Opinion

By MARCUS STEAD - originally published 2 December 2009.

TODAY’S AGM of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association presents the game with a chance to make a fresh start after decades of mismanagement and blunders.

The chairman of the WPBSA, Sir Rodney Walker, faces a vote of no confidence, and, if the motion passes, Barry Hearn looks almost certain to take his place in the hot seat.

There have been problems with the way the sport is governed for decades, but the last five years have seen a spectacular decline in the number of tournaments staged, prize money, and the financial integrity of the WPBSA itself.

One of the main causes of the bad blood has been the WPBSA’s refusal to meet and discuss concerns with the Snooker Players Association, a trade union body set up by Hearn and Pat Mooney, manager of John Higgins, and the man behind the World Series of Snooker.

Indeed, Sir Rodney’s own character and suitability to be snooker’s commander in chief is questionable, to put it mildly.

Last month, Clive Everton wrote a piece in The Guardian revealing some rather interesting details about the latest set of accounts from the WPBSA. It revealed that both Sir Rodney and Lee Doyle (a board member) have been paid substantial commissions in relation to WPBSA contracts.

It turns out that Myerscough Developments, which is owned by Sir Rodney, received £243,649 for "negotiating key contracts including those with the BBC and Sheffield City Council" in the three years to June 2008.

It doesn’t end there: the accounts to 30 June 2009 show Myerscough received another £74,907 in commissions (£20,000 of which waived in favour of the NSPCC) while Walker's "fees and pension" package has been increased to £54,600 in a year when 10% cuts on staff salaries were imposed. Walker and the WPBSA did not respond to requests to comment. Incidentally, according to his original contract, Sir Rodney’s job takes four days per month.

It should be made clear that such payments are not banned, and Sir Rodney turned down the chance to discuss these matters on BBC Radio Five Live in July (he pulled out a few days before because he was having dinner).

This has been going on at a time when the world ranking circuit, reduced from last season's eight events to six, is carrying total prize money of £3,063,600, a season on season reduction of £435,000.

As for Lee Doyle, the accounts reveal that his company, 110 Sport Management Ltd (which looks after nine of the current top 16 players), was paid £37,500 commission "in respect of securing Betfred" as the £2.6m sponsor of the World Championship.

That might not sound too bad, but at the time this sponsorship was announced, the powerful sports agency, International Management Group, was the WPBSA's exclusive sponsorship agent for BBC events and had itself been in contact with Betfred.

What’s more, Fred Done, the man who owns Betfred, has said that it was he who approached the WPBSA with the view to sponsor the World Championship, rather than the other way around. He said: "I talked with my guys and somebody said something about the snooker championship. I said 'what are we talking about?' He said the world championship was up for grabs. I said: 'Well, why is nobody doing anything about it?' The phone calls happened after that meeting and it was done very quickly."

Doyle’s response to all this was: "Our company, 110sport, has nothing to hide in terms of commissions as any other company over the years have been paid. Everything has been treated in an appropriate and transparent manner."

Make what you will of all this, but part of me wishes that ITV’s legendary Head of Sport during the Dickie Davies era, John Bromley, was still with us and available for comment. He was renowned for doing deals with sporting organisations over lunch, and writing out contracts on napkins. Yes, yes, I know these are less innocent times, but an awful lot of money seems to be changing hands over what should be relatively straightforward business transactions.

The WPBSA got on the wrong side of Sky Sports some years ago, leaving the BBC as their only real broadcast option in Britain. Surely it can’t be much more complicated than taking Barbara Slater (Head of Sport) or some other executive out to lunch to hammer out the details?

These issues over commissions are Steve Davis’s only reason for voting against Sir Rodney on Wednesday. Mark Selby and John Higgins have also made it clear they’ll be backing the ‘no confidence’ motion.

To be clear, just 72 people will be voting: the top 64 from the past two seasons plus the five current WPBSA board members.

Inevitably, things have started to get dirty in the last week or so. Somebody who supports Sir Rodney (and I’m not saying Sir Rodney instigated this himself) started a rumour that Barry Hearn intended to cut the professional circuit to just 32 players if he became chairman. This was a blatant lie and was never the case. Mr Hearn has never said anything of the sort.

Then, just six days before the vote, Sir Rodney announced an unprecedented new “World Snooker Tour". This would encompass "a minimum of 15 ranking tournaments" – as opposed to this season's six – "plus invitation events, phased in from next season."

The precise wording of the press release makes interesting reading. As Pat Mooney says, it is full of phrases like 'plans for', 'the intention is', 'the new concept envisages', 'it is anticipated'.

Nothing is set in stone, and, if Sir Rodney gets a reprieve at the AGM, he could quite easily backtrack on this. And he’s got previous: Nearly five years ago they announced plans for ranking events in China, Thailand and Macau and only China happened- indeed that announcement was made just after Ding had won the 2005 China Open, so it was already on the calendar!

In 2004 there was a press conference at Wembley where journalists were told there would be a tournament in Brazil later that year. A few years later Sir Rodney was on the day of the World Championship final when he said the plan was to have ten ranking events within a couple of seasons. He also said that even in the very next season after the one that was just finishing, there would be an increase of at least 25% in prize money.

Somewhere in between, they released a season calendar which included ranking events in the Netherlands and Dubai. None of these things ever happened Neither did quite a few other of his announcements, such as the Million Dollar Challenge in South Africa, and the ranking event in Egypt.

As for this new announcement- where are the venues? Where are the event’s sponsors? Who will be providing the TV coverage? Without these three things, the concept is completely unviable.

In contrast, Barry Hearn’s plans have been modest, but far more realistic. One of his main priorities would be to set up a Players Championship, following a similar format to the one he has instigated with the PDC in darts.

There would be a series of events held all around the country at weekends, with players earning points and prize money. At the end of the series (which would consist of 25 events), there would be a televised Players Championship finals event.

This would be the professional players’ bread and butter, with the existing events still in place. Over a period, he would assess whether certain events are still relevant in today’s market, and gradually try to involve new events and bring new broadcasters on side when the time was right.

For example, Sky Sports haven’t shown any WPBSA events since 2004. If the finance and sponsorship could be put in place, it would be wonderful to bring them back on side. Furthermore, it seems likely that ITV4 would be interested in showing some snooker tournaments, based on the fact they have been showing PDC darts events for the last three years. It’s certainly an avenue worth exploring.

Due to its small playing area, snooker coverage is affordable for tightly-budgeted channels like ITV4. And we must remember that despite the turmoil, audiences for snooker remain healthy. Bringing these two broadcasters back on side would, I’m sure, force up the price of the existing TV contracts, which can only be a good thing for prize money and revenue.

With Barry Hearn, what you see is what you get. He has an excellent track record in transforming small or niche events into worldwide successes. In the last five years, he has transformed the PDC to the extent that early next year, the opening round of the Premier League Darts will be watched by 6,000 people in the O2 Arena in London.

Viewing figures continue to rise year on year, with the average age of the viewer significantly younger than it once was.
Elsewhere, he’s involved in promoting boxing, 9-ball pool, fishing, ten-pin bowling and golf. He’s got quite a bit on his plate.
Barry Hearn doesn’t need snooker, but snooker needs Barry Hearn.