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Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby D4P

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:I liked his point about there almost being two tours and events outside the Triple Crowns being an afterthought.


I would go even further and say that Snooker has put so many of its eggs in one basket that there is essentially the World Championships and then everything else.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Prop

I suppose that’s a relic of snooker’s past and its relationship with tv. The original big ones were always going to remain the big ones, but enough hasn’t been done to keep the rest of the tour in the same ballpark.

I think Hendon (and Ron) make a lot of valid points. I don’t agree with everything, but the real picture is there fundamentally.

I’d also offer that being able to suggest a silver bullet to solve the game’s future isn’t a prerequisite to the right to say snooker is struggling. It’s likely that the vast majority of players and fans are well aware of the rocky ground. They shouldn’t be expected to offer solutions just to validate their judgment.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Dan-cat

I pretty much agreed the buck out of Hendon. His rant about people moaning about having to pay £5 to Matchroom to watch the WST classic was bang on. Streaming costs money!! Duhh.

He also made a great point about the venues changing all the time not allowing the tournaments to gain some kind of identity.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby SnookerFan

Dan-cat wrote:He also made a great point about the venues changing all the time not allowing the tournaments to gain some kind of identity.


That I can agree with.

ITV are pretty terrible at this. And not just changing the venues, but moving tournaments around between the same core group of venues sometimes. One year, I went to Preston mid-February. I went the same weekend the following year to Preston, but it was a different tournament. So they'd been playing silly buggers with the dates of the tournament too. It's difficult to remember which of my visit was for the Players Championships, and which one was the World Grand Prix.

Llandudno is another example. Every tournament seems to have been played there. Including the Scottish Open. <doh>

It also doesn't help that a lot of the tournaments are decorated in the same way. And have the same sponsors. I kind of get it for the Home Nations. But do we need the Champion Of Champions, World Grand Prix, Players Championship and Tour Championships to all look identical?

The tournaments often run into one in the memory.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Iranu

Dan-cat wrote:I pretty much agreed the buck out of Hendon. His rant about people moaning about having to pay £5 to Matchroom to watch the WST classic was bang on. Streaming costs money!! Duhh.

Maybe he doesn’t realise but he ignored that the event was promoted and advertised as being on Discovery+ which many people pay for and unlike his other examples DOES already show snooker.

It’s a startling lack of organisation and foresight to allow something like that to happen.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby mantorok

Snooker grows > All majors are shown on Sky & BT Sports > Moaning increases

Compared with other sports I think from a spectator POV we are sitting rather pretty, things could be alot worse. Be careful what you wish for.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Womble

mantorok wrote:Snooker grows > All majors are shown on Sky & BT Sports > Moaning increases

Compared with other sports I think from a spectator POV we are sitting rather pretty, things could be alot worse. Be careful what you wish for.

People who won't pay £5 for Matchroom definitely won't like paying for Sky and BT Sports. I have both of them. They are not cheap AT ALL. I regularly consider if I even want them or not.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby SnookerFan

mantorok wrote:Snooker grows > All majors are shown on Sky & BT Sports > Moaning increases

Compared with other sports I think from a spectator POV we are sitting rather pretty, things could be alot worse. Be careful what you wish for.


Yeah. That's a fair point.

I'd much rather snooker be on BBC/ITV and Eurosport (a channel that I receive), then Sky and BT, a channel that I don't. But would have to pay for if snooker did move there properly.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby SnookerFan

Womble wrote:People who won't pay £5 for Matchroom definitely won't like paying for Sky and BT Sports. I have both of them. They are not cheap AT ALL. I regularly consider if I even want them or not.


The difference being though, that with Matchroom you're getting the Championship League, which nobody watches, and the WST Classic. Which, lets face it, was a shitty format.

If say Sky Sports got The Crucible off of the BBC, say, that's a different consideration.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby mantorok

Womble wrote:
mantorok wrote:Snooker grows > All majors are shown on Sky & BT Sports > Moaning increases

Compared with other sports I think from a spectator POV we are sitting rather pretty, things could be alot worse. Be careful what you wish for.

People who won't pay £5 for Matchroom definitely won't like paying for Sky and BT Sports. I have both of them. They are not cheap AT ALL. I regularly consider if I even want them or not.


I have Sky Sports soley for Darts because all of the majors are covered by them, the only upshot is the coverage is usually very professional (if a little over the top) and high quality, some in UHD. If Snooker was to be added it would only be a positive for me, however for those who don't have it then it would be a tough pill to swallow, especially when you consider the fact there will still be tournaments on the calendar covered by 2 or more streaming services (D+ and Matchroom).
Last edited by mantorok on 29 Mar 2023, edited 1 time in total.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Prop

mantorok wrote:
Prop wrote:Sky don’t want anything to do with snooker.


Only because it's presently small-fry.


I don’t think it’ll ever be big enough for Sky tbh.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby mantorok

Prop wrote:
mantorok wrote:
Prop wrote:Sky don’t want anything to do with snooker.


Only because it's presently small-fry.


I don’t think it’ll ever be big enough for Sky tbh.


True, but Sky does cover smaller sports too afaik, if the TC events were dropped by BBC I reckon that would be enough to garner interest though.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Juddernaut88

mantorok wrote:
Womble wrote:
mantorok wrote:Snooker grows > All majors are shown on Sky & BT Sports > Moaning increases

Compared with other sports I think from a spectator POV we are sitting rather pretty, things could be alot worse. Be careful what you wish for.

People who won't pay £5 for Matchroom definitely won't like paying for Sky and BT Sports. I have both of them. They are not cheap AT ALL. I regularly consider if I even want them or not.


I have Sky Sports soley for Darts because all of the majors are covered by them, the only upshot is the coverage is usually very professional (if a little over the top) and high quality, some in UHD. If Snooker was to be added it would only be a positive for me, however for those who don't have it then it would be a tough pill to swallow, especially when you consider the fact there will still be tournaments on the calendar covered by 2 or more streaming services (D+ and Matchroom).


I have Sky sports mainly for Football and Cricket. I refuse to subscribe to BT sports though as it's £25 a month.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby mantorok

Something Hendon said did get me thinking, about moaning about the sport instead of trying to help it, so I'm going to add broadcasting/streaming information to Graeme Bott so he can start posting details on Twitter and in here, might help a little :chin:

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Prop

mantorok wrote:Something Hendon said did get me thinking, about moaning about the sport instead of trying to help it, so I'm going to add broadcasting/streaming information to Graeme Bott so he can start posting details on Twitter and in here, might help a little :chin:


Good idea <ok>

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Iranu

mantorok wrote:Something Hendon said did get me thinking, about moaning about the sport instead of trying to help it, so I'm going to add broadcasting/streaming information to Graeme Bott so he can start posting details on Twitter and in here, might help a little :chin:

Because he’s not struggling to keep up already.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby SnookerFan

mantorok wrote:Something Hendon said did get me thinking, about moaning about the sport instead of trying to help it, so I'm going to add broadcasting/streaming information to Graeme Bott so he can start posting details on Twitter and in here, might help a little :chin:


<ok>

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby KrazeeEyezKilla

Sky definitely would have took the BBC events if it was offered years ago but I'm not sure about now. ITV4 cover a fair amount of darts so even if Sky got the Triple Crown tournament ITV would still have a few events. It's Eurosport who would probably be the ones that lose out.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby lhpirnie

KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:Sky definitely would have took the BBC events if it was offered years ago but I'm not sure about now. ITV4 cover a fair amount of darts so even if Sky got the Triple Crown tournament ITV would still have a few events. It's Eurosport who would probably be the ones that lose out.

I used to work for Sky quite regularly. They certainly wouldn't broadcast the World Championship if it were still held at the Crucible Theatre. They have pretty strong requirements. That's actually one of the reasons for my opinion of that venue, although I don't have any preference amongst broadcasters.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby Juddernaut88

lhpirnie wrote:
KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:Sky definitely would have took the BBC events if it was offered years ago but I'm not sure about now. ITV4 cover a fair amount of darts so even if Sky got the Triple Crown tournament ITV would still have a few events. It's Eurosport who would probably be the ones that lose out.

I used to work for Sky quite regularly. They certainly wouldn't broadcast the World Championship if it were still held at the Crucible Theatre. They have pretty strong requirements. That's actually one of the reasons for my opinion of that venue, although I don't have any preference amongst broadcasters.


Put in a good word for me please and help me get a job at Sky :D

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby SnookerFan

lhpirnie wrote:
KrazeeEyezKilla wrote:Sky definitely would have took the BBC events if it was offered years ago but I'm not sure about now. ITV4 cover a fair amount of darts so even if Sky got the Triple Crown tournament ITV would still have a few events. It's Eurosport who would probably be the ones that lose out.

I used to work for Sky quite regularly. They certainly wouldn't broadcast the World Championship if it were still held at the Crucible Theatre. They have pretty strong requirements. That's actually one of the reasons for my opinion of that venue, although I don't have any preference amongst broadcasters.


So, the World Championship stays on Freeview, unless it moves from The Crucible.

Yet another reason to stay there.

Re: Dave Hendon's thoughts on O'Sullivan and Dawson

Postby SnookerEd25

HappyCamper wrote:snooker should be forced to be shown in every household, like big brother in 1984.


Yes, and Iranu should be forced to appreciate Jill Douglas <ok>