Brazil will stage a new tournament next season as professional snooker heads to South America for the first time.The Brazilian Masters (launched today in London, picture left) will be held in the city of Sao Paulo from September 14-17. It will be an invitation tournament in the first year, featuring 12 top players and four wildcards, with the plan to upgrade it to a ranking event in the fullness of time.
Brazil has a history of snooker but the game is largely played with ten reds on smaller tables.
For the first time this season a Brazilian player, Igor Figueiredo, is competing as a professional and qualified for the World Open, where his British TV debut ended at the hands of Mark Williams.
The move into any new territory is a cause for celebration but Brazil, with its sun-drenched beaches and long history of excellence at football, is one of the more glamorous locations for a tournament.
I can’t imagine many players thinking twice before accepting the invitation.
However, those with long memories will recall that events were also announced in Brazil in 1995 and 2004 and that neither took place.
But I have rather more confidence in Barry Hearn’s promotional skills than those of regimes gone by and this new event, and tournaments likely to be announced in other far off places in the near future, is proof of genuine progress being made under his stewardship of the game’s commercial body.
It is right to start off with an invitation event and test the water to see if the interest in Brazil can sustain a bigger tournament in years to come.
This strategy is one Hearn pursued in the 1980s as an independent promoter. It was he who first went to Thailand, China and Dubai, long before the governing body.
Two of the local wildcards will be determined by a qualifying event in Brazil, which itself will generate even more interest in snooker in the country as amateur players fight to take on the sport's biggest names.
The Brazilian Masters will be played under a knock-out format on one match table.
The early rounds will be best of seven frames while the semis and final will be best of nine.
Television coverage will be announced in due course.
37 comments:
It's good to see snooker branch out, but Brazil is a poor country; can't imagine there are many companies down that way other than the drug cartels who can afford to pump in a couple of hundred grand.
Well after watching a shrinking circuit for some time, this is great news and reminds us that Hearn puts his (our) money where his mouth is!
Right now I'd rather see the draw for next week's event!!!
Betty has a point but only if Brazil really is as poor as she thinks. Which I would guess it isn't.
Great news here about snooker being brought to another exotic country, in this case though it is a country where snooker is being played quite regularly. This could be an interesting market and a ranking event could do well here. Let's hope.
And let's hope it is not another Bahrain. Sounded very exciting at the beginning, but turned out not quite that well in the end.
This test-event, invitational tournament next year, should prevent another disappointment in an era when disappointment is the last thing snooker needs...
Bahrain is the prime example of why you should start in new territories by taking invitation events to test the water, which is exactly what is happening here.
And if they didn't have the financial backing, Barry Hearn wouldn't have signed the deal.
Fantastic news for the game as Hearn continues in his attempts to go global.
Ptc's and championship league are all very well in the absence of anything else, but they are mickey mouse and ten grand for the winner is more akin to the late 70's than the 21st century.
They do provide match practise admittedly, but a world tour has to be the ultimate goal, with each country having their own "ptc" style series for the lower ranked players.
Keep up the good work Baz. Just try and get more events on the telly.
So when's the 2011 World Open going to be, then? Clearly, it won't be on at the same time.
The World Open was moved this year because of the Commonwealth Games.
If it's on the BBC next year it'll presumably move back to an October slot.
Think of the PTC as a £800,000 Season Long Tournament with 12 Qualifying stages and potentially £180,000 and 27,000 Ranking Points to the Winner thats anything but Mickey Mouse.
Brazil is a rich country with a lot of poor people - don't forget they're hosting the next footie world cup and the olympics after us. I think they can manage a snooker tournament........
3:44
I fully agree. I feel there is a bandwagon being mounted here with regards the PTC. It has been one of the most important inclusions to a snooker season in the last 10-15 years. While it has it faults it is still only in the teething period...
This new tournament in Brazil is another step in the right direction.
Great news allround and another tick in the box.
But why does Betsy have to constantly pour scorn and negativity over everything ?
Brazil are hosting the Olympics and World Cup so staging an invitational snooker event with
plenty of backing will be a doddle.
There is so much great promotion coming our way. 147 scantily clad women welcoming the players is something I'm already looking forward to. Dominic Dale doing a samba routine is a given and perhaps Murphy will address the crime in the favellas calling it "disgraceful, unprofessional and pathetic".
But seriously, I think it will be enjoyable and hope there will be some Eurosport coverage.
I'm all for the PTC's and the filling up of the calendar but there's not a lot of time off nowadays. I think the PTC's should be dropped to 8 events and increased by one day each.
The PTC's are hardly mickey mouse,yes 10k to the winner is hardly anything to shout about but what about 60k to the overall winner? And what about making professional snooker players actually be professionals? The only event with more overall prize money is the World's.
This new event in Brazil sounds good on paper but we were saying the same thing about Bahrain.....
Alpha
Did Barry Hearn lay on anything exciting for a photoshoot? This pic looks kinda pedestrian. And I wouldn't use Shaun Murphy to launch anything.
To Betty Logan:
Yes, Brazil OVERALL is poor, but you have to realise that because It's such a vast country, the overall poverty is due to very rich areas (e.g. southern Brazil, big cities like Rio and Sao Paulo) being balanced out by truly dirt-poor regions such as the north-east.
Brazil is not a true economic powerhouse YET, but it is progressing quickly. Don't forget that overseas companies also like Brazil because it has an enormous population, and thus, a huge potential market.
If I can be so arrogant as to offer Barry Hearn advice - PLEASE keep the ticket prices sensible - mass salaries in Brazil are still crap. Otherwise, we could see a second Bahrain with five people in the audience.
Regarding TV, I hope the deal will be with one of Brazil's "big two", Globo or Rede Record - if Hearn gets Globo, It's the most popular station in Brazil and EVERYBODY in Brazil can get it, It's almost like their BBC equivalent. If he deals with Rede Record, It's ranked number 2 in Brazil, but Hearn might like the international aspect - Sky viewers in the UK can receive it.
HOW CAN CENTURIES FROM PL BE COLLATED TO BE YOUR OVERALL CENTURY COUNT WHEN ITS INVITATIONAL
?
betsy just says things to get a reaction
oh, and i was the one that started calling betty betsy and seem to have a following of others doing the same nowadays
To the person shouting: by that logic Kirk Stevens never made a 147
what logic dave?
i was asking a question
?
A professional snooker event is a professional snooker event. Whether or not it carries ranking points makes no difference to whether a century counts.
If invitation events were outlawed for some strange reason then Kirk's 147 wouldn't count - even though it's one of snooker's great moments.
Also to the person shouting, when the game went open, the players who came through played hundreds of frames more than the ones who were getting invitations, and therefore had more opportunities to make centuries.
Keep up the good work betsy. A good cynic livens up the blog I think.
"I'm all for the PTC's and the filling up of the calendar but there's not a lot of time off nowadays. I think the PTC's should be dropped to 8 events and increased by one day each."
----------------------------------
i honestly cant believe people are saying "there's not a lot of time off nowadays" hahahahaha thats Laughable.
they been wanting more Tournaments now people are saying theres 2 much.
They Professional Players Professionals has Christmas Off and 2 Week Vacation to take.
thanks for answering my (without logic) question dave.
also, why are ws not using a pic of current world champion and wno1 nr for the announcement of wctickets? shame on them using the nosh man
Dave - how can Sky get away with using Sky HD microphones and announcing players to the words "live on Sky HD" when the coverage isn't in HD?
Superb news.
I read it is going to be covered by Eurosport as well.
A press conference without a prima donna player spouting how much he loathes the game.
Very refreshing.
another tournament...great news....but what is this i hear...new brazilian masters tournament is postponed due to fatigue in players...dont make me laugh...make them work 5 every day and travel everywhere...theyve never had it so good...
I still wouldn't bet on O'Sullivan showing up, he never did the Malta Cup, when it was an ivitation event.
If I were a sponsor I'd pay him appearance money to play my event. I don't know why they don't do it to be honest — seems a bit pointless to put in a huge sum of money just for the star attraction to boycott the event. An extra 10k for each round he plays would probably guarantee that he turns up.
Dead right Betsy. The extra cash could be clawed back by docking a few quid off bores like Selby and Fu.
Dave, you said that if the World Open is on BBC next year, it will probably be in October.
But, how big is the doubt about whether it will be on the BBC?
If I had to guess I'd say it's more unlikely to be on than likely.
Dave
Will next year's World Open even be held in the UK next year? Even Hearn was talking about alternating the event around the globe.
Alpha
Yes, the ratings were slightly inferior for the final than the Grand Prix, but even if had got 3 million, the axe would still come, it's an image issue for the BBC.
Post a Comment