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Next Seasons Tour

Postby whitespider

Anyone have an inkling of what the ranking events will be next season and when? Are any getting cut? From what's confirmed I'm assuming these are in

World
UK
World Grand Prix
China Open
International Championship
Shanghai Masters
English Open
Irish Open
Scottish Open
Welsh Open
European Championship
German Masters

That's 12

Are the PTC's going then?
What about Australia?

Or will there be more ranking events?

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Wildey

There will be Opens from all 4 British Isles countries Welsh, English, Scottish and Irish.

The Aussie Open will also be continuing.

PTC Will be staying but how many not yet Known

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby fridge46

Pink Ball wrote:Irish Open?


Part of the Home Series Hearn mentioned last year, to be held in Belfast - of course, thats all thats been said on the subject, no official confirmation about this anywhere from what I have seen (or havent!?)

As for others:

- I believe Riga is still under contract.

- Australian Open's contract finished last year, and I doubt it will return (will have to be under the flat system and many of the pros dont enter!)

- Also, judging by these tweets from World Snooker and Jason Ferguson, Gibraltar and Indian will return

Gibraltar: https://twitter.com/WorldSnooker1/statu ... 7286345729

India: https://twitter.com/jasonferguson5/stat ... 1747312640

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby whitespider

So it could be a record season for the number of full ranking events then? Certainly if India is back.

If some PTC's exist as well (Gibraltar, Riga) a Players Tour Championship grand final could be a possibility.

Shame if Australia goes - surely they could find a bigger venue. It is known for sports, and indoor halls as it is. Think the top players miss out on this because it's pitiful ranking winnings in comparison to other events. Easy way to change that.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Wildey

Players that didn't support the Aussie Open were incredibly short sighted and a strong indication why the Sport was in such a mess Before Hearn took over.

For Prize money and status of snooker to grow it has to work on a world stage and todays players have the Sport in their hands for future generations to flourish and earn from and unless other countries in the World is backed then long term no matter what Barry Hearn does will not be good.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Cloud Strife

Wildey wrote:There will be Opens from all 4 British Isles countries Welsh, English, Scottish and Irish.

The Aussie Open will also be continuing.

PTC Will be staying but how many not yet Known


The home series will probably be glorified PTC events anyway.

As for the failure of the Aussie Open, I put the blame for that squarely at the door of Barry Hearn.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Wildey

Cloud Strife wrote:
As for the failure of the Aussie Open, I put the blame for that squarely at the door of Barry Hearn.

how the hell do you work that out?

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Cloud Strife

Wildey wrote:
Cloud Strife wrote:
As for the failure of the Aussie Open, I put the blame for that squarely at the door of Barry Hearn.

how the hell do you work that out?


He needs to stop insisting on these flat 128 draws for every tournament. If it turns out that the Aussie Open gets cancelled and this was the reason for it, it will be a massive own goal for Hearn, World Snooker, Matchroom etc.

I hope Aussie and Shanghai Masters have the strength of character to tell Hearn where to go with his meddling.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby whitespider

Hearn's stated somewhere I think that all future tournaments will be 128 flat draw. If push came to shove it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Shanghai is a well established tournament now (will be in it's tenth year) and it ain't a bad place (city wise) to have a tournament. Would be a loss to the calendar.

Australia is a little different - Bendigo's out the way a little. Sure a venue in centre of Melbourne, Sydney or Adelaide (or ther other big cities) would have a suitable venue. Think that's where the future lies to grow the tournament. But hope it doesn't go. Snooker needs to expand worldwide really, not shrink back to the UK.

Of those 12 full ranking events listed above half are in the UK. And we are not even counting CoC and the Masters.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Cloud Strife

whitespider wrote:Hearn's stated somewhere I think that all future tournaments will be 128 flat draw. If push came to shove it will be interesting to see how this plays out.

Shanghai is a well established tournament now (will be in it's tenth year) and it ain't a bad place (city wise) to have a tournament. Would be a loss to the calendar.

Australia is a little different - Bendigo's out the way a little. Sure a venue in centre of Melbourne, Sydney or Adelaide (or ther other big cities) would have a suitable venue. Think that's where the future lies to grow the tournament. But hope it doesn't go. Snooker needs to expand worldwide really, not shrink back to the UK.

Of those 12 full ranking events listed above half are in the UK. And we are not even counting CoC and the Masters.


I hope the fans and organisers fight Hearn on this, I really do. Send a message out that they cannot be dictated to by some wheeler dealer, Del Boy wannabe.

Also, Shanghai is one of the best cities in the world. These are the sorts of places you want to stage your events, as opposed to dumps like Telford, Newport etc.

If Hearn had his way, he'd probably get rid of Shanghai and hold a tournament in Bognor Regis to compensate.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

As long as the tour is dominated by British players then there will be limits in how much Snooker can expand globally. An event like the Australian Open should have lots of Asian players , not be relying on British journeymen traveling half way around the world in the middle of their Summer and be out of money in the end.

In general the whole 128 man draw is strange, it's such a huge number to try and accommodate. Hearn doesn't do it in Darts and Tennis, which I presume is where the idea comes from only does it for their four biggest events of the year. The tiered qualifiers were nonsense as well and I hope they don't come back. Having 64 player draws would be easier and be a right balance.

Even the tour cards don't make sense. It works in Golf but it has several regional tours rather than one World Tour and it also isn't a one on one sport so can have odd numbers of players and don't need top-ups or byes if someone pulls out.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Dan-cat

The top guys must struggle to get into a match in a cubicle as is proving the case, and at the 8 / 4 table stage (or in the sports hall!) at the venue. And the punters/TV companies want to watch the top players, simple as. I know I'm stating the obvious here.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Cloud Strife

Dan-cat wrote:The top guys must struggle to get into a match in a cubicle as is proving the case, and at the 8 / 4 table stage (or in the sports hall!) at the venue. And the punters/TV companies want to watch the top players, simple as. I know I'm stating the obvious here.


Fully agree Danny. The upcoming German Masters has been ruined because of this very reason.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Wildey

you know what theres a lot of self-righteous rubbish on here.


Snooker was virtually bankrupt when Hearn took over that reason was down to the players Running the Sport and a Governing Body that was pre occupied with saving their own skin rather than doing what was best for the sport.

Flat 128 systems is the way to go and should be Backed however i do think the UK should have the same module as the World Championship where top 16 is seeded to the last 32.

so far the only mistake Barry has done has been the UK Championship.

Back to the flat 128 snooker needs time to build funds and revenue so that we will have a better venues to play these rounds in.

Going back 5 years you had about 12 PTC some played behind doors at the World Snooker academy, things are improving but Rome was not built in a day it took about 30 years of Greed and self interests to buck up snooker so it will take more than 5 years to get things Right and professional.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby fridge46

Whilst I think 128 is the correct way to go, I somewhat feel it was introduced a little too early. Jumping from 96 players with seeding tiers of 16 to 128 players with a flat system was too big a jump. They should have introduced 128 players under the 16 tier system, then expanded it to tiers of 32 seeds:

Last 128: 65-96 v 97-128
Last 96: 33-64 v Last 128 winners
--------------------------------------------------------
Last 64: 1-32 v Last 96 winners - first venue round!

This way the top 32 players get to be at the venue, and lower ranked players get to play those ranked around them, get wins and some money.

Then move to the current flat draws. I am not going to suggest what timeline this should have been done as it is a moot point.

And whilst we are on the subject of tour cards, are regional qschools going to be introduced at the end of the season (I was hoping they would appear this year, but alas no)

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby fridge46

Clive Everton mentioned on ITV4 that the Indian Open will be held in July

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby whitespider

India in July? Hope the venue has some serious air-con.

Apparently the provisional calendar will be out next week. Not that they will be sending it to me like.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby TheSaviour

I don´t know so much about these tournament schedules, but Ronnie certainly has stole the whole show once again. This time the difference just is that he is a way more deadlier among the balls than he has ever been. The last few years have done him all the world good. He is a much more of a ball dribbler and game vision - man these days. If he just decides to play the whole calender next year it is a issue just that who can live with him, and who knows, perhaps even occassionally managing to beat him. Stating that, I am personally always hoping he would broking down earlier. During the break-building. And perhaps using even more that his famous imagination and flair. But currently he is a deadly smart amongs the balls. That means that even if the other players have come in with their sharpened teeths they do feel the pressure, and practically fall in pieces in front of him.

People should realise that the pockets once again are tight as the young girls p.... There is no room for the false-thinking, or they will get their bottom smacked time after time. Lot´s of people have managing to get away with a just little scare.

Ronnie seems to talk some utter rubbish as always. He talked about the intellingence. There is no such thing as intellingence. It is same thing than REALITY. Every human and people have their own agendas and issues. They are promoting them. If you don´t take it, don´t comprehend those agendes and ideas, then they say you are deluded. There´s the human intelligence. So at the same time they say you are deluded they create the reality. They are like, see, this is the reality you did not comprehend. There is no flaw with it. And that means also that there are no any kind of privacy issues, too.

A modern life is all about different kind of talents. A human life, I mean.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby Skullman

whitespider wrote:India in July? Hope the venue has some serious air-con.

Apparently the provisional calendar will be out next week. Not that they will be sending it to me like.


TBH India in July is not much worse than India in any other non-winter month, although in July heavy rain is more of a problem.

Re: Next Seasons Tour

Postby fridge46

Calendar for 2016 here:

http://www.worldsnooker.com/wp-content/ ... k-here.pdf

Also discussed here:

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=6456&view=unread#unread

But I think the most interesting announcement is the change in seeding structure for some events:

http://www.worldsnooker.com/2016-calendar/

Home Nations event will only have 16 seeds, other 112 players at random (could get 1 v 17, and 127 v 128 in round 1!)

Germany and Europe - 32 seeds

Furth, Riga and Gibralter - entirely random!!

Shanghai (and Worlds) only events under tiered structure

No Australia, but mentioned in the other thread it might be moved to March 2017