Luke
Won a few trophies
Posts: 216
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Post by Luke on Dec 2, 2009 17:47:25 GMT
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Post by Rob Hogan on Dec 2, 2009 18:57:02 GMT
I'll put on my anorak for this one...
Sir Rodney was far from the worst the board has ever had - he's the only chairman in recent times who's managed to keep the WPBSA coffers mostly in the black and did it in a time without tobacco sponsorship. He's done it by being conservative though and never did much to help stem a gradual drop off in both UK audiences and the wealth of the tour.
More interesting than Walker's departure though is Barry Hearn's arrival - this is a man who was hugely successful in (and did quite a fair bit to contribute to) snooker's 80s boom years, and since his departure from the sport he's done great things for darts (and relatively good things for bowls, which is a personal favourite of his apparently).
He's also a long time friend of Steve Davis, who himself is president of the newly-formed and until now largely ignored snooker players association. The SPA was the brainchild of John Higgins and Pat Mooney, who also run the 'world series' snooker events which draw good audiences around Europe and could be very successful with some support from the governing body.
I'm not sure about what can be done about snooker in the UK. I think we can expect Hearn to try to spice things up a bit - his Premier League with its shot clock, entrance music, short matches with top stars etc is probably a sign of things to come but he's also promised to keep the world championship on free TV and Steve Davis should ensure he doesn't completely lose sight of snooker's traditions. Interest has never been higher outside the UK though so that's there to be taken advantage of.
I'm pretty optimistic about things. Not everyone will like the Barry Hearn touch but it's hard to dispute his knack for making money and generating interest, and snooker needs him for both at the moment.
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