Monday 8 April 2013

Barry rings more changes

Barry Hearn has never been afraid to ring the changes since taking charge of snooker.

Today, World Snooker announced some exciting new plans for next season's calendar.

Here's a rundown of the key talking points...
  • Total prize money for the 2013/14 season will be £8 million compared to £6.4 million in 2012/13
  • Barry Hearhn wants to increase prize money to £10 million, after inheriting the sport with a prize pot of £3.4 million
  • All 128 tour professionals will enter at the first round of all but three major ranking events. The exceptions are the World Championship, Shanghai Masters and Australian Open
  • The UK Championship and Welsh Open will have all 128 players compete at the venue
  • Six other ranking events will have 64 players compete at the venue
  • No matches will be held over at any ranking events
  • No qualifiers will be held in cubicles. They will all be open plan events
  • All qualifying events will be open to the public. They will held across the UK, not at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield
  • Wildcards will continue. There will only be four wildcards in events in China, instead of eight
  • No ex-tour players can be wildcards
  • The wildcards will play a random player drawn professional from the bottom 32 seeded players
  • Once a professional has been drawn against a wildcard they are exempt from playing against a wildcard for the rest of the season
  • The EPTCs will be renamed to European Tour Events. There will be eight in the season, with six live on TV and two streamed. They are all open to the public
  • The APTCs will continue as Asian Tour Events. There will be at least four
  • There is more prize money in every ranking event
  • The winner of the 2014 World Championship will earn a record £300,000 
  • The winner of the 2013 UK Championship will earn £150,000
  • The winner of the 2014 Masters will earn £200,000

Click here to read all the changes to next season's calendar in further detail.

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