Buying Snooker tickets
Am I the only one who is getting a bit peeved about the fact that there always seems to be some issue when it comes to buying tickets for snooker nowadays? The rolling ranking system meant that we have to wait to find who was playing what matches at the UK and The Masters. For me personally, I usually attend the first rounds, so at the UK it doesn't matter too much. You get a choice of where you sit, and choose between four matches. But it might have made a difference to those buying tickets for the later stages who was on what side of the draw. The Masters wasn't too bad, as the matches were announced in October, months in advance. But The Crucible will be a pain, if the matches aren't announced until after the Welsh Open. That's going to annoy a lot of people, surely. And discourage people from buying. Now they sell tickets for The Masters and don't know whether there are Wild Card rounds or not. Advertising matches you don't know when they start is sloppy.
I know the sport is changing, and things will be done differently, but I do believe at the heart of every decision made by Barry Hearn and by World Snooker is the fact we're changing because the sport needs new fans. If the changes that we make increase the amount of sponsors, new tournaments made or prize money, but the fans stop watching, then the changes have been a failure. And having a lot of things going that might encourage people not to buy, or to wait before they do, surely isn't a step in the right direction.
Or am I alone in feeling this way? Maybe I see this too much as somebody who buys tickets regularly.
I know the sport is changing, and things will be done differently, but I do believe at the heart of every decision made by Barry Hearn and by World Snooker is the fact we're changing because the sport needs new fans. If the changes that we make increase the amount of sponsors, new tournaments made or prize money, but the fans stop watching, then the changes have been a failure. And having a lot of things going that might encourage people not to buy, or to wait before they do, surely isn't a step in the right direction.
Or am I alone in feeling this way? Maybe I see this too much as somebody who buys tickets regularly.
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SnookerFan - Posts: 150790
- Joined: 13 December 2009
- Snooker Idol: Michaela Tabb
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