10.11.10

EXCLUSIVE: FIVE NEW TOURNAMENTS IN 2011/12

There will be at least five new events next season according to the official schedule for the 2011/12 campaign.

It includes a new ranking tournament in Asia, another ranking event in an as yet unspecified location, an additional invitation event in China, the Brazilian Masters and a World Cup in Thailand.

There will, once again, be 12 Professional Tour Championship events and the World Open remains on the calendar, even though the BBC will not be broadcasting it.

All this adds up to a very busy year, something players have been demanding for a long time.

I worked out that, for example, the world champion will have 29 events to play in if he wants to – nine ranking tournaments, the Masters, the 12 PTCs, the PTC grand finals (if he qualifies), the Premier League, Championship League, World Cup, two Chinese invitation events and the Brazilian Masters.

The top players are moving to a position where they will start picking and choosing which tournaments to play in, a position unimaginable just a year ago.

Provisional schedule for 2011/12 season:

June 2011
10-12 PTC1
24-26 PTC2

July 2011
29 June - 3 July China Invitational - China
5-10 July - Wuxi Classic - China
11-17 - World Cup - Thailand
22-24 - PTC3

August 2011
1-4 August - Shanghai Masters Qualifiers - Academy Sheffield
7-10 August - World Open Qualifiers - Academy Sheffield
13-15 August - PTC4
18 August - Premier League
19-21 August - PTC5
25 August - Premier League
25-28 August - PTC6 (Paul Hunter Classic) - Germany
30 August - 2 September - Qualifiers (spare slot)

September 2011
1 September - Premier League
8 September - Premier League
9-11 September - PTC7
15-18 September - Brazilian Masters - Transamerica Expo Centre, Sao Paulo, Brazil
22 September - Premier League
26 September - 2 October - Shanghai Masters - Shanghai, China

October 2011
4-9 October - World Open
13 October - Premier League
14-16 October - PTC8
20 October - Premier League
24-30 October - Ranking Event

November 2011
3 November - Premier League
4-6 November - Seniors
10 November - Premier League
11-13 November - PTC9
17 November - Premier League
18-20 November - PTC10
22-30 November - UK Championship Qualifiers
26-27 November - Premier League Finals

December 2011
3-11 December - UK Championship
14-16 December - PTC11

January 2012
3-6 January - German Masters Qualifiers - Academy Sheffield
8-15 January - The Masters
16-19 January - Spare qualifiers slot for March
16-19 January - Championship League
20-22 January - PTC12
23-26 January - Championship League
27-29 January - Sky shoot Out

February 2012
1-5 February - German Masters
7-10 February - Welsh Open qualifiers - Academy Sheffield
13-19 February - Welsh Open
21-24 February - China Open qualifiers - Academy, Sheffield
27 February - 1 March - Championship League

March 2012
2-13 March - World Championship Qualifiers - Academy Sheffield
5-8 March - Championship League
15-18 March - PTC Finals
19-22 March - Championship League
26 March - 1 April - Ranking Event

April 2012
2-8 April - China Open, Beijing China
9-12 April - Championship League
21 April - 7 May - World Championship - Crucible, Sheffield

37 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welsh Open?

Dave H said...

All the tournaments on the calendar this season are also there next season.

Steve K said...

Hopefully the new tournament in Asia will be distinguishable from the CO and SM and will have a different format from the best of 9..

Anonymous said...

do you know when this will be announced officially?

and will the PTCs still all be in the first half of the season?

Anonymous said...

There is a God after all!!
Anyone who is still criticising Barry Hearn should give up snooker and should seriously consider a career change.You can't still be moaning when you've got the best.

PS - Glad the Welsh Open is still going ahead but it should be moved to Cardiff to give it the best chance.

Dave H said...

I've edited the above post to include the provisional calendar. Venues still to be determined but it looks good to me (understatement).

Redandblackblog said...

Is the other ranking event in Asia due to take place the week before the China open or is it taking the slot in the first half of the season?

Dave H said...

I'm assuming the one immediately before China is in Asia. Years ago they used to do Thailand and China back-to-back.

Anonymous said...

you assume correct dave ;)

Executor said...

Looks great but I am always wondering where does all the money necessary to run such events come from, especially when all the sponsorship deals (if there are any) are finalised (or revealed?) five minutes to twelve. (At this point of season, China, Welsh, Germany, Masters and PTC Finals have no sponsor). I of course think that Barry Hearn is doing a great job and the schedule for next season is unbelievable, but that makes me really worrying.

(In fact it looks too good. Even if they scrapped the new invitational in China and/or one of two planned ranking events, it will still look great.)

Executor said...

Not that it has any meaning Dave but I do not think a world champion should or would need to play in Championship Leage as he is usualy invited directly into PL, isn't he?

Greg P said...

Great. We could use a ranking tournament in between the World Open and the UK, it's a long wait... it would be better if it was in November but I guess it's scheduled that way for whatever reason.

Janie Watkins said...

I hear at least one PTC will go to Ireland next season

and also Barry, in a letter to players, is talking about staging some PTCs across Asian countries and maybe even one in Australia.

Get the passport and jabs up to date and start saving up for all the air fares!

Sounds like 2011-12 is going to be even more manic than this season!!

Anonymous said...

Hopefully the 'mystery' ranking event will be in Australia.

Whether it is or not,the calendar
is as packed as could be.

Big thumps up !

Redandblackblog said...

Do players get expenses ie flights for overseas PTC's? as they do a normal overseas ranking event.

TazMania said...

Finally levels of tournaments have returned mid- late 90's. If someone said there will be To 29 major tournaments within two years (in 2009) i would have laughed to death. Take note Ian Doyle and 110sport(Which hardly invest in creating tournaments ) if your planning to take over snooker with bond again leave the current snooker board and Barry Hearne alone. They are doing a fantastic job!!!

Anonymous said...

Dave

On the WSA site, it says that the qualifiers for the UK and World are subject tp format review. Do you know if they are thinking of cutting the number of frames down. I could probably forgive them for doing that at the UK, but I think long frame qualifying for the World is one of the best events of the year to attend.

Cheers

John A

Anonymous said...

Executor at 4.36- Why would you be worried about the money? Are you afraid they're going to ask you to contribute or something?

Dave H said...

Ian Doyle's been retired a while so I'm not sure why he's getting stick

Betty Logan said...

And a PTC in Aus! I suggested that a few months back and everyone said I was thick!

Witz78 said...

This is brilliant news. Snookers making huge jumps forward under Hearn in a short space of time.

Begs the question where would the sport currently be if he had been running the show the last couple of decades....

We now have a truly international tour, a packed calendar and players can finally see themselves as full time professionals for the first time in years.

I think with this kind of calendar we could well be looking towards ONE year rolling rankings eventually coming into play.

As for the PTC if the growth of fully blown ranking events continues, i see the PTC being downsized in future seasons as it will have served its ultimate purpose in providing opportunities to players whilst showcasing the sport to new fanbases leading to expansion.

A ranker in Ireland next season perhaps?

Well done Barry. Surely the last of the doubters have crawled out from their holes now and held their hands up and accepted Barry was and is the perfect man for the job.

TazMania said...

Sorry forget Ian Doyle what i meant was Lee Doyle the one that tried to takeover snooker recently. Hope it clears up the misunderstanding!!!

Anonymous said...

Dave
Where is the World Open going to be held next season? If it's not going to be shown on the BBC, there doesn't seem to be much point to keeping it in Glasgow?

Alpha

Dave H said...

From the World Open's slot on the calendar it's a fair bet it'll be in China.

Anonymous said...

dave it is in china. got that from a reliable source. ;)

Executor said...

Anon 7:05

No I am scared that an event gets cancelled shortly before its beginning due to no money.

Betty Logan said...

Scotland's loss is China's gain. The World Open got pretty good attendances this year but in the past it has to be said hasn't been well supported in Scotland. A shame really because there always seemed a decent turnout at Preston.

As for Ireland I just don't think the country is big enough to finance a full ranker. A BBC event can reach 60 million people, an RTE event about 5 million, and that will be reflected in the level of sponsorship. It had a very good invitational for 25 years and then they went and ruined it by giving it ranking status. If I could get one tournament back up and running it would be the Irish Masters.

kildare cueman said...

Impressive work by Hearn. Lots of snooker, players busy. Stage one of the renaissance complete.

Now that the players are happy(well most of them anyway), I'd like to see the fans looked after, by virtue of more TV coverage.

PTC's and qualifiers are great but it would be nice to see some of the action, even if it's on some obscure channel somewhere.

I suppose the ideal scenario would be a mixture of 10-12 full scale rankers and 8-10 tournaments for the elite or top ranked players.

These "masters" style events could run concurrently with the PTC's, thereby ensuring that not only is everybody playing, but the lower ranks will have extra opportunities to replace the elite, and become eligible for the next batch of invitationals.

The deposed elite would in turn, have the chance to regain their places immediately, ensuring constant ranking fluidity.

How many potential world champions have we let slip through the net because they didn't make it through the qualifiers, while journeymen clogged up their route by winning one match and retained their position in the top 32?

Hopefully this will now change, and the talented young pros that knock each other out early will have more events in which to develop and learn the trade, and maybe add another dimension of interest to the game.

Anonymous said...

And this doesn't even include all the events that Lee Doyle has been promising for years. That will take the total rocketing up from 29 to at least thirty-eh, 30.

Dave H said...

I share Betty's lament for the loss of the Irish Masters and the lunacy of making it a ranking event. However, the PTC grand finals will be in Ireland.

Betty Logan said...

Barry Hearn clearly subscribes to that grand old maxim of politics: give a man work and he won't have time for a revolution.

southerner said...

What about Gloucester?
Are we going to get any more events in Gloucester, so that we can watch them on the internet?
(I can't get Eurosport or Sky.)

Anonymous said...

Dave, about this:
29 July - 3 July China Invitational - China

Do you know if it is the BTV tournament that is staged by 110sport or a new invitational?

Anonymous said...

I hink the reason they turned the Irish Masters into a ranker was because after the China and Thailand Masters was discontinued (due to lack of funds), there would have only been six ranking events that year. (Ironically that was the season after the Altium shambles). Still a stupid decision but I can see why World Snooker did it.

Alpha

Dave H said...

Sort of. It was made a ranking event because the people who beat Altium promised a circuit of eight events and needed two extra ones. There was the Irish Masters and the non-televised European Open in Torquay (actually a great event with a top class O'Sullivan v Hendry final).

These folk won a ten-year contract to run the game but were, of course, gone after ten months.

Anonymous said...

who won that final davey?

Dave H said...

Ronnie 9-6