Witz78 wrote:Wild wrote:Witz78 wrote:PLtheRef wrote:paddy and Stuart are part of the unlucky band of players the new revision was always going to affect.
Theres no such thing as unlucky players under the new ranking system, its a fair system and the best players will stay on tour.
Some may say they were part of the lucky band of journeymen who were virtually guaranteed their place on the tour forever under the old flawed rankings system and half empty calendar every season.
dont talk daft
Patrick Wallace lost his place under the old system 3 or 4 years ago and got it back
Ill be honest, back then i didnt pay as much attention to all the lower ranked players as i do now
did he get a WC or did he go through the PIOS. Surely the new set up is better though, i mean Patrick is obviously feeling the tide is changing in terms of the demographics of the tour and that his time was up, but had he wanted to the Q School option was there to get straight back on, whereas under the old one unless he got a WC he had to stay off tour for a year which was surely worse.
The new set up for relegated Pros getting straight back on to the tour through Q School is much better for them than the PIOS was and having to wait a year to return. I don't think that this is the factor that will make players minds up when choosing whether or not to try to return to the main tour, I think the biggest factor is money. By that, I don't mean the cost of Q School but the cost of competing on the main tour. Each player, having played in a busier calendar this season, now has to decide if they feel they can earn enough money from snooker to justify attempting to get back on the tour.
This season, there has been the tournament fees, travel and accommodation to five EPTCs outside of the UK and travel and accommodation to PTCs and Qualifiers in Sheffield. For a lot of those, if not all of those, dropping off the tour, they will have spent out more money on playing on the tour than they won. For some substantially more! With a busier calendar they are now unable to work part-time jobs and dedicate the time needed to their snooker so they have to make a decision.
I'd like to point out that I am no way complaining about the situation. The opportunity to win good sums of prize money are there and it is up to the players to earn that prize money. I guess it comes down to players having to be realistic on their chances of earning money on the tour.
I'd also like to point out that this is in no way linked to Patrick and is merely me putting across another factor that will effect the number of relegated Pros retiring from the tour for good, despite having a great chance to get back on quickly.
I don't know Patrick very well but he has always come across as a genuinely nice man on the occasions I did speak to him and I wish him all the best for the future.