LONDON Sports promoter Barry Hearn has called on the world's top snooker players to back his radical shake-up of the game next month after years of what he calls complacency and laziness.
Hearn, chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association since December, wants more events, more showbiz, bigger prize funds and new formats for a sport which 25 years ago captivated 18.5 million British television viewers during the world championship final.
“Basically the whole thing has ground to a halt and my proposal to the players is the official waking up of sleeping beauty,” Hearn told Reuters.
“Nothing has been done for the last 10 years in terms of events and opportunities for the players. No invention, no creativity, just the same old product churning on, some of which is very good but most of it is very ordinary.
“I want a complete overhaul of the game because it has stagnated through inactivity, complacency and laziness,” added the Briton, who has revamped darts and boxing and even made sea fishing a TV sport.
Hearn, who is also chairman of League One (third division) football club Leyton Orient, began his sports empire with a chain of snooker halls in the early 1970s.
When snooker was at the peak of its popularity in the 1980s his Matchroom stable had many of the world's top players including Steve Davis who won six world titles.
Then the sport boasted characters like the combustible Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins, methodical anti-hero Davis, Northern Irishman Dennis Taylor, famous for his upside down spectacles, and dashing Canadian Kirk Stevens, a heartthrob for a generation of housewives.
The game even spawned a hit song, Snooker Loopy.
Those days are a dim memory and the only genuine household name now is the mercurial Ronnie O'Sullivan and 'The Nugget' Davis who is still playing in his 50s.
“People say there are no characters in the game but the problem is there are just not enough tournaments,” said Hearn who has spent three months compiling a report.
“From a media perspective there is nothing to talk about.
Even the top players have effectively become part time players.
Snooker players need to work like the rest of us.
NEW FORMATS
“Now they get beaten and have two months off. I want new tournaments in new areas with new formats, then they'll be able to stamp their characters on the sporting public.”
Hearn said the world championship, which begins this weekend, was still the game's blue riband event but added poor management of the sport meant there was little underneath.
The snooker circuit, Hearn says, used to rival golf's European Tour but from around 20 tournaments 15 years ago it has now shrunk to six ranking events.
He fears time is running out and is now targeting Europe as part of a new Pro Tour, and a tournament in Berlin in February is already pencilled in.
“Europe is the breeding ground,” he said. “It's getting very popular on Eurosport and the viewing figures are huge. There is no question that's where I will invest.”
Hearn's flair for a marketing trick has already seen the growth of the 'last man standing' Prizefighter boxing format while at snooker's Masters at Wembley this year players walked into the arena to strobe lighting and rock music.
The world championship, which boasts more than 150 hours of BBC television coverage, will get a similar tweak with musical walk-ons but Hearn is targeting bigger changes.
“We've seen the success of Prizefighter boxing over three rounds, Twenty20 cricket, the amazing success of darts which now has 61 tournaments worldwide,” said Hearn who is also chairman of the Professional Darts Corporation.
“The classic snooker format will remain but you have to offer choice and excitement for everybody. I want to see not just the Chinese, but the Aussies, the Germans, the Brits, so that snooker is truly a global sport.”
Players will vote on Hearn's proposals after the world championship at Sheffield's Crucible Theatre, snooker's answer to Wimbledon, on May 5.
“If they don't agree with me and don't want me, I'm history,” he said. “I've spent 35 years learning and I'm offering a way forward.
“I expect it to be accepted. If not I will take it on the chin. But I think this is the last chance for the game.
“The players have run the game for too long. They are good at snooker but can't run a business. I can't play snooker but I'm awfully good at what I do,” added Hearn.
