Ever since Barry Hearn was appointed as WPBSA Chairman last year it has been suggested that he may seek to introduce a one-frame shoot-out tournament and today that has been confirmed as details of the event have been released…
Full details of the announcement can be found over at World Snooker but in short the details are as follows:
- The tournament will feature the world’s top 64 players
- It will first take place between January 28th-30th 2011
- The event will be televised by Sky Sports, their first involvement with a World Snooker event since the 2004 Players Championship won by Jimmy White
- There will be a 20 second shot clock in place with no time-outs in place and frames will be limited to a maximum of 12 minutes, ideal for television.
- There will be a top prize on offer of £32,000 – just £3,000 shy of the amount pocketed by John Higgins for winning this season’s Welsh Open
So there we are, as Barry says it is no doubt something that will be hated by the purists (and probably me), but any event that offers such an lucrative first prize and an opportunity for the players to express themselves and hopefully bring more fans to the game has to be welcomed.
Will you be tuning in?
Any tournament is better than none. Look forward to this!
As long as it doesn’t carry ranking points it can only help to raise the games profile, which is something that has to be welcomed. I’ll watch it with a cushion in front of my face and a feeling of extreme guilt.
The only problem is that you might get a final like Mike Dunn vs Adrian Gunnell
The gamestyle may not be ideal for purists, but it’ll be interesting to see the players more relaxed and it’ll sure attract new viewers. It can only be positive in my opinion.