2017/18 Season Preview

Following the 2016/17 Review, it's time for the 2017/18 season preview.
Most of what I'll talk about here was revealed by Barry Hearn on his annual Crucible press conference (you can check his announcements here), or is available on World Snooker's provisional 2017/18 schedule (available here). So, let's start the speculations:

Only 5 events in China

World Snooker's chairman, Barry Hearn, revealed that for this season the number of events played in China will be limited to 5, with a dramatic increase in prize money. That, as Hearn describes, is China's attempt to create history in the sport once they couldn't get the World Championship.
This move is a clear attempt to bring more top players into their events, giving them more prestige. However I'm not sure whether that's gonna work, once the amount of flights players will have to make won't have been excatly reduced as their 5 events will happen in different parts of the year.
Another thing that I wonder is, which will be these 5 events? The Wuxi Classic won't be played this season as we have the return of the biennial World Cup (an event that I've been looking forward to a lot since it's success in 2015), and the World Open is apparently saying goodbye. That said, we have the World Cup (July), China Championship (moved to August), Shanghai Masters (September), International Championship (October) and the China Open (April) as the five events set to be played in China. However, there's a "potential new event in the far east" to come in July and I wonder whether Barry's count includes the World Cup or we might have in fact six events in China at all.

New ten year contract with CCTV
Keeping in China, World Snooker has sealed a new ten-years deal with China's biggest television channel, CCTV. Like I said in my previous text, these long contracts with the TV aren't necessarily great for the sport itself, but this one is the reason for the growth we're supposed to see in Chinese events' prize money this season.
Let's see where does it take us, and hope it proves to be a better deal to the sport than Eurosport's was.
Of course I can't talk much about how it will affect the way China will be able to watch the events, but the way Snooker is popular there I can't see CCTV putting the game in the background like Eurosport. However, we might be able to see what impact it'll make over their events's popularity amongst players and general fans.

What will be done to resume the work for Global Advance?
Since Barry Hearn took command of World Snooker in 2010, the sport has been reborn in the UK and has grown a lot worldwidely due to their tireless work once reported by Jason Ferguson here in the Blog in an exclusive interview.
However, like I said in the 2016/17 Season Review, their recently signed deal with Eurosport proved very damaging to the Global repute of the game once people outside Europe and Asia had no means to watch it live anymore. So I ask myself how will they resume that work and recover what they lost last season?
Well, I hope their online broadcast of the 2017 World Championship free through Facebook for people outside Europe and China will have shown them the value to stream the game worldwidely, making them launch a new way to watch the whole season online.
But more must be done than just the essential live streaming. I'd love to see them having a new tournament in a different country like Argentina, Spain and Hong Kong, or coming back to somewhere they've been before, like Brazil, Australia, Portugal and Netherlands. There's this new event that might be coming in the Far East, as I mentioned before, but as I said it's likely that it'll be in China.

Prize Money goes up... Again!
Snooker has become a top, top sport. And the prize money for events, which now grows from £10m to a total £12m a season, reflects it. The 2017 World Champion received £375k and will next year receive £425k, before it reaches £500k in 2019 - incredible numbers when we realize that in 2013 Ronnie O`Sullivan received "only" £250k for winning it.
As a fan prize money doesn't make any difference to me, but having high numbers is crucial for the sport to keep people motivated to play or incentive young talents to keep going.
It's also important to remember that Hearn has declared his intention to split the prize money a bit more and give the early rounds more money, as well as abolishing the entry fees, a long needed move.

New Challenge Tour!
Another long needed move has been taken, and during the 2017/18 Season we'll see a Challenge Tour going on.
It'll be fantastic for many reasons: a fairer way to qualify new players into the main tour; more investment in the amateur game, giving more players a living and a chance to fulfill their potential; and mainly get the game stronger worldwidely as this new Tour will be a series of 10 events.
It's also great to see that players have been heard this time, as many had - for a while - been asking for a challenge tour like this and more money given in earlier rounds of tournaments.

Have a happy - and relaxed - new season!

This is it from me, thanks for reading once again and like Ronnie O`Sullivan Brasil on Facebook as we get into yet another season with non-stop Snooker coverage for you! 😉