Post a reply

Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby SnookerFan

So, what do people make of these comments?

http://www.rte.ie/sport/snooker/2017/01 ... osullivan/

And before anybody assumes this is an anti-Ronnie rant, it isn't. I can see where he is coming from on this. Lots of professional players have spoken about how they are skint these days. See Mark King, on winning his first ranking event, saying he'd struggle to survive previously.

You could argue that actively discouraging people to take up playing the game isn't the correct approach, but at the same time I think a top player like Ronnie, who has God-like devotion from many fans, speaking up could help the cause.

People always claimed that Ronnie's 140+7, and 146 in Wales, just so he could sulk that the prize money wasn't high enough were to highlight some financial point. I've always been skeptical, and thinking we were justifying attention seeking buffoonery on Ronnie's part.

Is this different? Can this be seen as an actual attempt at highlighting real problems? Or am I giving his comments to much credence?

What are other people's opinions?

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Dan-cat

From any angle, this is not good. Ronnie you plank. Barry must be seething. All that work that Steve Davis does with the Paul Hunter foundation encouraging children to play. Of course, I realise he's just being honest, but he should think about the wider impact of his words.

It reminds me of veteran pool player Earl 'the Pearl' Strickland moaning about the prize money going down in pool. Who is he moaning at exactly? The dissolution of culture due to the internet / social media / streaming thereby reducing viewing figures for all forms of entertainment?

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Dan-cat

TWITTER ATTACK

Neil Robertson ‏@nr147 Retweeted snookerbacker
I wouldn't recommend this sport as a "career" while there is 128 on the tour either. Atm it's top 20 or you're better off flipping burgers

snookerbacker ‏@snookerbacker
Ronnie doing his bit for the next generation of snooker players again

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby SnookerFan

Dan-cat wrote:TWITTER ATTACK
Neil Robertson ‏@nr147 Retweeted snookerbacker
I wouldn't recommend this sport as a "career" while there is 128 on the tour either. Atm it's top 20 or you're better off flipping burgers


rofl

I just came on to do the same Twitter Attack.


I hate to say it, but as counter productive as that advice may to be young players, I can see Ronnie's point. Whether or not he made the point in the right way can be debated. But if even a fairly decent standard of players are struggling to make a living, it's a problem that needs to be addressed.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby eraserhead

It's a shame that apart from the top players everyone else seems to be struggling you can't expect people to play at their best if they can't dedicate to the sport fully. The whole lower ranked players salary seems to be discussed on twitter quite a bit, but all you'll get out of Barry Hearn Is "I don't pay losers" rather than addressing the actual point.

I don't like to see snookers biggest draw telling people to stay way from the sport though.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Dan-cat

As of the WSC 2016, 21st ranked Zhou Yuelong earned £116,041 over the previous year. Even with deducting the tour expenses off that (approx £24k) he still earned a cool £92k.

I wanna know where the buck this burger joint is that pays so well.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Cloud Strife

eraserhead wrote:It's a shame that apart from the top players everyone else seems to be struggling you can't expect people to play at their best if they can't dedicate to the sport fully. The whole lower ranked players salary seems to be discussed on twitter quite a bit, but all you'll get out of Barry Hearn Is "I don't pay losers" rather than addressing the actual point.

I don't like to see snookers biggest draw telling people to stay way from the sport though.


Some of the money from the top end needs to trickle down, that's for sure. There is already a lack of fresh talent coming through, that isn't helped when you're leaving tournaments with a grand total of £0 in your pocket and a pat on the back if you're lucky.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby SnookerFan

Dan-cat wrote:As of the WSC 2016, 21st ranked Zhou Yuelong earned £116,041 over the previous year. Even with deducting the tour expenses off that (approx £24k) he still earned a cool £92k.

I wanna know where the buck this burger joint is that pays so well.


It's probably one of those posh gastro places, where they charge £25 for a burger. rofl

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Dan-cat

SnookerFan wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:As of the WSC 2016, 21st ranked Zhou Yuelong earned £116,041 over the previous year. Even with deducting the tour expenses off that (approx £24k) he still earned a cool £92k.

I wanna know where the buck this burger joint is that pays so well.


It's probably one of those posh gastro places, where they charge £25 for a burger. rofl


The way Robbo is going this season, he'll be down there for a job!

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby davisfan

Ah so. Definitely more than a McD's worker. (And me!)

But maybe not for those further down, especially given travel & entry expenses. Net figures would be more useful. But that's sekrit and private.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Cloud Strife

Dan-cat wrote:Also doesn't take into account any sponsorship earnings.


I wonder how much someone ranked 120 will be earning from sponsorship and endorsements. :chin:

Probably be lucky if they could command a ton per tournament from the local Dog & Duck.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby eraserhead

davisfan wrote:But maybe not for those further down, especially given travel & entry expenses. Net figures would be more useful. But that's sekrit and private.

I want to see that sort of stuff, you also see a lot of Chinese sponsors on the top players maybe the lower ranked Chinese players have better sponsorship opportunities.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Dan-cat

Cloud Strife wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:Also doesn't take into account any sponsorship earnings.


I wonder how much someone ranked 120 will be earning from sponsorship and endorsements. :chin:

Probably be lucky if they could command a ton per tournament from the local Dog & Duck.


Well quite. Some of the lapel sponsors in the 30 - 40 ranked players are decidedly low rent. Bob's Double-Glazing....

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby SnookerFan

Pink Ball wrote:At the end of the day, he's right. Just as he was right seven years ago when he said the game would die unless something drastic happened.

Whether he's gone about this the right way or not is another matter.


I'll actually cut him some slack on this.

Unlike his previous antics of refusing to pot 147s, him saying this to the media makes sure the media are talking about the games financial problems and not about Ronnie.

Mark King mentioned it in his post-match interview on winning the Northern Ireland Open. But the press being the press don't care about any player other than Ronnie, so didn't really make to big a fuss about it.

If this gets the games financial problems discussed in a more open way, I'm not really going to be too upset by it.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby PoolBoy

I take everything Ronnie says with 'a pinch of salt'!

Ronnie fans are also particularly fickle in their response to his utterings...

"I'm feeling as good as ever, I've still got the desire and ability to win big tournaments" comments are be met by outpourings of joy and hopeful predictions that he could still match, or overtake Hendry.

Whereas, a Ronnie interview stating, "I've had my time, I'm no longer good enough - I prefer punditry work nowadays and have no motivation to compete anymore" is met with the 'stock phrase', "och, that's just Ronnie!"......with the inevitable follow-up, 'he's got nothing left to prove'!

When Ronnie does an interview, it's either, "he speaks a lot of sense - and what he says is true" or "och, ignore his ramblings, it's just Ronnie!" <laugh>

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Pink Ball

SnookerFan wrote:This is an article we discussed in a previous thread, where Ronnie claims that most players are not good enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38160821

Out of interest, how do people take those comments, compared to the ones he is making now?

Actually you make a good point. Is he not contradicting himself within a very short period of time?

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby PoolBoy

Pink Ball wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:This is an article we discussed in a previous thread, where Ronnie claims that most players are not good enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38160821

Out of interest, how do people take those comments, compared to the ones he is making now?

Actually you make a good point. Is he not contradicting himself within a very short period of time?


Yeah, I noticed that!
One minute, it's,
"not a job, I'd recommend" - the next, it's "playing Selby in a final - you couldn't get a better job!"
I'm not a Ronnie fan, but even I 'cringe' when I hear him speak!

One minute he's 'raving' about some youngster from Latvia he's been practising with, the next - there's no talent coming thorough.

The guy is a sausage - let's be honest.
If Mark Allen or Matt Selt had Tweeted this, they'd be getting much more widely castigated!

But, Ronnie trying to drag the game to a new low, where he's DISCOURAGING youth development, is deemed as okay!!! It's despicable and, frankly indefensible.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Cloud Strife

PoolBoy wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:This is an article we discussed in a previous thread, where Ronnie claims that most players are not good enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38160821

Out of interest, how do people take those comments, compared to the ones he is making now?

Actually you make a good point. Is he not contradicting himself within a very short period of time?


Yeah, I noticed that!
One minute, it's,
"not a job, I'd recommend" - the next, it's "playing Selby in a final - you couldn't get a better job!"
I'm not a Ronnie fan, but even I 'cringe' when I hear him speak!

One minute he's 'raving' about some youngster from Latvia he's been practising with, the next - there's no talent coming thorough.

The guy is a sausage - let's be honest.
If Mark Allen or Matt Selt had Tweeted this, they'd be getting much more widely castigated!

But, Ronnie trying to drag the game to a new low, where he's DISCOURAGING youth development, is deemed as okay!!! It's despicable and, frankly indefensible.


I don't know if you're being serious or not, but it's a pathetic post either way.

Ronnie, flip-flops quite a bit due to his bi-polar, as we all know, but to call him a sausage and to claim he's "trying to drag the game to a new low" is an asinine thing to suggest, even for a miserable hater like you.

If contradicting oneself is justifiable means to be called a sausage, then 99% of posters on this site are dicks...including you.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Pink Ball

PoolBoy wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:This is an article we discussed in a previous thread, where Ronnie claims that most players are not good enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38160821

Out of interest, how do people take those comments, compared to the ones he is making now?

Actually you make a good point. Is he not contradicting himself within a very short period of time?


Yeah, I noticed that!
One minute, it's,
"not a job, I'd recommend" - the next, it's "playing Selby in a final - you couldn't get a better job!"
I'm not a Ronnie fan, but even I 'cringe' when I hear him speak!

One minute he's 'raving' about some youngster from Latvia he's been practising with, the next - there's no talent coming thorough.

The guy is a sausage - let's be honest.
If Mark Allen or Matt Selt had Tweeted this, they'd be getting much more widely castigated!

But, Ronnie trying to drag the game to a new low, where he's DISCOURAGING youth development, is deemed as okay!!! It's despicable and, frankly indefensible.

Despicable? Indefensible? Huge words.

People are criticising Ronnie here and making decent points. People are defending Ronnie here and making decent points. What he's said here is miles from the worst thing he's said.

I think he 100% should have gone about this differently (i.e. less publically) but I can't 100% say for definite that the point he's making is wrong.

Sullivan was chastised for publically saying in 2009 that the game was dying, and he got roasted for it. But I agreed with him and I think he started a necessary conversation. I'm not so sure he's right here, but he MIGHT be.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Ayrshirebhoy

Someone linked the money lists the last few years earlier and Ronnie is absolutely right! Neil is right as well about top 20 etc. The trouble is with snooker is theirs no fresh young hungry ronnies out there. Just terribad clones. Snooker desperately needs a couple of young charismatic talents coming up with a good rivalry between them.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby PoolBoy

Ayrshirebhoy wrote:Someone linked the money lists the last few years earlier and Ronnie is absolutely right! Neil is right as well about top 20 etc. The trouble is with snooker is theirs no fresh young hungry ronnies out there. Just terribad clones. Snooker desperately needs a couple of young charismatic talents coming up with a good rivalry between them.

The young Chinese lads are certainly doing that.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby snookerguy

Going by the list DAN-CAT posted.

Assuming a burger-flipper workers 40 hours a week (£14,976) at 7.20 an hour then all players above 84th for last season were doing better than burger-flippers.

The national average wage is £26,500 - so everyone in the top 64 makes the average salary.

The average wage for a CEO is £94,884 - so everyone in the top 18 makes the same or more than a CEO.

The PMs salary is £143,462 - so everyone in the top 15 makes the same or more than the Prime Minister.

The US president salary is £325331 - so everyone in the top 5 makes the same as the US president.

You're obviously not going to get rich being a journeyman snooker player, but there's still an avenue to make a reasonable living. A paltry one when compared to other sports standards yes, but the good snooker players can still make a good living. That said, there's clear top-loading of prize money which needs to be addressed, by the sounds of it even the top players would get behind a reduction in there own prize money to help out lower ranked players.

That said once you factor in travel expenses to compete in tournaments, if you aren't sponsored I'd fully expect you to be racking up debts anywhere below the top 32 mark.

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby Pink Ball

Cloud Strife wrote:
PoolBoy wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:This is an article we discussed in a previous thread, where Ronnie claims that most players are not good enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/snooker/38160821

Out of interest, how do people take those comments, compared to the ones he is making now?

Actually you make a good point. Is he not contradicting himself within a very short period of time?


Yeah, I noticed that!
One minute, it's,
"not a job, I'd recommend" - the next, it's "playing Selby in a final - you couldn't get a better job!"
I'm not a Ronnie fan, but even I 'cringe' when I hear him speak!

One minute he's 'raving' about some youngster from Latvia he's been practising with, the next - there's no talent coming thorough.

The guy is a sausage - let's be honest.
If Mark Allen or Matt Selt had Tweeted this, they'd be getting much more widely castigated!

But, Ronnie trying to drag the game to a new low, where he's DISCOURAGING youth development, is deemed as okay!!! It's despicable and, frankly indefensible.


I don't know if you're being serious or not, but it's a pathetic post either way.

Ronnie, flip-flops quite a bit due to his bi-polar, as we all know, but to call him a sausage and to claim he's "trying to drag the game to a new low" is an asinine thing to suggest, even for a miserable hater like you.

If contradicting oneself is justifiable means to be called a sausage, then 99% of posters on this site are dicks...including you.

JOOL taking no rubbish

Re: Ronnie advises youngsters to stay away from snooker

Postby TheSaviour

So the pressure to write at least something is back on! But isn´t that all sorts of a good pressure to have existing?? At least then you are not thinking anything stupid or dangerous. Let´s take when Ronnie O´Sullivan is trying to split the pack of reds. During then he isn´t thinking how he could beat Magnus Carlsen or how is his investments doing. Or if he is he would c.... up that split. No-one can afford to be that much deluded or second minded if really fancing the job. A modern snooker is a much about how well (=SURELY) can you split the reds or some other problem balls. I must admit I am not an up-dated how well can all those up and coming youngsters do that. So I have some homework to do during this year. But the knowledge I currently do posses, Ronnie and Mark Williams are the most convincing ones to do that.

I don´t know what is the problem Ronnie giving these comments. I reckon those are some perfectly normal exchanges. Everyone has those. Going to the Supermarket to buy some food. That´s an exchange too. There´s nothing illegal about it. And you don´t have to tell everything or giving any explanations. Why I would have to count what that or that food or drink does to me when 200 years go by. I won´t be living that much long. So it is a useless point of a view.

God only knows what all those people reading Ronnie´s comments are thinking lol. Just pushing through. But Ronnie has already been seen to lurking out there, to finding is A-game back. Surely that´s just matter of time, once again, at least a one more time.... He looked a very good indeed when he was playing really well. Just forcing the big breaks in. A bit strange lol.
Last edited by TheSaviour on 10 Jan 2017, edited 1 time in total.