shankly wrote:Sorry Ron, I like snooker the way it is. But then I'm the obsessed one on a forum, so... you'd hope I'd think that, really. To be fair he's right about 50 minute frames turning the casual viewing public off, but the sooner the snooker fraternity accept that snooker doesn't have to be as popular as football to survive the better.
I'm quite happy with the niche corner of the market it occupies right now, but there's a fine balance to be walked here I reckon. You don't want an unsustainable expansion bubble, but neither do you want a slow fade to irrelevancy and have the BBC (much as we moan about the coverage) drop it entirely either.
Sports' popularity all wax and wane anyway. Snooker's had its turn, now it's cycling and darts. The most important thing is to keep the grassroots strong, get more people playing the game, make sure snooker clubs stay open. That is the most pressing issue at the moment, in my opinion.
Now, after saying all that, if they want to bring back power snooker as a novelty in the calendar I don't care. I'll probably even watch it. And if I bet if I attend, I'll probably have a good time.
Good post mate, couldnt agree more.
Yeah 1 or 2 tournaments per year like Shootout or Premier League is absolutely fine as it's just for fun really and it won't replace the tradicional 15 red game with tradicional rules.
But obviously it wouldn't work in a ranking event, and I hope they never do it there. And yeah like you say Snooker will never be as popular as Football or Tennis, but it doesn't need to be, keeping the game alive with more tournaments abroad, clubs open and all that stuff is what the game requires, and personally, with the arrival of Barry Hearn, I think Snooker couldn't be in a healthier state.