Barry Hearn makes Wuxi Classic a major ranking snooker event – Snooker Update
Current World Snooker Chairman, Barry Hearn has been working really hard to popularise the game of snooker across the continents and in this regard, ha has made some impressive moves that have played an important role in achieving his objective.
Increasing the number of events in the snooker calendar by introducing new tournaments and changing the basic structure and status of existing snooker events are two of his major initiatives to enhance the viewership of the game.
Quite recently, the snooker chief has added another existing invitational snooker event, the Wuxi Classic, into the list of major ranking snooker events after changing its status from non-ranking invitational event to major ranking snooker tournament.
With the improved status, the Wuxi Classic will become the fifth major ranking snooker contest in China next season after the Shanghai Masters, the China Open, the World Open and the newly announced International Snooker Championship.
Barry Hearn is very excited to add the Wuxi Classic in the world ranking snooker events and believes the event will play an important role in making the sport. The event will commence as the first ranking event of the 2012-13 Snooker Season from June 25
to July 1 at the Jiangsu Province of China.
While speaking to World Snooker about the new ranking event, Hearn said, “We are delighted to welcome the Wuxi Classic to our family of world ranking events in China. This is a wonderful example of an invitation event attended by the top players, opening
the door for a full ranking event.”
The chief added, “We have built an excellent relationship with the CBSA and that has been fundamental to our success. China is a rapidly expanding market and we are going where the demand is because this game belongs to the world.”
The qualifying session of the event will start from June 4 to 8, 2012 at the World Snooker Academy in Sheffield. The total prize money of the competition will be £400,000 which will increase to £425,000 in 2013-14 Snooker Season and £450,000 in the next
three seasons as per the agreement. It will be exciting to see how the new event manages to attract more fans to the sport and increase its popularity globally.
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