but the simple fact is there can on be one winner, two semi finalists, etc.

The truth is and it will be proved from the facts below are that the top 8 are getting a great living frome the sport. 9 to 24 are doing okay but not great and the rest are earning nothing much at all.

Whilst prize money has gone up expenses have easily tripled. Add to that the 10 to 12 week delay in getting paid from Chinese events, The three fold increase in entry fees, travel, Hotels and food and the two and a half percent levy the association takes on ALL prize money.

If you happen to be unlucky enough to be beaten early on in China and your return flight is not for another 3 days your Hotel is not paid for, it's only paid until you are beaten. There's no leeway given so you either shell out another £100-£400 on getting a flight changed or pay the five star hotel bill.

So, let's take a mythical player, who has entered everything (except the six reds) and got beaten in the last 16 of them all. On a ranking list this would have earned him £42,418. A pretty good start to the season, more than enough to live on. But lets break that down shall we.

China winnings...£28,000 minus 20 percent and 2 and a half percent for Wsa. That takes you to flights and food, which would easily be £1,000(add at least another £200-300 if your from Scotland because you travel to England to get a flight).
Oh and don't forget about being ripped off for another £300 for stowing your cue, £50 a flight.
Entry Fees for the 3 events...£200 for Wuxi, £200 for Shanghai and £400 for the International.
So your original Chinese money has decreased to £18,400 and for each of the three sums that make up that total there is a ten to twelve week wait until you actually get paid.

Australia winnings...£6,667 minus 45 percent and 2 and a half for the WSA. Takes you to £3,666.15
Flights and food..Approx £1,100 in total leaves you with £2,566.85
Entry Fee £200. So £2,366 for Australia

Two Chinese PTC events...£2000 minus 22 and a half percent as usual equals £1550.
Flights and food average at £250 per event which leaves you with £1050
Three European Tour events with a last 16 defeat in each would have netted a total of £5751.
Minus of course 2 and a half percent equals £5608. On average it will cost £400 in travel and hotels minimum and £300 in entry fees so that will leave you £4108.

In total your prize money is £25,924.
At this moment in time only 22 players have earned that or above and don't forget tax and NI has still to come from that total.
Hearn has indeed increased the opportunities to play and earn but in making the prize fund as top heavy as it is he has hindered the tours ability to survive. It has to at least be financially viable for 64 players at a minimum, preferably 96.
In compiling the figures above I have just averaged everything out but I'm not far away. The prize fund has to be levelled out in a fairer way, especially if it is to be used as a ranking list.

I Agree for ranking purpose the spread of cash should be leveled out a bit more.

But earning opportunities are there for lower rank players though Look at Oliver Lines hes earned over £13,000 in 6 months as a 19 year old in his first season that's pretty good and works out at about £542 a Week even Oliver Brown as a Amateur has earned £10,000.

But once you take into account the expenses and the entry fees etc, it's nowhere near that. His initial outlay has to be recouped from all that. It doesn't just disapear, except if he lost every match lol. I'm not arguing that there are no opportunities, there are. I am arguing that within a few seasons the tour will be unsustainable financially for too many players unless the prize money is redistributed downwards to account for the huge increase in expenses.
It's too easy to say get a job or get a sponsor to make it up. Not all can do that. These players are professionals.
The tour dates need restructured to take into account cost. For example, with a little tweaking of dates I am sure it would have been possible to have had a mini asian swing that would have accomodated Wuxi and Shanghai back to back. That's a huge saving in flights alone. The whole season needs a rethink. Oh and while I'm at it. The practice of putting venues in hard to reach places has to stop. It only adds to the headaches. I saw something on Twitter about this next PTC clashing with an event somewhere so the Hotels have hiked up all their prices. This sort of thing is simply unacceptable.

They choose to player snooker for a living, affordability is their problem.

AC or LT? wrote:They choose to player snooker for a living, affordability is their problem.

Yes, it is but it's the responsibility of a governing body to distribute funds in a fair and equitable manner. With a prize money ranking list this is even more important.