Hearn threatens to destroy snooker
First of all though, I was reading soundbites such as these:
Hearn wrote:At this stage all I can promise the membership of the WPBSA is total transparency, coupled with a regular supply of truthful information.
Hearn wrote:I'm not going to say snooker is the next Premier League football, but it's a good game.
Hearn wrote:Most of my brief for the first part is listening. Then I go away, think about it, I take the good ideas as my own and drop the bad ideas.
Hearn wrote:I'm nostalgic, I remember good days at the Crucible.
I do see it as a UK event but that doesn't mean there can't be bigger events (overseas).
And up to that point I'm thinking hang on, Del-boy might not be so bad after all. And then this bombshell:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_s ... 391994.stm
Promoter Barry Hearn's "quick fix" for snooker could involve new faster versions of the sport being introduced.
"There'll be more formats," Hearn told BBC Sport. "I'll try to be innovative and creative. The patient is not dead - it just needs waking up," he added.
With the exception of events like the World Championship, one of Hearn's major concerns is the sport's tournaments go on for too long, dampening the interest of television, potential sponsors and snooker fans.
"We need quick results and quicker entertainment," said Hearn, who already runs snooker's Premier and Champions Leagues.
No no NO NO NO!!!!
You promised to listen Hearn. Well listen to this - every single poll that's ever asked the snooker fans if they prefer the longer format matches such as the UK or shorter format best of 9 has come out strongly in favour of longer matches.
Ranking tournaments have a status and you can't start turning them into sprint events willy nilly.
By all means play around and try different formats and get a couple of weekend events on Sky tv in your style but for gods sake do not tamper with the essence of the game and try to make it shorter for idiots of no attention span. Go back to your pool Mosconi Cup rubbish that clashes with the UK if you want to do that.
And you can stick your shot clocks where the sun don't shine.
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