“We need some help”: Chairman Ferguson calls for government support in grassroots snooker

Several promising young players from the UK are currently on the professional World Snooker Tour, however, there has only been one British Triple Crown event winner born after 1990: Kyren Wilson. While darts enjoys its boom following the unprecedented success of sensational talent Luke Littler, snooker continues to wait for its next prodigy.

In the second part of an in-depth interview with Totally Snookered (part one here), Jason Ferguson - Chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association (WPBSA) - has spoken about the challenges the sport faces in rekindling the grassroots game in the United Kingdom.

Chairman Ferguson calls for government intervention, but remains positive

The prevalence of snooker venues in the UK gradually declined after the late 1980s, during which the sport faced financial turmoil due to the removal of smoking and gambling sponsors. More recently, global investment has helped the professional tour bounce back, now boasting more prize money than ever before.

The greatest current obstacle is having the necessary space for cue sports facilities, Ferguson said: “The problem is the sheer size of the building you need, real estate is expensive. That is the biggest challenge in grassroots snooker.

“With snooker, you've got a sport that falls through the gaps. It's not a mainstream school sport because you won't find it in education. Clubs are all independently owned and operated, they need to be viable businesses” Ferguson explained.

This issue largely stems from the fact that snooker’s private venues are not protected from closing down in the same way as other grassroots sports facilities, such as football pitches and skate parks: “Clubs are not going out of business anymore, clubs are being closed down because planning applications are going in - purely through the lack of protection of our grassroots facilities” Ferguson detailed.

The space is there, but snooker needs support to access it, he added: “If we go around any town centre in the UK right now, we will find one guarantee - empty shops. Town councils need to start and really consider the amount of space which is just left empty. We can see where the issues are, we need some help - we need government intervention.”

Despite this, the governing body still remains positive that snooker is on the right track: “It’s certainly on the up. It's been a long period of club closure and shrinkage, but in the last five years post the pandemic, we've seen a slight increase in the number of tables available, the number of clubs, and a big increase in participation - that is really encouraging.”

Community figures key to grassroots growth

Opportunities in the amateur game are becoming more and more abundant, with the creation of the Q Tour in recent years that has expanded and incorporated regions around the world, and now offers multiple tour cards to the professional circuit.

The governing body has worked hard creating long-lasting relationships with snooker organisations across the globe. Over the past fortnight in Türkiye, five World Snooker Tour cards have been won via various routes to snooker’s top tier, including promotion for youngsters Iulian Bokio from Ukraine, and Florian Nuessle from Austria.

Having won the European under-16 and under-18 titles several days before, 14-year-old Michal Szubarzcyk reached the final of the European Amateur Championship (for all ages), and should he accept the tour card, would become snooker’s youngest-ever professional.

This rise in the amateur game can be attributed to efforts to nurture growth at entry level, Ferguson explained: “You've got to build infrastructure, rejuvenating some of the club scene, helping some of the clubs with their activities. That might be coaching, junior clubs, Sunday morning clubs, but it might also be the ability for those clubs to host some of the elite amateur events on the calendar.”

One of the key focuses of the WPBSA in recent years has been to drive down the age of people coming into the sport. They are currently carrying out various projects to encourage and train the coaches on how to run events and create local competitions.

Ferguson mentioned the importance of community figures in supporting this initiative: “You've got a real grassroots level one, like a community person, that might be somebody in the local club who just wants to show a few people how to play on a Sunday morning. Some of those people are very good at engaging large numbers of people - school teachers for example. They are the real foot soldiers that help you develop the sport.”

According to Ferguson, another key factor to achieving this is accessibility for different groups of people: “We've got to try and get these facilities to the people within walking distance. Not everybody can afford a car, not everybody has access to public transport. It may be multi-purpose community centres, it may even be smaller tables in some of those community centres.”

Does snooker need its own Luke Littler to boost popularity?

Darts is often mentioned in the same breath as snooker and other cue sports, despite its many striking differences. However, the sport’s recent explosion in popularity can be seen as a success story for others to follow, something that can be largely attributed to the rise of a single megastar: Luke Littler.

Ferguson elaborated on the benefit a household name like this brings to any sport: “You get those booms in the market when a big star hits the television. It does inspire the next generation. I can relate to that, as a young snooker player I recall watching Steve Davis win his first World Championships.”

Sporting talent of this degree may be extremely rare, but Ferguson is convinced that snooker has one of its own on the horizon. “The average age is coming down quite drastically; you will find that somewhere down the line a huge young star will win something in snooker - it's inevitable.”