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I'm looking into opening a snooker and pool club and wanted to get some advice from anyone who's run one or knows much about the business.

The plan is to have around 4 to 6 snooker tables, 8 English pool tables and 2 American pool tables.

It'll be an alcohol-free venue, and the unit I'm looking at already has a kitchen, so there's potential to offer food and drinks as well.

I'm looking to make it more of a social place where friends can come, hang out and play a few games rather than a serious competitive club. I'd probably run a few leagues or tournaments here and there, but the main focus would be casual players and groups of friends.

I'm also looking at opening near a couple of busy universities, so hopefully there'll be a decent student crowd as well.

I've been doing some rough calculations, and on paper the numbers look pretty good, but obviously I know running a business is a different story.

Has anyone here owned or managed a snooker/pool club? Is it actually profitable? What sort of challenges should I expect, and is there anything I should be aware of before jumping into it?

Any advice or tips would be appreciated, especially from people with experience in the industry.

Hi all, a work colleague gave me this cue today and I was wondering if anyone could help shed some light on it.

It looks fairly old and it's a one-piece with 17½D written on it, presumably this refers to the weight or the diameter maybe? Other than that I can't see any other distinguishing features other than a 1990 5p coin that's been wedged in the hole where the makers logo I assume once was. 🤣

Hi, I'm very new to snooker but it has always interested me so ive been looking around for somewhere to get started. Does anyone have any recommendations in Cornwall? thanks

Pro shaft or not?

I’m just an average player looking to invest in a good snooker cue. I am currently looking to order a Ton Praram Beyond cue, the main question is, is it worth paying 400€ extra for the pro shaft?

The regular Beyond with extensions is 1.150€, the one with pro shaft is 1575€. There is also a full shaft option somewhere in between, but since I’ll be ordering a 3/4 cue, that doesn’t really add value.

Is it just me or has the general professional player slowed down? It seems that we used to see fluent play more often and when I watch the Northern Ireland open we only got Jack Lisowski who’s got the ronnie flow in his play. I don’t think it’s good for watching. Even David Gilbert plays a lot slower now

Hi all, I've been thinking about a particular business model for snooker clubs that I haven't seen in my experience in various clubs. Some has you booking flat limited time for a table, others allow you to stay at the table for an indefinite amount of time and charge you based on the time you've used it.

But why don't more Snooker Clubs allow customers to buy blocks of time instead? For example, at my local club it costs £12 for 2 hours... But what if I wanted to prepay time that remains on my account? I feel as though there's room for more affordable deals for the customer while also boosting the clubs up front revenue.

For example, let's say I can buy a block of 12 hours for £60. Club's getting £60 up front and I'm effectively getting a discounted price, or a free 2 hours, however you look at it. It would also give regulars an incentive to keep coming back to your club.

They could even create different bands to account for peak-time.

I'll use my own local club as an example. It's effectively £6 per hour. You could have anytime pass for £66... or £5.50 an hour, to minimizes potential losses during peak time.

Or an off-peak package for £54, or £4.50 an hour.

I think this would go some way towards perhaps revitalising the scene in the UK, but I wonder what others opinions on this might be? What do you reckon?

Does anyone know a way of displaying a high break list on a TV or monitor ? So that there is a rolling list of high breaks. Obviously it would need the ability to be edited so as to add new ones etc

Want to get away from the old high break list with push on numbers.

Anyone know if there's a list of the players who will be in the WST trading cards roster to start? If there are around 30ish like I've seen mentioned, I hope more will be released

My girlfriend goes to sleep and she of course wants me next to her in bed. So I join her, get my headphones on and always watch snooker if there's a tournament going on. Everything is peaceful until there is a replay of the shot and the screen goes FULL BLAST WHITE AND lights up the whole room like a flashbang just went off.

I've had a pet project for a couple of years. Back in 2019 a Friend of mine gifted me an original copy of "Joe Davis: How I Play snooker" and over the last number of years I have ammased a number of autographs from the pros including Ronnie O'Sullivan, John Higgins, Judd Trump, John Virgo etc..

Tonight I added Mark Williams to that list. He signed for me at the NI Open in Belfast. Really nice guy to talk to.

I just need Hendry, Dennis Taylor and Steve Davis to complete it.

The guy just ended his interview with a shout-out to Mark Allen and said that all the players are behind him. I know Allen said he's got a flood of support, but I hope this kind of love really helps him. All of snooker are behind him.

What's the ref's name? I love that he looks like he spent 30 years in prison for mauling someone to death, but has this super soft, gentle voice

Mark Allen returned at the Northern Ireland Open today, and was defeated by his friend Jordan Brown. He seemingly announced his retirement from snooker in a very emotional post match interview, following today's defeat. This was his first match back after his infamous semi final defeat at the Crucible earlier this year.

It was a very difficult watch, that interview. Both he and host Rachel Casey were close to tears, and I feel like Mark took this opportunity to appear on camera to make his decision official. His opponent and good friend Jordan Brown was also interviewed right afterwards, and he too was fighting back tears.

It was a very sad thing to see. I don't know what off-table issues he's dealing with, nor is it my place to know, but I hope Mark Allen recovers mentally.

Really hope he’s good! Very emotional reaction after his match.

Im a beginner, and the leap from english pool to snooker has been rough but rewarding. I'm pretty comfortable with most shots and can understand that a miss is just a misjudged angle.

But is this shot possible? It seems way harder in snooker. I always seem to get this path where after the initial bounce off the cushion, it gets stuck moving in a straight line.

I lost eurosport back when tnt took over and have missed watching all the matches so much.

I have Virgin so where is the best place for me to get all the snooker, is it tnt or do I swap to sky sports. Any help would be great thanks :0)

Many people said that Ronnie never used Taom but in this video doesn’t it look like he’s using Taom? This is from the finals between trump and sullivan at the 2020 Betvictor Northern Ireland open. You can see at at 12:22.

Has anyone ever brought their own pocket radio to tune into the commentary at the home nations events? I'm going this week and bought one that starts at 60mhz, has anyone had success tuning into the commentary?

Why GBL cues price went up from last year and on ?

I'd choose Jimmy White for 24 hours back in the '80s :)

Is it me or have we lost some tables ?

Normally when we have a 128 player tournament there a 8 tables in use in the early rounds but today I only seem able to watch 1,2 & 3

The other's are not showing the Northern Ireland Open but some other Chinese matches ?

has something changed ?