The event that was... a fruitful branding exercise

A few weeks back, Malta hosted its eighth world ranking snooker tournament in a spell of 11 years, the third Malta Cup.

A brilliant victory for Shaun Murphy, his first ranking title since the World Championship in 2005, which has now put him provisionally fifth in the 2006/2007 Main Tour rankings.

A grand moment indeed for the 24-year-old Northampton winner, also a keen piano player and a single-figure handicap golfer, whose ultimate ambition is to be world no.1.

With great admiration we enthusiastically welcome Murphy to Malta's Snooker Hall of Fame where he commendably joins John Parrott, John Higgins, Stephen Maguire, Stephen Hendry and Ken Doherty, winners of the 'Malta' ranking events.

Yet, the main focus of this chronicle is the tournament itself, one week of fantastic snooker which saw full capacity attendances, an encouraging presence of foreign visitors and a valuable international exposure on Eurosport through a remarkable TV transmission.

This was definitely the event that was. A great contribution to this success has been the introduction of the tournament's website (www.maltacup.org) which was instrumental in attracting some 400 foreign visitors from 23 different countries to visit Malta.

The 'foreign' presence in the arena was most evident where a considerable number of matches were sold-out.

At least 60 per cent of those who attended the tournament were foreigners, and in certain cases even some early session matches, like when Stephen Hendry played his first game, were sell-outs.

At some sessions the figure of foreign fans went up to 85 per cent.

Tiziana Gelardi and Paolo Bianciardi, from Siena, Italy, were "unfortunately" here only for the final but "it was enough to affirm the high level of play and had even time to visit La Valletta, a very animated and colourful city that was worth the visit".

Tony Mellios and his father Tony Sr. from Athens, Greece, who were here for the semi-finals and final, were impressed with the set-up and smooth organisation.

"We even had the chance to visit Valletta and Mdina," Mellios Sr. said. "Both are very interesting cities with the medieval atmosphere of Mdina and its breathtaking view making our short visit complete."

Julie Lutsenko, from Ukraine, was in Malta for the whole tournament and enjoyed her 'double', because this was her first visit to the island and her first ranking.

"I followed all the matches and I feel proud to have been present for Stephen Hendry's 700th century break and for most of the exciting encounters like those of Hendry-Robertson and Doherty-Higginson in the last 16," she said.

"Besides, Malta is beautiful and has so many places of interest that perhaps one should stay here for years to see only half of them.

"I found the St John Co-Cathedral in Valletta so divine, that I could not even take a photo of it, as I felt like committing blasphemy. Still I'll keep it in my memory forever. I look forward to returning next year and hope to come along with some of my friends."

Brian Kerr, 72, from Chester, England gave his 67-year-old snooker fan wife Pat a special Christmas present last December.

A complete Malta Cup package incorporating a nine-night stay at the Hilton Malta, a block ticket for the tournament, sightseeing visits, a taste of Maltese cuisine and meeting her Maltese pen friend of 52 years, Mona Schaefer (nee Tanti) of Msida whom she last met over 40 years ago.

Pat, who has Jimmy White and Doherty as her favourite players, has taken to the sport by watching the game on television.

This was the Kerrs' third Malta visit, the ones before being 20 and 10 years ago respectively.

"The changes to the seafront in Sliema and St Julian's are impressive," Brian remarked. "Also the buses have changed colour too, from green to yellow."

Yes, this was an event that was. Yet, the main success of the event was definitely the priceless and extensive TV coverage it attained.

Undoubtedly, the Malta Cup has proved the most successful 'branding' sport activity projecting Malta. Forty-six hours 17 minutes and 49 seconds of total broadcast time of which 34 hours 19 minutes 40 seconds were live transmission in 20 languages with an average viewership of 34 million followers spread in 54 different territories, with a reach of 108 million homes across Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

How popular is Eurosport?

Well, it is regarded as the no.1 when it comes to the PETV channel system. Recent surveys showed that Eurosport enjoys a 46.3 per cent market share, CNN 35.2 per cent, Euronews 30.0 per cent, BBC World 24.4 per cent and CNBC 15.0 per cent.

All these statistics are official ratings published by Eurosport who attribute this success to "the power of sport". Furthermore the channel's website gets up to 405 million page views per month.

Great, certainly one deserves to sit back and cherish such a successful experience. Yes, but that was yesterday... what about tomorrow?

Well gentlemen, the balls are already on the baize again. Good Luck with your next move.

The 2007 Malta Cup was organised by Snooker Promotions (Malta) and sanctioned by World Snooker. The Malta Tourism Authority, Air Malta, Hilton Malta and Vodafone Malta were the main local sponsors.