There was a time where snooker tournaments would reach a variety of different countries such as Dubai, Thailand and Australia; the latter of which has actually been fortunate on a couple of occasions to host the World Championship. Although, Australia hasn’t been home to a ranking event (or otherwise) since 2015. Considering the history associated with snooker and Australia, how has this come to be the case?
The event that we are all most likely familiar with is the Australian Goldfields Open (AGO), which was last held in Bendigo, Australia in 2015. Following that season, the event fell off the calendar, for reasons unknown. But we can at least hazard a few guesses. Bearing in mind the global presence of Australia, it would seem odd to not include a snooker event in this region; a region once acknowledged by Barry Hearn as an important part of snooker’s global expansion.
One factor we can look at is the travel time associated with an Australian hosted event. A quick online search will tell you that a flight to Australia (from the UK) will take on average 22+ hrs. Given how tightly packed the calendars are, this doesn’t leave much time for players to get used to the new time zone and other conditions, leading to certain players potentially being quite impacted by the resultant jet lag.
This could act as a deterrent for many top players choosing not to compete however, if you observe the draws for the final few AGO tournaments, you can see that the brackets are still filled with numerous top seeds. Even though players seemed to be okay with competing at this distance, World Snooker may have taken the decision that an extra 7-8 hours from China to Australia would be too much for players to bear.
Another factor is likely the viewership. Perhaps the viewing figures/ticket sales weren’t as high as WST executives were hoping for. They gave the tournament a chance for a few years but it might not have reached what they were expecting; no longer making the tournament viable for them. The location choice may have impacted this result – Bendigo is a city in Victoria, approximately 150 km north of Melbourne which many, at the time, considered as a weak choice of location with poor advertising for the sport.
This leads to the most likely reason – profitability. Whatever the reason, snooker just isn’t as popular a sport in Australia as it is in say, China. The AGO was kicked off the calendar during a time where an increased tournament presence was emerging in China, with the additions of the World Open, China Championship and so on. In a tightly packed calendar where events are taking place almost every week, WST need to organise and select events that they feel will make them the most money, and China is a priority region for them for this purpose.
But does that mean that Australia shouldn’t have an event on the calendar? I don’t think so. There isn’t a growing amateur scene in the Oceanic region, with increased relations with the WPBSA/WSF. If the WST can secure a space in the calendar (which includes a brief buffer period to allow for travel), increase the prize fund and choose an optimal location, then this can certainly achieve their goals while providing Australia an event to look forward to. I’m certain WST has the connections to accomplish this and we can one day hope to see the return of the Australian Masters.
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