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| The South West Snooker Academy, home of this season's Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy. Image: South West Snooker Academy |
The tournaments have come a long way since their original inception for the 2010/11 season, where seven out of the 12 PTC events were held in England.
That change has been for the better, as many of these events were held in the now defunct World Snooker Academy in Sheffield, with the majority of matches being held behind closed doors.
Many players criticised the format of such events, with no atmosphere playing in front of ‘one man and his dog’ if they were lucky, with a few claiming they felt blackmailed into competing in such tournaments to secure ranking points.
I did attend one of the PTCs held in Sheffield the following season just before Christmas, with three of the tables being open to the public, within the badminton halls in the English Institute of Sport.
I must admit, they did lack atmosphere, with around 30 ‘hardcore’ fans turning out across the three open tables.
Fast-forward to this season, and the European Tour now visits Bulgaria, Holland, Germany, Belgium and Poland as well as four tournaments in China as part of the concurring Asian Tour.
You certainly can’t say these tournaments lack atmosphere, with arenas often packed out for the three-day events, especially on finals day.
Two English-based European Tour events were also played out in this year’s calendar, the Bluebell Wood Open at the Doncaster Dome back in August (run after the Shanghai Masters and Indian open qualifiers) and the Kay Suzanne Memorial Trophy at the Capital Venue in Gloucester in November.
I attended both of these tournaments, the full three days in Doncaster and the Saturday in Gloucester and if I’m being honest, I’m a little sad to see them wiped from the calendar next year. It’s not often you get to see the whole tour playing under the same roof within the space of two days.
But the bottom line falls down to are such tournaments viable for World Snooker to run? Obviously the answer is no.
Attendances at Doncaster were not fantastic, maybe 50-100 people during each day, swelling to around 150 when Ronnie O’Sullivan was playing on the Friday. Gloucester was harder to gauge, with the 11 tables split over four rooms, but again, I’d say there were approximately 150 spectators there on the Saturday I went.
Neither tournament was televised, with two tables being streamed via liveworldsnooker.tv, so there was obviously no money coming from Eurosport either, so it makes commercial sense for these tournaments to be disbanded.
This decision also has unfortunate knock-on effects on the amateur scene within Britain, with players being forced to play in the continental tournaments from now on, if they continue to want to be involved in such events.
Mind you, they didn’t have the easiest of tasks in such English events, with very few spaces available in the 128-draw, due to the majority of tour players entering them as most are based in the country.
It’s a bit sad to see the professional tour distancing itself further from the amateur game, but if the game’s to become more profitable and be able to reach a wider audience across the continent, then these changes need to happen.
Two German events and a Bulgarian event have already been confirmed for the forthcoming season, with countries such as Latvia and Russia also touted as potential new visits on the tour. Surely Poland, Belgium and Holland will also be keen on securing the three remaining European Tour event slots on the calendar.
What are your thoughts on this? Would you like to have seen the UK events remain on the calendar or do you think it makes commercial sense for them to be removed?
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