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Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby vodkadiet

Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet wrote:The other side of the coin is 'How many fans have switched off snooker because of O'Sullivan?' I know of a few who stopped watching snooker about a decade ago because they found his attitude very grating.

There are, but they are no doubt greatly outnumbered by those who started watching because of him


Yes, I agree he has brought in more casual watchers of snooker than snooker would have otherwise, but he has also driven away lots of genuine fans who just found his continuous moaning too much. I remember a guy who I used to play tennis with who said the moment he stopped watching snooker was when Paul Hunter was suffering from cancer and making every effort to carry on playing events despite his illness, and during one of the tournaments Hunter was playing whilst ill, he saw O'Sullivan giving an interview where he was just complaining about how bad his life was, and he was threatening to quit, and all the rest of the act he continually went through, and this was the moment he decided to stop watching.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Cloud Strife

Pink Ball wrote:
Cloud Strife wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:People asked the very same about Alex Higgins and Jimmy White.


As Alex declined Jimmy replaced him. Same thing happened again as Jimmy's declined Ronnie has replaced him. Who will replace Ronnie when's he's gone? I don't see anyone coming up on the horizon that will have the same impact on Snooker as those three legends did.

Good question. But do we really need a 'replacement'? When Sullivan left in 2013, I don't recall there being any major downturn. The world kept turning.


Do we need a replacement? We won't know for sure until Ronnie's gone for good. I say we do, in the UK at least. And other new territories across the world.

That said, I don't think anyone's arguing the world is going to stop if Ronnie leaves the sport. Far from it.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby vodkadiet

O'Sullivan won't ever quit, and he will never miss The Worlds. He needs snooker far more than snooker needs him.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Cloud Strife

In 1946 the sport of snooker was nearly destroyed beyond repair when it's transcendent star Joe Davis retired from competitive play. It took several decades for the sport to recover.

72 years later could we be about to see the same thing play out again?

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Pink Ball

Cloud Strife wrote:In 1946 the sport of snooker was nearly destroyed beyond repair when it's transcendent star Joe Davis retired from competitive play. It took several decades for the sport to recover.

72 years later could we be about to see the same thing play out again?

No

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Pink Ball

vodkadiet wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet wrote:The other side of the coin is 'How many fans have switched off snooker because of O'Sullivan?' I know of a few who stopped watching snooker about a decade ago because they found his attitude very grating.

There are, but they are no doubt greatly outnumbered by those who started watching because of him


Yes, I agree he has brought in more casual watchers of snooker than snooker would have otherwise, but he has also driven away lots of genuine fans who just found his continuous moaning too much. I remember a guy who I used to play tennis with who said the moment he stopped watching snooker was when Paul Hunter was suffering from cancer and making every effort to carry on playing events despite his illness, and during one of the tournaments Hunter was playing whilst ill, he saw O'Sullivan giving an interview where he was just complaining about how bad his life was, and he was threatening to quit, and all the rest of the act he continually went through, and this was the moment he decided to stop watching.

Why turn your back on the game over a clown? That's the loss of a casual fan, not a genuine one.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Cloud Strife

Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet wrote:
Pink Ball wrote:
vodkadiet wrote:The other side of the coin is 'How many fans have switched off snooker because of O'Sullivan?' I know of a few who stopped watching snooker about a decade ago because they found his attitude very grating.

There are, but they are no doubt greatly outnumbered by those who started watching because of him


Yes, I agree he has brought in more casual watchers of snooker than snooker would have otherwise, but he has also driven away lots of genuine fans who just found his continuous moaning too much. I remember a guy who I used to play tennis with who said the moment he stopped watching snooker was when Paul Hunter was suffering from cancer and making every effort to carry on playing events despite his illness, and during one of the tournaments Hunter was playing whilst ill, he saw O'Sullivan giving an interview where he was just complaining about how bad his life was, and he was threatening to quit, and all the rest of the act he continually went through, and this was the moment he decided to stop watching.

Why turn your back on the game over a clown? That's the loss of a casual fan, not a genuine one.


I'd go with that. What Vodka described there is the very definition of a casual fan.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Badsnookerplayer

Cloud Strife wrote:In 1946 the sport of snooker was nearly destroyed beyond repair when it's transcendent star Joe Davis retired from competitive play. It took several decades for the sport to recover.

72 years later could we be about to see the same thing play out again?

buck - has Joe Davis threatened to retire again. That will probably do it for me.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby SnookerFan

Badsnookerplayer wrote:
Cloud Strife wrote:In 1946 the sport of snooker was nearly destroyed beyond repair when it's transcendent star Joe Davis retired from competitive play. It took several decades for the sport to recover.

72 years later could we be about to see the same thing play out again?

buck - has Joe Davis threatened to retire again. That will probably do it for me.


According to Stephen Fry's CueI thing he did at The Crucible, nobody knows who Joe Davis is.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Holden Chinaski

"If he's not in a tournament, there is hardly anyone watching. If he is there, it is packed. I think Ronnie deserves appearance money because we all benefit from it."

(Mark Williams, casual fan)

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby LeonD123

I consider myself to be a casual fan from Switzerland, where snooker is not popular.

First got into watching snooker 10 years ago when a friend sent me the 147 in 5min20 from Ronnie.

I watch all the matches Ronnie plays, live or on replay.

When when he gets eliminated from a tournament, the event is quite over for me.

I mean I love watching snooker, big breaks, safety battles, everything, but I'd rather go play myself on Sunday than watching a 8h final between Higgins and Selby.

Youtube allows me to pick exactly what I wan't to watch.

I know so many people, who are even more casual than me, all they know about snooker is Ronnie O'Sullivan.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Alex0paul

Holden Chinaski wrote:"If he's not in a tournament, there is hardly anyone watching. If he is there, it is packed. I think Ronnie deserves appearance money because we all benefit from it."

(Mark Williams, casual fan)


Let's see how empty the Tempodrome is next week then

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby SnookerFan

Holden Chinaski wrote:"Ronnie's the only player I would pay money for to see him play"

(Stephen Hendry, casual fan)


Technically, Hendry is a casual fan when it comes to watching snooker.

He admits freely he rarely watches it unless he is paid to.

He always enjoyed playing far more than he did watching others play.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Andre147

Badsnookerplayer wrote:Ken Doherty & Mark Allen views:

https://www.rte.ie/sport/snooker/2018/0 ... -opts-out/


Cant say I disagree with them.

I think he'll still play at the Worlds, but I wouldnt be surprised if this time he was serious about it and not entered.

Like Wild said yesterday, maybe Ronnie isn't motivated at the Crucible anymore, but he's still hungry for other titles, like he's shown in the first half of the season.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby SnookerFan

SnookerFan wrote:
Technically, Hendry is a casual fan when it comes to watching snooker.

He admits freely he rarely watches it unless he is paid to.

He always enjoyed playing far more than he did watching others play.



This reminds me of a telling moment during The Masters last week.

Didn't involve Hendry, but it did demonstrate how casual a lot of the BBC commentary/analysis team are.

Steve Davis was interviewing Shaun Murphy. (I believe after the Ali Carter win.) Anyway, Murphy said that he'd been out having dinner with friends, and they'd been catching up with the matches on their phones.

Davis referred to him as; "Sad!" He legitimately seemed surprised that Murphy had been watching televised snooker.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Andre147

Dan-cat wrote:It was just Davis being a bit flippant.


No, I think SF actually makes a good point... that is just proof that they basically dont watch any Snooker apart from the BBC tournaments, and ignore/cant remember who won the other tournaments.

And to top it off, I've even seen them forgetting who won their own BBC tournaments <doh> this is the main difference between BBC and ITV commentators.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby vodkadiet

What percentage of snooker matches involve O'Sullivan? A very low percentage I would say.

Snooker is thriving with or without him.

As for Mark Williams, I actually believe he is in love with O'Sullivan and would probably date him if he got the chance.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Wildey

Cloud Strife wrote:In 1946 the sport of snooker was nearly destroyed beyond repair when it's transcendent star Joe Davis retired from competitive play. It took several decades for the sport to recover.

72 years later could we be about to see the same thing play out again?

In Joe Davis era Snooker was so reliant on Joe he virtually owned the sport and he stopped talented players playing proffesionallyif he did not approve of them so had Ronnie been around during Joe's era he would have never became a pro and same for Alex Higgins.

Joe himself was to blame for the sport going in to decline.

the formation of the WPBSA in 1968 was when Joe's Grip on the game was losened and hence the likes of Alex could turn pro and the rest is history.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby mantorok

Talk about click-bait, there's nothing derogatory in that article and certainly nothing that hasn't been said before.

Also, Hearn needs to stop comparing Snooker to Darts, the latter has a requirement for a short attention span and you won't see that much testosterone in a Snooker match, no siree.

Of course snooker will survive, but Hearn recognises that characters in the sport give a bigger draw, like he said he'd love to have 6 players with the same popularity, but Snooker forces players to act like soulless robots and conduct themselves according to the stringent rules, so how can one express themselves other than the odd fist-pump and joking around a bit at the table?

You can't prance around a stage in front of 5,000 people and act like a prat, so I don't see the comparison myself.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby SnookerFan

mantorok wrote:Talk about click-bait, there's nothing derogatory in that article and certainly nothing that hasn't been said before.


He didn't say anything wrong in his BBC interview either. He's a tit, don't get me wrong. But he didn't nothing worth criticising on this occasion.

I mentioned earlier, but people seem to want to be upset by it.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Dan-cat

mantorok wrote:Talk about click-bait, there's nothing derogatory in that article and certainly nothing that hasn't been said before.

Also, Hearn needs to stop comparing Snooker to Darts, the latter has a requirement for a short attention span and you won't see that much testosterone in a Snooker match, no siree.

Of course snooker will survive, but Hearn recognises that characters in the sport give a bigger draw, like he said he'd love to have 6 players with the same popularity, but Snooker forces players to act like soulless robots and conduct themselves according to the stringent rules, so how can one express themselves other than the odd fist-pump and joking around a bit at the table?

You can't prance around a stage in front of 5,000 people and act like a prat, so I don't see the comparison myself.


It’s a back room pub game. Of course there are comparisons. And the success darts has had - due to Hearn - of course he wants to emulate that. Agreed though - it’s a different more beautiful, more difficult game.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Wildey

mantorok wrote:Talk about click-bait, there's nothing derogatory in that article and certainly nothing that hasn't been said before.

Also, Hearn needs to stop comparing Snooker to Darts, the latter has a requirement for a short attention span and you won't see that much testosterone in a Snooker match, no siree.

Of course snooker will survive, but Hearn recognises that characters in the sport give a bigger draw, like he said he'd love to have 6 players with the same popularity, but Snooker forces players to act like soulless robots and conduct themselves according to the stringent rules, so how can one express themselves other than the odd fist-pump and joking around a bit at the table?

You can't prance around a stage in front of 5,000 people and act like a prat, so I don't see the comparison myself.

Of course the establishement will fine people put try and Gag them etc etc that what creates the story.


Barry Hearn loves the Rebel someone that ignores the Rules.


Alex Higgins was as popular as you can get however he had quite a few bans for different things and the same would happen today because that creates story and Headline.

TABLOID ARTICLE wrote:Snooker Star Ronnie O'Sullivan Banned for 2 years for hitting Snooker supremo Barry Hearn


That would be gold dust for Hearn.

Re: Barry Hearn comments about Ronnie

Postby Andy Spark

Sometimes I think Ronnie is "kind of" addicted to winning exactly one triple crown event each season these days.