Another Saudi tournament announced for August

The Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Ranking event, 128 plus Saudi wildcards, huge prize pot, positioning it as the ‘fourth major’.

https://www.wst.tv//news/2024/february/ ... nnounced-/

I get a blank page.

prize money is crazy - far closer to the Worlds than the UKs - would guess winning will be c£400-£450,000

For some reason the link won’t work. But all the info is on wst.tv

This might work, via Twitter

https://x.com/wearewst/status/175737452 ... gwY8-fiTQQ

Ta Manty!

Can’t wait to see arenas absolutely packed to capacity with all those passionate Saudi snooker fans.

Ah, yes. The fourth major.

SnookerFan wrote:Ah, yes. The fourth major.

what vacuous marketing piffle. the idea of three majors as it is in nonsense enough. to just declare a new one on the waving of a saudi cheque is risible.

I don’t really have a moral problem with Saudi Arabia tournaments - that ship sailed as soon as we got in bed with China, and tbh I think Saudi is just the “fashionable” country to be outraged at right now that doesn’t involve a war, like Qatar before the World Cup (where’s that outrage gone?)

It’s the flagrant arrogance in designating a tournament the “fourth” major, adding new balls and spitting in the face of existing tournaments. They can’t just bring the Champion of Champions to Saudi Arabia with an increased prize pot, no, they have to have their own Saudi Arabia Masters.

As much as anything else it’s just tacky as buck.

Is the Triple Crown nonsense disbanded?

at least the lower ranked players could earn some money from this

Alex0paul wrote:Is the Triple Crown nonsense disbanded?

Anything can be changed for a price.

Alex0paul wrote:Is the Triple Crown nonsense disbanded?

BBC will be fuming...unless they get the broadcast rights

Iranu wrote:I don’t really have a moral problem with Saudi Arabia tournaments - that ship sailed as soon as we got in bed with China, and tbh I think Saudi is just the “fashionable” country to be outraged at right now that doesn’t involve a war, like Qatar before the World Cup (where’s that outrage gone?)

It’s the flagrant arrogance in designating a tournament the “fourth” major, adding new balls and spitting in the face of existing tournaments. They can’t just bring the Champion of Champions to Saudi Arabia with an increased prize pot, no, they have to have their own Saudi Arabia Masters.

As much as anything else it’s just tacky as buck.

Feel a little sorry for China, surely one of their tournaments should have been positioned as a fourth major based on history and longer investment in the game.

But money talks

SteveJJ wrote:

Alex0paul wrote:Is the Triple Crown nonsense disbanded?

BBC will be fuming...unless they get the broadcast rights

Good point. Imagine calling something the fourth major and having it hidden away on Discovery. It’s going to have to be done properly if they want people to take it seriously.

I doubt the BBC will want to touch it. It'll be tucked away on Disco+ and all this 'fourth major' talk will disappear. Unless of course they do something exceptional with the format (multi-session matches etc)

As long as they get rid of the ranking version of the championship league then I'm not overly fussed.

no mention of the golden ball. This is disappointing

Juddernaut88 wrote:As long as they get rid of the ranking version of the championship league then I'm not overly fussed.

I'd rather they got rid of the non-ranking one. There's space for a proper league style event (with draws and groups), that would be something different.

And so it begins.

This is the end of the Triple Crown era.

Alex0paul wrote:Is the Triple Crown nonsense disbanded?

Not by the BBC, it won't be.

TheRocket wrote:This is the end of the Triple Crown era.

And possibly the end of snooker, as we know it. The Saudis have already ruined golf...

I bet Ronnie won't pull out of this one due to 'stage fright'.

Look at all that money.

Stage fright. That's the best one yet.

Now is the time for the World Championship to move to Saudi Arabia.

SnookerFan wrote:Now is the time for the World Championship to movie to Saudi Arabia.

Is that a movie you would watache?

SnookerFan wrote:Now is the time for the World Championship to movie to Saudi Arabia.

No thanks.

D4P wrote:

SnookerFan wrote:Now is the time for the World Championship to movie to Saudi Arabia.

Is that a movie you would watache?

Thank you for the correction.

Edited.