Barry's Vision…

2 comments

1. 

   Prestatynfan says:

   March 30, 2010 at 4:57 pm (UTC 0 )

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   Does anyone know if all future qualifying events and PTC events and end of season qualifying to be held at the Academy under the proposed plan allow for spectator attendance. I have only been to qualifying events in the Badminton hall (UK & Worlds) at the Academy which has accomodation for about 400, but the actual Academy I am told only has room for about 10 per table.
   Personally, I hope the UK & Worlds still take place in the Badminton Hall as these deserve a bigger spectator base – perhaps Barry ought to smooth-talk EISS.
   It would be a shame if less spectators than Prestatyn can watch other qualifiers and PTC because at £5 per day, World Snooker can do with every penny they can get.

2. 

   porridge says:

   March 31, 2010 at 11:30 am (UTC 0 )

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   I like the plan, even though I’m not asked. But one issue comes to mind about the ranking system. If I understand correctly, mr Hearn would like the ranking system to be “live”, the one that changes after every ranking tournament and seedings for televised stages and indeed for qualifiers would change “live” too. Like in tennis, for example. (OK, I actually read this plan ages ago, and I may remember this thing all wrong.)

   Hearn says he can’t understand why the system used now is so locked which, as we all know, leads to certain players playing each other so often in top32 round for instance. I think I may know the answer to that. Not knowing the facts at all, I have a feeling that when they invented 2-year ranking system, they thought among other things that it would basically give a freedom to shape up the calendar without any stress of possible issues. I mean, now in theory they could organize world championship qualifiers in autumn if they wanted to.

   But for things being “live” and indeed fair for everyone, they can’t really have WC qualifiers before china open, can they? Yet the new provisional calendar does the same mistake. In tennis they play qualifiers just before the actual tournament, and so it should be in snooker also. Frankly, this issue may not sound too big, but it’s just thought I got when I was minding my own business in the toilet. They have the academy, so why not make a slight change? And then they use provisional ranking changing the seedings for every tournament. Would make the season really interesting for those who are always on the brink of being in the top16, and indeed falling out of it.

   I guess there would have been a shorter way to say all this, but didn’t come up with one this time. But I repeat, I may have remembered/understood the plan wrong here. In that case, my apologies.