Snooker has become a fairly global sport; and it has spent the past decade or so trying to increase its global presence. However, many fans would agree that there is one region in particular that they would like to see the sport prosper: the North Americas, specifically the US. Given all this time that has passed, why is it such a challenging prospect, trying to break snooker into the States?
One of the main reasons is down to the competition from other sports. Most articles would show you that American Football, Baseball and Basketball are the top sports in the country, with tremendous viewing figures to match. Introducing snooker to this region would mean trying to compete for fans of these sports, which is no easy task. These sports may not be popular internationally, but it’s known internationally how passionate US fans are about them.
Another thing to consider is how favoured the underlying collegiate level sports are in the US – an area which could be considered their own sports respectively, given how involved the fans are. These are all challenges that snooker would have to face, and what pool is currently trying to deal with. Despite pools popularity, most US surveys don’t even have the game in their top 10s. So how could snooker possibly compete with fast-paced, high impact sports that make it seem like a bike ride in comparison?
The answer lies in the problem that snooker faces with breaking into the US – and that’s its perception. Barry Hearn mentioned in an interview a few years ago about how the American psyche is ‘all about results and crash, bang, wallop’, leaning to the impression of US sports fans being excited by the faster paced sports with a quick result. Which means that popularising snooker doesn’t only mean introducing a new sport to viewers, but also trying to ingrain a more patient characteristic into those that would choose to watch.
America certainly has the venues to support some incredible snooker events but there has been difficulty in the past for Hearn in trying to procure broadcasting rights that would make hosting worthwhile. Hearn stated that some sports just don’t translate to other countries which some have to accept. But it certainly means we shouldn’t stop trying. WST were able to take advantage of the growing popularity in China to integrate snooker alongside other sports such as table tennis and badminton. And now China is one of snooker’s most important regions/markets.
How can we make snooker in the US work then? It all comes down to awareness. This isn’t something that can be done quickly either. It’s something that would need to be nurtured into American culture. Eddie Hearn stated in the ‘WST: No Time Like The Future’ video at the beginning of the year how fans would need to be educated on the sport, and the main way this could be done is through the top personalities.
This is how golf remains a top sport in the US and the likes of snooker or cricket have suffered in trying to break through. Golf has a significant volume of American professionals and personalities despite being a sport with a pace similar to snooker. Players like Tiger Woods have led to a raised interest in the sport which is why there are over 24 million Americans that choose to play the sport, regardless of the ruleset.
The reason I said ‘regardless of the ruleset’ was because it has been suggested on a few occasions to play snooker on a smaller, or even a pool sized table to ease snooker into American culture. Changing the foundations of snooker to adhere to a different market changes the sport completely and we all already know snooker’s track record with entertaining viewers as it stands. So I don’t necessarily think this would work. It all goes back to educating the sports fans.
Making the US fans aware of the stars like O’Sullivan, Trump and Selby will at least raise the question to them as to why these players aren’t competing here. Unfortunately, there is no prominent American snooker star that could help in being an ambassador for the sport, similar to the likes of Robertson for Australia, or Ding for China. Sadly, this is potentially the reason as to the lack of young risers taking up an interest in snooker. This underlines the importance of raising the awareness of snooker and its personalities in the US market, and through similar promotion and partnership strategies that were utilised in China, would take a positive step in achieving this.
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