RONNIE O’SULLIVAN has claimed that the standard of top UK snooker events and choice of venues remind him of “car boot sales”.
And the Rocket is planning to limit his appearances at domestic tournaments this season, saying he would prefer to play more frequently in Asia.
On Saturday evening, the seven-time world snooker champion was involved in an exhibition with Jimmy White for big money in the gambling city of Macau.
On Monday morning, he arrived at Heathrow airport from Hong Kong at 6.45am – and then overcame the jetlag to beat Andrew Pagett 4-0 at lunchtime at the English Open in Brentwood.
After his held-over qualifier, rebel O’Sullivan went on a rant, taking umbrage with the staging of this week’s English Open, which is being held at a leisure centre in Essex.
O’Sullivan, 47, said: “I want to play as long as I can really. I love the game. But I probably won’t play as much in the UK.
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“I think the UK tournaments haven’t changed in the last 12 years. They should really try and get a decent promoter to try and promote the events. The venues aren’t great.
“You just go through the motions in a lot of these tournaments in the UK. I don’t want to be ultra-critical but also sometimes the truth needs to be told.
“I don’t know if you have had a walk around this venue or been in the toilets and had a look around.
“It’s not the greatest. It’s not the most inspiring places to come and play snooker. But it is what it is.
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“For me, if I can play in Asia as much as I can where the promoters really go out of their way to make it a special event, then that’s where I’ll play.
“You go there and they look after you really well. Courtesy cars to and from the games. There’s security, so you get to your match and get away without being driven mad.
“They get a lot more out of us as players because we feel like we’re probably looked after a bit better.
“They don’t care here. They just don’t care anymore. When we had tobacco sponsors, they were amazing, they really went out of their way to make all the players feel special.
“Don’t just ask me. Go and ask Stephen Hendry. Go and ask some of the players who played then with tobacco sponsors. Just don’t take my word for it.
“Every event was like a special event. Now, it’s just, I don’t know what it is. It’s like a car boot sale. You'd think it would have got better but it hasn’t.
“It’s quite hard as a player to turn up at tournaments like this and feel like you don’t want to try. You do try because you have pride in performance. But it’s not easy.”
In response, a World Snooker Tour spokesperson said: “Our UK events have grown massively over the past decade.
“At the Masters in London for example, ten years ago we were selling less than 500 tickets for certain sessions, while now most sessions are selling out the 2,000-seat arena.
“We are a global tour and in the UK it’s important that we bring events to many different regions so that fans across the home nations have the chance to see live snooker.
“Our choice of venues is based on many factors including size and backstage facilities for the players.
“We are setting new records for sales at every venue year after year. Today the arena in Brentwood was sold out well in advance.
“We have focussed on the fan experience to make it a great day out for people of all ages.
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“And for the players, overall prize money has increased and is set to hit record levels this season.
“We always listen to feedback from the players but we feel we are making significant steps forward as a global sport.”
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