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Well that's two of the twelve Players Tour Championship events almost completed and I for one are pleased with the response of the players towards these events. The majority see the value of these events on how it affects their ranking. It could be the difference between a seeding and not. This is evident from the 81 proffesionals that entered the current event.
Having said that, about 14 of the current crop of pros still haven't entered one of the events. This has shades of being hyprocritical considering it was the players that wanted extra playing opportunities in order to keep them financially solvent! At £100 an event it is hardly expensive for the serious player and with a £200 minimum reward for one win against probably an amateur is not a bad deal in my opinion. The incentive of money and ranking points are definitely there!
We have learnt a lot about the sport in the past two tournaments. This system isn't perfect yet, but that cliche again - "Rome wasn't built in a day!" The first event saw some matches finishing at 2-3am. For a ranking event and good money at stake, this is certainly ridiculous.
A criticism of the previous regime was that changes wern't being made to retain the longevity of the sport. Hearn and World Snooker had the choice to keep the same tournament under the same conditions with growing resentment, or change things for the better. I applaud this and start times moved to 9am and no matches aimed to start after 9pm as a result.
There has been a lot of whinging on this forum about lack of streaming and live scoring. I beg fans to remain patient, I'm sure it will be sorted shortly!
There are a couple of tweaks that I would make still however:
1. Make the amateur qualifier and last 128 best-of-5 frame matches in order to lessen lag time between matches and to stop matches ending ridiculously late. I await the response from the 'lottery and luck' whingers!
2. Move around the country to bigger and different venues. You may be able to attract more local players for a start and its just a different environment for the players. Some possible venues sould be the South West Academy, Northern Snooker Centre, Prestatyn, Willie Thorne Club etc.
3. Although this was originally the plan before 'Higgins-gate', next year have a couple of tournaments in N.America/Asia in order to spread the game further to new markets.
Hopefully though, these set of events will be a springboard for an increase in events over the next few years.
Having said that, about 14 of the current crop of pros still haven't entered one of the events. This has shades of being hyprocritical considering it was the players that wanted extra playing opportunities in order to keep them financially solvent! At £100 an event it is hardly expensive for the serious player and with a £200 minimum reward for one win against probably an amateur is not a bad deal in my opinion. The incentive of money and ranking points are definitely there!
We have learnt a lot about the sport in the past two tournaments. This system isn't perfect yet, but that cliche again - "Rome wasn't built in a day!" The first event saw some matches finishing at 2-3am. For a ranking event and good money at stake, this is certainly ridiculous.
A criticism of the previous regime was that changes wern't being made to retain the longevity of the sport. Hearn and World Snooker had the choice to keep the same tournament under the same conditions with growing resentment, or change things for the better. I applaud this and start times moved to 9am and no matches aimed to start after 9pm as a result.
There has been a lot of whinging on this forum about lack of streaming and live scoring. I beg fans to remain patient, I'm sure it will be sorted shortly!
There are a couple of tweaks that I would make still however:
1. Make the amateur qualifier and last 128 best-of-5 frame matches in order to lessen lag time between matches and to stop matches ending ridiculously late. I await the response from the 'lottery and luck' whingers!
2. Move around the country to bigger and different venues. You may be able to attract more local players for a start and its just a different environment for the players. Some possible venues sould be the South West Academy, Northern Snooker Centre, Prestatyn, Willie Thorne Club etc.
3. Although this was originally the plan before 'Higgins-gate', next year have a couple of tournaments in N.America/Asia in order to spread the game further to new markets.
Hopefully though, these set of events will be a springboard for an increase in events over the next few years.
. Players are entitled to a chance, a best of 5 sham, like the upcoming World Open does not give them that. And btw, this is a Sport not an Entertainment. Winning and earning a livliehood comes way in front of pleasing fans.
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