That's correct Ernie - in fact Snooker/Chess in England were at their height during the 80s and due to mismanagement (and Snooker losing that all-important sponsorship from Tobacco companies) and lack of vision, both are currently in the doldrums.Today I read an interesting article in the Daily Mail concerning the state of the sport Snooker. No major sponsors for the Masters currebtly being played, No sponsor for the 2009 World Championship in Sheffield. Question marks over the remaining couple of sponsors. Prize money for the current tournament is having to come out of the WPBSA bank account ie the players funding the prize fund. Only 200 people watched yesterdays quarter final.
Ronnie O'sullivan the big attraction says the sport needs a makeover to get it out of the doldrums, its needs livening up to attract sponsors. If the BBC pulled out the sport would be broke.
The problem with the WPBSA its still being run by the old guard who dont want changes and want to retain the gentleman in bow tie image. Thats great if the money is there if it isnt then it must change.
Many problem in Snooker are that of chess- image- old guard in charge- no real vision for the future.
When the ECF is broke maybe just maybe people will wake up and say enough is enough. I wont I am really getting to the stage of being passed careing.
The problem with Snooker being televised is that there aren't any real characters in the game anymore - an excellent standard of player but there's no difference in style and no "interaction" with audiences as they're used to be. Even "stodgy" players such as Terry Griffith, Cliff Thornburn etc etc... were quite interesting people (even if they sent you to sleep with their play!!!
)Chess is also suffering a decline due to a change in culture - as a parent of 3 young ones myself, there are ample opportunities for my children to get involved in other activities. My oldest, plays football on a regular basis (He knows the very basics of playing Chess but chooses not to play) and is more interested in physical activities than academic ones, even if he is a very gifted academic. My sister is a School Teacher at a historically good school for producing chess players but due to the extra pressures on teachers, they don't find enough time to run out of school hour clubs as they're involved in so much beaucracy, brought on by the Government.
The fact that the ECF isn't showing any "vision" (hopefully appointing Andrew Farthing is a step in the right direction there) doesn't help at all but there are also other factors to consider, which are out of their (ECF's) control.
