2016 UK Championship

[jonny66]

Ronnie trying to get himself into trouble again. I enjoyed Steve's reaction to his comments,

[Tim65]

What a nasty,self-opinionated little turd O'Sullivan is.

[itsnoteasy]

Loved it!

Bang on

From what I see in our club he's bang on about the grass roots, there is none. There isn't a player under forty in our club, that plays even lower league standard( and that's pretty low) anyone who's any good is older, we did have one lad but he went to uni..
He was very harsh but probably true about the standard of players in the 128 draws and I have never been keen on it being that open but I honestly don't have an answer as to how to bring folk through, I have always thought like him and if you're good enough you will make it, if not you won't.

[the lone wolf]

So what has ROS said today? :snooker:

[jonny66]

He's right about the snooker clubs closing down, but that's not world snooker's problem, or their fault. The smoking ban and the rise of the video game as number 1 activity for kids put paid to them.

[vjmehra]

To be honest, there is probably some truth in what he says...albeit his plans are perhaps a bit extreme...that said a couple of little smiles suggests he wasn't being overly serious.

Sometimes I wonder if Barry Hearn and Ronnie get together and not quite plan these outbursts, but perhaps decide it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world if Ronnie was to speak openly...its guaranteed to make the papers after all, which is good for the game.

I think the answer perhaps is to tweak things slightly, so the top seeds come in, in the later rounds, we still have ranking points and 'live' rankings after every event so the top 16, top 32 etc. aren't as protected as they once were and the lower ranked players can gain ground in the smaller tournaments.

But what if say the top 32 only joined in the round of 64 instead of 128, that would help a bit perhaps?

[vjmehra]

He's right about the snooker clubs closing down, but that's not world snooker's problem, or their fault. The smoking ban and the rise of the video game as number 1 activity for kids put paid to them.

I think property prices are the biggest issue there, snooker tables require a lot of space and today in anywhere near a town/city centre land is very expensive. Its likely that the rental costs are to high for many businesses to justify their existence sadly.

They are probably stuck with 2 options:

1) Up table and/or drink prices, reduce the number of customers and end up closing down anyway
2) Close down now and still have some cash in the bank

Its negative, but probably not far from the truth.

[jonny66]

I think property prices are the biggest issue there, snooker tables require a lot of space and today in anywhere near a town/city centre land is very expensive. Its likely that the rental costs are to high for many businesses to justify their existence sadly.

They are probably stuck with 2 options:

1) Up table and/or drink prices, reduce the number of customers and end up closing down anyway
2) Close down now and still have some cash in the bank

Its negative, but probably not far from the truth.

Yep, the biggest snooker hall in Aberdeen "lost their license" a few years back. It's now being turned into luxury flats. This is happening to all the old music venues as well, closed down and turned into flats. So that people can stay in their flats and play video games while listening to Spotify I suppose.

[vjmehra]

Yep, the biggest snooker hall in Aberdeen "lost their license" a few years back. It's now being turned into luxury flats. This is happening to all the old music venues as well, closed down and turned into flats. So that people can stay in their flats and play video games while listening to Spotify I suppose.

On AZ Billiards everyone complains about how its difficult to play on a 9 foot pool table these days as everywhere now has 7 footers...and they are a bit bigger than we are!

I think its not unrealistic, that snooker clubs become even sparser unless something is done :-(

[vjmehra]

So what has ROS said today? :snooker:

He was talking about the state of the game, saying:

Clubs are closing down
No new UK players are coming through
The standard at the bottom of the tour is poor
Tournaments should focus on the top 32 (he suggested 5/6 invitational events for the top 16/32 and 10-12 ranking events I think)
He also said most tournaments should move to China (which I could have sworn he was previously against) due to the prize money they are willing to offer (but only for tournaments containing the top players)

Steve Davis sitting next to him did not look impressed at all!!!

[Neil Taperell]

He wants to come down to the club I play at , loads of kids playing and in the local leagues as well .

I've got the son of a former professional playing for my team , and he is only 14 years old . There are other teams with youngsters in as well that play in 2 different leagues .

[itsnoteasy]

He wants to come down to the club I play at , loads of kids playing and in the local leagues as well .

I've got the son of a former professional playing for my team , and he is only 14 years old . There are other teams with youngsters in as well that play in 2 different leagues .

Is that in London Neil, because he did specifically mention clubs shutting and no youngsters or grass roots down there.

[trains]

He's right about the snooker clubs closing down, but that's not world snooker's problem, or their fault. The smoking ban and the rise of the video game as number 1 activity for kids put paid to them.

Didn't see the interview but I would lay some of the blame at World Snooker's door,they know full well there is a gross lack of pro standard tables up and down the country yet they haven't held a PTC in Britain since 2012 and Jason Ferguson seems to act like PTC's never existed in the first place.
Honest open transparency at its finest I'd say !!

[PatBlock]

He wants to come down to the club I play at , loads of kids playing and in the local leagues as well .

I've got the son of a former professional playing for my team , and he is only 14 years old . There are other teams with youngsters in as well that play in 2 different leagues .

Is your club in Surrey? Maybe the picture isn't quite so rosy in less affluent areas of the country?

-

[itsnoteasy]

On AZ Billiards everyone complains about how its difficult to play on a 9 foot pool table these days as everywhere now has 7 footers...and they are a bit bigger than we are!

I think its not unrealistic, that snooker clubs become even sparser unless something is done :-(

Out of curiosity, do they make the pockets smaller on a seven footer? Surely they can't have 4.5 inch pockets on a seven foot table, there would be more pocket than cushion.