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Ex-World Snooker Tour (WST) chairman Barry Hearn has insisted that he would not have brought in the new minimum guaranteed salary for lower-ranked players in the sport. All 130 players on the tour have been promised at least £20,000 for the 2022/23 season in a trial that amounted to a £2.6million cash injection.
Several of the top snooker players had been calling for the prize money to be redistributed across the game. If a player collects more than £20,000 over the season, the payment will be deducted from their overall earnings.
The move has been praised but Hearn has admitted that he would not have made the same call if he was still in charge of the WST. The Matchroom Sport president believes that the drive to earn money in snooker can help produce incredible scenes, but they have now lost a “brutal” element that he was fond of.
“I probably would never have brought that in (£20,000 basic expenses for contracted players),” Hearn told BettingSites.co.uk. “Because I like death and glory. Get in there and win, and make a lot of money. Or you starve, and that’s brutal, but sport is brutal. And I always felt that you need to put that thought in people’s heads. Ruthlessness. This is not a world for losers. We can’t all win, but we can all try to win.”
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The WST have faced repeated calls to help lower-ranked players financially. Ali Carter revealed that approximately 90 per cent of players on the tour “have got no money” and even he nearly quit once to become a pilot. “It’s been really tough. Maybe 90 per cent of players on the tour have got no money,” Carter told the BBC’s Framed Podcast earlier this year. “I think the tour should probably be cut, to give a prize that if you do get your tour card, you are guaranteed a living, a good living.
“They’re earning nothing, 20 grand a year, 30 grand a year after expenses, maybe less than that. You could go and get a job stacking a shelf in a supermarket [for that], no disrespect to anyone who does that. But these boys have put their life into playing snooker from a very young age, so it just seems a little bit unfair to me, that’s all.”
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The minimum guarantee has garnered plenty of support on tour and Neil Robertson heralded the year-long trial that has yet to be officially renewed. “Listen, £20,000 won’t cover everything by any means, but it has come at a really good time with the cost of living crisis in the UK,” the Aussie said at the time.
“I still remember playing matches, deciders, even being on match ball and thinking ‘this is for the next three months’ rent’. And that doesn’t help you perform your best. And it is why I have always lived a fairly modest life, I don’t ever want to have those thoughts again.
“Other guys will have been going through that, thinking ‘If I win this that’s the rent and utility bills paid for a few months’. This will offer some peace of mind to help them push on.”
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