Why Snooker Epic Shots Are Failing.

Risking everything against his own ability has won Judd Trump all of snooker's major titles, making him one of the wealthiest and most successful snooker players of all time. And his shots are infamous, even with people who don't pay a lot of attention to the game. But despite his best efforts, Judd believes the game is failing. Falling further and further behind other sports, as old-fashioned attitudes continue to disappoint younger fans. But what exactly is it that snooker's getting so wrong? Well according to Judd, quite a bit. From a dress code that he believes to be uncool and 30 years out of date, to only focusing on players he thinks are well past their best, and commentary that lacks passion that's completely out of touch with the game. But Judd also believes it's the players themselves who are failing. But Judd does have a plan to solve these problems, so long as the game itself takes the same risks that Judd's been taking his entire career. And the first problem we need to fix is nostalgia. Even though they still attract big crowds, Judd explains that people under 30 have little to no interest in the veteran players. People of this age seem not to care about who won the 1991 World Championships, or even who John Spencer is. Judd is convinced that teenagers have about as much interest in this sort of thing as Ronnie does in this BetVictor quiz. So if all of this is true, why does the old footage do so well on modern platforms like YouTube? Well I think the answer is down to volume. To generate interest you need to go round this cycle, and the great thing about the old nostalgic content is people have quite a lot of videos stored away. So they upload that video to a platform like YouTube, and the audience responds to it. And if the audience responds to it well, they're likely to upload more content to YouTube. I get a little bit overexcited here, but basically the archived footage is still very popular with die-hard snooker fans. It's just not popular with Judd, and Judd doesn't believe it's popular with the average person on the street either. Judd would like to see younger players he finds exciting, like Jamie Wilson, Lulian Boyko or Jamie Clark, be used to build up a match, rather than focusing on past world champions from over 20 years ago. The problem is TV companies and the media as a whole don't want to take a risk on these younger players, because there isn't the evidence out there already that they can draw a crowd. And there should be, but there's less video to upload to the platform, so the audience is going to be smaller. So this doesn't quite build as fast. So we end up talking about past world champions and golden age players. But as Judd points out, no other sport talks about its golden age before a big event. Of course, this is made a little bit harder by the so-called class of 92 being very successful. Of course you want to build up these guys, because they succeed so often and draw a crowd. It's far harder to promote younger, more unknown players. But I think he's right. And if we just had the confidence to build up the modern-day players into characters, we'd get an even bigger audience. Judd also believes the dress code is a major problem that's putting off younger fans. He says he doesn't want to be stuck in a waistcoat when he's walking to the Crucible, and says nowadays it's not a cool thing to be wearing. Although the rules have been relaxed for some of the minor events recently, Mark Williams has been complaining already this year that he wasn't allowed to wear a blue polo shirt to an event. Considering he's turned up to a press conference wearing absolutely nothing before, a coloured shirt doesn't seem that controversial. The problem is, snooker began on TV in the 70s. At this time, it wanted to portray an image of the game that was both smart and civilised, and was desperate not to present itself as a scruffier, cheaper version of golf. The problem is, not a lot has changed since. This is a photo of Steve Davis from the 80s, and here's a photo of him nearly 30 years later, and the only thing that really changes is the sponsors. Judd believes that other sports like golf had to deal with the same problems at the start, but allowed the fashion to move with the times. But although so much about the game has moved on to create a spectacle for the audience, the players are more or less wearing the same things they were 50 years ago. It's clear that Judd believes we're now at a crossroads, and if we don't change something soon, we're going to lose the younger generations forever, because they don't want to stick around with something that looks so out of touch. I just think if the way snooker players look is putting people off, then things need to change. Although I would say that, wouldn't I? Before we look at the next bit, though, let's just find Voron from Mahali, India, which is there. And if you put any thought into it, you'd probably expect the commentators to come up somewhere. Because if you want to create a new interest in the game, not just keep the ones you've already got, these people are going to be essential. Judd believes they don't know enough about the current game, so go on continuously about the 80s, which just sends everybody back down that nostalgia loop. Which simply divides the audience into the people who like the old stories, and everybody else. By the end of the match, there were 2,000 people watching. Where's the cue ball going? Oh, that could be the end. So you'd expect Judd to say, everybody's getting it wrong and we need to replace the commentators. But it's not exactly like everybody's getting it wrong. Judd also believes snooker would benefit from a Clive Everton-like figure with a passion for the game. And praises Eurosports pundit Andy Goldstein for going out of his way to make the game both more accessible and more exciting for newer audiences. The way he's pushed players into doing things a little bit outside their comfort zone to help explain the sport has really shone through. But what would I do about the commentary situation? As a rule, I'd have one current player in every commentary team, but nobody really cares what I think. And then there's the players themselves. But first we're going to find BW Yankee, who's from Seattle in the United States. Judd wants the players themselves to take some of the responsibility with this by trying to play the game in a way that makes it more exciting. He doesn't expect players to change their games or risk losing matches like this, but to simply find new ways to connect with fans. In this way, Judd believes they should be opening up the balls as much as possible to make the games flow. But this is where I slightly disagree with him. Even though I think it's important to keep the games flowing, I still believe this was the most exciting part of the 2020 World Championships. Nobody's potting a ball. If we're honest about it, Ronnie doesn't exactly know where the balls are going to finish. But in this situation, you had no idea who was going to win. As snooker players, I think we're far too proud to admit this is exciting. We'd rather chalk it up as boring or slow play than to confess we care about the result. I think if we were free to describe these times as the edge of the seat moments that they are, we'd find it a lot easier to sell the game. The next problem is with the world itself. It's difficult enough at the moment to run a successful snooker club and that's without any pandemics. Amateur snooker is usually played in old aging buildings that are becoming abandoned a lot more commonly these days. People are also working ever-changing jobs with increasingly hectic schedules, making it incredibly difficult to ever go and have a game of snooker down the club. This bit doesn't really affect Judd so much because he's a professional, but I cannot say this any more clearly. Especially in the UK, we need more snooker clubs. The chances are, however, there's not a single person watching this video that's going to be able to do anything about this, because it's going to take an incredible amount of money, or a complete change on policies of ground rent or licensing. So is there anything we can do? Well, I do have a plan. So this is my plan, and I believe this is achievable. To start off with, we've changed the dress code, even if people don't like it, but we still insist on it being smart. This should allow players to show who they are a little bit more as individuals, but also won't put off younger players from taking part in the sport. And speaking of younger players, we put more of an emphasis on them, and try to promote them before a big game. This may be slow to take off, and in the short term, they may let you down, but in three to four years' time, we're going to be glad we did this, because the older players simply won't be there any more. And then there's the commentary. I think we need to use... One current player or somebody who's in touch with a game on every single commentary team. And get them to build up the drama of who's going to pop the next ball, rather than just talk about how slow or boring the game is. Players finding their own ways to be exciting. As Judd said, the players do need to take some of the responsibility for this, and allow the media to see a character that they can build them into. I would love WorldSnooker to do all of this, and I think Judd's right, it's not just a suggestion for him, I think they need to do it. Do I think they will? Unfortunately, not for the moment anyway. And if you're passionate about boosting the game yourself, have a look at these two videos. And remember, don't just watch play, and make the commitment to becoming a better player by subscribing to the channel and visit the website. See you later.