What can be done to raise the profile of snooker?
Why does it not get the same coverage as other sports ie golf cricket or even football within the media, when it is televised just as much if not more?
Answers:
As a fan of all billiard games, I too would love to be able to watch pool and snooker on TV more often as well. I like to watch it because I play the game myself and I appreciate all the little nuances. I tend to watch the player, while everyone else watches the balls. Incidentally, I think that pocket-cam's are about the dumbest novelty in televised billiards. Here's where I differ with what most people say. I don't think that the future of billiards has anything to do with television coverage, movies, or even (wait for it).professional players. I think the future of billiards in all of its forms will be centered around amateur participation, i.e. local leagues and local tournaments. Every year, more and more regular people worldwide pick up a cue. Professional billiards does not need universal acceptance. It does not need flamboyant characters and spoiled crybabies with inflated salaries to make the basketball and football fans pay attention. It needs good players.period. M.D.-BCA Instructor/Referee.
Well I know it might be seen as selling out, but think about it, if it gets funding it could be worth it. Birmingham City football club were totally floundering until the Gold group (+ David Sullivan took them over).. WWF has never been so popular since it began using scantilly clad women and American football has the cheerleaders and half time dances etc.. Why not have glamorous women playing, or coming around with placards saying things like, "My what a BIG break", or "Frame 2" and when somebody wins they can have one saying "KNOCKOUT".. ??
I think it is because it is harder to appreciate the skill involved with a sport like snooker than it is with something like football.
Also as it is an individual sport instead of a team sport it is harder for people to form an attachment to the sport as there are no local ties at all.
Raising awareness would be tricky but if they could make the game quicker and more exciting like Cricket did with 20-20 maybe more young people would become interested in it. Ronnie O'Sullivan has been championing this sort of innovation for a while now.
it is SOOOOOOOO boring, thats why.
have a big charity event on tv where lots of celebrities compete against eachother and make it televised that will make it popular
Trouble with snooker is that nowadays the players are so good at break building that it's too easy to win a frame with only one visit to the table. The excitement has been dropped and it's turning into a game of chess.
I think it has reached the dizzy heights and its lowest ebbs and has just about found its correct level of support.
Maybe one of the lesser TV companies will pick it up and show it more regularly.
It is not as exciting as the the rest what can you do, Pot the balls and have great cue ball control, I like the sport and play alot but it is not a glamourous game, 2 blokes and table and balls. Golf has a big croud and it can take you to beautiful places if you travel to play, Football is Football and cricket has more to it as well!
i prefer it the way it is now. I'm sure paul hunters family do too as they need to be together at this time and having more media attention would only make it harder for the family then it already is.
Exploding Balls.
How can you call this a SPORT?
Its a game same as darts and chess etc
It's a minority interest thing. It's also utterly, utterly boring. I'm not stopping you being interested, but leave me alone.
It's a load of balls, that's why! lmao
It really boring to watch, I just don't see how anyone can get excited about it.
I think it's just a matter of time. As the game get more coverage more and more will be hooked.
Colour television made snooker and teletext killed it. Who's going to wait up till after midnight to watch highlights when the frame by frame scores are on ceefax or whatever you have nowadays. Having said that it can be very gripping entertainment. It is up to the sport itself to think of a way of putting it back in the public domain.
Deepest Condolences to the Hunter family
it needs more glam, this seems to be all people are interested in now! its just the football orientated culture in UK to blame.
snooker has its true fans, if its not broken why fix it?
Make it interesting?
It needs more t.v coverage at peak times. Loads of people watch the world championships but hardly anyone watches any of the other tournaments, this is because they are not on t.v at all or because they are on some third rate channel where nobody looks to see whats on. If some more of the big channels showed some of the lesser tournaments it would help no end, however they are more interested in showing crap like Big Brother and Celebrity Love Island. Sky have been a huge help to the sport by starting the premier league snooker a few years ago so it's getting more coverage than it was. The sport needs more televised tournaments and some big name sponsors and publicity, simple.
I follow the Teletext viewers' forums and letters columns, and when Paul Hunter's death was announced, it appears that those letters' forums were swamped with condolence letters, texts and emails from his fans, and by extension fans of snooker in general.
I once saw a TV interview, where someone had tried to bring snooker out of the dirty old working men's club, but found that, like golf and a couple of other venerable old games, snooker seems resistant to the sort of evolution that major sports such as soccer, tennis and even cricket have had to undergo.
There is still an association of snooker with grubby old gentleman's clubs and seedy snooker halls that is very, very hard to shake. The fact that the snooker coverage on the BBC is considered an annoyance and a joke among the young does not help at all.
As with all evolutionary adaptations, though, the best steps to take are small, but firm ones, where there's no risk of backsliding. And the first thing that snooker, as a sport, has got to shake off, once and for all, is its association with smoking.
Paul Hunter's death from cancer did not help in that regard. But maybe if it raises awareness that snooker, like professional darts, poker and Formula One racing, needs forever to kick the weed habit, then maybe his death can bring about some good in the long run, if those who seriously wish to bring snooker into this millennium press home the message now.
But the jaded cynic in me doubts it will have much effect, either way. The old guard in snooker are too entrenched, more than any other sport.
I do think Snooker has a very good profile already and plenty of good media attention when the season demands.
What more can anyone ask?
The problem,- if you want, is some people are not ardent fans of any particular sport and will show their appreciation different to yourself.
The death of Paul Hunter is very sad and regrettable of course and I believe there was good press coverage without going over the top,- which is what his family would want.
Ban it! That usually ensures that something gets a boost in its profile!
Snooker is the only sport i know where i love to play the game but i just cant watch it, no matter how much of a chance i give it.
I read someone say that a celebrity competition would be good, and it would..for that one occasion, but the profile will coem straight back down again.
Simply put, it cant be done
It's because all the snooker players don't have any charisma and they are all pasty faced.
The idea
is simply to arrange National Competitions
town versus town
present schools with half-size tables
and VISITING ENCOURAGEMENT
instilling interest with local prizes and certification
will also go a long way
TV Stations would assist with the disemination of details
> would give them.MORE to cover
and a bigger audience potential as peeps watch family compete
Hold out a sweet
and it will be snatched out of your hand
INVESTMENT NEEDED?
that is a toughie!
Dave
It just needs to be shown that it is not just for older men and that young chaps and even women for goodness sake can play it too! Its a great sport to show on TV because it is so easy to watch as its relaxing and it is no doubt easy to film. Snooker really needs to have an 'injection' of coolness from someone or something. Perhaps a reference or snooker scene in a modern cool film that young people will watch.
Make it more interesting!
Paul Hunter will be very much missed by all the people who love snooker, myself included, and these people aren't few.
Maybe the length of the games is one of the reasons that sets back snooker a little, but it's an amazing game. It's not just about technique, it invlolves a lot of strategy and mental preparation.
the game needs more extrovert characters.....alex higgins in his day drew more peope than some movie stars. the players today are not the same.albiet they are good.....the sport needs to dynamic instead of the boring style which its played today....example...who remembers the steve davis dennis taylor world final...the country nearly hhad a blackout after that match was over because so many people put on the kettle for a cuppa the elecric grid almost overloaded...23 million people watched the end of that match
It used to have MASSIVE coverage back in the 80s. Remember Snooker Loopy?
Not it's just been absorbed into the bigger picture/excess TV channels.
I think that it is high profile enough for such a boring spectator sport.I was also sorry that Paul died but our thoughts should be with his young wife and child.
i suppose it would be more popular if you had a few blondes in underwear potting them balls.
absolutely nothing
it's not big in the usa thats y sorry but thats the way it is
The answers post by the user, for information only, UKQnA.com does not guarantee the right.