Winning titles a priceless joy

Great to carry home a winner’s trophy, but what about pocketing some price money as well? A hot issue these days for Austrian top players, as even in official ranking tournaments, no price money is at stake anymore.

The best snooker players in the country can hardly await the start of this year’s Austrian Snooker Open by the end of April. It’s not only the foresight of taking on pro’s like Mark King, Lee Richardson, and Matthew Couch that seems appealing to them. The chance to take home some price money is another warmly welcomed perspective. The winner pockets € 1800, the runner-up gets € 1200, both losing semi-finalists earn € 700, and all other quarter-finalists are rewarded with € 400 each. Not to forget a € 600 bonus for the tournament’s highest break.

These figures may seem somewhat dizzling to Austrian contenders, as for quite some years now, they don't earn a single euro for a tournament win. Due to the fact that snooker in Austria is just recovering from some rather miserable times, with many more players quitting than newcomers picking up a cue, national media have virtually been ignoring the game, making it accordingly unattractive to potential sponsors. So, where should the price money come from?

"It’s astonishing that even the top players these days travel all over the country at their own expenses", says Roman Wiesinger, who won the Grand Prix in Salzburg last February. "I remember my first big tournament in the nineties, where the winner earned 10.000 schilling, some € 726. Why isn’t that possible anymore these days? I play pool as well, and at almost every tournament, 50 % of the entree fees paid by the players, is available for price money."

But you can’t fully compare snooker to pool, means Alexander Pichler, top-10 player and chairman at Salzburg’s snooker club Bulls. Apart from pool tournamants being entered by many more players, Pichler stresses that the pool association in Austria gets a government aid, which the ÖBSV doesn’t.

"Price money would be good for the game - as it is in Germany," says Pichler. "In reaching their current level, Austrian top players have invested a lot of time and money, without getting anything in return. Because of a rather small budget, the ÖBSV can’t afford to raise price money on their own. So, they would have to increase the entry fees for the players to at least € 40 per tournament. One could just wonder how many players would still take part then."

Austria’s current number one and winner of three Grand Prix titles so far this season, Garry Balter, recalls the nineties: "Players from Hungary, Switzerland and Germany showed up at our tournaments because of the price money. We should get back again to that situation. I am not talking about big amounts of money, but the best players in the Grand Prix tournaments should get a small sum. If we allow 24 or even 32 players, instead of the actual 16, to take part in the events, we increase the revenues for the organisers. This should enable them to give a certain amount back to, let’s say, the three best perfoming players."

A completely different point of view comes from Michael Kreuziger, official ÖBSV coach: "Players who demand for price money, should raise their game to an international level first. I don’t see any of our current players managing to do so. It’s too easy to just claim price money - what’s their consideration? If we had European champions in this country, we could make a better job of the marketing of our sports. But as long as we don’t have them, we better invest in the supervision of promising young und upcoming snooker talents."

In the next report on Austria’s snooker scene, we take a look at the annual Austrian Snooker Open in Salzburg, and find out whether last year's winner Mark King can regain his crown.

©  text: Eric Willemsen [Vienna]