Masters Snooker

[bolt pp]

Sigh! Musical walk-on's!!! wtf!!!!

they cant be struggling that much for viewers?

what's next they turn the arena into a giant pub and everyone gets pissed whilst they play music inbetween each frame scream "OI OI" between shots.......

[Rookie (Rodney)]

LOL its so com.

[Colchester Kev]

What about the old fella that used to call them in to the arena, redundant ?

[AndrewT]

Big swathes of empty seats as well.

Coming straight after a great month of darts it shows that Barry Hearn has a huge job on his hands to get snooker going again.

[GreekStein]

Big swathes of empty seats as well.

Coming straight after a great month of darts it shows that Barry Hearn has a huge job on his hands to get snooker going again.

I was gonna get tickets and go up for a day but when I went on the website the £130 option didn't seem so appealing.

[TightEnd]

So many of the top 16 players seem to lack any personality, which makes Hearn's job harder. Hence putting Jimmy White in to the Masters, shame he flopped. Ronnie of course is box office but could storm off at any moment so its tricky to build a strategy around him.

That said, Hearn's a very canny man, lots of new formats are on the way too (single frame shotouts, shot clocks, team events etc) and he wants to replace bow tie/waistcoat and silence with sparkles and noise.

Should be fun to watch him try to revitalise it

[AndrewT]

The problem with snooker is that it's like Test cricket, in that the tense exciting moments come interspersed with long periods which casual viewers would find boring. Test cricket gets round this because it has more devotees to begin with and the very fact that viewers will generally be supporting one team generates the interest.

With snooker, unless someone like Jimmy or Ronnie are playing, most of the audience couldn't care less who wins, so they're left with two dullards knocking balls around for a few hours.

Darts doesn't have this problem as the very nature of the game means it builds to a climax every 3 or 4 minutes.

[GreekStein]

The problem with snooker is that it's like Test cricket, in that the tense exciting moments come interspersed with long periods which casual viewers would find boring. Test cricket gets round this because it has more devotees to begin with and the very fact that viewers will generally be supporting one team generates the interest.

With snooker, unless someone like Jimmy or Ronnie are playing, most of the audience couldn't care less who wins, so they're left with two dullards knocking balls around for a few hours.

Darts doesn't have this problem as the very nature of the game builds to a climax every 3 or 4 minutes.

My local snooker club is like 1/4 the size it was 3 or 4 years ago, with the manager raving that the smoking ban will really hurt the game.

[TheChipPrince]

Ryan Day wearing a 'Stars logo, wonder how much thatss worth...

[Colchester Kev]

pretty much all of them have been wearing stars logo's

[AndrewT]

The whole tournament is sponsored by Pokerstars, though you'd hardly know it from watching the BBC

[TightEnd]

Stars agreed to sponsor the event, via Hearn, at the last minute

Hearn is a genius, comes in and gets a new sponsor never before associated with the sport straight away



Ryan Day and Maguire are best friends and keen poker players. They turned up together for the first Sky event on the current tour and Day final tabled. Nice guys.

[titaniumbean]

They got bladdered at the spt event!!!


Stars rule, I likes snoookers!!!

[AndrewT]

During the break between frames yesterday the TV cut to the wide shot of Wembley from the camera up in the ceiling.

The place couldn't have been more than a quarter full yet this was for a match involving Ronnie O'Sullivan.

[TheChipPrince]

Ryan Day

For a bonus point, name 3 teams you would associate with his brother?