18.11.10

TV SNOOKER RETURNS TO IRELAND

The Republic of Ireland will once again play host to a televised snooker tournament when the grand finals of the Players Tour Championship come to the Helix Theatre in Dublin next March.

It will feature the top 24 eligible players from the PTC order of merit following EPTC6 in Prague this weekend.

The Irish Masters was a hugely popular tournament with fans and players but has not been staged since 2005.

It will be interesting to see whether Ireland, traditionally a snooker hotbed, will embrace this new event.

The field will include some well known faces – including Shaun Murphy, Mark Selby, Mark Williams and Stephen Maguire – but also a great deal of more unfamiliar names.

Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins and Ding Junhui are among those not eligible to play and world champion Neil Robertson will need a strong performance in Prague to make the line-up.

There are no home players currently in the top 24 – Ken Doherty is 40th – and the tournament is being staged in the week of the St. Patrick’s celebrations, which are obviously a big deal in Dublin.

But for the many snooker fans who live in Ireland, this can only be good news.

TV and ticket details will be announced in due course.

21 comments:

Betty Logan said...

I don't think this is the tournament for Ireland. If Ronnie and Ken aren't present I don't see where the interest is going to come from. They maybe should have held the PTC final in Germany since the event has become a sort of unofficial German tour and not bothered with the German Masters, and got the traditional Irish Masters up and running instead. I can't think of a worse place to hold the PTC final given the lamentable performances of the Irish contingent in the event.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully ITV4 will pick up this event, like they did with the corresponding event in the Darts.

Anonymous said...

this Tournament should have gone to Chigwell, Essex on Ronnie's Doorstep and then he would be kicking himself for not playing 3 europe and 1 sheffield.

MaximumSnooker said...

Look forward these finals, no matter where they are held. Will be excellent for lesser known players such as Ford, Lisowski, Wells and Jones to show the world what they can do and because it's best of 7, theres plenty of chances for upsets.

Executor said...

Nice to have a tournament which even carries ranking points in Ireland once again, but given the circumstances I agree with Betsy on that with no Irish players involved plus that St. Patricks thing it is a risky one. (Ronnie, for once, will not be such a big factor I think.) But it is very important that the Grand Finals are a success and we all should hope they will be.

Executor said...

Now that I read MaximumSnooker's comment, is that for sure that Grand Finals will be best of 7 format, too?

And yes of course I for one would be greatly pleased with seeing the likes of Lisowski, Wells (if he qualifies), Jones and last but not least Andrew Higginson (if he qualifies) on TV. Hopefully Eurosport will screen that one, too.

MaximumSnooker said...

Don't quote me on that but I believe that the first few rounds are going to be best of 7 also to keep with the PTC format and the final is longer but I cant remember where I heard it.
Higginson is 95% most likely to be in at 20th place, Wells also has a good chance at 24th because Ding and Higgins can't reach the finals so it basically makes it the top 26 who go through.

Executor said...

First rounds incl. SF best of 7 and then final being at least best of 6 is what I would like it to look like, but who knows?

Dave, perhaps?

Anonymous said...

For once I agree with some of the other comments on here, it is a good idea by Hearn to get snooker up and running again but with no Doherty most likely and no O'Sullivan or even Robertson plus the St Patrick's day celebrations, the event should probably have gone to Germany. Btw, what are the chances of the Irish Masters going again, or is Hearn waiting to see how this event does?

Alpha

Anonymous said...

They should take advantage of the St. Patrick's Day spirit and make it a power snooker event.
(not)

TazMania said...

I think mabye returning to N. Ireland mabye is a good idea as well as having a ranking event in Thailand. Snooker need to reach as many countries as possible

Anonymous said...

I don't think Germany is as good as people think. EPTC4 had to come to the UK because the ticket sales were not good. I think it's now being flooded with more snooker than it needs.

Anonymous said...

Are ticket sales really that important when it comes to the financial success of a tournament? I would have thought sponsorship and TV revenue were the things that avoid a tournament making a loss. Surely as long as a tournament is sponsored and is televised it could be played anywhere. Do ticket sales make or break a tournament Dave?

Betty Logan said...

The PTC events will always struggle because they're basically high-end pro-am events and are not televised, so you're basically relying on local support. If the British PTCs were open to the public you'd get one man and his dog watching. It actually makes the case stronger for a proper televised tournament to capitalise on the interest created by the PTCs, and I guess that's the idea behind the German Masters...

Bringing back the Irish Masters with a nationalist slant over St Patrick's day might have been a smarter move — the top 4 along with Ronnie, Jimmy, Davis and Hendry, and 8 Irish wildcards.

Betty Logan said...

I don't think ticket sales have that much impact on the revenue, but obviously there is an image problem if there are loads of empty seats. The location and format are probably important for TV and sponsorship purposes. RTE for instance are probably more inclined to cover an event that guarantees a line-up of the big names and Irish players than one that doesn't, and Irish companies are probably more inclined to sponsor events that have the most television exposure in Ireland if that's where their dominant market is, although that said I don't think Irish companies will be sponsoring anything for a while. If Barry Hearn has Sky lined up he could hold it on the Orkneys and it wouldn't make much difference I guess.

Dave H said...

Tournaments don't depend completely on ticket sales but every little helps.

My prediction on TV - and I have no inside track on this - is that RTE will show the tournament if they don't have to produce it themselves. Barry Hearn could get his own Matchroom TV to do the production, although this would probably be a last resort.

kildare cueman said...

Betty at 5.40.
That line up would be absolutely perfect to ensure crowds and a large TV audience in Ireland.

I had something along those lines in my thoughts as well.

Problem is, Ireland by now, is a mature snooker nation and shouldn't have to rely on local wildcards and past masters to draw a crowd.

Having said that, Im a bit concerned that the PTC final might flop and deter the decision makers from holding more events here.

I would have a large wager that the legends event will attract a bigger crowd than the PTC final.

Anonymous said...

Well I will be at the finals and it is about time top class snooker returned to ireland.
There is a demand for it and whilst crowds will be poor on the 17th, the rest of the tournament will be very popular.

As for no Ronnie, Robbo, Hendry. We heard months ago that Hearn was looking to Ireland for the finals.

Plus Doherty and Allen still have a chance of making it.

Betty Logan said...

Allen has been banging on about having a tournament in Ireland for ages, and it looks like he might blown it. An up-and-coming young player in the top 16 really should have embraced the PTC as a chance to establish himself as a tournament winner — a missed opportunity for him on all fronts it seems.

Anonymous said...

Mark's attitude in this events has been much improved from the beginning of the season.

Anonymous said...

Does anyone know where this will be televised?