By Elliott West
“Over the past decade we have made dramatic progress in becoming a truly global sport and to enter a brand new territory is a step further on that journey”.
Steve Dawson, Chairman of the World Snooker Tour
Introduction
Turkey is not a country you would normally associate with snooker. In fact researching this piece, the only player I can find who has found success from this country in a cue sport is the Carom billiards player, Semih Sayginer, nicknamed ‘The Turkish Prince’. However exciting news transpired this week that the World Snooker Tour would be adding another fixture to next season’s snooker calendar with the introduction of the Turkish Masters in Antalya, near Istanbul. With a total prize fund of £500,000 and open to the top 64 players. The tournament will run from the 27th September until the 3rd October, 2021.
A Turkish Treat
Covid has engulfed the globe over the last year and so this piece of news is very welcomed by snooker fans across the world. The staging of this tournament does however come with some stipulations and hopefully they will be met by the time this event is due to be held at the end of September. These include the continued fall of Coronavirus cases in Turkey, the country coming out of lockdown and Turkey being removed from the UK red list by September. So with current infection and mortality rates continuing to decrease, this seems probable.
Turkey is currently in lockdown and its president, Recep Erdogan had to take this drastic action due to infection rates reaching 60,000. These figures have now dropped dramatically to 18,000. So hopefully Turkey will be classed as an amber or green country by the UK traffic light system.
This surprise announcement, continues Barry Hearn’s legacy of globalising the sport and its new chairman Steve Dawson, previously worked very closely with Hearn at Matchroom for many years. The Turkish Masters, will join the postponed Saudi Arabia Masters, previously supposed to held in December last year. The latter holds a ten year deal and a far greater prize fund of £2.5 million and is open to all 128 players on the main tour.
The Snooker Message
Turkey has long been a popular destination for UK travellers to soak up the sun and do if it transpires, the Turkish Masters will be an ideal opportunity for those to watch snooker in warmer climbs. Not only will it promote snooker to those who know it and watch the sport regularly but also a new Turkish audience who may probably have known about snooker or if they have, never seen live in an audience environment.
Snooker continues to gradually enthrall existing and new audiences, it has the power to entertain and educate, enthusing the young to take up the sport and continuing to please those who are loyal followers. Turkey is a market with a golden opportunity to spread the snooker message and to provide monetary investment through sponsorship and government funding that could spark a boom that is already culturally abundant and steeped in years of history. This message can then spread to neighbouring countries and provide ample opportunities for the World Snooker Tour to grow new shoots for the sport.
