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Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Wildey

Some points

2018 World Championship will be worth £2,000,000 with £500,000 to the Winner

There will be a home series ranking events running alongside the Welsh Open Ie Scottish Open, Irish Open and English Open and if a player wins all 4 in the season they will get £1,000,000 but that will be in season 2016/2017

Q School will be taken around the World to different continents

More to follow when ive digested it all

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Wildey

Cloud Strife wrote:£1billion for winning the home series? Really?

Its 1 Million i got too in to typing on the zero key <laugh>

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Skullman

Million. And I think that's a bonus, rather than the total prize money.

All the home series events are mainly best of 7s again though...

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Cloud Strife

Wildey wrote:
Cloud Strife wrote:£1billion for winning the home series? Really?

Its 1 Million i got too in to typing on the zero key <laugh>


£1m is still a great amount. And 500k for winning the World Championship....the top players can't moan now and say there isn't the potential to earn big money in snooker because there clearly is.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Cloud Strife

Wildey, when you've got time, can you post the full statement or a link to it. Thanks.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Wildey

Cloud Strife wrote:Wildey, when you've got time, can you post the full statement or a link to it. Thanks.

No problem im waiting for World Snooker or Pro Snooker Blog to fill in the dtails

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby snooky147

It was a reasonably good statement from hearn but in order for the sport as a whole to grow it has to follow the path of tennis and increase the prize money further down. From bottom upwards, otherwise it will be impossible to catch up ranking wise. Its all very well quoting these figures but they must be distributed further down .a good start though.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby fridge46

128 Flat Draw for all tournaments (except World Championship)

Glad to see this (Australias' last year of contract is 2015, Shanghai is 2016). Hearn confirmed World Champ, World No 1 plus the two highest ranked players from appropriate country will have their L128 matches held over to venue - in the addition to Wild Cards. Hopefully when prize money grows more, all players will be at the venue.

Home Series

Another good addition, seeing the return of Scottish and Irish Open plus an English Open to join the Welsh Open (would have been nice to have Dublin involved for a 5 event series). This will bump the number of UK based ranking events up from 3 to 7 (see World Grand Prix below). Potentially a nice set of events for ITV to pick up!

Addition of European Open, but less European Tour events

Nice to see Europe receive another major event in 2016/2017, and will move around the continent on a yearly basis. Sad to see this come at the expense of European Tour events, I personally would like to see more of these because I see these as a great way to spreading and exposing the game to new areas.

It will also hurt amateurs, as they will now have less opportunities to play "pro" players. When this starts, they will only be able to do so as a Top-Up player - this seems to be a step backwards in the development of young players in my opinion.

World Grand Prix/PTC Finals Changes

World Grand Prix will keep the same format (top 32 on 1 year money list) but money will go toward rankings. PTC will change in 2016/17 to be a 16 player tournament (from the 1 year money list) - will be somewhat like the Masters, but money going towards ranking!

New QSchools in Asia, Americas, Africa, Oceania and Europe

Again a good edition, but will it come at the expense of to those winning continental championships? if so is this World Snookers way of stopping players pulling a Calabrese in the future? Number of spots per continent will depend on entries but will they only be open to players from that area (ie can an Asian player entry Oceania QSchool?)

Barry was asked if snooker will become like tennis - more than 1 event a week. He said "yes", but I think we are quite a way away from that, but I can see an event every week in the next few years - whether be a ranking, qualifier, invitational

Barry also standing strong on not giving tour wild cards to women champions, and I believe this is necessary. All routes available to gain a tour card are available to both sexes - finishing high enough on the Euro/Asian Tour Lists, EBSA play-off, QSchool, even the EBSA European and U21 Championships (at the recent U21 championship in Malta, there were at least 2 female entrants, though I am not sure if this is true for other confederations).

One thing I found interesting was zero mention of Asia - nothing about potential new events, or comments on the loss of tournaments (Wuxi and World Open), or whether the Asian Tour events will continue with the addition of Asia QSchool.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Sickpotter

Be nice to see something in Canada....can't help but raise the profile of the game and it surely needs it over here.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby fridge46

Sickpotter wrote:Be nice to see something in Canada....can't help but raise the profile of the game and it surely needs it over here.


Agreed, and Canada is the best country I have ever been to too.

[Off-Topic]Are you familiar with the snooker scene in Canada? Apparently a Canadian has entered this years QSchool, but I dont know who it is. Can you tell from the draw?[/Off-Topic]

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Andre147

snooky147 wrote:It was a reasonably good statement from hearn but in order for the sport as a whole to grow it has to follow the path of tennis and increase the prize money further down. From bottom upwards, otherwise it will be impossible to catch up ranking wise. Its all very well quoting these figures but they must be distributed further down .a good start though.


Yes that's the thing isn't it... all these big numbers sound great for those at the top of the game, but as you say those lower down the rankings need there chances as well.

It's so easy for Hearn to say: oh you win matches, you earn money, you lose matches, you dont get any.

He forgets all the travel and hotel expenses these players lower down the rankings have to afford, and even if you are a good player, a number of consecutive first round defeats is all it takes to knock you back and almost be with no money at all to travel and all that.

Money needs to be better distributed lower down the rankings, and sure if you win events then you fully deserve big prize money, like in Tennis and Golf.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Sickpotter

I don't think Hearn forgets the travel and hotel expenses, he's managed many players over the years and is very familiar with the expenses involved.

I would fully expect lack of funds to make the list of players outside the top 64 fluctuate quite a bit with many not lasting more than a couple of seasons.

IMO if you're outside the top 64 you either have the skill to get into the top 64 or you drop off the tour. In the end the sport is about winning and if you're good enough you'll make it.

Just because someone made the tour doesn't mean guaranteed earnings, they've got to perform.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby pasunegirafe

Andre147 wrote:
snooky147 wrote:It was a reasonably good statement from hearn but in order for the sport as a whole to grow it has to follow the path of tennis and increase the prize money further down. From bottom upwards, otherwise it will be impossible to catch up ranking wise. Its all very well quoting these figures but they must be distributed further down .a good start though.


Yes that's the thing isn't it... all these big numbers sound great for those at the top of the game, but as you say those lower down the rankings need there chances as well.

It's so easy for Hearn to say: oh you win matches, you earn money, you lose matches, you dont get any.

He forgets all the travel and hotel expenses these players lower down the rankings have to afford, and even if you are a good player, a number of consecutive first round defeats is all it takes to knock you back and almost be with no money at all to travel and all that.

Money needs to be better distributed lower down the rankings, and sure if you win events then you fully deserve big prize money, like in Tennis and Golf.


Does Hearn really listen to the players? Sometimes I get the impression that whenever the players complain or give suggestions he just disregards them. Do the players have any input in these changes anyway?
They need a player council, like in tennis. Have a few players represent the top, mid and lower ranked players. Let them have some input and vote on suggestions. But that probably won't happen as long as Hearn is in control.

I just hope we won't see more best of 7's. That rubbish is annoying.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Dannyboy

The reason Brazil didn't work is that the players didn't support it and the tournament was held in totally the wrong place - on a holiday resort on the coast.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby snooky147

andre147 wrote:I just hope we won't see more best of 7's. That rubbish is annoying.

All four of the Home Series will be the same as the Welsh, which is, surprise surprise the best of sevens. :mood:

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby SnookerFan

Wildey wrote:Some points

2018 World Championship will be worth £2,000,000 with £500,000 to the Winner

There will be a home series ranking events running alongside the Welsh Open Ie Scottish Open, Irish Open and English Open and if a player wins all 4 in the season they will get £1,000,000 but that will be in season 2016/2017

Q School will be taken around the World to different continents

More to follow when ive digested it all


Could the English Open be held in Croydon. :wave:

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby AC or LT?

SnookerFan wrote:
Wildey wrote:Some points

2018 World Championship will be worth £2,000,000 with £500,000 to the Winner

There will be a home series ranking events running alongside the Welsh Open Ie Scottish Open, Irish Open and English Open and if a player wins all 4 in the season they will get £1,000,000 but that will be in season 2016/2017

Q School will be taken around the World to different continents

More to follow when ive digested it all


Could the English Open be held in Croydon. :wave:


Hearn indicated it would be held in Manchester.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby fridge46

Cloud Strife wrote:Will these home series events be full blown rankers or will they be more like PTCs?


Identical to the current Welsh Open... so somewhere inbetween

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby motorhead

So there's no longer an european and asian tour that gives the chance to play the PTC finals, that isn't too good I guess. Some events will be cancelled.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby gallantrabbit

I think the European and then the Asian tours will be phased out. Just listened to the full PC. I´m biased, but I just love the guy. I couldn´t be happier that Hearn is controlling and when I think back to the dark days I´m so grateful that this fellow has the energy and drive to improve continuously over time. Hearn Always said that PTCs were something to get the guys playing again. Now he wants bigger events to start replacing them. True to his word. He said Money would increase. True to his word. He said he´d make Money too. True too and I´m more than happy with that. Hope the fellow goes on till he´s 80. I think he´ll go on till he´s 90.

Re: Barry Hearn Statement.

Postby Andy Spark

Hearn's statement amounts to an admission of failure to achieve his stated goal of globalising snooker.

Snooker is a great product with a potentially huge global market. However, we need someone in charge that understands the game and how to promote it around the world. In order for snooker to succeed on a global level then first we need to somehow get rid of Hearn; secondly we need to actually give foreign snooker players a fair deal.