The first thing to debate here is, how would the teams work? Who would it be between? What would be the qualification process to be in the team? and most importantly of all... how would the host venue be decided and what type of venues would be suitable?
In terms of teams and who it would be between a few thoughts come to mind. One event that has previously tried this and I will be making reference to it throughout this piece is the Snooker Legends Cup event that is run by Jason Francis and takes an England Vs The Rest of the World format with 4 players on each team from snooker's past and present with the likes of Dennis Taylor, Jimmy White, Steve Davis and Ronnie O'Sullivan having appeared for England in the past. For me though if it were to make it into a proper tour event I'd like to see it as a direct competition as either England Vs China or Great Britain Vs China either way. At the end of the day England is the home of snooker, but with the rise of snooker in China right now, they are clearly beginning to compete for that mantle, so a direct contest between the 2 snookering nations would be great to watch, especially to see the same amounts of passion you'll get from the 24 guys competing at Gleneagles in the Ryder Cup this weekend. For me the qualification process would be quite simple. I'd have 6 players to a team which seems pretty sufficient as that would be half the amount of players in the Golf version. Therefore, I think this makes the qualification process nice and easy too. For me, I'd have the top 6 English players and the top 6 Chinese snooker players on the current 2 year money list between contests. (If the same bi-annual format for the competition was adopted as in the Golfing equivalent).
Where would things stand right now then if this competition were to start tomorrow? Well these would be the 12 players involved:
England: Mark Selby, Ronnie O'Sullivan, Barry Hawkins, Judd Trump, Shaun Murphy and Stuart Bingham.
China: Ding Junhui, Xiao Guodong, Liang Wenbo, Cao Yupeng, Yu De Lu and Li Hang.
Who wouldn't want to watch that? It would surely be a tight contest between 2 sides that are reasonably evenly matched but the conditions would surely weigh into the result a lot more as they do in Golf's Ryder Cup. That's why it would be important to have the Snooker Ryder Cup as the Golf Ryder Cup is held with each event being every 2 years overall, each 4 years in England and each 4 years in China in this scenario. The cup could then be spread around the great snookering venues in both England in China if licensed so we could have a snooker Ryder Cup in Shanghai, Beijing, Wuxi, Chengdu or any other part of such a large nation, or The Crucible, The Preston Guildhall or The Ally Pally down South in London.
This brings me nicely on to my next thought: Would World Snooker ever give a licence for such an event to take place as part of the snooker tour? Could it ever take off with top class TV coverage around the World? Would people flock to the venues to see it?
In my opinion, right at this very moment in time space on the calendar is very hard to come by, even if it was only for a 3 day event such as this, the only current space on the calendar is during the Summer and putting this event here wouldn't be favourable for 2 reasons. Less people would want to go and watch it either at the venue (especially in China where crowds are low for big ranking events at the best of times) and on TV in the target areas. The 2nd reason being that (until the event is well established) a lot of the players may take more of a summer break if it was a summer event in favour of playing in an event where prize money may not be all too high and in an event that may have little exposure until well and truly off of the ground.
Such an event I would imagine would also be tough for World Snooker to licence as a full tour event due to sponsor interest, venue interest, TV interest and at the risk of it being seen as another gimmick by the snooker and sporting community, especially if it was a complete copy of the Ryder Cup.
One man that does have a big opinion on the subject of a snooker Ryder Cup is the man behind the current Snooker Legends Cup version, Jason Francis and he gave me his thoughts on the matter earlier in the week:
"I’ve always been a fan of the Ryder Cup and attended the Belfry and K Club Events – it was always something I thought could work in snooker and I had enjoyed the nations cup of snooker that used to be staged which was perhaps the nearest world snooker had got.
I make no apologies for basing my Legends Cup format on the Ryder Cup. It's two teams representing their ‘countries’ going head to head in a series of doubles and singles with a point for each match and the team reaching 18 points, in my case, victorious.
We’ve staged 3 of these events so far and at Christmas we have England V Ireland in Goffs, the most famous snooker venue in Ireland. Its staged over 4 sessions, the same as the Ryder cup, with the first 3 being doubles and singles and the last session being purely singles.
I have had many offers to use my format overseas, especially in China, but they all carry the caveat of needing TV broadcast to finance them which can be tricky as I need a world snooker sanction for the contracted players. The event we did show on Eurosport achieved 12.3 million viewers, which exceeded the average viewing figures for all PTC events on Eurosport in 2012 – that alone shows me the appetite for the competition.
Of course I am fortunate that the very biggest names in the game are loyal to me and play in these events and you get to see them in all 4 sessions. We always put a little bit of prize money on it, and indeed a high break prize so it is competitive too.
Obviously for me I would only welcome the event being staged in the calendar if it was a collaboration between Barry Hearn and myself, sadly it seems as if there isn’t the appetite to make that happen"
Some interesting thoughts there from Jason who has certainly embraced the Ryder Cup and seems to fully admit that the connection between his Legends cup and the Ryder Cup itself is fair from loose. He also thinks the TV audiences for such an event would be there, but like me, seems to think that the chances of it making the calendar are incredibly slim. Especially as team events don't appear to be popular with World Snooker in the modern era after the failed World Cup of Snooker event a few years back.
So is mine and Jason's dream of seeing a Snooker version of the amazing Ryder Cup week unachievable? Well, to find the true answer to that you'd have to ask the players, World Snooker and most importantly of all Barry Hearn.
Personally, I hope that one day it could come onto main tour and I hope you've all enjoyed reading my thoughts on it, as well as those kindly provided for me by Snooker Legends founder Jason Francis and I also hope that you'll be looking forward to more "Snooker does the Ryder Cup" features throughout the week.
In pool the Mosconi Cup (Europe v USA) is the most interesting event in the whole year. So why not someting similar in snooker? I would prefer a team event Europe v Asia.
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