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The Billiardrome is a
purpose-designed arena for all forms of billiardsport – snooker, pool,
billiards, carom and pyramids. It was conceived as and has been designed
to be the optimum building for the exhibition of these competitive
billiardsports which, together, are one of the largest participant games
in the world, second only to football. It will provide the optimum
experience for players, spectators, officials, media and all other
visitors. And yet, as far as we know there has never been an arena
designed specifically for the purpose of showing billiardsports off at
their best.
We have used the best principles
of arena design but in a smaller context. The Billiardrome will hold
around 3,000 people in a completely circular space. If any of you have
ever been in a “theatre-in-the-round” you will know that it is a very
special and intimate experience. In our space the audience can and will
engage with their opposite number across the other side and the scale of
the Billiardrome makes that possible. From the point of view of the
players (or Gladiators) the atmosphere of competition will again be a
unique experience. The tension in a close run contest will be electric and
barely tolerable!
3,000 people may not sound an
enormous number for a major sporting event. In our opinion it is around
the “optimum” number for everybody to be able to see what’s going on and
be close enough to the action to feel genuinely involved. For comparison,
the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield and home, to date, of the World Snooker
Championships, holds just 980 people.
I want to emphasise that the
Billiardrome is not, however, a multi-purpose sports hall – as I’ve said,
it has been specifically designed to showcase all forms of billiardsports.
BUT, its unique geometry makes lots of other things work well within its
space.
In sporting terms it would
particularly suit numerous “close contact” sports such as table-tennis,
glass-walled squash, weightlifting, martial arts, boxing and wrestling
(including sumo), even chess and backgammon.
It is a very unusual space for
music and there is no shortage of solo artists, bands and groups who could
and would fill such a venue.
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It is an exceptionally versatile
space for conferences, product-launches, presentations and exhibitions –
small and large.
It is demonstrably a superb
in-the-round theatre space. Use it completely for suitable style of
performance or halve it or quarter it to suit a production which demands a
more substantial backstage area.
So generally it is an excellent
space for anybody or any group of people who can “work” a stage and likes
or needs to relate closely with the audience. Eric Clapton would be a good
example as would Anthony Robbins!!!
We plan to build an initial 6
“founding” Billiardromes around the world: UK, Europe, North America or
Canada, Middle East, Far East and Australia. I realise that it sounds
quite an ambitious plan but the main attraction of that is that it makes
the concept of a Series of events possible. In all forms of billiardsports
this would enable World Series’s to develop with all players experiencing
similar or identical arenas – almost impossible to achieve
currently.
In theatre, it would encourage the
development of purpose designed international touring productions of all
types which could travel very economically from one similar or identical
venue to the next. In music similarly there would be significant economies
of scale in touring.
In our view, the ideal “host city”
of the very first Billiardrome is likely to possess the following
:-
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Location
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History
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Sporting ambition
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Access to
funding
And to such a city we can and will
bring :-
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A
unique and exclusive opportunity
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Numerous events in all categories including but not solely
billiardsports
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Possible location for billiardsport Governing
Bodies
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The
opportunity to be part of a global network
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Billiardrome’s particular interest
is in the future development and acquisition of events suitable for
Billiardrome(s). We fully recognise that any arena without a full calendar
of events is as much a liability as an asset.
The Billiardrome lends itself to
development in conjunction with a hotel in that the hotel and the
auditorium can promote each other and, in addition, they can share public
areas. That is also true of using the arena as a conference facility and
the combination of all three would be both economically viable and
extremely unusual.
The space would also lend itself
to live broadcast and could be permanently equipped for that function.
That would dramatically affect average production costs and in a world
where there are ever more broadcasters – cable, internet etc – that would
represent another unique feature of the facility.
The Billiardrome, and in
particular the first Billiardrome, can set the standard for subsequent
versions in other places. We believe it has the credentials for an iconic
piece of design and in the right City with the right enthusiasm and the
right content it could, in publicity terms, punch far above its weight.
At the risk of stating the
obvious, the name “Billiardrome” is a play on words – suggesting a sizable
sporting arena but with the intimacy of a “billiard room”. It is, of course, unusual for a
venue to have a name which is so descriptive. This could have a
significant impact on the value of any naming rights.
The very first Billiardrome
Host City will benefit from various opportunities that can only be granted
once. For example, the
memorabilia and other contents that could form the nucleus of a snooker
museum and/or Hall of Fame, will be in limited
supply. |
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amended June 2009